Matt is currently at the White House Office of American Innovation, where he works to coordinate priority policy initiatives for the office. For the past decade, Matt’s work has placed him at the cross-section of politics, government and the emerging digital economy. With a unique mixture of experiences in Congressional Leadership and national campaigns, he has gained first-hand insight into our nation’s political and governing institutions.

Previously, Matt has served as Senior Advisor to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Digital Director for then-VP Nominee Paul Ryan and a Senior Advisor to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. In these capacities, he served on the senior leadership staff, participated in daily strategy discussions on the issues facing the House of Representatives and worked to modernize Congressional institutions.

Prior to returning to government, Lira served as the Deputy Executive Director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee during the 2014 election cycle – successfully defending every Republican Senate seat and gained nine seats, the largest Senate gain by either party since 1980.

Throughout his work in government, Lira has aimed to forge trust and consensus by bringing people together to find areas where progress can be made. In an era of deep partisanship, his work has frequently earned the support of both sides of the aisle.

In 2015, Matt served as an Institute of Politics Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, focused on the impact of the digital economy on politics and governance. In 2012, Matt was recognized by Tech Crunch as one of the “20 Most Innovative People in Democracy.”

Larry Gillick is Deputy Director for Digital Strategy at the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Larry helps set standards for web and social media across his agency and its constituent bureaus and offices, including establishing a common cloud-based platform for Web hosting and flexible support contracts. He has done much of the negotiation with social media services for federal-friendly terms of service, manages video production for the Secretary’s office (established a widely used business model for live webcasting), and has run one of his agency’s successful social media presences.

An Army veteran with experience leading teams widely spread by geography, Larry now acts as the prime point of contact for agency-level web efforts. His recent projects include creation and enhancement of a Drupal platform-as-a-service that hosts DOI.gov, FCG.gov, BSEE.gov and DOIOIG.gov. He advises other agencies on web and social media issues and was an invited speaker at this year’s DrupalCon GovSummit in New Orleans.

A content-creator by training (screenplays, short films, multi-media productions, websites), Larry says that his greatest impact during government service has been in the projects that he helped kill or slow down until they were done right. “Smart people sometimes have ideas that look great from their perspective -- and in government, it’s easy to be just a follower. What’s more helpful is to provide other perspectives -- counsel, not just obedience. That’s what I expect from my people and part of the value I offer to my own leadership.”

He has an MA from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication and is ABT on an MFA in Digital Cinema.

Adam Miles is a Senior Analyst in Strategic Issues at the Government Accountability Office. Since joining GAO in 2009 his work has focused on federal performance management and government innovation. Most recently, he led GAO’s reviews of how federal agencies are using crowdsourcing and open innovation to harness outside expertise and achieve goals. Adam received his M.P.A. from American University, and a B.A. with honors in political science from the University of Kansas. He is also currently a research fellow at the American Society for Public Administration Center for Accountability and Performance.

Melanie Ann Pustay became the Director of the Office of Information Policy of the United States Department of Justice in 2007. The Office of Information Policy is responsible for developing policy guidance for Executive Branch agencies on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), providing legal counsel and training to agency personnel on the procedural and substantive aspects of the Act, and for overseeing agency compliance with the law.

Before becoming Director, Melanie served eight years as Deputy Director of OIP, where she was responsible for the Department’s responses to access requests made to the Department's Senior Leadership Offices, including the Offices of the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General and Associate Attorney General. Beginning in 2003 and continuing today, she has worked extensively with government officials in other countries to assist those officials in implementing their own openness-in-government initiatives.

She received the Attorney General's Distinguished Service Award for her role in providing legal advice, guidance, and assistance on records disclosure issues. She graduated from American University's Washington College of Law where she served on Law Review.

Chris Borneman is a well-recognized industry leader and CTO at Software AG Government Solutions. In his role, he is responsible for defining technology requirements that support our business strategy within the Aerospace and Defense and Federal markets. Also, given his experience designing and building cloud-based supply chain networks, managing integration-based modernization programs, and performing various data center migrations and expansions, Chris is often recruited to guide customer technology groups in their transformation initiatives.

Robert (Bob) Osborn is Chief Technology Officer for Service Now (Federal). Bob is an accomplished senior executive who has held many high level IT leadership positions, including Director of Logistics IT for the U.S. Army G4, Deputy J6/CIO for U.S. Transportation Command, and CIO of the National Nuclear Security Administration where he was responsible for the Nation’s nuclear weapons design and manufacturing information. He has led major IT and organizational transformations throughout his career and is an acknowledged thought leader recognized across the public sector market. As a user of ServiceNow, Bob led ITIL based Enterprise Service Management standardization within the Federal Government. Bob also served as a United States Marine Corps officer for 27 years.

Mark Smith has worked for AWS since 2015 where he leads a team of solution architects that supports federal customers with cloud adoption. Prior to AWS, Mark led a team of systems engineers who helped federal agencies use middleware to build IT systems. Mark also worked as an IT architect and altogether has been working in federal for 30 years as an engineer, architect and technical leader.

Ms. Susan Wedge is an IBM Global Business Services Vice President and Partner with over two decades of experience leading US Public Sector transformation initiatives. She currently leads the company’s US Public Sector Interactive Experience and Cognitive Process Transformation growth platforms. In this role, she’s responsible for growing and delivering digital and cognitive consulting services within the government and education markets, leading client co-creation efforts to build innovative solutions and core offerings, and developing employee skills and capabilities.

After graduating from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor of Science. in Commerce, Ms. Wedge started her career as a consultant at American Management Systems, Inc. While there, she focused on transforming the financial operations of her US Public Sector clients through the implementation of commercial-off-the-shelf and custom software solutions. Ms. Wedge came to IBM in 2002. Since that time, she has expanded her focus and led numerous teams in the transformation of all aspects of her clients’ business. She currently leaves outside of Washington DC with her husband and two children.