Speakers

Mr. Howe, a member of the Senior Executive Service, is the Chief Information Officer and Deputy Director, Plans and Integration, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington D.C.  Mr. Howe provides policy, guidance and oversight for the development of plans and the design of future systems to ensure availability of personnel services for the Air Force and Space Force war fighters. He is responsible for developing strategies and policies related to the Talent Management (TM) domain IT infrastructure, including data centers, and common IT enterprise services available to all TM systems. His efforts directly affect over 100 IT systems providing capabilities to over 1M users, inside and outside the AF.

Prior to this assignment, he served as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Chief Cloud Architect, HQ Air Force A1X, Plans and Integration. In this role, he led implementation of technical and cloud solutions that delivered modern capabilities to Airmen and Guardians.

His prior assignment was a strategic analyst, and acting CTO in the Headquarters Air Combat Command Communications and Information Directorate, ACC/A6T. As a technical expert, he provided strategic analysis encompassing all aspects of IT and Command and Control, including strategic oversight of all A6 requirements and initiatives.

Mr. Howe has held various MAJCOM headquarters, center, commercial, and active-duty assignments across a variety of functional areas including asset management, knowledge operations, IT acquisitions, storage networking, electronics maintenance, radar operations, and medical support. In these capacities, he has developed systems architectures in support of multimillion-dollar acquisitions as a Level 3 DAU-certified specialist, managed billion-dollar storage production facilities, developed numerous IT and CIO policies, and stood up a new IT facility, partnered with AF Research Laboratory.

EDUCATION Bachelor of Science in Computer Technology. Purdue University. Master of Business Administration. University of Phoenix.Advanced Communications Officer Training (ACOT) (residence)
Air Command and Staff College (ACSC) (distance education)
Executive Leadership Development Program (ELDP)
Civilian Strategic Leadership Program (CSLP)
 

AWARDS AND HONORS
Meritorious Civilian Service Award
AF Civilian Achievement Award
Sustained Superior Civilian Performance Awards

Joseph Fourcade is a Lead Cybersecurity Analyst with the Enterprise Cloud Solutions Office, Department of Veterans Affairs. He received his Associates from United States Air Force, B.S from Nova Southeastern and his Masters from University of Phoenix. He has worked over 30 years of federal service with over 20 years working for VA and after being honorably discharged from the United States Air Force in 2001 after 10 years of service. Work History during his career listed the Miami VA Medical Center for 8 years In Office of Information Technology and the West Palm Beach VA Medical Center as an ISSO Information Security office. The time as an Information System Security Officer received awards for outstanding customer and college support multiple times for providing understanding of providing security is not a stopper but a path to work together attitude. The support of the enterprise through ECSO security consist of always working with clients to ensure the understanding of cloud adoption and what security cloud provides to the enterprise for applications through fedramp support. In his current position has been recognized for his knowledge and support with all efforts for Security of the cloud for VA.

Michelle Rudnicki serves as the president of NetApp US Public Sector, Inc. In this key leadership role, Michelle is responsible for leading NetApp’s U.S. Public Sector team to achieve strategic, financial, operational, and business objectives as they relate to NetApp's Public Sector customers and channels. She is instrumental in defining and navigating the Public Sector go-to-market strategy and structure and engaging the broader NetApp team with this critical market segment.

Previously, Michelle was the general manager for the sales and delivery of Virtustream’s Public Sector business. In this capacity, she was responsible for setting the strategy and priorities for Virtustream Public Sector, and for working with service delivery and product management to ensure customer success and that cloud services met the security and compliance needs of Public Sector organizations. Michelle led an experienced team to apply proven, repeatable processes to help Public Sector organizations navigate the complexities of a digital transformation.  

Prior to that, Michelle was vice president of Industry Solutions Sales, IBM North America Public Sector. In this role, she and her team worked with Public Sector clients to transform the way that they interacted with their clients, citizens, and patients through the progression of their digital services with the use of technology such as analytics, cognitive computing, mobile, and cloud. Her other roles included: VP for Cloud Computing for IBM Federal and IBM North America where she assisted clients during the early adoption of cloud; VP of IBM Federal Smarter Planet Initiatives where she worked across IBM’s U.S. Federal organization to create solutions in the areas of cloud, analytics, security, Smarter Cities and sustainability; and VP of Systems Technology Sales for IBM Federal where she implemented technology that underpinned applications across Federal Civilian, DoD and Intelligence programs. 

Michelle serves on the board of YSA and co-chaired the Parents Committee for the Division of Student Affairs for Virginia Tech. 

She holds a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Rochester.

Davis Johnson joined immixGroup as vice president and general manager in April 2021. He brings with him more than twenty-five years of experience in sales and operations leadership in both the commercial and public sectors. In his current role, he is responsible for immixGroup’s public sector strategy and execution.

Johnson has a proven track record of leading high-performance teams and exceeding growth objectives throughout his career. He has held several executive positions heading up public sector business units, most recently with Cohesity and Riverbed Technology. At Riverbed, Johnson managed federal sales, channel, engineering, and inside sales teams while also launching the SLED business. He also spent more than 10 years at NetApp as a federal sales leader and head of strategy and execution for the public sector cloud team.

His experience also includes leading the federal subsidiary at several companies to conduct business operations in defense and intelligence sectors. Over the years, Johnson has developed extensive relationships within the industry and with all branches of government. He has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. 

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 firstannual 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 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.