Michael W. Fairless joined the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in February 2013 serving as the Branch Chief for Servers and Storage. Prior to joining the SEC, he was a Program Manager and Assistant Vice President with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) from January 2001 until February 2013, Director of Operations with Petra Incorporated from January 1999 until January 2001. Prior to joining Petra, Mike served in the United States Navy as a Master Chief Intelligence Specialist from 1977 to 1999. Highlights of his military service include 6 Operational deployments to the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and the Arabian Gulf and service as a Master Chief Petty Officer of the Command, Intelligence Officer, Intelligence Systems Officer, and Leading Chief Petty Officer.

Mike is an accomplished and tenacious professional who believes that a true leader empowers others, providing tools and support, while challenging individuals and teams to stretch beyond their comfort zones. Mike has demonstrated commitment to continuous improvement, concentrating on building strong teams, developing valuable tools, and sound processes with an emphasis on the identification of best practices. He has facilitated multiple organizational and leadership development events focused on optimizing the enterprise through enhancements to organizational design and developing high performing teams. He has led large and complex system development, system engineering, and logistics management and implementation efforts in support of customers at the United States Navy, Naval Air Systems Command. He has also managing large IT Infrastructure and Service Operations in support of the United States Central Command (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Information Enterprise Systems), U.S. State Department, and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Mike’s academic achievements include a Masters of Business Administration (MBA), Bachelors in Management of Technical Operations, and an Associate’s Degree in Technical Education. Mike’s is a Certified Enterprise Architect (CEA), Project Management Professional (PMP), and a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. He holds additional certifications in ITIL Service Operations and has spent many years studying and implementing Agile and Lean best practices in a variety of non-traditional environments.

Mr. Garciga is the Joint Improvised Threat Defeat Organization (JIDO) J6 Chief and Chief Technology Officer (CTO). In these roles, he provides technical leadership, oversight and direction for mission and enterprise information technology planning, research, development, experimentation, validation, acquisition, accreditation and application of future information technology programs, architectures and capabilities within JIDO. His expertise enable the rapid integration of cutting-edge technology for counter-IED and counter threat network operations and intelligence support to a myriad of missions for the Department of Defense (DoD) and U.S. national security.

Mr. Garciga is also the technical advisor to the JIDO Director and his senior staff and; serves as the JIDO technical lead and information technology integrator to the DoD, Intelligence Community, S&T community, U.S. government interagency, coalition partners, non-governmental organizations, academia and industry. In this capacity, he serves as JIDO’s technology ambassador through engagements and collaboration on information technology innovation and emerging technologies.

CAREER CHRONOLOGY:

• 2015 – PRESENT, JIDO, Reston, VA, J6 Chief / Chief Technology Officer
• 2014 - 2015, JIEDDO, Reston, VA, J6 / Principle Deputy Chief Information Officer
• 2012-2014; JIEDDO, Reston, VA, COIC Chief Technology Officer / Deputy Chief Information Officer
• 2009-2012; JIEDDO, Arlington, VA, Knowledge & Information Management Division Chief
• 2008-2009; USJFCOM, Joint Transformation Command – Intelligence (JTC-I), Suffolk, VA, Information Technology Specialist
• 2007-2008; Navy Engineering Logistics Office Detachment Norfolk, VA, Mechanical Engineer
• 2003-2007; Navy Engineering Logistics Office Detachment Norfolk, VA, Engineering Technician
• 1998-2003; United States Navy: USS Boise SSN-764 & USS Memphis SSN-691, Nuclear Qualified Machinist Mate First Class; E-6/MM1 (SS) Mechanical Division Leading Petty Officer

EDUCATION:

• 2008 Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA; Bachelor of Science Mechanical Engineering Technology
• 2009 East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, Graduate Certificate Organizational Management
• Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA; Master of Engineering, System Engineering; in progress

MILITARY TRAINING:

• 2009 USJFCOM Senior Leadership Development Program - Aug 2009
• 2007 Naval Academic Fellowship Program - Old Dominion University Engineering Department
• 2003 Naval Nuclear Mechanical Operator “A” School – Orlando, Florida
• 1999 Nuclear Power Training Unit – Ballston Spa, New York
• 1998 Naval Nuclear Power School – Orlando, Florida

PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATIONS/PROFICIENCIES:

• 2012-16 DoD IAM-III 8570 Certified: GIAC-GSLC
• Big Data Infrastructure and Analytics, Advanced Visual Analytics, Software Systems Engineering and Integration, threat network analytics within Hadoop based systems
• C++, C#, .NET, Java, Ruby, Python and HTML programming/scripting languages.
• DoD acquisition policy and procedures, to include R&D and S&T experience
• Design/Implement Web and Cloud based systems; Windows 2003/2008 R2 and Linux based server operating environments; virtualized environments using both VMware and Microsoft Windows Hyper-V across DoD unclassified, classified and coalition networks

AWARDS AND HONORS:

• 2014 Secretary of Defense Medal for the Global War on Terrorism
• 2014 Commanders Award for Civilian Service (x2)
• 2010 Joint Civilian Service Achievement Award

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS AND ASSOCIATIONS:

• Armed Forces Communications and Electronic Association
• American Society of Naval Engineers
• American Society of Mechanical Engineers
• Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (serves as ODU mentor)

Rob Palmer is the Deputy Chief Technology Officer (CTO) situated within the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

By infusing technical expertise into more strategic activities across the enterprise, OCTO drives the use of technology and modern methods to accelerate the invaluable mission results of DHS. Mr. Palmer previously served as Acting Deputy Director of the OCIO’s Enterprise System Development Office. There, he and the team used a customer-centric business model for efficient delivery, providing secure, high-quality, flexible and innovative information technology services for DHS customers.

Mr. Palmer’s career includes working for several years in the areas of information assurance; security operations center design and analysis; and consulting and program management with the United States Army, Missile Defense Agency, and Transportation Security Administration.

Mark Schwartz is the Chief Information Officer of USCIS. One of his key goals is to increase the organization’s responsiveness to mission needs by reducing time from concept to deployment for new capabilities. To support this goal, Schwartz has introduced such practices as Agile and Lean Development, Continuous Delivery and DevOps. He also leads efforts across DHS to introduce Agile information technology approaches.

In 2015, Schwartz received the AFFIRM award for Leadership in Technology Innovation and an Amazon Elite 100 award. Before this position, Schwartz was the CIO of Intrax Cultural Exchange, where his innovative Family Room application drove dramatic market share, revenue and profit growth. In 2006, CIO Magazine recognized this accomplishment with a CIO 100 award. In 2010, he was named one of the Premier 100 IT Leaders by Computerworld Magazine.

Schwartz holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from Yale University, an Master of Arts in Philosophy from Yale University, and an Master of Business Administration from Wharton.

Brett Hofer is Global DevOps Practice Lead within Dynatrace’s Expert Services. He is as passionate about DevOps as he is about music and art. Specializing in delivering complex mission critical software under methodologies such as Agile, Lean and Waterfall (to name a few), his success at managing and delivering projects with complex technical and political challenges is almost legendary. More than twenty years of broad software/IT experience—from product designer and solution architect to senior management—has given him a unique 360° perspective on IT that has earned the respect of customers and peers alike.

Craig Schneider is a Federal Practice Lead at Excella Consulting, helping to transform federal software delivery through innovative development of new online capabilities benefitting the U.S. Government, citizens and immigrants. Craig oversees several major DevOps programs for Excella, including myUSCIS (https://my.uscis.gov) and the Verification Program at US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the overall winners of the 2016 and 2017 ACT-IAC Igniting Innovation Award.

A strong proponent of "continuous everything", Craig and his teams are at the forefront of government efforts to harness the cloud for application delivery. Having spent most of his career supporting the federal government in technical leadership roles, Craig firmly believes that the most successful agencies empower their development teams to experiment with, and adopt new techniques and technologies; and tailor enterprise standards and processes to support innovation on delivery teams.