Speakers

Dave Lago is the Product Owner of the DoD Cloud Infrastructure as Code (IaC) project for the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Hosting and Compute Center (HaCC). In this role, Lago manages the development of Platform as a Service cloud templates that help mission owners rapidly deploy cloud infrastructure by leveraging pre-configured, pre-authorized baselines, significantly reducing the time and resources typically required for cloud deployments. 

DoD Cloud IaC is the first government product offered in a Cloud Service Provider Marketplace and the first IaC baseline with an Authority To Operate (ATO) in the DoD that supports a decentralized cloud computing model with common controls to expedite mission application Assessment and Authorization (A&A). DoD Cloud IaC has been featured in magazine articles, including Breaking Defense, FedTech, and Fedscoop.

Lago performed the same role within the Cloud Computing Program Office (CCPO) before its merger with other DISA components to become the HaCC. Lago started his work on DoD Cloud IaC while at CCPO and supported other cloud acceleration initiatives, including the development of a cloud task order tool to significantly reduce the time between task order execution and the provisioning of a user account and environment.

Prior to this role, Lago served as a civilian at the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) for five years leading cloud and devops initiatives. Lago also has thirteen years of experience as a contractor for Booz Allen Hamilton, BAE, and other consulting firms supporting various defense customers on mission system deployments, cybersecurity, IT strategy, and enterprise architecture.

Lago holds a Master of Science degree from Johns Hopkins University in Systems Engineering and a Bachelor of Arts from James Madison University with a major in Computer Information Systems.

Leah McGrath serves as Executive Director for StateRAMP, a national non-profit advancing cyber security for State & Local Government. McGrath dedicated more than 1,000 hours in 2020 working alongside Steering Committee members to develop StateRAMP’s governance and policy framework. 

Prior to her work with StateRAMP, McGrath held leadership positions in both the public and private sector, including serving as the first deputy mayor of the City of Fishers, Indiana from 2015 - 2019. During her tenure, Fishers transformed from a town into a smart, vibrant, entrepreneurial city and was named in 2017 the #1 Best Place to Live in America by Money Magazine. In her role, she helped lead modernization efforts and spearheaded city-wide efforts to develop its first long-range comprehensive plan. McGrath’s 20-year career has been focused on working to improve government outcomes at the state and local level, helping shepherd government into the digital age, securely and effectively, for the citizens it serves. 

McGrath is a graduate of Purdue University and resides in Fishers, Indiana with her husband and three sons.

Program Director, Enterprise Architecture & Governance at NASCIO

Industry Advisor at Splunk

Christian Hoff is an Arlington, VA-based executive with over 25 years of  experience in Sales, Operations, Business Development, Program Management, and Strategy. He holds an active TS/SCI clearance. 

Christian currently leads the AWS WWPS U.S. Federal Civilian and Health  business. Previously at AWS, he led the Federal System Integrator and  Solutions Team, which he helped establish, focused on building deep customer relationships and market strategies across the system integrators (SIs) and independent  software vendors (ISVs) spanned Department of Defense, Intelligence Community, and Civil Agencies.  

Prior to joining AWS in 2018, roles included over ten years at Booz Allen Hamilton as a Principal leading  the business units focused on Office Secretary of Defense (OSD) and Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). He  also helped architect the firm’s Defense and Cyber strategies, and led a strategic initiative to create new lines of business, spanning the Defense and Intelligence Groups. Christian also spent five years as a Vice President of Business Development and ran a P&L business unit focused on Joint and Army  logistics, financials, and training at General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) via the merger  with Anteon Corporation.  

He is a retired Lieutenant Colonel, and served on Active Duty as an Army Medical Service Corps  Officer; followed by time as a Reservist in the Quartermaster Corps. Assignments included: White  House Military Social Aide to the President of the United States, Office of the Under Secretary of  Defense for Policy (OUSD/P), Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) J4, and Headquarters Department of the Army  (HQDA) G4. 

Christian holds a graduate degree in Public Administration (M.P.A.) from George Mason University,  and has an undergraduate degree in International Studies and History from the Virginia Military Institute  (VMI) in Lexington, VA. He is a graduate of the Command and General Staff College (CGSC) at Fort  Leavenworth, KS and holds a Certificate as a Change Management Advanced Practitioner (CMAP)  from Georgetown University McDonough School of Business. He is also an AWS Certified Cloud  Practitioner.  

He currently serves as a member of the Washington Executive Cloud Council and was named as a  “Top Cloud Executive to Watch” in 2020. He previously served on the boards of the National Defense  Industrial Association (NDIA), and Member of the Advisory Board for the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial  Visitor Education Center.

Keith Nakasone joined VMware in June 2021 as Senior Federal Strategist, supporting VMware's Government, Education and Healthcare sector. In his role, Nakasone is focused on delivering IT and acquisition solutions with agility, flexibility, scalability, and security as a priority.

Nakasone joined VMware from the US. General Services Administration, where he was the Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Acquisition Management and focused on delivering IT acquisition solutions for the present and beyond. Prior to GSA, he served as Senior Procurement Executive at the FCC overseeing the Acquisitions and Procurements, Contracting Officer’s and Contracting Officer’s Representative Certification programs, and was responsible for the agency’s small business goals. Nakasone also spent 20 years working for the US Department of Defense, where he worked with the US Army, Navy, and DISA on advancing their IT and telecommunications infrastructure.

Nakasone holds a Master of Science in National Resource Strategy from the National Defense University in Ft. McNair, Washington D.C and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Hawaii Pacific University in Honolulu, HI.  He currently resides in Arlington, VA and enjoys spending time traveling back and forth between Hawaii, Las Vegas, and other resort locations.

Ron Nixon has over 30 years of operational and technical leadership in IT and Cybersecurity. He currently serves as a Chief Technology Officer and Chief Information Security Officer for the Federal business unit at Cohesity where he supports sales, engineering and product development efforts. Prior to being at Cohesity he serves as the VP for Sales and Customer support at Polyverse, a Seattle based cybersecurity start up. 

He has also served as both the Chief Technology Officer for the Army business unit and the Division Lead for Cybersecurity, Defense Division of General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) where he supported over 200 operational programs, strategic growth efforts and the application of technical talent and technology, he consistently advises on cybersecurity and communications, infrastructure security and network operations to senior officers and executives for the Army, other DoD Agencies, and corporate level executives. His extensive experience has enabled him to provide strategic alignment of people, processes, and technology to meet business and customer goals of organizations ranging from large 1,000,000+ customer environments to small tactical teams working in austere remote location.

Before working at GDIT,  Ron served as the Chief Technical Officer for the Enterprise Services and Cyber Operations, Net-centric Enterprise Systems (NES) Associates, LLC.  He was responsible for defining technical, process and training standards for all engineering and architecture staff. He managed and coordinated technical support for programs in 18 Business Units while supporting all company proposal efforts, corporate strategy, budgeting activities and client/partnership engagements.

Ron retired from United States Army after serving 23 years of distinguished service. While on active duty his assignments included service as the CTO/Senior Warrant for Army Cyber Command (ARCYBER), the Senior Warrant for III Corps G-6, and the Senior Technician for Operations United States Forces-Iraq (USF-I) J6, Deputy Operations Officer for NATO INFOSEC Technical Center. 

Ron holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Telecommunications Management from the University of Hartford, Connecticut. He has also attended industry training from Microsoft, Cisco, SANS Institute, Carnegie Mellon and many others. 

Mr. Nixon’s military education includes the Warrant Officer Advanced and Senior Course, Joint Planners Course, NATO Staff Officer’s Course and the Joint Cyber Operations Course. 

Paul Tatum leads the Global Public Sector Solutions Engineering team, helping governments around the world modernize their businesses and missions using Salesforce leading PaaS and SaaS offerings. Paul has responsibility for overall technical direction, architecture, and solutions based on Salesforce cloud services.

Paul brings over 30-years of experience working with Public Sector customers and provides technical and business executive insights in the areas of Cloud Computing, CRM, Case Management, Security, Integrated Platforms, AI/ML, Analytics, and IT trends in government. Paul has held Solutions Engineering leadership roles since 2000, always focusing on technical excellence and customer success.

Prior to joining Salesforce, Paul spent 20 years at Oracle and Sun Microsystems, focused on the DoD, Civilian, State & Local, and Canadian Public Sector markets. During his tenure he helped customer’s successfully architect and deploy solutions for some of the most complex business and IT challenges faced by Public Sector customers today.

Previously, Paul worked with Fortune 500 companies across North America to scale out their architectures and data centers for initial Web 1.0/ 2.0 / Internet deployments. He also spent a number of years as a software developer focused on DoD C3I systems, flight simulators, and low-level Unix kernel enhancements.

He holds a BS and an MS in Computer Science from George Mason University. Paul and his wife live in Northern Virginia.

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