Building Government's Future Infrastructure

Program will discuss:

• Update On NETWORX Contract

• Efforts at network optimization within Federal Agencies and the use of the GSA programs

• What are the challenges to overcome to accomplish infrastructure optimization

• Is security a concern with consolidation

• Share a vision for the future. Will we have an optimized common government infrastructure in 3 years? 5 years? 10 years?

Panelists:

John Johnson Assistant Commissioner - GSA

Barry West CIO - Department of Commerce

Robert Suda Associate Chief Information Officer for Integration and Operations - USDA

Von Harrison GSA (eGov Infrastructure Optimization LOB)

Tom Simmons VP - Citrix Systems

Edward Vaccaro Partner, Homeland Security, Federal Systems - Unisys

Jim served over 27 years in the federal government. He served as Senior Advisor to Governor Ridge in the White House Office of Homeland Security (OHS). He provided advice to OHS on the National Strategy and Information Management in support of the OHS mission. From February 1998 until December 2002, Jim also served as the Vice Chair of the Federal Government CIO Council overseeing numerous governmentwide IT initiatives. He was also a member of the President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board.

Prior to this, from August 1997 until April 2002, Jim was the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Information Systems and Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Department of the Treasury. He provided oversight, strategic planning and management direction on over $3.0 billion in annual information technology and information infrastructure programs within Treasury and its fourteen Bureaus. Jim also served as the Acting Assistant Secretary for Management for the Treasury Department from January 20, 2001 until February 8, 2002. In that role he provided oversight of all Treasury bureaus and served as the principal policy advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary on matters involving the internal management of the Department and its bureaus. Jim received the Secretary Certificate of Appreciation on February 12, 2002 for his efforts during this transition period.

Prior to his Treasury positions, Jim worked for 15 years at the U.S. Secret Service where he held key IT management positions, including the Chief of the Communications Division, providing world class telecommunications in support of Secret Service tactical and operational requirements.

Jim has extensive public speaking experience and frequently serves as a featured speaker at industry events. He has developed, and currently teaches part-time, a graduate level course on Information Systems Security and Risk Assessment at the University of Maryland. Jim was given the Stanley J. Drazek Excellence in Teaching Award in 1998 by the University of Maryland.

Jim has an undergraduate degree in Business Administration and Computer Science and a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Maryland with an area of concentration in Information Systems Management.

In 1994, he co-led DISA's strategy analysis team that identified DoD's Defense Information System Network (DISN). Subsequently, he served as Deputy Program Manager, DISN, until he was selected for a position in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence (OASD-C3l). As a member of the OASD-C3I staff, he was responsible for DoD's long-haul telecommunications policy and oversight. He also served as DoD's principal representative on the FTS Interagency Management Council (IMC). In October 1998, the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, C3l, identified Mr. Johnson as DoD's Transition Manager for FTS2001, where he lead the movement of all of DoD's FTS2000 voice, video, and data services to FTS2001 and the DISN.

In September 2000, he entered the Senior Executive Service and was selected by GSA to serve as the Federal Technology Service, Assistant Commissioner for Service Development. In January of 2003, he also assumed responsibility for the FTS Network Service Delivery organization. As the FTS Assistant Commissioner for Service Development and Service Delivery, Mr. Johnson leads the development of new Network Service Programs while he manages day-to-day operations for FTS2001/FTS Crossover contracts and several satellite service contracts. Under his leadership, his organization is developing and implementing the Networx, Alliant, and SATCOM II initiatives, and is providing worldwide services to 135 Federal Agencies and Departments. On June 5, 2006, Mr. Johnson was also asked to serve as the Acting Assistant Commissioner for the Integrated Technology Service of the newly formed Federal Acquisition Service.

Mr. West was formerly the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Director of the IT Services Division for DHS/FEMA. In this position, Mr. West managed FEMA's information technology and telecommunications systems, and provided enterprise-wide IT coordination for FEMA's 10 geographical regions. He was responsible for IT disaster-wide support in addition to IT policy and guidance, computer security, enterprise architecture, strategic planning, engineering and e-Government initiatives.

Prior to joining FEMA, Mr. West was the CIO of the National Weather Service. As the CIO, he had overall responsibility for information technology systems, services, policies and operations. He was also responsible for managing, coordinating and integrating all aspects of Information Technology for the National Weather Service. Previously, Mr. West served as the Deputy Director for the Office of Electronic Government at the U.S. General Services Administration, where he was the technical lead on the FirstGov.gov web portal. He was also chairperson of the Federal Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Business Working Group and spearheaded the first annual government-wide PKI conference for government and industry. Earlier in his career, Mr. West served as Associate Director for Production Services at the National Technical Information Service and as a systems manager at the U.S.Bureau of the Census, where he was a key player in the 1990 Decennial Census.

Mr. West also served as a weather specialist in the U.S. Air Force, where he was named Weather Specialist of the Year. Early in his career Barry worked for Tab Books, Inc., where he led an effort to convert the company from a manual-based operation to a completely automated system solution.

Mr. Suda was the Assistant Commissioner for the Office of IT Solutions (ITS) within the Federal Technology Service (FTS) of the General Services Administration. He held that position since April 2000. Mr. Suda also managed the government-wide SmartBUY program providing software licensing through enterprise agreements.

From January 1998 to April 2000, Mr. Suda served as the Chief Financial Officer for FTS. Previously, Mr. Suda was the Director of Finance for GSA and the agency's first Deputy Chief Financial Officer.

Mr. Suda's career spans 29 years in the Federal Government. He came to the Federal government in 1977 as an intern in GSA's National Capitol Region. Since then, he has held numerous positions in the financial community in both the regional and headquarters offices. Mr. Suda was the Regional Director of Finance, Director of Financial Management, Director of Financial Policy, and the Director of Financial Systems for the Agency. He was the project manager responsible for overseeing the agency's annual audit by an independent CPA firm. Under his direction, the agency received its first unqualified opinion in 1987. Bob has also held the position as Deputy Controller for the Public Buildings Service.

Prior to coming to GSA, Mr. Suda was the Controller for the A. Rifkin Co. located in Northeast Pennsylvania. He was responsible for the Treasury and investment decisions for the company.

Mr. Suda is a graduate of King's College located in Wilkes-Barre, PA with a B.S. in Accounting and a minor in information systems. He is an active member of the Association of Government Accountants and is a Certified Government Financial Manager. He is the past Treasurer of the American Council for Technology and served as a past chair of the Executive Leadership Conference. He also serves on the advisory committee member for the Government Information Technology Executive Council (GITEC).

Other positions included senior policy analyst for the federal Electronic Authentication Initiative for three years; assistant to the CIO, Office of Homeland Security (prior to becoming a Department); Program Manager for the Chief Financial Officer's Council, the IT Resources Board, and other related assignments.

Prior to GSA, Von spent approximately 18 years working for the Department of Defense, in a variety of positions, including Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Force Support and Families, Congressional Liaison to Appropriations for the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization, Policy analyst for Army force support and family programs, Director of Army Community Services (Germany), and Director of Army ADAPCP program.

Von has a Master of Science in Information Resources Management (MS-IRM) from Syracuse University, a Master of Social Work, and Bachelors Degree in Communication and Psychology, both from the University of Washington.

Ed joined Unisys from BearingPoint (formerly KPMG Consulting, Inc.), where he was a managing director and partner of the operations support systems practice for the telecommunications market. Ed designed and managed the solutions offerings for order management, service provisioning and service assurance. He was responsible for developing solutions strategy, building a global experts team, client delivery, managing vendor alliances and business development.

Before joining BearingPoint, Ed was the chief information officer with General Electric Medical Systems, where he was responsible for transforming the information technology organization to support both manufacturing and service operations. He directed the information systems organization of the leading supplier of medical imaging equipment and services. In addition, he managed the technology selection, integration, implementation, support and operation of the internal enterprise systems utilized by business operations worldwide.

Prior to his work at General Electric Medical Systems, Ed served as vice president, IT consulting and chief information officer of Booz Allen & Hamilton. Here, he directed the information systems organization of the global consulting firm. Ed restructured the internal IT organization, stabilizing the systems operations and applications that provided optimal 24-hour support to the global consulting practices.

Ed holds a degree in chemistry from LaSalle University.