Speakers

Taka is the first Chief Data Scientist and the Director of Innovation Lab appointed by the Comptroller General of the United States for the Government Accountability Office to help GAO adapt to the consequences of web 3.0 technologies and beyond. The mission of the Innovation Lab is to better understand inner workings of machine learning techniques, cloud services, zero trust controls, blockchains, edge devices, and other integrated cyber-physical capabilities. Taka is leading the exploration and experimentation of emerging technologies as a necessary and critical foresight function.

Taka is a current member of the federal Senior Executive Services and has over 23 years of consistent track record on delivering technology innovations sustainably and at scale by combining data science with IT competencies. He is passionate about fostering a data centricity mindset as a catalyst to address complex policy, regulatory, risk, operational, and business intelligence challenges.

Taka is natively fluent in both Japanese and Mandarin Chinese. In his spare time, he is also a serious classical chamber musician and a competitive tennis player.

Mitch Herckis has spent two decades working with and for the public sector on technology and security policy. As Director of the Federal Cybersecurity Branch within the Office of Management and Budget, Mitch leads cybersecurity initiatives for the Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer, including governmentwide implementation of the President’s Executive Order on Cybersecurity.

Prior to joining federal service, he was a Senior Advisor for Operations at New York City Cyber Command, facilitating security implementations across 100+ city agencies on behalf of the City’s central cybersecurity authority, as well as leading public initiatives to increase the digital security of City residents.

He has advocated for sound technology policies at all levels of government, serving as the Director of Government Affairs for the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO), and Senior Legislative Counsel for Federal Relations at the National League of Cities. Mitch has also worked for leading cybersecurity and technology companies, working with governments on public policy and organizational development.

Nathan Manzotti works at the General Services Administration's (GSA) in Technology Transformation Services as the Director of the Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence Centers of Excellence (CoE) and a co-manager of the government-wide Artificial Intelligence Community of Practice (AI CoP). In the CoE roles, he collaborates with partner agencies to accelerate enterprise level IT modernization initiatives ranging from data architecture, strategy, and governance, to cloud migration, to technology acquisition, and emerging technology. As a co-manager of the AI CoP, he works to provide a space to educate the federal workforce on artificial intelligence, share AI use cases and best practices from agencies across the federal government, and foster communication between federal AI practitioners to support the responsible adoption and use of AI in the federal government. 

With 15 years of experience in the public sector, Manzotti has established a reputation for his ability to break down organizational silos, utilize digital solutions to reduce manual workloads, and foster better data-driven decision-making processes. Before joining the GSA’s Technology Transition Service, Manzotti was part of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (USCBP). Here, he contributed significantly to the modernization of legacy reporting systems and supervised the development of features in systems used by the Office of Field Operations for official statistical reporting. Before joining CBP, Manzotti spent many years working with the U.S. Military Health System as an electronic health record subject matter expert working in various technical and managerial roles.

Nick Pallotta serves as the Head of Project Management for USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) where he is maturing the agency's project management capabilities and its end-to-end digital modernization.  Nick founded and leads both the NASS Machine Learning Group and the USDA’s Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence. 

Nick was recently recognized with the 2023 Data Innovator of the Year Datum Award by the Data Foundation for his innovative usage of AI to meet an Evidence Act requirement to discover and display public usages of agency datasets on our website.  Nick developed the initial draft of the agency’s 2020-2025 strategic plan and used the American Customer Satisfaction Index survey to benchmark the contents of plan with customer satisfaction. 

Ken is a security and finance industry veteran, formerly serving as VP and Managing Director of Data Protection and Governance at OneMain Financial. Prior to OneMain, he served as Chief Security Officer for TechDemocracy LLC, MFS Investments, and before served as CISO for Pioneer Global Asset Management SpA (Including Pioneer Investments and all operating subsidiaries in 26 countries).

Ken’s Information Technology and Security experience spans over three decades, with strategic, technical, and executive experience at companies such as Microsoft, Dell, Capital IQ, Miradiant Global Network, Avaya, and Merrill Lynch. Ken coauthored Microsoft's “Best Practices for Enterprise Security” white papers and participated on the Information Systems Security Association's International Privacy Advisory Board covering the initial implementation of GLBA. He reported on security risks and performed vulnerability analysis for Windows IT Pro Magazine’s “Security Administrator” publication for four years, and has been a contributing expert for Information Security, CIO and CSO Magazines, and is a Distinguished Fellow of the Ponemon Institute.

Stephen Sanford leads strategic planning and foresight programs for the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and was the Director of the GAO Center for Strategic Foresight. He became Managing Director for SPEL in June of 2021. 

As a leader in public sector foresight and design thinking, he directed the team that developed GAO’s 2018-2023 Strategic Plan and accompanying trends, and in 2018 he served as assistant director leading the team that produced GAO’s first technology assessment on artificial intelligence. He frequently speaks to public sector, international, and private sector organizations about emerging issues and the use of foresight and strategic planning to improve organizational performance, including presentations on artificial intelligence, enterprise planning, and leadership to U.S. and global audiences. As founder and host of GAO’s Foresight Speaker Series, he has led discussions with CRISPR coinventor and Nobel-prize winner Jennifer Doudna about genome editing, with Peter Singer about the future of warfare, and with Jeff Goodell about the impact of sea level change on coastal communities, among others. 

Stephen joined GAO in 2009. In SPEL he has led efforts to develop three agency strategic plans, supported GAO's international work, and helped establish the Center for Strategic Foresight. In recognition of his work, he has received a GAO Distinguished Service Award, a GAO Meritorious Service Award, and the SPEL Managing Director's Award. Prior to GAO, he advised executives at Fortune 50 and FTSE 100 multinational companies in Brussels, Paris, and London and was responsible for S&T policy issues at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. He holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA with distinction from INSEAD in France.

Nicole Thompson is a Digital Services Expert for the Defense Digital Service. She works extensively on DDS’s Hack the Pentagon program and serves as a senior cybersecurity engineer on DDS’s many other projects. Prior to DDS, she worked at NAVAIR for 12 years, testing and securing air platforms, avionics, and the networks on which they rely. Nicole holds a Master’s degree in Cybersecurity and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science.

Cheryl Truman is the Director of Customer Success at Virginia IT Agency (VITA). VITA is the executive branch agency with the mission to provide infrastructure services to Commonwealth of Virginia executive branch agencies and provide governance of Commonwealth of Virginia projects. 

She leads a team in the Customer Experience organization focused on organization change management and customer success enabling positive interactions and perceptions at every touchpoint with VITA and building strong relationships between VITA and its customers. In September, Cheryl received the Customer Experience team award at COVITS2023 (Commonwealth of Virginia Innovative Technology Symposium) for the Google to Microsoft platform migration. 

She has twenty-five years of IT experience from IBM and has been working with the Commonwealth for nine years. 

Preston Werntz serves as the Chief Data Officer for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). In this role he guides CISA-wide datamanagement and governance efforts. Preston ensures data is treated as ashared asset, is ready for consumption closer to demand, and decisions in support of CISA’s mission to protect the Nation’s critical infrastructure from physical and cyber threats are data-informed.

Preston joined the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2009 as a Senior Cybersecurity Strategist for Analysis and Operations. Most recently, heled the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center’s (NCCIC) Technology Services Section where he managed the NCCIC’s technology roadmap and developed new datasets, tools, and systems. He was also the lead for the Automated Indicator Sharing (AIS) initiative enabling near-real-time machine-to-machine sharing of cyber threat indicators between the private sector and Federal government.

Prior to joining the Federal civil service, Preston co-founded Newbrook Solutions to deliver software engineering and project management services to DHS, the Department of Defense, and the Intelligence Community.

Preston is a graduate of Rutgers University and lives in Ashburn, VA with his wife and children.

Bill Kurtz serves as the Vice President for Public Sector Sales at Informatica, LLC.

In this role, he leads the company’s growth strategy for the federal government, state and local government, and higher education. He brings more than 20 years of Public Sector experience to the team

Kurtz joins Informatica from Tenable, where he most recently served as the Vice President of Public Sector at Tenable.

He is a 20-year industry veteran with expertise in government information security solutions sales and a business acumen for developing sales and account strategies, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Prior to working for Tenable, he was the vice president for the public sector at RSA Security, where he led the development of a state, local and education go-to-market strategy for the company’s entire product portfolio. During his four-year term as RSA’s vice president for federal sales, the executive was responsible for the federal go-to-market and sales strategies for all RSA solutions.

Kurtz was also a long-time McAfee executive, having served the company for over 13 years. He served as director for civilian sales and federal account manager. His roles required him to lead a team of field account managers to drive increased revenue and profitability across civilian agencies.

In addition, he was a federal account manager for Computer Associates and a district manager for Wallace Computer Services.

Kurtz graduated from James Madison University in 1988.

In this role he leads strategic activities supporting the U.S. public sector - across federal, state, local government, higher education, and national defense - and focuses on assisting organizations to successfully build a data-driven culture with leading edge technology capabilities.

His industry experience includes public sector work at Dell-RSA and Dell-EMC. Mike also served on active duty in the U.S. Army for 25 years, retiring as a Colonel.

Mike holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Florida and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication from The American University.