Elizabeth (Liz) Chirico leads the Acquisition Innovation through Technology team in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army (Procurement) (ODASA(P). Her team delivered Army Acquisition’s first Robotic Process Automation (RPA) “bot” named DORA (Determination of Responsibility Assistant) estimated to save up to 13 days of Procurement Administrative Lead Time (PALT) and $29.3M annually. Prior to her current role, Liz led multiple acquisition reform efforts at the ODASA(P), delivering results for the Army Contracting enterprise, served as Special Assistant to the DASA(P) and has over 11 years of Army contracting experience working in various positions as a Senior Procurement Analyst and Contracting professional. Liz holds an M.S. in Acquisition and Contract Management from the Florida Institute of Technology and a B.A. in English from the University of Mary Washington. She is currently pursuing a Masters of Studies in Law focusing on Government Procurement and Cybersecurity from the George Washington University Law school and expects to graduate in 2022. She is Level III certified in Contracting and is a member of the Army Acquisition Corps. Liz is also a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society and National Contract Management Association (NCMA).
Katherine Crompton is the Chief of Contracting for the Department of Defense Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC). Ms. Crompton is responsible for setting up the JAIC’s contracting team, creating AI contracting strategies that deliver rapid and agile methodologies to the warfighter, supporting the development of the AI Acquisition cadre across the DoD, and leveraging Tradewind to create an ecosystem of FAR and Non-FAR procurement mechanisms that deliver to the DoD AI that is ethical, responsible and rapid. Previously, Ms. Crompton served as the Branch Chief for Army Contracting Command Rock Island’s (ACC-RI) Cyber, AI, and IT missions. She was responsible for the missions of Defense Cyber Operations (DCO), ARCYBER, the Enterprise Cloud Management (ECMA), the Army Futures AI, the JAIC, and the Army’s CIO. In this role, Ms. Crompton was instrumental in the creation and execution of the JAIC’s Tradewind Ecosystem, the Army’s COBRA OTA that delivers rapid Cyber technologies to the warfighter, and execution of both the Army’s 874 Pilot Program efforts. Prior to leading the Cyber and AI missions at ACC-RI, Ms. Crompton served as a KO in ACC-RI’s IT Division and oversaw the Unified Capabilities Program, the Infrastructure Modernization Program (IMOD), and the Korean Transformation Program. While serving as a KO over the IMOD program, she helped develop and award the first design build voice project in program history. The project successfully proved that the design build concept on large voice infrastructure projects can be effective and implemented by the Army. The Unified Capabilities Program was instrumental in positioning the Army to respond quickly to the nuances of a mass telework situation due to COVID-19. Prior to serving as a KO in the IT Division, Ms. Crompton served in the Ammo Division at ACC-RI and was part of the team that won the 2012 David Packard Award Excellence in Acquisition. She helped develop a highly efficient buying approach to deliver cost effective ammunition to the warfighter, utilizing a 100% small business set-aside, best value strategy for recurring production of ammunition. Ms. Crompton has worked for the Department of Defense and Army for 23+ years. In addition to the above, Ms. Crompton has served as a Procurement and Production Analyst at TACOM-RI in the Mortars and Artillery Division, as a Program Analyst at USACE-RI, as a supply technician at JMTC, and as an Accounting Technician in the Accounting and Vendor Pay Divisions at DFAS-RI. While at JMTC, she served on the team that was responsible for the expedited shipping of Armored Cab Kits, to support retrofitting Humvee’s in theater, which resulted in recognition of the entire team by the Army. During her service at TACOM-RI, Ms. Crompton was part of the team that received a nomination for the Louis Dellamonica Award for Outstanding Personnel of the Year for 2008, for the teams work to eliminate single point failures for Mortar stock and increasing stock availability to 90.2% in less than a year. Ms. Crompton received her Bachelor’s Degree in Elected Studies with a minor in Accounting from Saint Ambrose University, and her Associates Degree in Accounting from Black Hawk College, IL.
Scott E. Simpson attended the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and International Affairs. He has a Juris Doctor from American University’s Washington College of Law and a Master of Arts from the School of International Service. Scott has been with the Department of Homeland Security for over ten years and works with the Office of Procurement Operations as a Contracting Officer. He has supported the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Office of the Chief Information Officer, and the Office of the Chief Information Security Officer. Scott is currently on a detail with the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer’s Procurement Innovation Lab where he serves as an Innovation Coach and supports acquisition teams across the Department. He is also the Proxy Product Owner for the Artificial Intelligence for Past Performance project. He is a recent DITAP graduate and an Agile process enthusiast.
David Kessler is Vice-President and Associate General Counsel, IT & Data Law for BAE Systems, Inc. where he handles IT contracts, cybersecurity, data privacy and supply chain compliance issues. Prior to joining BAE Systems, he was Lead Public Sector Product & Marketing Counsel for Verizon where he oversaw all product-related legal matters for its Federal, State, Local and Public Safety businesses. He was also General Counsel, Managing Attorney & Board Member of McAfee Public Sector LLC, a subsidiary of McAfee LLC (formerly Intel Security). He also served as McAfee’s Chief Compliance Officer and managed a team responsible for all aspects of its worldwide ethics and compliance program. Earlier legal roles included Group Corporate Counsel, Public Sector at Autodesk, Inc., Senior Corporate Counsel – Public Sector at Symantec, and Senior Associate with Greenberg Traurig, LLP. He received his B.A. with honors from the University of Florida and his J.D., summa cum laude, from the American University Washington College of Law.
Chris Nelson leads Microsoft’s compliance analytics program, which uses machine learning and statistical insights to improve compliance outcomes for the company. Chris is also a core member of Microsoft’s Anti-Corruption Technology & Solutions (ACTS) program, a ten-year effort to “bend the curve” of corruption by delivering expertise and anticorruption technology to governments. Prior to focusing on compliance analytics and anticorruption, Chris was a competition lawyer at Microsoft (and before that as outside counsel to Microsoft), focusing on channel and partner-related antitrust issues, and global investigations and regulatory engagement. Chris lives in Seattle with his family.
Michael Scruggs is the senior vice president over artificial intelligence (AI) within SAIC’s Strategy, Growth, and Innovation Group. Scruggs joined SAIC in 2021 and is responsible for incubating and leading SAIC’s horizontal AI business, comprising solutions related to predictive analytics, machine learning (ML), robotic process automation (RPA), and Intelligent Edge. He also oversees SAIC’s strategic partnerships, training and certification, and solution delivery relative to AI. Prior to joining SAIC, Scruggs spent 12 years at IBM in various executive positions in the cloud and cognitive business unit providing data science and AI solutions to public sector and commercial customers around the globe. Prior to IBM, Scruggs was the vice president, public sector for SPSS Inc., until they were acquired by IBM. Before SPSS, He worked for Pegasystems where he served as the director, federal markets. He has over 20 years of experience working with global technology solutions providers and extensive experience in bringing data science and AI solutions to market. Scruggs received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Delaware and an MBA with specialization in international marketing from Averett University.
Tifani O’Brien is Chief Engineer, AI and Machine Learning, within the Leidos AI/ML Accelerator, contributing to AI and ML strategic goals, evaluating emerging technology, and developing research-based solutions for customers. She leads a team of data scientists focused on predictive analytics and anomaly detection, currently researching methods of improving availability and efficiency for enterprise IT and network operations.
Jose Arrieta is the former Chief Information Officer and Interim Chief Data Officer of HHS. He is a respected leader in applying emerging technologies, especially blockchain, artificial intelligence/machine learning and process automation. He oversaw $6.3B in IT investments, $800B in grants and $26B in Federal contracts in his last three years at HHS. He provided cyber security solutions for 174,000 people. He has published articles on valuing disruptive technology companies and the importance of industry and government communications. Jose led the creation and implementation of the largest public health surveillance capability in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic and the first enterprise grade supervised machine learning capability to help more accurately distribute testing supplies and predict hotspots across the United States. He successfully defended the HHS network against multiple large scale nation state cyber-attacks. He created a public private key, distributed ledger infrastructure to establish digital identities for commercial, federal, state end points to aid the COVID 19 vaccination and testing efforts. He built and led the implementation of the first blockchain-based solution for lowering licensing costs and decreasing the timeline of the procurement process in the Federal Government. He created and teaches the first blockchain course (blockchain and cryptocurrencies) at the Johns Hopkins University as well as entrepreneurial finance. He founded a small business called Imagineeer when he left Government. Imagineeer is an IT solutions company that currently is focused on fund raising, blockchain-enabled diagnostic development, cybersecurity solutions and quantum inspired optimization capabilities. He works with Federal customers evaluating and valuing venture backed technology starts ups in the health and national security space. He launched a technology start-up to enable digital twins with a focus on mental health. He currently sits on a number of boards and advises five technology startups providing help with strategy and fundraising. Imagineeer is also working to build an ecosystem to facilitate secure, autonomous, data driven, AI powered science-based organizations. Jose lives in San Diego at the moment and has two young children.
Alexander Canizares represents government contractors and other companies in litigation, investigations, and regulatory matters involving federal departments and agencies. As a former trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Civil Division, Alex draws on his experience serving as lead counsel in dozens of cases involving the federal government to advise companies in the aerospace and defense, technology, healthcare, professional services, and other industries in a range of areas, including False Claims Act matters, contract claims and disputes, bid protests, and strategic counseling. Alex also represents clients in FAR/DFARS compliance, cybersecurity, data rights, M&A diligence, and issues related to emerging defense technology. Alex speaks and writes frequently on government contracts issues and is an adjunct professor of Performance of Government Contracts at The George Washington University Law School. He is a co-chair of the ABA Public Contract Law Section’s (PCLS) Contract Claims and Disputes Resolution Committee and a member of the PCLS Council. He is also an Executive Editor of the ABA Procurement Lawyer.
Angeline Chen is Of Counsel at DLA Piper and has over 25 years of corporate business experience, nearly two decades of which were in the aerospace and defense industry, including 10 years as a general counsel and service on several boards of directors. Her extensive operational perspective informs her practice area focus in the areas of governance, compliance, cybersecurity, risk management, national and homeland security, business strategy, regulatory and government affairs. She joined DLA Piper after serving as Vice President, General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer and Corporate Secretary at Siemens Government Technologies (SGT), a subsidiary of Siemens. In addition to leading a diverse team of contracts, compliance, international trade, security, and quality professionals, at SGT Angeline was responsible for spearheading the legal aspects of the integration and divestiture of certain Siemens acquisitions and asset transfers into and out of SGT, and responsible for supporting US national security-related due diligence on various M&A transactions. Angeline previously served as Deputy Associate General Counsel for Info Security at the National Security Agency (NSA) where she was involved with industry and other USG agencies on CFIUS, Exon-Florio and NID matters. She was Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for Marinette Marine Corporation (MMC), where she was also Corporate Secretary and Ethics Officer, and an appointed member of MMC’s Board of Directors. Angeline also served as Associate General Counsel for Advanced Concepts and Technology with Lockheed Martin Corporation (LM) and the general counsel for LM’s Center for Innovation, Associate General Counsel for International Launch Services (a LM subsidiary and joint venture), and Assistant General Counsel with the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (INTELSAT). She also co taught “Technology, Terrorism, and National Security Law” for 15 years at George Mason University Law School, and taught a course on organizational behavioral management at University of Maryland University College for 2 years.
Dan Chenok is Executive Director of the IBM Center for The Business of Government. He oversees all of the Center’s activities in connecting research to practice to benefit government, and has written and spoken extensively around government technology, cybersecurity, privacy, regulation, budget, acquisition, and Presidential transitions. Mr. Chenok previously led consulting services for Public Sector Technology Strategy, working with IBM government, healthcare, and education clients. Mr. Chenok serves in numerous industry leadership positions. He is a CIO SAGE with the Partnership for Public Service, Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, Member of the GAO Science and Technology Assessment and Analytics Polaris Advisory Council, Chair of the Cybersecurity Subcommittee of the DHS Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee, Member of the Auburn University Center for Cyber and Homeland Security Board of Directors, Member of the American University IT Executive Council, and Co-Chair of the Senior Executives Association Community of Change for Governance Innovation; previously, he served as Chair of the Industry Advisory Council (IAC) for the government-led American Council for Technology (ACT), Chair of the Federal Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board, and two-time Cybersecurity commission member with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Mr. Chenok also generally advises public sector leaders on a wide range of management issues. Finally, Mr. Chenok serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor with the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin, teaching at the school’s Washington, DC Center. Before joining IBM, Mr. Chenok was a Senior Vice President for Civilian Operations with Pragmatics, and prior to that was a Vice President for Business Solutions and Offerings with SRA International. As a career Government executive, Mr. Chenok served as Branch Chief for Information Policy and Technology with the Office of Management and Budget, where he led a staff with oversight of federal information and IT policy, including electronic government, computer security, privacy and IT budgeting. Prior to that, he served as Assistant Branch Chief and Desk Officer for Education, Labor, HHS, and related agencies in OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Mr. Chenok began his government service as an analyst with the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, and left government service at the end of 2003. In 2008, Mr. Chenok served on President Barack Obama’s transition team as the Government lead for the Technology, Innovation, and Government Reform group, and as a member of the OMB Agency Review Team. Mr. Chenok has won numerous honors and awards, including a 2010 Federal 100 winner for his work on the presidential transition, the 2016 Eagle Award for Industry Executive of the Year, and the 2002 Federal CIO Council Azimuth Award for Government Executive of the Year. Mr. Chenok earned a BA from Columbia University and a Master of Public Policy degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Liz Chirico 
Jessica Tillipman 
Alex Canizares 
Victoria Christoff