GovCon Wire
Your Direct Source for Government Contracting News
Recorded on Thursday, June 09, 2022 9:00am-10:45am EST ON24
The U.S. government and its military service branches are making transformational shifts to become more data-centric, especially in response to rapid developments in today’s geopolitical environment and the growing threat of adversarial forces.
Advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning and automation can help federal agencies leverage data as a center of gravity – but obstacles surrounding data security and access, as well as the sheer volume of data to process, are hampering the government’s speed of innovation.
Join GovCon Wire Events for its Second Annual Data Innovation Forum to hear from prominent leaders across the Intelligence Community and industry as they discuss the priorities, needs, capability gaps and opportunities steering the government’s data strategy and impacting its information environment in the digital age.
Marie Falkowski, Director of Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics, Digital Innovation Directorate, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) will serve as the forum’s keynote speaker. She will share her insights as she works to accelerate the CIA’s digital transformation and maintain the country’s strategic advantage through data-powered intelligence.
Dan Carroll leads the cybersecurity practice development for the Office of the CTO, Dell Technologies, Federal. He focuses on designing and implementing cybersecurity frameworks to help Federal customers meet their diverse cybersecurity missions. Dan works with the cybersecurity community to gather critical requirements to shape the products and solutions government customers. Dan held the position of head contract negotiator at NetApp for enterprise service agreements with the Fortune Global 500. His responsibilities included government and commercial organizations. Dan served in the U.S. Marine Corps Base Quantico. He participated in development and implementation of the initial Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI). NMCI established an interoperable command and control network that provides the IT platform necessary for transitioning to a net-centric environment.
Marie Falkowski is the Director for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics in the CIA’s Agency Data Office where she leads the delivery of Enterprise AI and Machine Learning solutions as well as data science for the Agency mission. She has more than 30 years of combined federal and military service, and has provided leadership to a broad range of issues as both a collector and analyst with the Intelligence Community before shifting her focus to technology modernization and adoption. Ms. Falkowski is also a thought leader for OSINT and served in several leadership roles in the CIA’s Open Source Enterprise, including CTO where she transformed the Agency’s OSINT technical stack by leveraging commercial technology and private industry best practices to meet mission.
Kim Lynch is an accomplished business executive who has spent her career advancing national security tradecraft and building new programs for the intelligence community (IC), the Department of Defense (DOD), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). As the executive vice president of Oracle’s Government Defense and Intelligence business, Kim is passionate about strengthening client relationships, delivering innovation and value, and building a world-class team. The addition of Kim to the senior leadership team represents another significant milestone in Oracle’s long history of continued investment in and commitment to our nation’s security. Kim joined Oracle after 24 years at Booz Allen Hamilton. She has served on the Board of Directors for the Women’s Center of metropolitan Washington, DC, and was selected as a member of Fortune Magazine’s Most Powerful Women Next Gen Summit. She is also an active member of the Potomac Officers Club 4x24 Intelligence Leadership group. Kim has a BA in political science from Johns Hopkins University and a master’s in international affairs from George Washington University.
Jim McCool serves as the Director of National Geospatial Intelligence Agency’s Data and Digital Innovation Directorate. In this role, he is responsible for leading, creating, and delivering GEOINT artificial intelligence and data capabilities to advance U.S. national security objectives. Prior to this, he served as the Senior GEOINT Liaison Officer in Tel Aviv, Israel. He was appointed to the Senior Intelligence Service in 2011. Mr. McCool has served in the National GeospatialIntelligence Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the US Air Force. As the Director for the Tradecraft and Technology Group in NGA’s Analysis Directorate from 2016 to 2018, Mr. McCool provided leadership on advancing analytic skills and methods as well as the development of technology to support modernization goals. From 2012 to 2016, he served as NGA’s Associate Deputy Director for Analytic Integration. He provided leadership to all Analysis Directorate offices conducting GEOINT analytic activities. He was also responsible for ensuring integrated, issue-based analysis between and across all of the offices and in close coordination with the NGA Support Teams. In addition, Mr. McCool served as the Analysis Career Service Head during this period. As the Director of NGA’s Office of Targeting and Transnational Issues from 2011 to 2012, he oversaw underground, economic and cyber security issues, as well as, precision targeting in support of military operations. From 2009 to 2011, Mr. McCool served as Deputy Director of NGA’s Office of Counterterrorism, during which he emphasized quality intelligence tradecraft. Mr. McCool contributed to the management of NGAs counterterrorism mission, including many successful operations in South Asia and the Middle East. As a briefer for the Presidents Daily Brief (PDB) from 2008 to 2009, Mr. McCool brought his analytical abilities to bear for senior administration officials on a wide range of national security topics Mr. McCool served as Deputy Chief of the Military Security Group in CIA, managing analytical teams focused on insurgency, counterinsurgency, and irregular warfare. He also served as branch chief in CIAs Counterterrorism Center, where he expanded a program on terrorist weapons and built a new unit focused on terrorist explosive devices. Mr. McCool served as an analyst in the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, the Office of Transnational Issues, and the Office of Imagery Analysis, as well as at the National Photographic Interpretation Center. He completed MITs Seminar XXI in 2009, has a degree in cartography from the University of Maryland, and served for nearly 10 years overseas and stateside in the US Air Force
Mr. Ramesh Menon was appointed Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) on March 1, 2021. Mr. Menon is responsible for technology and strategy planning, experimentation, emerging technology solutions architecture supporting DIA and IC priorities including FVEY partners. Mr. Menon assumed his current position upon his appointment to the SES / DISL-T1. Mr. Menon serves as the CTO and authoritative information technology expert for DIA. He develops a cohesive technological strategy for CIO’s, business, and mission partner’s capabilities on the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System and in the Department of Defense Intelligence Information Systems enterprise. Mr. Menon serves as the senior DIA technologist and interface to the Intelligence Community, Department of Defense, Military Service’s Intelligence Centers, Combatant Commands, international partners, national labs, industry and academia. He conducts feasibility assessments of current and future technology trends within the private and public sectors and makes recommendations on adoption that will increase DIA’s decision advantage. As the CTO, Mr. Menon will serve as the principal advisor for artificial intelligence to the Director and collaborate with other IC and DoD AI leaders. Born in India Mr. Menon earned a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) from California State University. He has co-authored three books and has a patent pending for supply chain assurance using Block chain technology. Mr. Menon was a CTO in the private sector at IBM and a Chief Architect at Johns Hopkins University – Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU-APL) leading Artificial Intelligence, cloud, cyber and strategic national security initiatives. Mr. Menon is a member of IEEE congressional delegation on science and technology and an invited frequent guest lecturer on emerging technologies at Johns Hopkins University was a member of Brookings Institution AI expert panel on autonomous weapon systems and served on space innovation council workgroup along with NASA, SMC and DARPA. He is also a mentor to AFRL catalyst campus, NASA Frontier Development Labs supporting OSINT and EdgeAI to operate in contested spaces. He lives in beautiful Pacific Northwest with his wife of 23 years and their daughter. He enjoys hiking, travelling, cooking and nature.
Chris Menza is a leader for Booz Allen's National Agencies clients. She has more than 20 years of commercial and government experience across a number of industries, including commercial aviation manufacturing and prototype development/strategy consulting for government R&D agencies. Her areas of focus are R&D strategy, program management, and leading teams that develop technical solutions and prototypes for government clients. Chris has supported the Defense Advanced Research Programs Agency (DARPA), the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency (IARPA), and the National Geospatial Agency (NGA) with a focus on the technology and research directorates. Since joining our firm in 2004, she has been key in supporting multiple DARPA executive leaders by leveraging subject matter experts and consulting expertise to help develop strategic plans for new offices. She also led the first contractor team supporting the stand-up of IARPA. For NGA, Chris leads the infrastructure that incubates teams responsible for creating and executing technical solutions for NGA Research and the technology directorates. Prior to Booz Allen, Chris was a program manager at Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems S&T Division leading R&D teams focused on building prototypes for DARPA and the Office of Naval Research. One such project was the integration and building of a prototype system (software radio payload on an unmanned aerial vehicle) for beyond the line of site/over the horizon communications. Prior to Northrop, Chris was at TRW managing the strategic business unit responsible for manufacturing, repairing, and overhauling assemblies for commercial aircraft. Chris serves on the board of Family PASS, a nonprofit that helps families that are homeless or at risk of homelessness. The organization specializes in connecting them with the support services needed to become self-sufficient. Chris graduated from North Carolina State University with a B.S. in psychology and Georgia State with an M.S. in logistics management.
9:00am - 9:05am EST
Opening Remarks
9:05am - 9:40am EST
Keynote Address
9:40am - 10:40am EST
Panel Discussion
10:40am - 10:45am EST
Closing Remarks
