Speakers

At U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Mr. Sanjeev “Sonny” Bhagowalia currently holds the Senior Executive Service position of Assistant Commissioner (AC), Office of Information and Technology (OIT) and CBP Chief Information Officer (CIO).

Mr. Bhagowalia has over 40 years of senior technical, managerial, and executive leadership
experience in private industry, the U.S. Government, and state government. Mr. Bhagowalia has
spent over 26 of those years in senior executive capacity, including over 22 years as a member of the Senior Executive Service (SES) and one year as a Senior Level (SL) in the Federal Government, and three years as a Senior Executive in State Government. He has served in key
CIO leadership roles at five government agencies: Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of
the Interior, State of Hawaii, U.S. Department of Treasury and CBP, U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He also served in senior executive leadership roles as a Deputy Associate
Administrator for Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies at General Services Administration, and as a Program Management Executive/Assistant Director at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice. Mr. Bhagowalia also served for 14 years in Industry at Boeing, a Fortune 30 company, ultimately serving for five years in senior technical leadership roles as a Chief Engineer/Manager and as an honorary Senior Principal Engineer in the Boeing Company.

He has used his knowledge of IT/Information Resource Management (IRM), cybersecurity, and
business process re-engineering to transform and secure organizations, and has helped the
Federal CIO/CTO to roll out foundational White House Government-wide initiatives such as
Open Data, Federal Cloud, FedRAMP, and the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative.

Mr. Bhagowalia has received 50 awards from the U.S. Government and Industry, including a
rare distinction of two Presidential Rank Awards for Meritorious Executive Service; three
Federal 100 Awards; four Golden Gov Executive of the Year awards (including three in a row);
Wash100; State Gov Executive of the Year; Government CIO of the Year; Government
Innovator of the Year; NASA Silver Snoopy; NASA Award of Merit; Asian American Chamber
of Commerce Elite Titan; Service to the Citizen; and the White House Champion of Change. He
led the team that won the Chief Information Officer 100 award for data.gov; and “Best of the
Web” State Portal award from Center for Digital Government (CDG) for Hawaii.gov. He was
inducted into the Boeing Technical Excellence Fellowship Program in 2014, recognizing the top
one percent of engineers and scientists in the Boeing Company; the 2014 Federal Enterprise
Architecture Certification Institute Hall of Fame; and the 2015 National Defense University IRM
College Hall of Fame.

Mr. Bhagowalia has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering (EE) and a Master of Science (MS) Degree in EE from Louisiana State University, and an MS in IRM from Syracuse University. He is also a twice-distinguished graduate from the National Defense University, U.S. Department of Defense, with an IRM Diploma and Federal CIO Certificate.

Kim Brandt is CMS’ Deputy Administrator and Chief Operating Officer. Previously, she was a Partner at the Washington, D.C.-based policy firm Tarplin, Downs & Young, LLC, where she provided strategic advice on a broad array of healthcare regulatory, enforcement, and policy matters. She also served as an Advisor to the private equity firm Enhanced Healthcare Partners, a private equity firm focused on healthcare, and held board positions at two of its portfolio companies. 

Kim has held multiple senior executive positions in government, including serving as Principal Deputy Administrator for Policy and Operations during the first Trump Administration. In that role she oversaw all activities necessary for the operation and management of CMS’ $1.4T budget in addition to leading efforts to reform the Physician Self-referral regulations and develop the first CMS interoperability rule. Kim previously served as Chief Oversight Counsel and General Counsel on the staff of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee where she led multiple healthcare investigations, the investigation into IRS political targeting and oversaw the political nominations process. Before joining the Finance Committee staff, Kim was a Senior Counsel at Alston & Bird in Washington, D.C. Her previous government service includes serving as the CMS Director of the Medicare Program Integrity Group and working at the HHS Office of Inspector General as a Senior Counsel and Director of External Affairs. Kim has a JD with a concentration in health law and an MA in legislative affairs. 

Mark Canter is the Chief Information Security Officer at GAO. In his capacity, he oversees the compliance, governance, and security operations. Previously he severed as Assistant Director in the Information Technology and Cybersecurity (ITC) team at the Government Accountability Office (GAO). His portfolio at GAO includes a diverse list of engagements on such topics of financial and information systems internal control auditing, cybersecurity, emerging technologies such as blockchains, AI, and safeguarding/privacy of information. In addition, he has authored several compliance tools and published several common vulnerabilities and exploits.

Soledad Antelada Toledano is a Security Advisor within the Google Cloud Office of the CISO,
Public Sector, where she provides expert advisory and advocacy to public sector customers on
critical security matters through leadership engagement, executive sponsorship, thought
leadership, and customer advocacy. Her extensive cybersecurity background includes serving
as Deputy CISO for the Harris for President campaign, where she provided national-level
security leadership.

Prior to joining Google, Soledad spent several years at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence
Berkeley National Lab, a prestigious scientific institution, where she made history as the first
woman in the Cybersecurity department in a Security Engineering role.

Notably, she served as Head of Security for the ACM/IEEE Supercomputing Conference,
overseeing the security and network architecture (SCinet) of the world's fastest network for
research purposes.

Soledad is the founder of GirlsCanHack, an organization dedicated to empowering women in
cybersecurity, and was recognized as one of the 20 Most Influential Latinos in Technology in
America in 2016. She enjoys discussing the evolution of cybersecurity and the future of AI within
security, and brings unique experience from working with the world's fastest networks and
large-scale event security, as well as a deep understanding of research and SecOps needs from
her time at Berkeley Lab.

Soledad is also a published author, with her book, Critical Infrastructure Security: Cybersecurity
lessons learned from real-world breaches, released in 2024.

Jordan Burris is a trailblazer in government innovation and digital trust, leveraging over 15 years of experience to transform public sector technology and pioneer cutting-edge solutions. As Head of Public Sector at Socure, he leads the company’s mission to modernize digital identity and fraud detection in government. He guides cross-functional teams across strategy, customer success, sales, legal, and compliance to transform how identity verification powers secure and seamless digital service delivery.

Previously, Jordan served as Chief of Staff in the White House Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer, where he was a key architect of initiatives that modernized federal IT infrastructure, strengthened cybersecurity, and advanced digital identity solutions. He helped manage the Federal Government’s multi-billion-dollar technology budget and led work on critical issues pertaining to cloud computing, zero-trust architecture, and artificial intelligence.

A certified CISSP and CRISC practitioner, Jordan serves on the boards of the Identity Theft Resource Center and the Kantara Initiative, contributing to the development of digital identity standards and efforts to reduce identity-related fraud. He is a proud graduate of Pennsylvania State University and a respected voice in the field of digital identity and public sector technology.

As the Vice President of Cybersecurity at Maximus, Mr. Kynan Carver supervises the design and implementation of cutting-edge solutions to address the rapidly evolving cybersecurity threat landscape. He and his team are engaged in the development of advanced tools that utilize artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation to proactively identify, analyze, and mitigate emerging cyber risks.

By integrating both defensive and offensive strategies, his practice anticipates new attack vectors—including AI-driven malware and threats to cloud and hybrid environments—and responds with customized solutions that enhance organizational resilience. This methodology emphasizes continuous monitoring, real-time threat intelligence, and adaptive security frameworks to ensure that clients maintain robust defenses against sophisticated adversaries. Furthermore, this proactive stance encompasses the creation of next-generation compliance tools, enabling clients to navigate evolving legal and industry standards with confidence. Mr. Carver’s practice not only addresses current cybersecurity challenges but also seeks to future-proof organizations against imminent threats through strategic investments in research and collaboration with federal agencies.

In his capacity, Mr. Carver blends extensive expertise in advanced cybersecurity engineering, security operations, and cyber intelligence to expand the practice for the Chief Technology Office while delivering exceptional consulting support to clients.

Prior to his tenure at Maximus, Mr. Carver held a significant leadership position at the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). In that role, he was responsible for the development of critical cybersecurity requirements for the Defense Enterprise Office Solution (DEOS) program, establishing its cyber posture, and guiding its high-level IL6 (SIPR) cloud accreditation. He also provided government oversight for the Security Operations Center (SOC) and information assurance across both cloud and on-premises infrastructures. Mr. Carver earned a Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity from the University of Maryland and possesses numerous industry certifications, including Project Management Professional (PMP), CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner (CASP+), Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), and Certified Network Defense Architect (CNDA).

Leslie Casson Stevens has been engaged in government financial management for over 30 years. As an auditor, she led the audits of large local government organizations and publicly traded corporations. She spent nearly a decade implementing financial management systems at several US Federal government agencies and consulting on organizational and financial management challenges. Leslie was responsible for enterprise-wide accounting and financial reporting operations and financial management systems while serving as the Comptroller of the Smithsonian Institution.

Leslie joined SAP in 1998, on the team that extended the SAP core financial management functionality to accommodate the requirements of US Federal government accounting and reporting. Today, she is SAP’s Industry Executive Advisor for the US Federal market.

An accomplished leader with more than 40 years of experience, Timothy W. Cooke, PhD, has excelled as chief executive officer and president of ASI Government, an organization that helps federal agencies overcome acquisition obstacles and work more efficiently, since 2017. Joining the company in 2013 as president of its consulting division, he ultimately acquired 85 percent ownership and revitalized ASI Government significantly over the last number of years; his leadership has brought about robust growth and a dynamic operational environment, including a talented team and a roster of esteemed clients.

Among the myriad duties within his leadership position, Dr. Cooke primarily engages with customers, particularly senior government officials overseeing investments and spending, and delegates internal management responsibilities to a colleague while focusing on external interactions. Intensely dedicated to his career, he leads with his classical, timeless values and mission to help “protect and preserve the aspirations of the American experiment in self-governance.”

Backed by a strong education, Dr. Cooke earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from George Mason University and then a master’s and Doctor of Philosophy from Johns Hopkins University. He subsequently launched his professional journey in academia, serving as an assistant professor of economics at Rice University from 1979 to 1984 before becoming a senior economist with the Center for Naval Analyses, developing his expertise in the business of government. Wielding this experience, he joined SRA International—a federal government contracting service—where he was active as principal and senior principal from 1992 to 1998 and ultimately vice president from 1998 to 2013.

In addition to his primary endeavors, Dr. Cooke has lent his expertise to numerous organizations. He has long served on the Acquisition Management Council within the Intelligence and National Security Alliance and on the Board of Advisors for the National Contract Management Association. From 2020 to 2024, he was active as vice chair of finance with the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council, from which he received a Collaboration Award in 2021. 

Looking ahead toward the next decade, Dr. Cooke has considered retirement, but believes his passion for making a meaningful impact will likely keep him engaged in work. He remains driven by the goal of leveraging the strengths of the private sector to enhance government operations and bridging the gap between the two.

Reflecting on his robust career, Dr. Cooke attributes his success to the valuable relationships he has cultivated with mentors; he would actively seek out individuals who could provide guidance, coaching, and support. To those aspiring to enter his industry, he emphasizes the importance of networking and its proven value in connecting with people. In addition, he believes no good things would have happened without his wife, Sherrie, whom he met at Johns Hopkins University and married in 1975.

Trey Hodgkins is the CEO and President of Hodgkins Consulting, LLC where he is focused on information technology hardware, software, services, and solutions providers in the public sector.  Hodgkins Consulting, LLC offers strategic planning, business development, policy guidance and advocacy on issues and topics relevant to the acquisition and procurement of innovative IT products and services.  Trey has over 38 years in the Federal, State and Local government arenas, with more than half of that time focused on the broad policy arena facing information technology contractors in the public sector.

Trey holds two bachelor’s degrees - in Political Science and History – from Louisiana State University and a master’s degree in Legislative Affairs from The George Washington University.

Trey currently serves as the Chair of the Cybersecurity Division at the National Defense Industrial Association and is a Director of the Procurement Round Table.  He has been a subject matter expert on procurement for the DHS Information and Communication Technology Supply Chain Risk Management Task Force (ICT SCRM TF).

Trey has been awarded the prestigious Fed 100 Award for his work on IT procurement reform.

Stephanie Kostro became President of the Professional Services Council (PSC) on June 11, 2025, where she will guide PSC’s strategic direction, advocacy, and member engagement efforts across growing federal industry priorities.

Previously, she served as Executive Vice President for Policy, leading PSC's policy team in its commitment to advocating for and supporting productive collaboration between the federal government and services industry. As a recognized executive, on-air commentator, and policy expert with more than 20 years of experience in the U.S. Government and industry, she brings a wealth of knowledge in federal procurement policy and acquisition regulations, government processes and programs, and public-private partnerships.

Prior to joining PSC in 2021, Kostro was a principal at a government relations and consulting firm where she developed and implemented policy, funding, and business development strategies for a global client base. She worked extensively with civilian, defense, diplomatic, and intelligence officials, as well as with federal departments’ oversight committees in Congress.

From 2010-2015, she was a senior fellow and director of the Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a prominent national security think tank. Kostro served as a State Department contractor at U.S. Embassy Baghdad for one year. From 2005-2008, she was a senior professional staff member and policy director on the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee. Between 1998-2005, she held various positions at the Pentagon within the Office of the Secretary of Defense, on the Joint Staff, and at embassies and missions overseas.

Kostro holds a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor’s degree in communication from Cornell University. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia with her husband, Rich, and their two daughters. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, gardening, and—when conditions allow—traveling.

Robert Shea is a recognized government management and policy expert who served in both Congress and the Executive Branch. He has more than 25 years experience working to improve the government’s performance.

Most recently, he was National Managing Principal at Grant Thornton, where he led the firm’s public policy activities and advised federal, state, and local government agencies on strategy, performance, and evidence-based policymaking.  

Robert is a Fellow & former Chairman of the National Academy of Public Administration. He was appointed to the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking, which made important recommendations for better integration of evidence into policymaking.   

Tom is the President and Founder of the Advanced Technology Academic Research Center (ATARC), an organization that provides a collaborative forum for government, academia and industry to resolve emerging technology challenges. ATARC also introduces innovative technology from academic research labs to the Federal government and private industry. In June of 2023 the industry association assets of ATARC were sold to the GovExec Media Group.

He also is the CEO and founder of Alethia Labs, a 501(c)(3) non- profit dedicated to accelerate the adoption of technology by helping the government collaborate within itself, and other constituencies such as Academia and Industry. 

Tom is a two-time recipient of the Federal 100 Awards, a prestigious honor that recognizes government and industry leaders who played pivotal roles in Federal IT.

Nick Wakeman is the editor-in-chief of Washington Technology and joined the publication in 1996 as a staff writer. He's a graduate of Bridgewater College and earned a masters degree from American University. When he isn't writing about government contractors, he's thinking of cooking large pieces of meat over fire and dreaming of ways to embarrass his two sons.