Pillars of Modernization

Joseph Flynn is the Public Sector CTO for Boomi, A Dell Technologies Business. A former CIO and Vice President, Joe brings years of experience in highly innovative industries to help organizations and their leaders define unique, business focused solutions to complex technology programs.

Prior to joining Dell Technologies, Joe was the CIO at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. His centralized IT organization (ISD) supported the Laboratory’s core mission: to apply advanced technology solutions to problems of national security that best serve the nation in the 21st century.

Joe also holds an MBA from the University of Colorado, and a Bachelor’s Degree from William Paterson University.

Mr. D’Alessandro is a senior director for Dell EMC’s Federal business unit, which serves Dell customers in the United States Federal Government. His responsibilities include leadership and management of a team of 20 data center account executives focused on the Federal Systems Integrators (FSI), the Federal Channel VARs and Federal Distribution. The FSI space includes 47 integrators and the Federal Channel VAR space includes over 2,000 partners. Previously he had the pre-sales engineering responsibility for federal civilian agencies as well as Tribal Governments & Tribal Casinos, and all US Circuit Courts.

Prior to that, Mr. D’Alessandro spent 5 years in the Large Enterprise Americas business unit as a systems consultant manager of several sales regions across the US. He also was a major account manager in the Large Corporate Accounts division for 9 years handling companies like AOL, Gannett Co., GEICO, NASDAQ, and the Washington Post Co.

Before joining Dell in July 1996, Mr. D’Alessandro spent 5 ½ years at Hayes Microcomputer Products as a territory manager handling major accounts and channel partners in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. Previous to that, Mr. D’Alessandro worked for ComputerLand Murray Hill NY as a sales associate covering corporate accounts in the NY metro area for 3 ½ years.

Mr. D’Alessandro earned his bachelor's degree in computer engineering from Syracuse University. He resides in the Capitol Hill area of Washington, DC with his wife, Christine and their two boys, Steven (19) and Elliot (16).

Christopher Rice is an Enterprise and IT Architect with over 15 years of leadership experience in designing innovative business solutions for private/public sector clients. He is currently working as a Solutions Architect at Red Hat. Working 19 years in the IT industry, he is highly skilled in advanced Linux concepts, cloud computing, automation, and virtualization.

Chris is a proven leader with expertise in communicating across organizational levels and cross-functional teams to drive a shared vision. He is adept at working with stakeholders to prioritize activities and achieve defined project objectives. Through his passion to stay current with leading edge IT technologies, he is able to effectively translate complex business requirements into integrated technical solutions that allow his customers to meet and exceed their business goals.

Chris has the ability to communicate technical details through a systematic approach that enables him to task engineers at a granular level as well engage management at a strategic and visionary level. This balanced and comprehensive understanding is a strength that allows him to deliver successful projects in the most challenging of circumstances.

Elizabeth A. Cappello serves as the Deputy Chief Information Officer for the DHS Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO).

As Deputy Chief Information Officer (CIO), Ms. Cappello is responsible for managing the Department’s information technology infrastructure and security. She arrived at DHS OCIO in August 2019 and served as the Acting CIO from November 2019 – May 2020.

Previously, Ms. Cappello served as the Acting CIO and Deputy CIO for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). While at ICE, Ms. Cappello led several large technology initiatives, including Data Center 1 migration to the cloud and the retirement of legacy mainframe dependency. She oversaw deployment of Microsoft Office 365 and led Security Operations Center optimization efforts, including a highly successful Defense Information Systems Agency assessment.

Prior to joining ICE, Ms. Cappello served as the Executive Director, Field Support Directorate within the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Information Technology.

Ms. Cappello began her federal service as a U.S. Marine and has more than 30 years of government leadership and management expertise. She served in the legacy U.S. Customs Service at the National Data Center and at field offices in Southern California. Before this, she provided centralized information technology support at ICE.

Ms. Cappello is a graduate of the Harvard University Senior Managers in Government program and the National Defense University Advanced Management program with federal Chief Information Officer and Information Assurance certifications. She holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in management from Johns Hopkins University.

Mr. Quinn is a published author with 25 years of IT experience, 18 with the Department of State. As a member of the Foreign Service, he has served at overseas embassies in Athens, Manila, Cairo, Moscow, Baghdad and Kabul in addition to tours in Washington DC. While typically managing IT operations for U.S. diplomats when he is overseas, he has briefed Justices on the Iraqi Supreme Court on various aspects of cybersecurity and was the recipient of the Department of State's "ISSO of the Year" award for work performed at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Mr. Quinn holds many certifications including the PMP, CISSP and CCNP and earned an MBA from Western Governor's University.

As a Senior Sales Engineer, Mark Harman works with Zscaler’s DoD and federal customers to solve their most challenging technical challenges. He leverages his 30 plus years of experience in the IT and cybersecurity industry to assist agencies with their migration to cloud computing and zero trust architectures.

Prior to joining Zscaler, Mark held senior technical positions at Palo Alto Networks, Juniper Networks and Arbor Networks.

Mark is a veteran of the US Army, with Signal Corp. When he’s not at work, he can usually be found networking with friends, enjoying the great outdoors with Jeep buddies, gaming, BBQing, and woodworking.

Dr. Raj G. Iyer was selected for the Senior Executive Service in November 2020 and assumed the position as Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Information Technology Reform in the Office of the Secretary of the Army.

As CIO, Dr. Iyer serves as the principal advisor to and directs all matters representing the Secretary of the Army relating to Information Management/ Information Technology (IM/IT). He sets the strategic direction and oversees the execution of policies and programs for IM/IT including managing an integrated IT architecture, enterprise data management, cybersecurity, and cloud management. He oversees the capital planning and execution of $18 billion portfolio for implementation of an enterprise IM/IT programs that deliver a responsive, effective, secure, collaborative and trusted environment of communication, information and technological superiority for the Army and its joint and allied nation partners.

Dr. Iyer previously served as the Managing Director for Government and Public Services and Senior Manager, Technology Strategy, Defense, and National Security for Deloitte Consulting LLP, Arlington, Virginia. Prior to his role at Deloitte, Dr. Iyer served as the Senior Technology Advisor for the US Department of Health and Human Services, Bethesda, Maryland; Director, Information Services Design and Development Group, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Baltimore, Maryland; Chief Technology Officer and Acting Deputy CIO, Army Materiel Command, Huntsville, Alabama; Director for Data Management, US Army Tank and Automotive Armaments Command, Warren, Michigan; Program Manager for Product Lifecycle Management, US Army Tank Automotive R&D Center, Warren, Michigan; Chief Technology Officer and Vice President for Product Development, Imagecom Inc., Arlington, Texas; Reasearch Associate, Automation and Robotics Research Institute, Ft. Worth, Texas; and Systems Engineer, FlightSafety International Inc., Hurst, Texas.

Dr. Iyer holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from India’s National Institute of Technology, a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from The University of Texas, a MBA from the Ross School or Business, University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from The University of Texas. He is Acquisition Corps certified, a Project Management Professional (PMP), and Lean Six Sigma (Black Belt).

His top civilian awards and professional achievements include the Meritorious Civilian Service Award and the International William Conroy Standards Professional Award. He has published dozens of peer reviewed papers and articles worldwide. Dr. Iyer also co-founded a venture capital funded startup company focused on developing web-based enterprise software products for design collaboration in the engineering supply chain.

Shad A. Imam is the Director of Solutions Engineering for the MuleSoft Public Sector Region. He joined MuleSoft's Public Sector practice after a successful 15-year career supporting Federal and State & Local government customers at Oracle. In his capacity as a MuleSoft Solutions Engineering Director, Shad has published multiple white papers and articles providing thought leadership in how government agencies and organizations can effectively leverage an API-first strategy to drive digital transformation efforts across their enterprises. He has also been a driving force behind MuleSoft's newest cloud offering - the FedRAMP authorized MuleSoft Government Cloud - which provides a fully secure and fully FedRAMP-compliant Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) for government customers. Shad resides in Virginia, about 45 minutes from Washington, D.C., and can be found hiking in the area parks with his family when not evangelizing API-based solutions for customers.

Mr. David Nelson currently serves as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). He was selected for this role in 2016 to oversee the NRC’s information technology/information management (IT/IM) portfolio, including those IT systems supporting nuclear reactor safety and nuclear materials and waste safety. In addition to the IT/IM portfolio, he is also responsible for the NRC’s information resource management, enterprise architecture program, cybersecurity program, information and records management program, information collection program, and the agency’s implementation of the Freedom of Information Act and the Federal Privacy Act of 1974. .

Mr. Nelson previously held several important roles at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), including CIO and Director, Office of Enterprise Information; Director, Office of Information Services; Director, Office of Enterprise Management; and Director, Data Analytics and Control Group for the Center for Program Integrity. The Office of Enterprise Information managed the CMS’s $2.6 billion IT portfolio, including the complex ecosystem of applications and trusted data exchanges supporting Healthcare.gov, the Medicare claims processing system, and the Medicaid support and quality reporting systems. The Data Analytics and Control Group is the CMS’s primary focal point for analytics related to fraud, waste, and abuse at the CMS. It provides statistical and data analysis for program integrity issues in the original Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, and Prescription Drug Plan programs. Mr. Nelson joined CMS in 2004 as the Director, Division of Call Center Systems, Office of External Affairs and Beneficiary Services, and was charged with improving access to information for 40 million Medicare beneficiaries..

Before joining CMS, Mr. Nelson served in a variety of challenging private sector leadership roles, including co-founder of two broadband development companies that provided access to underserved markets in the United States. Mr. Nelson also served in executive operations roles both in the United States and abroad for several leading IT development and telecommunications companies, and as Vice President of Operations for a telecommunications firm where he managed the commissioning of several hundred satellite earth stations in 50 countries across Europe, Latin America, and the United States.

Mr. Nelson served in the U.S. Air Force, Yakota Air Base, Japan. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from the University of Phoenix.

Ms. Shang-Jeo (SJ) Gaublomme serves as the Financial Systems Modernization (FSM) Branch Chief. In this capacity, SJ also serves as the FSM Program Manager. The FSM Branch includes the FSM Program Management Office (PMO) that is currently undertaking the Change Management, Data Management, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Planning Programming Budgeting Execution (PPBE), OCFO-wide projects workstreams. The FEMA FSM PMO is responsible for identifying the business requirements for FEMA’s new core financial system, leading change management efforts, establishing overall OCFO Data Management practices and addressing interfaces/integrations issues between the new system and other FEMA systems.

SJ is currently the Chair of the DHS RPA Working Group, which is comprised of members from twelve DHS components. She is also the Government Co-Chair of the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC) Intelligent Automation Working Group. She is certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP), a Homeland Security Senior Acquisition Program Manager (PM Level III), and a Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR Level III).