Building Government's Future Infrastructure- 1 Year in Review

Panelists:
John Johnson - Assistant Commissioner- ITS, GSA

John Garing - CIO, DISA

William Lay - Dept of Energy

Tom Simmons - Citrix Systems

Gary DePreta - Cisco Systems

Edward Vaccaro Partner, Homeland Security, Federal Systems - Unisys

Moderator

Jim Flyzik -Flyzik Group

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.

Mr. Johnson leads a highly skilled and diverse workforce that manages more than five thousand contracts providing products, services, and solutions to nearly 135 federal agencies and departments in approximately 190 countries. ITS is responsible for development, planning, management and operations of all GSA customer-facing Information Technology and Telecommunications contracts. The organization's portfolio consists of the IT Schedule 70 program, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) -chartered IT Governmentwide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs) Program, the Office of Network Services Programs, and several strategic Governmentwide initiatives such as Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 (HSPD-12), E-Authentication, the Smart-Buy software program, and the Information Technology Line of Business (ITLOB) initiative. ITS actively works with GSA's customers and industry partners to ensure that its array of Information Technology and Telecommunications offerings are relevant and timely in support of the broad-ranging missions of federal, state and local customers.

Mr. Johnson's experience includes active duty service in the United States Navy, industry computer systems field engineering, and assignments in several other Government IT organizations such as the United States Army Signal Center, Ft. Gordon, GA; Headquarters 7th Signal Command, Ft. Ritchie, MD; the Department of the Army Staff (DCSC4); the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA); DISA Liaison to the CINC Forces Command; and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence (OASD-C3I).

Mr. Johnson holds a Bachelor's degree in Applied Behavioral Science (Business Management), and a Master of Science degree in National Resource Strategy. He is a graduate of numerous military schools to include the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, the Armed Forces Staff College, and the Army Signal Officer Advanced Course. He also has Level III certifications in Program Management & Communications and Computer Acquisition from the DoD Acquisition Corps. He currently serves on the DoD Defense Science Board for Interoperability, the National Communications System Committee of Principals, GSA's Senior Environmental Working Group, and the Committee for National Security Systems.

Mr. Johnson has been recognized with the following awards: The Association for Federal Information Resources Management (AFFIRM) Leadership Award in Acquisition and Procurement, the Federal 100 Award, the Consumer Electronics Show's Government Technology Leadership Award, the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Senior Professionals and Executives, and the Government Computer News 2007 Civilian Executive of the Year award.

Prior to working for the Department of Energy, Bill worked for the Department of Army, Minerals Management Service, Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Commerce. While working for these different federal agencies, Bill's areas of information technology emphasis have included, computer programming, systems administration, network administration, desktop support, computer room operations, systems integration, telecommunications, help desk support, cyber security and project management. Prior to moving to the D.C. Metro area, Bill worked for several years in Alaska and Louisiana.

Bill's formal education includes degrees from North Carolina State University, University of Alaska, Anchorage and Alaska Pacific University. In addition to Bill's federal experience, he taught Economics at the University of Alaska, Anchorage for ten years as an adjunct lecturer. Bill's interests outside of information technology and economics include; photography, music and history. Bill has been married for twenty years and his wife is also a civil servant who works for the Department of Army.

Prior to joining Cisco, Gary spent 7 years at International Network Services (INS) where his last position was Vice President and General Manager. INS is a global consultancy specializing in helping organizations effectively use technology to achieve their business goals by enabling its clients to reduce costs, increase flexibility, strengthen security, ensure compliance and improve efficiency. In this role, Gary had responsibility for the Mid-Atlantic Operation, Federal Subsidiary, and Ethical Hacking Center of Excellence business units. Gary began his career at IBM holding several sales and leadership positions in the Technology Services Solutions (TSS) division (now IBM Global Services) in Atlanta, GA and Gaithersburg, MD.

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.