FCW Workshop:
Emerging Tech

Gerard is the CFO and Performance Improvement Officer for the General Services Administration. He oversees a $25B budget as well as the agency’s strategic planning, performance management, analytics, accounting and reporting, financial operations and audits.

With a newly established Robotics division in GSA’s OCFO, Gerard is driving the implementation of Robotics Process Automation (RPA) across GSA and is the executive sponsor of the government-wide RPA Community of Practice.

Gerard has 25 years of private sector experience including CFO and COO roles with technology companies. He has an MBA degree from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford, a Master’s degree in Economics from Case Western Reserve and Bachelor degree in Engineering from Cornell.

Mr. Lawrence, Boomi’s Vice President, Federal is a seasoned executive in Information Technology, having worked for nearly 3 decades on the most challenging, transformative technology initiatives within Government in the U.S. and around the world.

Mr. Lawrence spent over a decade at HP running their Business Development and Major Projects groups, working on projects ranging from supercomputing-based modeling to Datacenter consolidation and rationalization. Mr. Lawrence then moved to Cisco Systems, where he oversaw their Strategic Programs organization, working on Cisco’s most critical infrastructure and communications programs in Government, in both the US and in 35+ countries. Mr. Lawrence most recently built the Strategic Programs organization at Splunk Public Sector, working on analytics and cybersecurity initiatives throughout Public Sector in the U.S.

Tommy Gardner is HP’s Chief Technology Officer for HP Federal, spanning the US Federal Agencies, Higher Education, K-12 Education, State and Local government customer segments, as well as Federal Systems Integrators. His current responsibilities include technology leadership, strategic technology plans, product and technology strategies, sales force technical support, and customer and partner relationships.

Previously, Tommy has served as the Chief Technology Officer for Jacobs Engineering, Scitor, and ManTech. Earlier in his career he was a senior technical executive at Raytheon. In the U.S. Navy he served as the Deputy for Science and Technology for the Chief of Naval Research. He oversaw the Navy’s Deep Submergence Program as well as its Advanced Technology Program. He also commanded the nuclear submarine, USS San Juan (SSN 751).

Tommy’s educational background covers multiple disciplines and fields of interest including: cybersecurity, data science, blockchain, quantum information science, artificial intelligence, high performance computing and systems integration.

Tommy holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy, a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University, an M.S. in Management of Technology from MIT and a Ph. D. in Energy Economics from George Washington University. He is a Professional Engineer, an ASME Fellow, and serves on the ASME Board of Governors, the ANSI Board of Directors and the U. S. Council on Competitiveness as the Co-chair of the Advanced Computer Roundtable.

Jim Tunnessen is the Chief Information Officer & Chief Digital Officer for the Voice of America (VOA), the largest international media broadcaster in the U.S. reaching a weekly audience of over 275 million in over 100 countries, in 46 languages on television, radio, and digital platforms. As CIO & CDO, Jim leads the Office of Global Products and Technology where he is responsible for the senior executive-level leadership and strategic direction of the VOA’s technology initiatives and creating digital media products to engage with the VOA's global audience. Jim is a member of the U.S. Senior Executive Service (SES).

Dr. Robert Bohn, of the Advanced Network Technologies Division in NIST/ITL, serves as Program Manager for the NIST Cloud Computing Program. In this role, he manages and coordinates the goals and strategy of the program and also works with industrial, academic and other government stakeholders to address requirements needed for the US Government’s successful and timely adoption of cloud computing as described in the NIST Cloud Computing Technology Roadmap (NIST SP 500-293).

Currently, the NCCP pays significant attention in bringing the ISO/IEC 1986 family of SLA standards and metric model into use for the USG. In addition, the NCCP has also developed a conceptual architecture and vocabulary for federating clouds and is public comment period until Sept 20, 2019. Bob also serves as the chair of IEEE/P2302 Standard for Intercloud Interoperability and Federation to create an economy amongst cloud providers.

Previously, Dr. Bohn served as the Technical Coordinator for the High End Computing Interagency Working Group (HEC-IWG) at National Coordination Office of the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD).

As the Chief Data Officer for the Department of the Navy (DON), Mr. Sasala leads the Department’s efforts on data management, information resources management, data governance, and Naval data policies. Mr. Sasala is responsible for implementing the OPEN Government Data Act, training the Naval workforce on data and data analytics, and making high quality, timely data available to decision-makers and warfighters. He advises and assists the SECNAV and UNSECNAV in the execution of their statutory responsibilities, establishes data priorities for the DON in support of the National Defense Strategy, and drives change through the Business Operations Plan and Data Strategy Implementation Plan. Mr. Sasala leads data transformation for the Department and works closely with the Office of Secretary of Defense (OSD) on DoD-wide data policies, tactics, and techniques to improve DON decision-making.

Mr. Sasala previously led data management activities in the business mission area at the Office of the Chief Management Officer (OCMO). In that capacity, he focused on optimizing business operations, streamlining defense business systems, and establishing enterprise-wide interoperability standards for Naval business systems.

Prior to joining the Department of the Navy, Mr. Sasala served as Director of Operations and Architecture for U.S. Army CIO/G-6 and the Chief Data Officer for the U.S. Army. He led data governance and analytics across the Army, was responsible for the implementation and migration to cloud computing solutions, and developed segment and systems architectures for the Army. Mr. Sasala was also the Chief Technology Officer for the Joint Service Provider and the U.S. Army Information Technology Agency (ITA) where he was responsible for the modernization of Pentagon information technology solutions.

Mr. Sasala began his career as a student trainee at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). After graduating from the Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, he returned to NRL and pursued his Master of Science in Telecommunication and Computers. While serving at NRL, Mr. Sasala led a variety of mission critical projects including advance research and development in public key cryptography, software-defined agile cryptography and key management, and the modernization of strategic communication solutions for nuclear command and control systems.

After leaving NRL, Mr. Sasala joined the private sector where he supported a number of clients as a government consultant. His many roles include Chief Architect for the All-Source Analytics Environment, Chief Architect and technical advisor for the Analytic Transformation (AT) program, and Program Manager for various initiatives within the defense and intelligence spaces. Additionally, Mr. Sasala spent almost two years developing cutting-edge data and training solutions at the Internet startup targeting the public educational market.

In 2014 Mr. Sasala received the Bold Award for Innovation, recognizing his creative problem-solving, technical acumen, ambition, and persistence. In 2015, Mr. Sasala was named a “Fed 100” honoring the top 100 contributors across Federal, state, and local governments.

Robert Dwyer is a Principal in KPMG’s Federal Advisory practice and leads KPMG’s Federal Civilian sector and the Federal Technology consulting practice. He has over twenty years of experience in the public sector with a focus on the planning and execution of large, transformational, strategic initiatives for large Federal clients, including business transformation and IT strategy and governance.

Troy K. Schneider is the Editor-in-Chief of both FCW and GCN, two of the oldest and most influential publications in public-sector IT. Both publications (originally known as Federal Computer Week and Government Computer News, respectively) are owned by GovExec. Mr. Schneider also serves GovExec's General Manager for Government Technology Brands.

Mr. Schneider previously served as New America Foundation’s Director of Media & Technology, and before that was Managing Director for Electronic Publishing at the Atlantic Media Company, where he oversaw the online operations of The Atlantic Monthly, National Journal, The Hotline and The Almanac of American Politics, among other publications. The founding editor of NationalJournal.com, Mr. Schneider also helped launch the political site PoliticsNow.com in the mid-1990s, and worked on the earliest online efforts of the Los Angeles Times and Newsday. He began his career in print journalism, and has written for a wide range of publications, including The New York Times, WashingtonPost.com, Slate, Politico, Governing, and many of the other titles listed above.

Mr. Schneider is a graduate of Indiana University, where his emphases were journalism, business and religious studies.

Christine Finnelle is the Chief Technology Officer for the United States Marshals Service and was selected as a Federal Computer Week “Federal 100 Award” recipient in 2019. She is responsible for leading the strategic roadmap modernization and adoption of technology with interoperability of enterprise services consumed by over 475 sites and 7,600 users. She has 30 years of Information Technology (IT) experience spanning strategic planning, research, design, engineering, solution development, operations and program leadership. Ms. Finnelle has been working with the USMS Information Technology Division since 2015, in various roles. Ms. Finnelle has transformed agency shared solutions and initiatives within the Department of Justice since 2003 where she worked for The Executive Office of United States Attorneys until 2010 and the Justice Management Division until 2015.

Preceding employment with the Department of Justice, Ms. Finnelle served in the United States Army working in support of technology and communications. Her US Army career provided a myriad of technical experiences that included tactical communications delivery, Presidential service support with the White House Communications Agency, and completion of the Defense Language Institute’s Basic Arabic Course.