Presenters at the 11^th Annual CIO Forum

Featured Speakers

Andy Baer
Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer
Comcast Cable Communications, LLC

Andrew Baer serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Comcast Cable Communications, LLC. In this role, he is responsible for developing Comcast’s internal Information Technology (IT) strategy that aligns technology to meet overall business needs and objectives, including development and oversight of the company’s customer care, billing and ordering systems; network and service assurance management tools; financial and human resource tools; and other corporate systems.

Prior to joining Comcast in 2006, Andrew most recently served as Vice President of Business Platform Services for AOL in Dulles, VA, where he managed several of the information technology initiatives required to transition a subscriber-based ISP to a premium services and advertising-driven web portal company. A 20-year veteran of the IT sector, he also served as Chief Information Officer for Verestar and Vice President of Customer Care Systems for Verizon.

Andrew holds an MBA from Cornell University as well as a BS in Finance and Economics from the University of Maryland.

Spain “Woody” Hall
Vice President of IT and Chief Information Officer
General Dynamics Information Technology

Woody Hall is vice president of information technology (IT) Strategy and chief information officer (CIO) for General Dynamics Information Technology. In this role, Woody is responsible for the company’s overall strategic planning as it relates to information systems and technology. Woody also provides valuable insight and support to key General Dynamics Information Technology operational and business development initiatives.

Previously, Woody served as senior vice president for Homeland Security Programs at SAIC. As the strategic account manager for the Department of Homeland Security, he directed company-wide initiatives enabling homeland security customers to meet diverse national security missions.

Prior to entering the defense industry, Hall served as assistant commissioner and CIO for the U.S. Customs Service, which merged into the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in March 2003. During his five-year tenure, he led a major reorganization to improve technical support to the diverse Customs mission and significantly improved the agency’s IT investment management structure and performance efficiency. Hall also served as deputy assistant secretary and CIO for the Department of Energy. In this role, Hall managed a staff of federal and contractor information systems professionals and provided policy, guidance and oversight for Department-wide IT expenditures. Hall began his career with the U.S. Air Force, where he fulfilled numerous executive assignments in communications and computer systems.

Hall was the recipient of Federal Computer Week’s Federal 100 award in 2002. He was awarded Presidential Rank of Meritorious Executive Award from the U.S. Department of Treasury in 2000 and the Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive Award from the Department of Energy in 1997. The U.S. Department of the Air Force bestowed the Meritorious Civilian Service Award upon Hall in 1991.

Hall holds a BS in Industrial Management from Purdue University and a MS in Management Science from the University of Dayton. In addition, Hall has completed the Program for Senior Officials in National Security at Harvard University and the Executive Excellence Program at the Federal Executive Institute. 

Sujal Patel
President and Chief Executive Officer
Isilon Systems

Sujal Patel is the founder of Isilon and is recognized for pioneering scale-out storage as an innovative technical architecture and creating this new sector of the enterprise storage market. Sujal has served as president and chief executive officer since Oct. 2007. He served as Isilon's chief technology officer from 2001 to March 2008 and as president and chief executive officer from the founding of Isilon in 2001 until Aug. 2003. From 1996 to 2001, Sujal served in various engineering roles at RealNetworks, Inc., in part as chief architect behind the company's second-generation core media delivery system. Sujal holds a number of patents and pending patents, including those for the Isilon OneFS™ distributed file system. Sujal holds a BS in computer science from the University of Maryland at College Park. 

Panelists

Peter Asbill
Chief Operating Officer
Songza Media

Peter Asbill was a co-founder and the chief content officer of AmieStreet.com, the MP3 download store that pioneered a dynamic, community-driven pricing model. Because of Amie Street's social approach to content pricing and discovery, its founding team was recognized on BusinessWeek's "Top 25 Entrepreneurs Under 25" list and Billboard's "Top 30 Music Executives Under 30" list. In Aug. 2010, Amazon.com purchased AmieStreet.com's IP, after leading Amie Street's Series A in 2007, and the Amie Street team turned their attention to a new online radio service, Songza.com. Peter is currently the chief operating officer of Songza, a free music website that allows you create and listen to custom radio stations with your friends. 

Michael A. Brown
Chief Scientist
comScore, Inc.

Michael Brown was a founding member of comScore, Inc. in 1999. He leads the software engineering efforts of the company to measure Internet activities. In this position, he helped the company build the world’s largest Decision Support Systems on the Windows platform. This system currently has over one year of data online and captures over 120 billion rows of new data every week to measure the Internet in over 40 countries. He also has been responsible for over fifteen patent applications at comScore. Three of these patents have already been issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Prior to joining comScore in 1999, Mike worked on several different projects for companies in the Washington, D.C. area. One of these projects included working on a large help desk deployment and modernization effort for Deutsche Bahn in Frankfurt, Germany.

In 1993, Mike cofounded Pragmatic Image Technologies with several associates from IBM. This consulting group focused on the implementation of IBM’s ImagePlus technologies at several different firms. One of the core projects completed was the successful role out of IBM’s ImagePlus product at Pennsylvania Blue Shield to over 1,200 users resulting in the largest image workflow installation on the east coast at that time.

Mike began his career at IBM in 1989 at the age of 19 in the image processing team in Gaithersburg, MD. He finished his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science at night at the University of Maryland University College in 1992 and earned his Master’s degree from Hood College in Computer and Information Science in 1997. 

Michael Byrne
Geographic Information Officer
Federal Communications Commission

Byrne is the geographic information officer (GIO) for the Federal Communications Commission. He is the former GIO for the State of California and an expert in the design, development, implementation, and use of geographic information systems (GIS) for research and policy. He has served as chair of the California GIS Council, a member of the National Geospatial Advisory Committee, and sits on the board of directors for both GreenInfo Networks and the National States GIS Council.

Byrne holds a masters degree in geography from the University of California at Davis and is a certified GIS professional. 

Martin P. Colburn
Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer
FINRA

Martin Colburn is the executive vice president and chief technology officer for FINRA. As such, Mr. Colburn provides strategic and operational oversight for all of FINRA's technology. He manages the technology staff and oversees all technology-related, third-party service contracts. Mr. Colburn began his tenure with the organization in Aug. 2001 as part of NASD, which consolidated with NYSE Member Regulation in 2007 to form FINRA.

Before joining NASD, Mr. Colburn was the chief operating officer and the chairman of the Australia Asia Joint Venture from 2000 to 2001 for Metiom, Inc. From 1996 to 2000, he worked for Fannie Mae as the senior vice president of the Technology Management Center. From 1993 to 1996, Mr. Colburn was the vice president for Customer Service, Technology. He began his stint with Fannie Mae in 1988 as a director of UNIX Technical Services. From 1985 to 1988, Mr. Colburn was the vice president for Advanced Technology Planning for Sovran Bank. He began his technology career with the Marriott Corporation in 1980.

Mr. Colburn earned a BS in Finance from the University of Maryland, College Park. Additionally, he has a degree in Electrical Engineering from Montgomery College and also holds an Advanced Business Management certificate from the Harvard Business School. Mr. Colburn was a Corporal, Special Services, with the United States Marine Corps for three years prior to his technology career. He serves on the boards of the Universities at Shady Grove and Montgomery College Foundation. 

Larry Fitzpatrick
President
Computech

Larry Fitzpatrick, Computech's President, leads a thirty-one-year-old IT application development firm with particular expertise in online auctions, data driven dashboards, and legacy system replacement. His record of successful software delivery and transformational software management has spanned academia and government, commercial software product development, and corporate IT for over 25 years.

Prior to joining Computech this year, he served as Senior Vice President of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). While at FINRA, during a time of substantial change in the financial sector, he created the architecture group, built an application development team of over 500 individuals, and led the delivery of numerous key systems.

Prior to joining FINRA in 2002, Mr. Fitzpatrick consulted to a number of technology firms. Until 1999, he led delivery of commercial software products as Technology Vice President at Open Text Software (OTEX), and as Chief Technology Officer at Personal Library Software. He has specialized in high performance computing and database systems and delivered industry-leading commercial software that has been widely used. He has taught several university courses in database and programming. Mr. Fitzpatrick has a Masters in Biomedical Engineering (Informatics) from The University of Virginia, and Bachelor of Science in Biology and minor in Computer Science from Georgetown University.

Brian Goler
Vice President of Marketing
oDesk

Brian's 15 years of management experience spans several online community and publishing businesses. He co-founded and led multiple online communities, including Zeal Media, a community-built web directory, where he was CEO. Zeal Media was later bought by LookSmart, where Brian held numerous senior positions, including Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Brian was also an early team member at CitySearch.com and a consultant with McKinsey & Company.

Brian graduated from Harvard College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry, magna cum laude. He also holds a Master of Science degree in Economics from the London School of Economics. 

Kenneth M. Ritchhart
CIO, Customs and Border Protection
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Ken Ritchhart is the CIO, Customs and Border Protection, for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Ritchhart’s IT experience has included serving as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) chief of data and information management, chief of data engineering and integration, chief of it systems development, and deputy assistant director for it systems development. His responsibilities encompassed overseeing the creation of a comprehensive enterprise capability to securely store, retrieve, and share agency-wide information. Ritchhart holds a B.S. from the U.S. Air Force Academy and a master’s in computer science from the University of Oklahoma. 

Donna Roy
Acting Executive Director, Information Sharing
Executive Director, National Information Exchange Model
Applied Technology, Office of the CIO, Department of Homeland Security

Ms. Roy serves as the CIO’s executive for information sharing for the Department of Homeland Security. She is actively is engaged in helping DHS lay the foundation and building blocks for an information sharing environment and drives policy development for the CIO. She served as the director of the Enterprise Architecture program where she was engaged in ensuring the optimization of the $6.4 billion IT spend for the department. Ms. Roy joined the DHS Office of the CIO in Dec. 2006 as the director of the Enterprise Data Management Office (EDMO). As the EDMO Director, she was responsible for the development of a DHS strategy for the management for all data collected, created, used, managed, maintained, shared, and stored by DHS, and sponsors the implementation of initiatives set forth in the strategy. As a collateral duty, she serves as the executive director for the National Information Exchange Model, a Department of Justice, DHS and Global Justice information sharing initiative.

Ms. Roy served as the vice president of Product Development for a Fortune 200 company as well as serving as the vice president for a major data operations division. She has over 27 years of IT experience, culminating her data-oriented, enterprise-wide view for the implementation of standards to increase operational efficiency.  

Arjun Sethi
Chief Executive Officer
Lolapps

As CEO, Arjun is responsible for setting the overall strategic vision for Lolapps and guiding the development of fresh, high quality social products.

Prior to Lolapps, Arjun was the CEO and founder of ROFLplay, a social gaming startup which was acquired by Lolapps in July 2009. Arjun initially served as the Head of Business and Corporate Development for Lolapps and was named CEO in March 2010. Previously, Arjun has held various management roles with the Carlyle Group and Saset Healthcare. In 1999, he also co-founded Advanced Tuning Products, a manufacturing company within the automotive industry.

Arjun currently serves on the Board of Advisors for isocket and is an active angel investor. Arjun holds a BA in History and a BS in Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Russ Travers
Deputy Director for Information Sharing & Knowledge Development
National Counterterrorism Center

Travers serves as the National Counterterrorism Center’s (NCTC) deputy director for information sharing and knowledge development. He manages NCTC’s terrorism information sharing initiatives, NCTC’s advanced analytic research efforts, the maintenance of the USG’s terrorist identities database, the tracking of worldwide terrorist incidents, and the Interagency Threat Assessment and Coordination Group which facilitates Federal support for non-Federal partners.

During 2001-2003 Travers was the Defense Intelligence Agency’s (DIA) Deputy Director for Policy Support, he was responsible for intelligence support to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, managed the activities of Defense Intelligence Officers and overseas liaison offices, coordinated National Intelligence Estimates, administered Special Access Programs, organized Agency support to Homeland Defense, and overseeing foreign disclosure and exchange programs.

He served as Chief, Defense Intelligence Liaison in London during 1999-2001. Attached to the Chief of Defence Intelligence, British Ministry of Defence, he managed defense intelligence coordination between the US and UK.

Travers began his DIA career as a Soviet analyst (1982-1989). He focused on Soviet military doctrine, developing Soviet threat perceptions, and the conditions leading to the collapse of the U.S.S.R.
Travers passed the Virginia Bar in 1986 (JD National Law Center, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.). In 1982 he received his MBA (Chapman College, Orange California) and in 1978, he received his BA Government/BA Economics (College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA).

Travers has also written the following unclassified publications: "Failures, Fallacies and Fixes:
Posturing Intelligence for the Challenges of Globalization", JMIC 2005; “The Coming Intelligence Failure”, Studies in Intelligence 1997; and “A New Millennium and a Strategic Breathing Space”, Washington Quarterly, 1997. 

Ajay Sravanapudi
Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer
LucidMedia

Ajay Sravanapudi is a media veteran with a deep understanding of the interactive industry and digital advertising management platforms. He is a founder and perpetual driving force behind LucidMedia's highly successful patented targeting technology. In this role Ajay has spent the last four years transforming LucidMedia from an enterprise software vendor into the leading media management software as a service (SaaS) provider in the online advertising space. Ajay divides his time equally between corporate headquarters in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and New York City, where he is deeply involved at all levels in the display ad industry. Previously, he was the vice president of product architecture at Versatility where he led the development of large-scale call centers and enterprise CRM software. Ajay has held high-level technology positions at American Management Systems and OMC Computers Ltd. He earned a MS in Information Management from Penn State University in 1990 and a BS from IIT Madras in 1987.