Speakers

Denis Goulet was appointed Commissioner of the Department of Information Technology for
the state of New Hampshire in February 2015 by Governor Hassan. He was the re-appointed in
2019 for another four year term by Governor Sununu. Goulet has also served as A Director, Vice
President, and President of the National Association of State CIO’s (NASCIO). Goulet currently
serves as Past President of NASCIO.
Most recently the Director of Development for the software development firm Allscripts
Healthcare Solutions, Goulet has nearly 30 years of private-sector IT experience in industries
such as healthcare, high technology and manufacturing. Goulet was previously the Vice
President of Information Technology from 2004 to 2010 at Progress Software Corporation, were
he also previously worked as the Director of Information Systems, The Director of E-Business
and the Director of IT Operations.
Goulet was also previously the Manager of IT Operations from 1993-1994 at Freudenberg-NOK
in Bristol, New Hampshire, and he graduated from the Garner CIO Academy in 2005. Goulet
received a B.A. in business and economics from St. Anselm College.

John MacMillan was appointed as deputy secretary for information technology and chief information officer for the commonwealth in March 2015.

John brings more than three decades of IT industry expertise to the CIO’s office. During his career, John has developed experience in areas including application development, system integration, data center operations and facility management, as well as knowledge of statewide programs including public health, education, transportation, rehabilitation/corrections, youth services, tax collection and enterprise ERP.

John graduated in Computer Technology / Computing Science from Algonquin College. He has held a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification since 1998, earned his Stanford Certified Project Manager (SCPM) from the Stanford Center for Professional Development in 2009 and is ITIL Foundations certified.

Rajiv Rao is an IT executive veteran with 23+ years of experience. He was named Chief Technology Officer for the NYS Office of Information Technology Services in December 2015 and serves as the Deputy Chief Information Officer for Technology. In his role, Rajiv is dedicated to leading New York State’s innovative technology solutions and roadmap. He is responsible for the building and operation of all core infrastructure services, engineering, architecture, and advancing standards, as well as exploring long-term technology objectives that deliver enormous value to NYS such as containerization, data analytics, machine learning, rapid application development, robotic process automation, and artificial intelligence.

Rajiv was the chief architect for the design and build of New York State’s consolidated data center, located in the largest zero energy, multi-use facility in the world. The consolidated data center provides high levels of resiliency and security.

Rajiv is the driving force behind many of New York State’s critical IT initiatives as he continues to lead the State’s Technology SWAT Team, the first-in-the-nation service partnership with leading technology companies to support New York State’s response to the Novel Coronavirus outbreak. Some fundamental achievements include development of the Excelsior Pass, the nation’s first government-approved digital vaccination and testing record, creation of the COVID-19 Self-Screening Application, designed to automate daily office entry procedures for State agencies, successfully leveraging data analytics in the development of various COVID-19 Dashboards designed to track testing and infection data, healthcare provider and facility data, and vaccination data across the state, and implementation of Robotic Process Automation for disbursement of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Unemployment Insurance funds, successfully distributing 30 years of benefits within one year and preventing immediate payments to 2.3 million potential fraudulent claims.

Rajiv was honored with the 2022 National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) Technology Champion Award, which recognizes one individual annually for outstanding leadership and contributions in the field of IT in the public sector and promoting excellence in government. He was also named one of Government Technology's 2022 Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers. In 2021, Rajiv was presented with the Service to the Citizen's State and Local Government Award, and appeared on City and State’s Power List - The Telecommunications Power 50. In 2020, he also appeared on City and State's GovTech 50 Power List. Rajiv was named Government Technology Magazine’s New York State IT Leader of the Year for his exceptional leadership and contributions to public service in New York State in 2019, and was also nominated for State Scoop’s 2019 State Leadership of the year Award. In 2018, he was the recipient of the National Association of the State Chief Information Officers State Technology Innovator Award, established to recognize outstanding individuals who have made contributions that advance state technology policy agenda while promoting best practices, adopting new technologies, and advancing service delivery, and was nominated for the State Academy for Public Administration’s 2018 Public Service Excellence Award. Rajiv has also received the Championship Award for Data Center Engineering in 2015, State Scoop’s 2014 Most Inspiring Newcomer Award, Center for Digital Government’s Best of NY Outstanding IT Service and Support Award in 2013 and Best of NY Green IT Award in 2012.

Mr. Montgomery is a technology and security strategist covering State, Local Government, and Education at VMware.   Chris brings over 25 years of public and private sector experience leading transformative change through technology to his role.  He collaborates with public sector organizations to execute their vision by developing strategies and roadmaps for their digital transformation journey.  Chris is a well-respected adviser, having held CIO, CTO and CISO positions within City and State government.  Chris is a recognized cybersecurity expert, with a unique perspective that emphasizes leveraging security strategy to improve user experience and enable innovation.  He is known in the industry as a thought leader for organizational change management associated with technology modernization, security, and digital government.  

As CTO for NJ TRANSIT, the nation’s largest statewide public transportation system, Chris developed the cloud migration strategy using multi-cloud architecture to support SaaS, On Prem, and Cloud Native applications while modernizing software development to improve passenger experience

Chris presently holds CISSP, CRISC, and CISM certifications in information security and risk management. As NJ TRANSIT’s Chief Information Security Officer, Chris established the corporation’s first centralized information security and risk management program, attaining PCI, HIPAA, CJIS, and Critical Infrastructure security compliance. Chris is an active member of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (“NASCIO”) Cyber Security Committee and a strategic advisor to the Coalition of City Chief Information Security Officers.  

From 2012-2019, Chris served on Board of Directors for Intelligent Transportation Society for New Jersey (“ITS-NJ”) and was responsible for facilitating the deployment of technology, promoting integration and efficiency across transportation systems in areas such as smart cities, autonomous vehicles, and traffic signal priority.  

While serving as a CIO and Associate Commissioner in NYC Government, Chris led multiple digital transformation projects modernizing legacy technology.  Chris was accountable to deliver citywide initiatives establishing digital government programs, improving the way that citizens and business interact with local government.  

Chris is an Air Force Veteran who honorably served in Operations Desert Storm and Southern Watch.  Upon returning to civilian life, Chris held various engineering and marketing rolls at technology startups.  He is married to his wife Sharma and has two sons, Brian and Brendan. 

Herb is a State, Local and Education Strategist.  Having history in various government CIO roles he is responsible for assisting customers achieve their strategic outcomes through understanding their business issues and how policy, process and technology can impact business outcomes.  He has been sharing best practices learned from around the country on optimization, workforce modernization and leveraging the cloud.  He also is providing insight in practical implementations of shared services, engaging employees, smart communities, and executing a cloud strategy at many government conferences. 

Prior to joining in 2018, VMware Herb served as the State of Wisconsin Deputy State CIO and CTO, CIO for Health and Family Services and CIO for Corrections.

Jon Fyffe has served the State, Local and Education Government IT industry for 30 years. Currently he is the Director of Business Development for VMware for State, Local & Education East. Jon also serves as 2022 Chair of the NASCIO Corporate Leadership Council, and is busy launching a NASCIO/VMware co-sponsored national survey and report on Application Modernization in the States.  Previously Jon was Director State Local & Education for Skyhigh Networks- a cloud access security broker (CASB) now part of McAfee.  Jon worked with e.Republic as the Founding Publisher of Public CIO magazine and Associate Publisher of Government Technology magazine (GT).  For twenty years Jon held several executive positions with e.Republic, including Vice President Strategic Accounts and Co-Founder of Digital Communities — a program for local government leaders and the IT Industry, still ongoing.  Jon resides in Florida with his wife Pam and enjoys working, skiing, golf and travel.

George Jackson is director of events at GovExec – the largest and most-influential media company in the public sector marketplace. He joined the company in 2020 to enhance the scale of their events and audience experiences.

In 2021, George launched GovExec TV (streaming video content) and received the company’s Entrepreneurial Spirit Award, part of their first-
annual Icon Awards. George graduated from The Ohio State University in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in English.

In 2006, he earned his master’s in broadcast journalism from the University of Maryland,
College Park.

George spent the first five years of his journalism career at WJHL-TV in Johnson City Tenn. –
beginning as an overnight producer for the station’s 6 a.m. broadcast. He advanced to lead on-air
reporter for WJHL’s 11 p.m. newscast. As a reporter, George examined the earnings of two non-profit hospital systems, felony charges
filed against a local sheriff, predatory paving companies, a health benefits backlog for local
veterans, and a series of cold-case murder investigations. He received an honorable mention for
Best TV Reporter in the 2011 Tennessee AP Broadcast awards and won a Best Investigative
Reporting award from Media General in 2010.

George joined DC’s ABC affiliate WJLA-TV in 2012 to produce Capital Insider, which won
him an Emmy award. One year later, he developed and recorded the pilot episode of Government
Matters – a program about the business of government. It debuted as a weekly show on Sunday,
August 4 th of 2013. George led Government Matters through September of 2020, expanded its
reach to a daily worldwide audience, and produced its first feature-length documentary The
Dawn of Generation AI.

George is from Toledo, Ohio. He lives with his wife, twin daughters, and a pair of rescue dogs in Northern Virginia.