2019 Speakers

Since 1984, Mike has served in many roles at DVL. Starting as a sales engineer, he successfully helped grow DVL through great customer relationships and successful projects. In the early 2000’s as President, he managed and grew DVL’s team of Data Center Engineers. From 2012 through 2016 he served as the CEO of DVL, managing the company through many industry transitions. In 2017, he is excited to focus on his passion for the marketing of DVL, using his 33 years of experience to best serve the customers and all employee owners. Mike earned his Architectural Engineering degree from Penn State in 1978. He enjoys free time with his family, Penn State football, golfing, and skiing

Jonathan Benett is a business and information technology (IT) leader with over 20 years of experience in leadership, IT program and project management, strategic planning, operations, and corporate business development. He specializes in the identification of public sector business requirements and the development of innovative technology solutions to meet the unique challenges of government. Jonathan is currently the Technical Director for Digital Government Solutions at Adobe Systems Federal. Prior to Adobe, he was the Chief Enterprise Architect for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) within the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO). He also worked at the USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) in a variety of leadership roles, including Director of Strategic Initiatives for the Administrator, IT Program Manager for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Acting CTO, and Acting Deputy Regional Administrator for FNS’ Northeast Regional Office.

Before working at the USDA, Jonathan led the Project Management Office for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, preceded by ten years of successful experience in private industry. In each of his multifaceted roles, Jonathan displays enthusiasm, integrity, character, and professional leadership qualities that benefit the greater public sector IT community. Federal Computer Week recently recognized him through the distinguished “Fed 100” award and previously through its “Rising Star Award.” In addition, AFCEA Bethesda recognized him with its “Emerging Leader of the Year Award” for his contribution to the federal IT community.

Brian is responsible for leading large IT contracts in areas such as IT integration, managed services, vendor management, and program, change, risk, quality, and performance management for the US Department of Education, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, and others. A key project success includes savings of more than $30 million in just three years for the Pennsylvania Information Technology Staff Augmentation (ITSA) program while expanding its utilization by 60% across statewide agencies.

Brian is a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP) who has more than 15 years of experience in IT management across federal (Department of Education, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Energy, and the United States Postal Service), state, and local government, the private sector (financial and telecommunications), and non-profit education sector. He has led IT enterprise transformation for multiple government agencies, including data center consolidations for the NRC and Department of Energy (DoE), cloud adoption for the DoE and state/local governments, and government and commercial off-the-shelf integrations and cyber security assessments and plans of actions and milestones remediation for the Department of Education and the DoE.

Over his career, he developed and facilitated a first-time leadership development program, graduating over 20 rising stars, and led multiple programs recognized nationally for performance with awards, including the President’s Management Award for Quality, Excellence.gov, and Computerworld Honors. He is ITIL v3 Foundations certified and a practitioner of CMMI Level 5 and ISO 9001:2008 processes and principles. Brian graduated from The College of William and Mary with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a minor in computer science. Prior to joining OST in 2009, he served in management positions at BB&T (formerly known as First Virginia Bank) and The College Board. Brian is proud of the time he spends invested with others, both in his professional life and in more charitable settings. He is the Chairman of The Ashley Fister Cole Foundation, a charity dedicated to melanoma research and education, and is a fellow with the American Council for Technology/Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC).

Brandon joined Appalachia in 2018 as a Cyber Security Architect. With prior experience in both private and public-sector IT consulting, Brandon has served in various roles in cyber security over the past 10 years specializing in ethical hacking, cyber security strategy, regulatory compliance, and cyber defense.

Brandon has taught cyber security classes for a world leading Cyber Security Bootcamp based out of Chicago and is active in the local Cyber Security community currently chairing the PAHackers Cyber Security meetup group that meets monthly to discuss various issues facing the industry and holding various cyber security related workshops and events. Brandon has most recently presented at the Harrisburg University of Science and Technology 2018 Cybersecurity Summit and the Security Bsides Delaware events.

Brandon has a Master’s degree in Cyber Security and Information Assurance form Western Governor’s University and a Bachelor’s of science from Central Penn College in Information Technology along with numerous security related certifications such as EC-Council’s Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) and Certified Hacking Forensics Investigator(CHFI) certifications. Brandon is currently a SME for EC-Council and provides feedback and guidance on exam material and topics.

John Kost spent 20 years in government in the State of Michigan. He was the first State CIO in the US – appointed to the role in 1992.  He has been with Gartner for the past 17 years, mostly as an executive, but spending a large part of his time supporting elected and c-level government officials across the world. His primary areas of expertise include applying customer-centric approaches to digital government transformation as well as governance, consolidation/shared services, and the evolving role of the public sector CIO.

He has a Masters degree in Public Administration from Michigan State University and a Bachelors of Political Science from the University of Michigan.  Despite his long history in Michigan, John also has a Pennsylvania connection – his oldest son graduated from Penn State in 2017 and is now thriving as a robotics engineer.  We are…!

Kevin Long is the manager of the VTRAC Labs team at the Verizon Threat Research Advisory Center. The Labs team, which manages analysis infrastructure and evidence handling worldwide, serves as the back end for delivery of Verizon’s Global Security Services offerings, including digital forensics and threat intelligence. Mr. Long built the team’s first digital forensic lab in 2008, and now oversees five labs on four continents, including protected storage for all forensic evidence. He also oversees the delivery of the VTRAC Team’s Labs Services, which include malicious code analysis, mobile device forensics, and electronic data recovery.

Prior to this, Mr. Long was a Senior Consultant at security specialist Cybertrust. As a member of the Risk Intelligence team, he analyzed emerging threats, performed risk management, and was the team’s subject matter expert on Mac OS X security. His career in information security began in 2000, when he joined TruSecure as a network security analyst. Mr. Long is a CISSP and has earned several other security and technical certifications, as well as three degrees from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Trupen Modi is a Digital Transformation Executive within Microsoft’s U.S. PubSec CTO team aligned with our state and local government customers. Trupen has 20 years of values-driven leadership experience in Business and IT strategy (including Big 4), digital transformation, Delivery, managing complex programs and forging lasting partnership to maximize sustainable business growth across Public Sector, State Local Government, Education, healthcare, financial, insurance, professional services, manufacturing, education and retail industry.

CTO & Director, Chariot Solutions Aaron Mulder is responsible for the design and deployment of technical development standards, policies and style guidelines. He maintains structured workflow between project leaders and developers, and mentors lead developers and architects. In addition, Mr. Mulder supports marketing and sales efforts through public and private speaking engagements.

Mr. Mulder has been working with Java technology since its inception. He has worked on applets, applications, and Web applications using Java, J2EE, and Ruby on Rails. Mr. Mulder has led the architecture of numerous large projects. His responsibilities have spanned all facets of the development process, including defining and documenting requirements, design and architecture, development, testing, performance tuning, security analysis, and deployment. He has established and maintained development and demo environments, custom tools, developer documentation, and training materials. He has also trained and mentored new developers in traditional and lightweight Java/J2EE, Rails, and SOA, covering design, development, tools, and best practices.

Mr. Mulder is a published author on topics such as WebLogic Server and EJB. He has worked with Java Community Process spec committees including JSR-88, and repeatedly presented at numerous conferences including JavaOne, TheServerSide Java Symposium, ApacheCon, the Enterprise Open Source Conference, the Emerging Technologies for the Enterprise conference, and more. He has directly contributed to many open source projects, including Apache projects such as Geronimo, ActiveMQ, ServiceMix, OpenEJB, and XBean, as well as other projects including JBoss and PostgreSQL. Prior to joining Chariot Solutions, Mr. Mulder has worked for a number of technology firms, including Skylight Systems, Olliance Inc., EMAX Solution Partners, and Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), as well as completing several specific Java contracts. Mr. Mulder graduated from Princeton University with a B.S.E. degree in Aerospace Engineering, and a certificate in Physics.

Vijay Narula is the founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of OST. Under Vijay’s leadership, the company has achieved extraordinary success and growth, stimulated by OST’s vision as a leader in transformational technologies and world-class solutions in diverse operating environments. Prior to starting OST, Vijay worked for more than a decade — first as professional staff member and then as a management consultant — for a technology consulting firm located in Northern Virginia.

He has deep experience in the field of aviation, having worked on several programs for the FAA in Washington, DC, some of which focused on spectrum engineering and management, which is an essential element of cyber protection. To this day, he continues to serve as the firm’s technical visionary, with a particular focus on “SMART” technologies. These are technologies that will affect every sector, because they will enable disruptive innovations – from optimized infrastructure to advanced data connectivity. Furthermore, “SMART” technologies represent a powerful opportunity to efficiently connect ideas to outcomes.

Some of his other accomplishments include speaking engagements at several major events, including the Public Private Partnership (P3s) as well as serving as a panelist for a discussion about the acquisition of information technology for the Department of Homeland Security. Vijay actively supports numerous civic, cultural, and business organizations, and is an advocate for quality in K-12 education.

Shaaz Nasir brings expertise working at the nexus of technology and strategy for Fortune 500 companies and governments across North America and the Middle East as a digital transformation practitioner. At Microsoft he helps deliver transformational programs across state and local governments and acts as New York’s AI Ambassador. With Accenture Strategy in the Middle East, he helped lead major transformation change management projects that spanned multiple sectors and included smart nation strategies, crowd sourcing public policy programs, and helping countries and companies embrace the fourth industrial revolution. Most recently, Shaaz served as a Trade Commissioner ICT Lead with the Department of Foreign Affairs for Canada in New York.

He helped facilitate digital commerce between major American companies/governments with Canadian start-ups specializing in Artificial intelligence, Fin Tech and Digital Media. Shaaz holds a Bachelors of Honours International Economics and Development from University of Ottawa, Canada. He is a frequent speaker at global conferences on the digital economy, its impact on labor and mobility, and how organizations and people alike can leverage digital transformation to improve the state of the world through the World Economic Forum’s Global Shaper initiative.

Mr. Nestore leads Mathtech’s State & Local Tax practice and supports a wide range of consulting and transformation projects including strategic planning, business process improvement, and system implementations. He is a certified Project Management Professional with over seventeen years of experience managing information technology projects for government entities (Motor Vehicles, Revenue and Taxation, Labor and Workforce, Law and Public Safety) and commercial organizations (Pharmaceutical, Manufacturing, Distribution, Multi-Channel Retail, Energy and Utilities).

His experience spans all levels of problem solving, modernization, and project management, from hands-on system implementation tasks to strategic analysis and planning.  In the course of managing projects, he routinely meets with executive levels to discuss status, define strategy, and address issues.  His focus areas include project oversight, lean process improvement, process and requirements analysis, solutions analysis, data analysis, business case development, training and system testing.

An award-winning, influential business and technology leader with over 20 years of experience and exceptional critical thinking, leadership, negotiation, and mediation skills. As a Director of Technical Strategy within VMware’s office of the CTO Chris helps build and align customer needs with a market strategy to provide tangible results. As a strategist, he has the acute ability to recognizing social and technical trends and apply those to the complex world of providing end user services. He previously served as Mobility and End User Computing Practice Manager for a top VMware Partner, creating strategy, vision, and alignment between stakeholders to streamline the process of positioning, selling, consulting, designing, delivering, and supporting End User Computing Solutions.

With broad reaching experience in Healthcare, Education, Communications, Technology, Financial Services, and Real Estate industries he is well suited to advise a vast array of industry. Chris is known for refined business acumen and the ability to develop and maintain meaningful executive relationships. Other executives and colleagues recognize Chris as a thought leader, innovator, collaborator, and energetic motivator.

Public speaking experience includes speaking to over 50,000 people. Largest audience in 2000 of 5000 people. 2010-2015; Several speaking engagements at PMI events across several states. 016: BRM speech in Charlotte, NC to over 500 BRMs on practical implementation of BRM in the enterprise. 2016: Speech to 1,000 Business Analysts and BRMs on the development of BRM skills. 2017: Washington DC Moderator of panel with CIOs from large organizations including Johnson and Johnson, Prudential, US HHS, and HR Block. This was to highlight the different implementations of BRM and how each can be successful. 2017: Implementing Agile Development Practices in the Enterprise 2018: Maturing the BRM Capability at PA Techcon 2018

Darren has been designing and implementing business transformation solutions for Fortune 250 companies for over 26 years. In addition to his work with DXC as both their Global Digital Transformation and Global Acquisitions Leader, he provides IT Advisory services to small-to-mid-sized businesses in our area. Mr. Shaw is also affiliated locally with Dame Management Strategies through its JD Leadership Academy.

Clifford Shier has 25+ years of real-world “experience in the seat” of the CxO.  At Unisys, he is a trusted advisor to client CxOs and their organizations as they seek to advance performance and value from their investments.  By applying specific context, deep understanding, and broad cross-industry experience, he has enabled and guided private and public sector organizations (including the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) to accomplish transformational effectiveness and efficiencies.

David is a leader in Deloitte’s Application Architecture technology practice and has extensive experience in the architecture, design, development and deployment of enterprise applications, focusing in the custom development area. David is RUP certified and has functioned as a trainer and delivered on numerous implementations using his deep SDLC experience.  David designed and implemented the Java application framework; FAST4J Express that Deloitte uses to deliver high performing and maintainable applications in the custom development service area across industries.

25 years of Sales and Management experience dealing with Pennsylvania State government. 17 years with ePlus Technology, Inc. managing statewide contracts involving Networking products and services. I.e.: Cisco, Aruba, Fortinet, Juniper, Liebert.

Jay is a tenured software sales executive having worked with Public Sector accounts for more than 20 years.  More than 17 of those years have been specifically focused within State & Local / Higher Education.  He has assisted numerous organizations, both large and small, to solve and improve many organizational, business critical initiatives – including infrastructure, security and application technologies.  Currently, Jay is working with SLED organizations within the Mid-Atlantic states, helping them to improve their Digital Image through the the utilization of Application Performance and End-User monitoring solutions provided by AppDynamics.

Dr. Colin Soutar is a senior manager within Deloitte & Touche LLP’s Cyber practice. After finishing his studies in Dundee Scotland, Colin completed a two-year post-doctoral stint at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, developing pattern recognition techniques for autonomous rendezvous and capture operations. He then served as the chief technology officer for over a decade with a biometric public company based in Toronto Canada. Subsequently, Colin has worked on many cybersecurity, identity, and privacy projects, and helped to develop the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, as well as contributed to many identity-related documents. He currently provides assistance to commercial and public sector clients regarding cybersecurity risk management, including adoption of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework.

Mike is a cloud and application engineer with 17 years of experience in customer facing technical roles.  He has assisted organizations ranging from Fortune 500s and Cabinet Departments to start-ups and State Agencies with optimizing their enterprise architectures and platforms.  He has been a developer, a consultant, and a product specialist so intimately familiar with all sides of technology solutions and how they are best leveraged by organizations attempting to keep pace with a rapidly shifting IT landscape.  Most recently, Mike has been a working as a solutions engineer at AppDynamics (now part of Cisco) working with State, Local, and Education (SLED) organizations to streamline and introduce efficiencies into their application performance management practices.

Steven Young leads Mathtech’s State & Local Consulting Practice and has 30 years of experience consulting to the public and private sector to transform operations.  He has helped many state agencies with strategy, business process improvement, system modernization, and project management and has used all of these services to achieve transformation. He brings insight from projects across the country and a variety of operational areas including transportation, motor vehicles, tax and revenue, education, and human services.

Mr. Young has been a speaker at prior TechCons on the subjects of System Modernization, Project Estimation, and Creating the IT Organization of the Future.   Additionally, Mr. Young has presented at numerous Project Management and public sector industry conferences. He has presented at over 10 AAMVA National Conferences (DMV) on topics ranging from the CIO Roundtable and System Modernization to Large Scale Project Management and he future of DMV operations.  Mr. Young is a hands on practitioner and has led strategy and transformation projects in PA, NJ, MD, WI, WA, OR, FL, NY, the Country of Jamaica, the City of Phila. and many other jurisdictions.