Speakers

Brandon Lally is one of the co-founders and executives at CyberKinetics LLC based in Herndon, VA. He has over a decade of experience providing infrastructure, operations, and security expertise to the intelligence community, where he has specialized in identifying, analyzing and mitigating vulnerabilities and providing cloud, on-premise, and hybrid-based, complex systems and solutions.

Prior to CyberKinetics in his mid-twenties, Brandon founded and led ShadowBit Security as president/CEO which specialized in providing critical certification and accreditation services, cyber security operations, incident response, and engineering for the Intelligence Community.

Although Brandon has had much success in recent years he had experienced many hardships along his journey. With less than a month before high school graduation, Brandon lost his father to alcoholism and suicide; ultimately losing the home he grew up in to foreclosure and leaving his windowed mother and kid sister to find a new place to live. During these desperate times, moving the family from house to townhouse, to basement to basement, and from room to room, Brandon took part-time and odd jobs in his to help provide his family with money and food to get by.

Despite these many challenges and continued support for his family, Brandon enrolled in Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA where he got married to his lovely wife and graduated with dual Bachelor of Science degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering with concentrations in radio frequency (RF), micro electronics, networking and cyber security. In addition to his technical degrees he went on to pursue various industry certifications such as Cisco Certified Network Associate, CompTIA Security +, Certified Information Security System Professional, Certified Ethical Hacker, and Amazon Web Services Solutions Architect.

He currently lives in Herndon, VA with his wife, a toddler, infant non-identical twins, and a family of four Siberian huskies all of which keep him entertained, busy, and happy. Outside of his work schedule he enjoys spending time with his family, friends, neighbors, business partners, and employees playing sports, hosting and attending happy hours and dinners, watching movies, binge watching Netflix, and playing games online or in person.

Christopher (Chris) Isaacs is a Technical Expert and Thought Leader in cloud, with a focus on security and optimization for the Public Sector. Chris has 22 years of experience working with the Department of Defense (DoD) and Intelligence Community (IC), including more than 20 years working with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Chris has been foundational and instrumental in developing and implementing DIA’s cloud strategy—partnering with multiple Chief Information Officer (CIO) directorate stakeholders to enable effective and efficient use of cloud infrastructure and services. Chris champions the use of cloud services including provider-native services in concert with DevSecOps tools and practices.  In support of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence projects, Chris promotes the use of cloud services and software integrations to prepare and catalog vast amounts of data for analysis. 

Chris is the Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Plus3 IT Systems, LLC (Plus3). In this role, Chris provides technology and thought leadership for the firm’s mission-focused secure cloud solutions. He promotes innovative thinking, fosters new technology partnerships, and codifies advanced methodologies for automated processes. He also serves as the Senior Technical Architect and Technical Advisor for DIA’s cloud broker initiative, leading the application migration and cloud adoption strategy and implementation for the DIA Defense Intelligence Enterprise. 

Prior to founding Plus3 IT, Chris served as Technical Director at ManTech International Corporation (ManTech) and Technical Director, Chief Technology Officer at Worldwide Information Network Systems, Inc. (WINS), acquired by ManTech in 2011. During his tenure he served as Senior Technical Architect and Technical Advisor for DIA’s cloud broker initiative and IC Desktop Environment on DIA’s predecessor contract. 

Throughout his career, Chris has been an advocate for automation and reuse through services and templates designed to create efficiencies for his customers. Chris is frequently called upon to provide his expertise for Government and Industry technical exchanges and meetings. He holds a Masters in Engineering and Technology Management from George Washington University and a Bachelors in Business Administration from Longwood University.

Luke Marya joined the SHR Executive Management Team as Chief Technology Officer in April, 2019. He leads SHR's research and development efforts, engaging with industry partners to help shape our future technological direction. Luke joined SHR shortly after its inception and has risen through our ranks with hard work, dedication to our customers, and an unwavering commitment to our ethos.

Luke previously served as a Lead Engineer and Technical Service Delivery Manager where he led numerous integration efforts involving cloud, wireless, enterprise management, virtualization, and infrastructure management technologies. Luke has 15 years of IT services experience supporting federal, state, and local customers, including the DoD, DHS, HHS, the Commonwealth of Virginia and District of Columbia offices. Luke graduated from Virginia Tech University with a Master’s in Information Technology.

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

He 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 4th 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.