Speakers

Pushpa Jayapal is a distinguished leader with a strong background in Cloud deployment and Operations. Currently serving as the Chief of the Cloud Enablement Division at the US Army's Enterprise Cloud Management Agency (ECMA), she not only offers crucial guidance and assistance to Army clients on their cloud endeavors but also plays a vital role in supporting combat and command operations for US Army soldiers. Her expertise in Cloud Enablement contributes significantly to enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of military operations, ensuring the best possible support for those serving in the armed forces.

Previously, as the Chief Cloud Architect at the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Pushpa Jayapal showcased outstanding leadership skills by spearheading the establishment of an enterprise cloud platform and ensuring its governance and operational compliance. Her visionary approach and strategic decision-making elevated the efficiency and security of NRC's cloud initiative, leaving a lasting impact on cloud deployment within the regulatory sector.

Pushpa's expertise extends to her role as the cloud lead at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where she managed FDA's enterprise cloud with great proficiency. Additionally, she played a crucial role in creating a DevSecOps framework and Mobile Application Development Environment for organizations like the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Certified as a Cloud Security Professional, Pushpa is dedicated to maintaining top-notch security practices in cloud environments. Furthermore, she holds various certifications in project and Agile management, reflecting her commitment to excellence.

Pushpa's continuous pursuit of knowledge led her to earn a Master's Degree in Technology Management, adding depth to her understanding of the industry. Her contributions and leadership in cloud technology have made a lasting impact, driving innovation and empowering organizations to harness the full potential of cloud computing. Pushpa Jayapal's remarkable achievements stand as a testament to her exceptional leadership and expertise in the field

Mr. Edacheril "E.P." Mathew was selected as the Deputy CIO of the Defense Intelligence Agency in July 2021, after previously serving as the Chief of Operations for CIO. Mr. Mathew was promoted to the Senior National Intelligence Service in 2019. 

As Chief of Operations, Mr. Mathew led a vast geographically-dispersed team of over 1,000 civilians, joint military, and contractors to operate and sustain Information Technology (IT) services on behalf of DIA and its mission partners-providing network capabilities and IT services of various classifications to over 250,000 users at over 600 global sites. 

Prior to serving as Chief of Operations, Mr. Mathew served as the Chief of Corporate Engagement for CIO, where he functioned as the CIO representative to Agency directorates, combatant command J2s, operational commanders, and Intelligence Community (IC) senior leaders-enabling mission success through the provision of IT capabilities for over 50,000 users. 

Mr. Mathew's previous leadership assignments within the Defense Intelligence Agency include serving as the Chief of Applications and Infrastructure, where he led software engineers responsible for supporting over 200 mission and business applications. He oversaw cloud migration efforts, resulting in the Agency being the first in the IC to put a system in production on the IC cloud. Mr. Mathew also worked for the Chief of Staff on process improvement efforts within multiple directorates, leading an effort to increase female retention in DIA under the auspices of the Deputy Director. Additionally, Mr. Mathew completed his Joint Duty Assignment at the National Security Agency, where oversaw the production of over 180 analytic products for the Enterprise Analytics division, one of which enabled POTUS to make a data- driven decision with national security ramifications. 

Mr. Mathew currently resides in Gambrills, Maryland with his wife, Reena and their children Andrew, Hannah, Micah, and Kayla. 

Mr. Korie Seville serves as the Defense Information Systems Agency’s  (DISA) Hosting and Compute Center (HaCC) Technical Director. In  this role, Mr. Seville is responsible for the strategic technical direction  of various DISA HaCC data center and cloud initiatives, including the  Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) and Zero Trust.  

Prior to becoming the Technical Director, Mr. Seville was the HaCC’s  cloud infrastructure architect. As a member of the HaCC, he was  responsible for architecting and integrating commercial cloud hosted  solutions into the DoD network infrastructure.  

Before joining the HaCC, Mr. Seville was an infrastructure architect  for the Cloud Computing Program Office (CCPO) providing support  to critical cloud enabling projects to include the Cloud Layered  Obfuscation Application Kit, Global Directory, Azure Hosting  Infrastructure, and the Commercial Virtual Remote (CVR) environment,  which brought Microsoft 365 to over a million Department of Defense  employees during the global pandemic. Also, Mr. Seville received a  Bachelor of Computer Science from the Shippensburg University  of Pennsylvania.

Ms. Renata Spinks currently serves as the Assistant IT Director/Deputy CIO of Information, Command, Control, Communications, and Computers (IC4) at Headquarters Marine Corps. In this capacity, she also serves as the Department of Navy (DON) Deputy Senior Information Security Officer for the Marine Corps.

Ms. Spinks was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in August 2021, having joined Executive Service as a Senior Leader in August 2018, serving at Marine Forces Cyberspace Command (MARFORCYBER) as the nation’s first Cyber Technology Officer. In this role, she deployed cyber based technology and served as the Executive Sponsor for intelligence informed Defense Cyber Operations (DCO) and is responsible for transitioning the USMC to a mobile workforce using Microsoft O365 in record timing.

Prior to Ms. Spinks’ assignment to MARFORCYBER, her federal career path included serving in the U.S. Treasury Department and the Department of Homeland Security. She is a decorated combat veteran from the 28th Combat Support Hospital, U.S. Army 44th Medical Command, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Ms. Spinks’ love for cyber grew when she worked with DHS ICE, DOJ, CIA and the ODNI while serving as a criminal research specialist; utilizing forensics and human intelligence to investigate human trafficking and child exploitation.

Ms. Spinks holds a BS in Information Systems, a MS in Technology Management, multiple information technology certifications, and is pursuing her Doctorate in Cybersecurity. 

Some of her most recent awards include 2022 Fed100, 2022 Meritalk Cyber Defenders Award, 2021 Leading for Impact Award, State of NC 2021 HBCU Living Legend Award, and 2020 Stars and Stripes Becoming Everything You Are (BEYA) SES of the Year. She is an avid community service STEMINIST, and is one of two founders of a NonProfit Organization --“Rising Footsteps” and gives back to the HBCU community by serving as a Volunteer on the Saint Augustine’s University Council of Advisors

Ms. Lily Zeleke is the Deputy CIO (DCIO) for the Information Enterprise (IE). In this role, she provides oversight, policy guidance, and digital expertise for DoD enterprise infrastructure initiatives driving toward the objectives of digital modernization. She leads Department-wide execution of strategic guidance aimed at achieving an operationally effective and secure Information Enterprise in a cost-efficient manner. Areas of priority include network optimization, cloud adoption, software modernization, and IT reform. She recently served as the Principal Director (PD) for the DCIO IE. Prior to these roles, Ms. Zeleke served as the Acting PD for the DCIO for Resources & Analysis (DCIO RA) as well as the Director of Resources, Program, and Budget. She was responsible for the management of DoD CIO’s processes for Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution to include management of DoD CIO’s operating budget; the collection and submission of the DoD IT/Cyberspace Activities Budget to the Office of Management and Budget and Congress; execution of the DoD Budget Certification process; and DoD CIO’s participation in the Department’s Program Budget Review.

From 2009 to 2018, Ms. Zeleke served as the Department’s radiofrequency spectrum policy lead for all matters related to spectrum use, reallocation, and auction. In this capacity, she led the strategic development of the Department’s mobile broadband and domestic regulatory, policy, and legislative initiatives for the DCIO for Command, Control, and Communications (DCIO C3). She functioned as the liaison between DoD and spectrum stakeholders across the Department, national spectrum regulators, White House/Executive Branch agencies, and Congress, and spearheaded a wide range of complex initiatives to evolve traditional spectrum policies and practices to be more responsive to increased demand. She partnered with these stakeholders to forge an innovative solution that resulted in an amicable commercial auction decision of the highly sought 1755-1780 MHz band, expanding commercial Advanced Wireless Services (AWS-3) while preserving military capabilities. The auction brought in $44 billion to the U.S. Treasury and $3.1 billion for DoD. She led a coalition that developed a first-of-its-kind DoD spectrum efficiency principles policy memo, which became the cornerstone of the DoD 2020 Electromagnetic Spectrum Superiority Strategy.

Prior to joining DoD CIO, Ms. Zeleke served as the Deputy Technical Director and International Division Chief at the Air Force Frequency Management Agency where she advised on all matters concerning international telecommunications policy for spectrum use, and led Air Force participation in the International Telecommunications Union World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC), a global summit that reviews the international treaty governing the use of radiofrequency spectrum. Previously, she served as advisor to the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Defense Information Systems Agency’s Defense Spectrum Organization on international spectrum regulatory policy, as well as a RF product support engineer at Allied Signal Inc.

Ms. Zeleke holds a M.S. in Systems Engineering from George Mason University and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Kansas. She is a Senior Executive Fellow of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and has been recognized on numerous occasions for her work including a National Intelligence Meritorious Unit Citation for her significant contribution to the success of the AWS-3 auction.

Ms. Zeleke is married and has one daughter. She believes a healthy work-life balance is critical to achieving effective productivity

Dan Carroll leads the Solutions Management Team as part of the Strategic Programs pursuit organization that is focused on providing comprehensive solutions for US Federal and DoD organizations. 

As a Field CTO he participates extensively with the NIST, Federal Agency, and DoD communities to understand global technology challenges and help shape responses that can be leveraged by the community through common frameworks and reference architectures.  

Prior to Dell Federal, Dan held the position of head contract negotiator for enterprise service agreements with the Fortune Global 500.  His responsibilities included government and commercial organizations. 

Dan was a lead architectural engineer for the Marine Corps Network Operations and Security Command both as a commercial contractor as well as a U.S. Marine.  Dan was responsible for large portion of the deployed military application network architecture planning, design and deployment.

Lamont Copeland is the Director of Federal Solutions Architecture for Verizon’s Global Presales organization in support of the Verizon Business Group Public Sector Vertical. He leads a team of technology subject matter experts who are focused on developing integrated, complex enterprise solutions and enabling business outcomes for Federal customers through the power of Verizon technology portfolios and partner solutions. He also supports the growth and development of Verizon Product Portfolio working closely with Verizon’s Product teams to enhance and deploy new products for our Federal consumer base.

In his previous role with Booz Allen Hamilton, Lamont served as Senior Associate/Engineering Manager where he led a team of engineers and analysts for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reporting directly to the National Protection and Programs Directorate/Network Security Deployment (NPPD/NSD) Director and Chief Security Engineer for the EINSTEIN3 Program. The team delivered system engineering, architecture design, and integration support of network security sensor systems and communications infrastructure designs for Government networks. He was also responsible for the development the market strategy for growth of the cyber engineering and analysis products and contract Profit and Loss (P/L) and growth for Booz Allen’s Federal cyber contracts.

While at Sprint, Lamont was Chief Engineer leading the engineering design and performance of Sprint’s core IP network services. He led the infrastructure build outs, feature functionality testing of network capabilities, and managed the project schedules and annual capital budget for network capacity deployment and new product roll outs.

Lamont holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Penn State University and a Masters of Business Administration with a focus on Management of Technology Innovation, Venture Capital/Finance Investment, and Small Business Development from George Washington University

Michelle Davis, Director, Solutions Architect, Federal Division, Red Hat. Michelle has spent the last 20+ years designing and developing enterprise distributed architectures for businesses in the US, Government and abroad. In her present position, she not only architects cloud-native or hybrid cloud architectures, but she also provides guidance on the digital transformation journey in this ever changing landscape – edge, AI/ML, IoT, etc Michelle has been evangelizing and consulting around the beltway about cloud, (micro) service oriented architectures and obliging technologies which include, but are not limited to, web, webservices, Kubernetes, Docker .NET, JMS, JEE and EAI. Her Red Hat performance includes being Public Sector Architect of the Year 2 years in a row and her nomination into the elite Chairman’s community. Prior to joining Red Hat, Michelle dedicated her time to Progress Software, IONA, AT&T, IBM, Unify, and others. She holds a Masters and Bachelors degree in Computer Science from John Hopkins University and Drexel University. She is also a present and past judge for “Edge Woman of the Year” for Edge Computing World.

Bio will be posted shortly.

Bio will be posted shortly.

LaRel Rogers is the Senior Product Marketing Manager for Okta's Federal business, where she spends her days creating cohesive messaging and content to inspire action for safer, responsive, and consistent digital experiences for both the federal workforce and the public community.

Bob joined Palo Alto Networks after more than 20 years in leadership roles with banks, product companies and professional services organizations.  He is responsible for evangelizing how Prisma Cloud facilitates the transition to the cloud.  Bob provides counsel to Palo Alto Networks’ customers, prospects, governments, regulators and partner ecosystem.

Prior to joining Palo Alto Networks, Bob was a managing partner at West Strategy Group, where he provided his clients with counsel in cyber risk and business strategy.  Prior to joining Palo Alto Networks, Bob was a managing director in Deloitte’s cyber risk services practice, where he was part of the leadership team responsible for growing the business. Prior to Deloitte, Bob was managing director for CISO for York Risk Services.  Prior to this role, Bob was Chief Trust Officer at CipherCloud, where he was responsible for working across the company’s business divisions, customer base and partner ecosystem to evangelize the importance of cloud data protection.  Prior to CipherCloud, Bob was CEO at Echelon One, an information security consulting and research firm.  Prior to Echelon One, Bob was Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Fifth Third Bank in Cincinnati where he was responsible for the enterprise information security strategy.  

Prior to joining Fifth Third, Bob worked for Bank One in Columbus where he held several key leadership roles, including Information Security Officer for Bank One's Retail Group. Prior to joining Bank One, Bob was a manager with Ernst & Young’s Information Security Services practice in Chicago, and a Senior Systems Officer with Citicorp International in New York and Chicago. 

Bob is a frequent speaker on cloud security and strategy, information security and risk, identity, mobility, and on global policy issues such as payment fraud and critical infrastructure.   He also has visibility into and advises key people that influence national legislation.  He is quoted frequently in the press including publications such as Bloomberg, Forbes, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.

Bob is on the board of directors for the USA Track and Field Foundation and on vArmour, innerActiv and Lookout’s advisory boards.  He has been on the advisory board the Hispanic IT Executive Council (HITEC), the board of management for the Jericho Forum, the advisory boards for the Agiliance, AirPatrol (acquired by Sysorex), CipherCloud, Securent (acquired by Cisco), TriCipher (acquired by VMWare), Trusteer (acquired by IBM), The University of Detroit Mercy’s College of Liberal Arts and Education,  a member of RSA Security’s Customer Advisory Council and the ISS Customer Advisory Council. 

Bob received the 2022 HITEC 100 award for being one of the most influential Hispanic technology executives in the world.  He was also a nominee for the ISC2 Senior Information Security Professional of the Year, 2011, received the 2004 Digital ID World Conference award for Balancing Innovation and Reality, and a 2004 InfoWorld 100 Award for implementing SAML.  Bob graduated from Michigan State University with a Bachelor of Arts in German and then received his Master of Science in Management Information Systems from North Central College.

In her current role as Senior Director of Strategic Accounts at Defense One, Laurie Diamond works closely with defense and national security thought leaders. In doing so she assists with conveying their messaging and innovative solutions to top leaders and communities in the defense space. Prior to Defense One, she has 28+ years of experience serving in leadership and management roles in marketing, DoD business development, proposal and capture management, market research and networking. She has excelled in senior leadership positions at The Washington Post, Congressional Quarterly, Clear Channel, Alion Science and Technology and several technology solutions-based companies supporting federal and defense contracts.

Patrick Tucker is science and technology editor for Defense One. He’s also the author of The Naked Future: What Happens in a World That Anticipates Your Every Move? (Current, 2014). Previously, Tucker was deputy editor for The Futurist for nine years. Tucker has written about emerging technology in Slate, The Sun, MIT Technology Review, Wilson Quarterly, The American Legion Magazine, BBC News Magazine, Utne Reader, and elsewhere.

Lauren C. Williams is senior editor for Defense One. She previously covered defense technology and cybersecurity for FCW and Defense Systems. Before then, Williams has reported on several issues, including internet culture, national security, health care, politics and crime for various publications. She has a master's in journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park and a bachelor's in dietetics from the University of Delaware.

Eamon McCormick is Red Hat’s North America Public Sector Technical Sales Leader and Senior Director. In this role, he leads Red Hat’s Technical Sales Specialists, Solution Architects, and Chief Architects who work closely with Public Sector organizations to deliver evolving, flexible, supportable, and consistent technology solutions.

Eamon has been in the technology industry for close to 25 years in various roles, including Software Developer, Consultant, Solution Architect, Technical Sales Specialist, Manager, and Organization Leader. Eamon was a Java developer in the early days of Java, a Solution Consultant working with the creators of Agile Development, Test Driven Development, and Continuous Integration, and a Technical Specialist, Evangelist and Leader during the rise of open source and DevSecOps, All of these experiences have led him to his current role leading advocates for open source, Agile, DevSecOps, event-driven architectures, container native applications and more.