Virtualization: What Federal Managers Need to Know

June 22nd at 1 PM Do you know the difference between Virtualization and cloud computing? Are you clear on the truth and myths surrounding Virtualization and wh...

June 22nd at 1 PM

Program will discuss:

  • Do you know the difference between Virtualization and cloud computing?
  • Are you clear on the truth and myths surrounding Virtualization?
  • What do Federal managers need to know now and for the future?

Panel Guests:

  • Shawn Kingsberry, CIO, Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board
  • John Strait, Acting Director of IT Services, USPS OIG
  • Brian McGrath, CIO, Census Bureau
  • Curt Kolcun, VP of US Public Sector, Microsoft
  • Tom Simmons, VP of US Public Sector, Citrix


Moderator: Jason Miller


About the Panel:

Shawn K. Kingsberry
Chief Information Officer
Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board

Shawn Kingsberry has provided vision and leadership in developing and deploying all the IT used by the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board.

As a senior executive for the board, Mr. Kingsberry led the effort to launch Recovery.gov and a number of other websites in a very short time to comply with the mandates of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

In May 2010, Mr. Kingsberry was recognized by the board’s chairman and federal CIO Vivek Kundra for making Recovery.gov the first governmentwide information system to be fully migrated to the public cloud. The migration took only 22 days to complete — another federal milestone.


John Strait
Acting Director of IT Services
USPS OIG

John Strait, Acting Director of IT Services, USPS OIG: John Strait is the Acting Director of IT Services for the USPS OIG. In this role he oversees the daily operation of the OIG network. His responsibilities are wide ranging. They include:

  • Managing and maintaining the OIG servers and backend applications
  • Managing custom code development
  • Managing desktops & portables imaging
  • Managing Tier 3 technical support for the CIO Service Desk.
  • Identifying and implementing new technologies and initiatives

John is a 14 year veteran of the U.S. Army. He also worked for 10 years at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) upon his release from active duty. John was the Network Operations and Security Center (NOSC) Manager during his time at DARPA. His duties were very similar to the ones he holds today at the OIG.


Brian McGrath
CIO
Census Bureau

Brian McGrath has been the U.S. Census Bureau’s Associate Director for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer since May 24, 2009.

McGrath oversees the information technology infrastructure that supports the Census Bureau in fulfilling its mission as the leading source of quality data about the nation’s people and economy.

McGrath worked for the U.S. Department of Justice from 1999 to 2009, serving the final five years as the chief information officer for the Executive Office for Immigration Review. While as program manager for the Joint Automated Booking System, the staff received the Federal Executive Leadership Council’s Showcase of Excellence Award and the Federation of Government Information Processing Council’s Intergovernmental Solutions Award.

From 1989 to 1999, he directed the Criminal Justice Information Systems for the City of Alexandria (Va.) and was employed for seven years as a probation/parole officer in Virginia and New Jersey. McGrath served on the Virginia State Bar, 5th District Disciplinary Committee and the Board of Directors of Offender Aid and Restoration. McGrath has traveled abroad with the U.S. Agency for International Development and the American Bar Association’s Central and Eastern European Law Initiative to provide technical assistance to the Russian Federation for the reinstitution of trial by jury.

McGrath holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and political science from King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. He is also a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute and a fellow of the National Center for State Courts’ Institute for Court Management.

McGrath lives in Alexandria with his wife, Theresa, and has two children (Kyle and Shannon) in college.


Curt Kolcun
Vice President, U.S. Public Sector
Microsoft Corporation

Curt Kolcun is Vice President of Microsoft Corp.’s U.S. Public Sector business vertical. He assumed this position in the summer of 2008, after leading the U.S. Federal business since August 2003. In his leadership responsibility, Curt is responsible for sales, contracting, citizenship and marketing efforts for the company’s U.S. government, education, and public sector healthcare markets.

Kolcun (pronounced “Kol-sun”) has been with Microsoft for nearly 21 years and has been instrumental in helping grow the company’s federal government business, providing the leadership and inspiration to achieve over 22% growth in the business and attain the highest customer satisfaction ratings in North America. Prior to leading the Federal sales business, Kolcun was Federal Practice Manager for Microsoft Consulting Services.

When he joined Microsoft, Kolcun was the company’s first systems engineer assigned to work on the U.S. Department of Defense account, and worked closely with product groups to lead Microsoft’s initial field efforts on security, encryption and standards initiatives.

Kolcun began his professional and technical career as an airman in the U.S. Air Force where he had the opportunity to lead a project team responsible for the first Air Force system designed to automate the creation of Government Bills of Lading. For this effort he was named “21st Air Force Freight Traffic Specialist of the Year.” Kolcun left public service in 1983 to become a Systems Engineer for the Federal branch of NBI, Inc. before joining Microsoft in 1989 as a Senior Architectural Engineer.

Kolcun is on the USO Board of Governors, as well as the executive committee of the USO of Metropolitan Washington D.C. He also serves on the board of directors of the Northern Virginia Technology Council, National Guard Youth Foundation and the Advisory Board for CharityWorks. He has received numerous awards in recognition of his industry and civic contribution. These include Federal Computer Week’s Fed 100 Award, Government Computer News’ Industry Executive of the Year, the National Guard Youth Foundation Youth Challenge Award and the AFFIRM Leadership Award for Industry.

Curt and his wife, Debbie, live in Leesburg, Va.


Tom Simmons
VP of US Public Sector
Citrix

Tom Simmons is the area vice president – US Public Sector for Citrix Systems, Inc. He has more than 25 years of information technology management experience, with a core emphasis on the Public Sector market. Tom acts as both spokesperson and advocate for public/private partnerships around technology initiatives such as disaster recovery, green IT, telework, HSPD-12, SOA, virtualization and IT consolidation. His understanding of the unique requirements of both government customers, and the systems integrators who support them, has helped drive Citrix’s year-over-year growth and relevance in this market — including winning the Solution Provider Award of Excellence for “Best Government Technology Provider” at the Gartner Government Solution Summit. Prior to joining Citrix, Tom served in senior management positions with companies such as Compaq, Trend Micro, and MicroWarehouse, driving their public sector solutions.


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