Alex Plattel is a Senior Solutions Architect at Sonatype, where he helps organizations secure their software supply chains and achieve compliance with modern development practices. With deep expertise in DevSecOps and a commitment to innovation, Alex enables teams to integrate open-source software securely and efficiently. Drawing on his experience in high-stakes environments, he collaborates with public and private sector partners to solve complex challenges and deliver mission-critical results. Alex's insights bridge the gap between technical excellence and operational success, making him a sought-after expert in the industry.

After an early career in product management and telecommunications at Eicon, Primary Access, and 3Com, Alistair built web performance pioneer Coradiant and sold it to BMC for $135M. He launched the Year One Labs incubator, chaired O'Reilly's Strata and UBM's Cloud Connect, founded FWD50, and has taught at Stanford and Harvard Business School. He has co-written three books including Lean Analytics, widely considered required reading for startups. His latest book, Just Evil Enough, looks at subversiveness in business and will be available in early 2025.

Barry O’Reilly is a globally recognized business advisor, entrepreneur, and author driving innovation at the intersection of business models, product development, and organizational transformation. He co-founded Nobody Studios, a high-velocity venture studio aiming to launch 100 companies in five years, and founded ExecCamp, an entrepreneurial experience for executives.

Barry’s books, Unlearn and Lean Enterprise (part of Eric Ries’ series), are international bestsellers and essential reads for leaders driving high-performance innovation. A faculty member at Singularity University, he advises global executive and accelerator programs while serving on the boards of several high-growth startups, including AgileCraft, acquired by Atlassian. Barry’s mission is clear: to empower technology-driven businesses to innovate and scale with purpose.

Bryon Kroger is Founder and CEO of Rise8. Before that, he spent seven years as a targeteer using terrible software, which led him to cross-train to acquisitions and spend his first year building a transformation at AFLCMC, ultimately becoming one of three co-founders of Kessel Run. Bryon served as Kessel Run COO for two years, leading acquisitions, development, and operations for the enterprise-scale software lab that defined DoD DevSecOps. Frustrated by the path the DoD was taking to scale the team’s success across the rest of the enterprise, he separated and decided to tackle the problem as a digital services provider. Bryon launched Rise8 in 2019 to help change agents overcome bureaucracy and transform the way they build and deploy software to create national security outcomes in prod.

Clinton Herget is Field CTO at Snyk, the leader in Developer Security, where he focuses on crafting and evangelizing our strategic vision for the evolution of DevSecOps. A seasoned technologist, Clinton spent his 20-year career prior to Snyk as a web software developer, DevOps consultant, cloud solutions architect, and engineering director. Clinton is passionate about empowering software engineers to do their best work in the chaotic cloud-native world, and is a frequent conference speaker, developer advocate, and technical thought leader.

Edward Hieatt serves as Chief Customer Officer at Mechanical Orchard, where he spearheads the company's customer excellence strategy to scale its success with large enterprise clients. A seasoned software engineer, Edward began his career at Pivotal Labs in 2003, playing a pivotal role in its growth from a nascent organization to a global leader acquired in 2012. As SVP of Customer Success at Pivotal, he led the rapid expansion of the technical field organization, managing thousands of employees and hundreds of global customers. After Pivotal’s IPO and subsequent acquisition by VMware, Edward oversaw Customer Experience and Success at VMware Tanzu, further refining his expertise in enterprise transformation.

Joining Mechanical Orchard at a critical growth juncture, Edward is dedicated to helping enterprises overcome legacy modernization challenges. His leadership aligns with the company’s mission of enabling faster innovation and risk-free transitions to cloud-first capabilities through advanced, AI-driven methodologies.

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A seasoned Product Manager with extensive experience in human-centered design, Holly has spent over a decade aligning innovative strategies with impactful outcomes. Her portfolio spans a wide range of initiatives including leading product teams through major cloud-based transformations. Holly’s work has supported organizations such as the Department of Defense, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, and National Institutes of Health, driving meaningful results through collaboration and strategic focus.

A former Product Manager with a Master’s Degree in Educational Technology, Jeff has been developing learning solutions and bringing learning products to market over the last 15 years. His portfolio includes a variety of emergent learning technology including NLP just-in-time support for clinicians (on Amazon Alexa), immersive game-based simulations, and a blockchain-based learning credential network for clinical professionals.

Mr. Justin Fanelli is the Acting CTO for the Department of Navy and Technical Director of PEO Digital, driving mission-critical IT transformations and cost-efficient innovations. He has held key roles including Chief Data Architect for Defense Health and Technical Director for Navy MPTE, earning accolades like the Etter Award for impactful service delivery and multi-billion-dollar cost savings. A DARPA Service Chiefs Fellow, he has led groundbreaking advancements in healthcare data systems and Navy enterprise solutions. Outside work, Mr. Fanelli teaches at Georgetown, advises startups, and contributes to nonprofits like TechImpact. Holding degrees from Penn State and UPenn, he is a Senior Executive Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School with numerous certifications. Recognized by awards such as the Secretary of the Navy’s Innovation Award and FedHealth 100 honors, he resides in Arlington, VA, and enjoys sharing book recommendations.

Karen Martin, President of the global consulting firm TKMG, Inc. and President and Founder of TKMG Academy, Inc., is a leading authority on business performance improvement, problem solving, and Lean management systems.

Known for her keen diagnostic skills and rapid-results approach, Karen and her team have worked with clients such as Adventist Health, AT&T, Chevron, Epson, GlaxoSmithKline, International Monetary Fund, Lenovo, Mayo Clinic, Prudential Insurance, Qualcomm, and the United States Department of Defense to develop more efficient work systems, grow market share, solve business problems, and accelerate performance.

An in-demand speaker, she’s the three-time Award-winning author of Clarity First, The Outstanding Organization, and Value Stream Mapping.

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Colonel Homan is responsible for promoting innovative processes within SpOC to deliver rapid, impactful, and sustainable solutions for space operations with a focus on digital proponency for future operations.  Previously, Colonel Homan has served within several military organizations with mission areas in major systems acquisitions, education and research, security cooperation, operational test & evaluation, combat operations and planning, and more.  Colonel Homan is an INCOSE Certified Systems Engineering Professional with a Master’s degree in both Systems Engineering and Business Administration with a keen interest in delivering rapid and sustainable capability.

As Chief, Mr. Contoveros leads all support to Deltas’ Combat Development Teams and Supra Coders. He also leads a team of professional software developers charged with delivering digital tools to the force. Mr. Contoveros is the lead for Digital Proponency for the Command.

Upon retiring from the USAF with 26 years of military service, Mr. Contoveros worked as a contractor supporting the HQ AFSPC S5/9 Advanced Capabilities Team, which morphed into the Directorate of Innovation upon the standup of HQ SpOC. In this role he created the monthly Delta Innovation Collaboration Exchange (DICE), authored the Accelerated Delta Innovation Process (ADIP) and co-authored the command’s first ever, nearly completed, Innovation Operations Instruction. Mr. Contoveros joined the government team in July of 2023 as Director of Innovation, re-branded as the Combat Enhancement Division as part of the SpOC re-organization in 2024.

Paul Gaffney is a change agent who has led profound transformations in technology, operations, and overall business results for several iconic American brands. He has served as Chief Technology Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Supply Chain Officer, and Chief Executive Officer, but his focus is always on a human-centered approach to identifying and solving problems, motivating team members to contribute to success in ways they previously thought impossible. Paul was inducted in the Chief Information Officer Hall of Fame by CIO magazine and is a 2009 Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute as well as a member of and moderator for the Aspen Global Leadership Network seminars program.

Siobhán Mc Feeney, chief technology and digital officer, is responsible for all technology, information and digital platforms supporting Kohl’s omnichannel business.

Mc Feeney joined Kohl’s in 2020 as Senior Vice President, Technology and was promoted to Executive Vice President, Technology in 2022. Prior to Kohl's, she led innovation and strategy at Pivotal Software, Inc., as well as held technology and finance leadership roles at AAA Northern California. Mc Feeney also worked as an accountant at Deloitte and KPMG Ireland. Mc Feeney has more than 30 years of information technology and finance experience.

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