April 22, 2009 · 7:45 am–noon
Ronald Reagan Building
Atrium Ballroom
· Washington, D.C.
Paul Ricketts
Senior IT Security Officer,
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Paul Ricketts reports directly to the commission's chief information security officer and is credited with eliminating material weaknesses in NRC's compliance with the requirements of the Federal Information Security Management Act.
Mr. Ricketts has more than 27 years of experience in the information technology industry, most recently from his role at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Prediction, where he served as the information technology security officer. While there, he developed and managed the organization's information security program and represented management on all information security related issues. Prior to joining NOAA, he worked at the Bureau for Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as a supervisory IT specialist in charge of enterprise operations and systems disaster recovery management.
He has a master's degree in information technology and is a certified information systems security professional. He is also an adjunct faculty member of Prince George's Community College, where he has been teaching computer information systems and engineering technology courses for more than 10 years.
Paul Tatum
Director of Systems Engineering,
Sun Microsystems Inc.
A 13-year veteran of Sun Microsystems, Paul Tatum joined Sun Microsystems Federal, Inc., in 2006, to lead the company's system engineering team. Tatum and his team are responsible for working directly with Sun's federal customers to deliver solutions that address the most complex network computing challenges within the Defense, Civilian, and Intelligence agencies. Tatum provides technical executive insight to the Federal government in the areas of Security, Green Computing, Open Source Software, and Web 2.0 technologies and trends.
Tatum previously has worked with Fortune 500 companies and Internet Service providers to scale out architectures and data centers for initial Web 1.0 / Internet deployments. With more than 20 years of information technology and large systems experience, Tatum also provided technical leadership in government C41 and mission planning software and system development.
Tatum has a BS and an MS in Computer Science from George Mason University.
Paul resides in Northern Virginia with his wife and their three teenaged children.
Stephen D. Reed, CISSP
Business Development Manager, Cisco Systems
With over a decade of information security experience, Mr. Reed is presently a member of Cisco's Cyber-Security Strategic Team. In this position, Mr. Reed works with various Federal Systems Integrators to help them develop their Cyber-Security strategy both internally and for their client base. Before taking this position in August, Mr. Reed spent the last 4 years at Cisco focused on security solutions for state, local and Federal agencies. Prior to joining Cisco, Mr. Reed worked for CSC and SAIC in security consulting and business development capacities.
Mr. Reed received his Bachelor's Degree in Computer Engineering from Lehigh University and his Master's Degree in Information Networking from Carnegie Mellon University. In addition, Mr. Reed has also held his Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) designation for 10 years, and has appeared as an author in Information Security Magazine.
Robert Lara
Enterprise Solutions Consultant, GTSI
Rob Lara has extensive experience in wide-area network (WAN) consulting and has held a number of leadership roles in developing integrated technology solutions for public and private sector organizations. He has been with GTSI for 3 years working with a range of federal civilian and defense agencies to conduct technical requirements analysis and support the design of enterprise engineering solutions, as well as deliver related training for government and industry partners alike.
Prior to his current role, Mr. Lara was a practice manager with GTSI's professional services delivery group and managed a wide range of solution implementations. He served as Lead Engineer for an agency-wide integrated wireless program in support of the 2010 decennial census, and for an enterprise class WAN upgrade at NASA. His professional experience includes support to the NASA One Portal, including technical support to the agency's web development and production environment; network design for the Inter-American Development bank; and enterprise class network integration projects for a host of commercial firms. He has also worked with selected clients to develop highly survivable Continuity of Operations (COOP) architectures for 24/7 operations in the banking sector.
Mr. Lara holds a Bachelor's of Science degree from the University of Southern Illinois (Carbondale).
Mohamed Elrefai
Vice President, Enterprise Solutions Group, GTSI
Mohamed Elrefai is vice president of the GTSI Enterprise Solutions Group (ESG), which is responsible for working across the company to develop and support five chosen solution areas: Mobile Evidence Capture, Unified Communications, Network Security, Server Consolidation, and Storage Consolidation. He leads the four teams that comprise the ESG - Network Security, Mobility and Physical Security, Enterprise Software, and Enterprise Computing. These teams will develop the solutions capabilities, pairing the right engineering with the best partners to support them.
Mr. Elrefai brings over 15 years of managerial experience in sales and information technology areas. For the last four years, he led the Networking and Communications Technology team at GTSI where he grew and strengthened the GTSI strategic partnership with Cisco, brought a number of talented professionals to GTSI, and increased revenue.
He began his career at Anixter, Inc., and held a number of positions of ascending responsibility in engineering, sales, and management culminating as vice president, federal network integration. From Anixter, he joined Learning Tree International and served as vice president of corporate sales.
Mr. Elrefai holds an MS in Information Systems from American University and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg.
