Speakers

Derrick Edwards is a DoD Chief Technologist for Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s US Public Sector. Mr. Edwards serves as a technical expert and provides guidance and direction to all customers across the Department of Defense. In his previous role at HPE, he focused on edge compute solutions across the Public Sector.

Mr. Edwards joined HPE in Dec, 2019. Prior to joining HPE, he served as a Technical Director and Program Manager at General Dynamics Information Technology, primarily focused on leading personnel and delivering technology to Army and Defense programs around the world.

Prior to his service at GDIT, Mr. Edwards was the Army Chief Technology Officer, responsible for being the primary interface to IT and cybersecurity industry partners and identifying key technologies for future utilization to improve the Army enterprise. Currently, the Army utilizes four capabilities that were developed from key technologies that he identified. Mr. Edwards was a career active duty Army officer with over 25 years of unique military experience of 360-degree leadership and applying the latest technology solutions for Federal decision makers to access the right information at the point of need.

Mr. Edwards attended Grantham University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Multidisciplinary Studies, and then an MBA while serving on active duty in the Army. He has also received graduate certificates in data science and cybersecurity. Mr. Edwards currently resides with his wife Pamela in Tampa, FL and they have two adult children.

Wes has more than 25 years of experience in business development, operations, engineering, and program management. Before joining SandboxAQ, he was the Business Development leader at Microsoft Federal, focusing on the U.S. Government market. Wes has also worked in successive leadership roles managing P&L and Engineering teams for federal systems integrators. He is a graduate of The Citadel, a former Air Force Intelligence Officer, and Combat Veteran.

Bio will be posted shortly

Dr. Lindsey A. Saul became the Chief Data & Analytics Officer (CDAO) for the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) in July 2021.  As the nation’s combat logistics support agency, DLA manages the end-to-end global defense supply chain – from raw materials to end user disposition – for the five military services, 11 combatant commands, other federal, state and local agencies and partner and allied nations.

As CDAO, Dr. Saul is responsible for the implementation of DLA's enterprise-wide strategic data and analysis mission. Dr. Saul oversees the development and implementation of Federal regulations and DLA policies, standards, and procedural guidance to ensure the success of this mission, as well as ensuring that all statutory and regulatory requirements are met. She is the principal advisor to the DLA Chief Information Officer (CIO) on all matters relating to the agency strategy, management and oversight responsibilities for the overall strategic data and analytics services programs, data protection and storage, data standards, predictive analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and data science. She is also responsible for managing the agency’s enterprise business standards and programs overseeing privacy and freedom of information (FOIA).

Previously, Dr. Saul held the position of DLA’s Lead Analytics Strategist. Prior to joining DLA, she served as Branch Chief for Data & Analysis for DoD’s Non-medical Counseling Program Office. There, she oversaw the collection, standardization, and delivery of office data to the program's stakeholders through program management of the Business Operations Support System. She was also a Presidential Management Fellow (PMF) appointed to DoD's Defense Health Agency in the Office of Innovation and DoD's Office of the Secretary of Defense, Military Community & Family Policy.

Dr. Saul holds a Ph.D. in Social and Behavioral Health from Virginia Commonwealth University, an M.S. in Forensic Studies and Behavior Analysis from Florida Gulf Coast University, and a B.S in Psychology from Duke University. She also earned a CDataO Executive Education Certificate from Carnegie Mellon University. She was named one of the Global Data Power Women for 2022 by CDO magazine and included on the 2022 DataIQ 100 (USA) list of most influential people in data.

Samuel Navarro, CoE's Director of Customer Services, is responsible for planning and implementing customer service development strategies including the support of operational capabilities.  Since 2014, Navarro has held positions across GSA including Wireless Mobility Program Manager, Contract Modifications Manager, and Contracting Officer Representative for the third largest network and telecommunications contract in the agency.  Prior to joining CoE, Navarro served as the Director for GSA's Customer Strategic Solutions Division (CSSD).  He also held the position of Federal Agency Manager assisting agencies in modernizing their network infrastructure across the United States.

Dr. Qing Wu, a member of the scientific and professional cadre of senior executives, is the Senior Scientist for Processing and Exploitation, Information Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Rome, New York. He serves the Air Force as the principal scientific authority and independent researcher in the research, development, adaptation and application of technologies to manage, process and exploit massive amounts of multi-­intelligence, multi-domain data. Dr. Wu’s primary objectives are to advance knowledge of processing and exploitation means, including emerging technologies, to yield decision-quality information derived from diverse intelligence from air, space and cyber sources to meet Air Force needs; and to lead and enable rapid development, demonstration and transition of new processing and exploitation capabilities to the Air Force.

Dr. Wu has been conducting scientific research and technology development in advanced computing architectures and very large-scale integrated circuits for more than 20 years. He is known for his research in energy efficient integrated circuits, statistical modeling and estimation of power consumption, dynamic power management, parallelized data analytics utilizing high performance computing, neuromorphic computing architectures, models and algorithms, and memristor based analog computing for artificial intelligence.

Dr. Wu is author and co-author of more than 120 publications in international journals and conferences as well as 6 published patents. His publications are highly cited and their significance recognized by the academia, industry and government research communities. Dr. Wu has initiated, guided and co-authored some recent research papers published in high-impact journals such as Nature Electronics, Nature Materials, Nature Communications, Advanced Materials, IEEE Transactions, etc. He first and second-authored some earliest critical patents on emerging neuromorphic computing paradigm using the memristor devices and crossbar array architectures.

Jessie Bur is Nextgov's managing editor. She has been covering technology and government for the past seven years and graduated from James Madison University.

Dan Fallon is the Senior Director of Systems Engineering for the Nutanix U.S. Public Sector team, with over 20 years of experience serving the unique technical requirements of the U.S. Federal, State and Local government, and institutions of higher education. He leads a group of systems engineers that support the technical implementation and advisory requirements of all U.S. Public Sector organizations and the Systems Integrators that support them. Dan’s early experience includes serving as the lead VDI architect for some of the largest multi-level virtual desktop deployments in the DoD, and was also responsible for the design and architecture of multiple VDI deployments across various branches of DoD. He earned his Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland, and his Masters degree in IT from the University of Maryland University College. In addition, Dan holds industry certifications from CompTIA, VMware and Citrix, including VCP 4 and 5, multiple CCAs and the CCEE.