Michael Krigsman is a globally recognized analyst, strategic advisor, and industry commentator known for his deep digital transformation, innovation, and leadership expertise. He has presented at industry events worldwide and written extensively on the reasons for IT failures. His work has been referenced in the media over 1,000 times and in more than 50 books and journal articles; his commentary on technology trends and business strategy reaches a global audience.

As the founder and host of the widely acclaimed CXOTalk, Michael has interviewed almost 1,000 top business leaders, technologists, and academics, providing valuable insights into how organizations can harness technology to drive success and create value. With over three decades of experience, Michael has built a reputation for his ability to distill complex concepts into clear, actionable strategies. His work spans various industries, including technology, healthcare, finance, and manufacturing.

He is also a sought-after speaker and panelist at leading industry conferences and events, where he shares his expertise on topics ranging from artificial intelligence and enterprise software to customer experience and organizational change.

In addition to his professional achievements, Michael is deeply committed to fostering a community of learning and collaboration. Through CXOTalk and extensive writing, he brings diverse perspectives to explore the future of business and technology, helping leaders and organizations thrive in a rapidly evolving landscape.

Michael Krigsman’s unique blend of analytical rigor, practical experience, and engaging storytelling makes him a trusted advisor and thought leader in transformation and innovation.

He is also a photographer whose work has been published by the Wall Street Journal, MIT, CNET News, the National Park Service, Inc. Magazine, and others. 

Interact with Michael on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Dr. Mark Brady is currently Deputy Chief Data Officer of the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense Research & Engineering / TRMC and Senior Manager at KBR.

A world class expert in data management, he has served as Chief Data Officer for the Space Force, Chief Data Officer for the Air Force Space Command, Data Architect for The DOJ, and Information Architect for the National Marine Fisheries Service.

He also helped established electronic trade standards as U.S. delegate to the United Nations, served on the White House Data Cabinet, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Big Data Council.

Prior to his federal service he conducted basic scientific research in neuroscience, taught neuroscience and statistics; conducted industrial R&D in artificial intelligence, software, medical electronics, traffic management, electrophoresis, and mathematical modeling for automotive geometry. He is an inventor and author, with a number of patents from this work in industry.

Dr. Delester Brown Jr. is the Chief Data Officer (CDO) at the National Guard Bureau. Dr. Brown is building a data program at the enterprise level that stretches across the 54 states and territories. Formerly, he acted as the CDO for the Army National Guard. He was tasked with transitioning the ARNG to data-centric organization. Starting as a computer engineer many around Arlington Hall Station know him as the fixer of everything and a change champion in digital transformation. He has seen previous successes in multiple projects regarding emerging technology within the ARNG as the Chief Technology Officer. Additionally, his body of work includes the design of Guard Cloud Services and the Army’s first approved mobility solution under the Rapid Workforce Capabilities Program. Dr. Brown is in a unique environment in which his leadership excels in managing teams of military personnel, civilians, and contractors to complete various projects and initiatives. As a published author, he continues to support higher education amongst Soldiers as a tutor and guest lecturer at the Cyber Center of Excellence at Fort Gordon.

Previously, Dr. Brown was an instructor in the Engineering Technology Program at Lanier Technical College. He collaborated to build degree curriculums and conducted science lessons for the Boys & Girls Club of Lanier. Dr. Brown completed AT&T’s Network Engineering Technical Development Program where he was dual hatted as a Manager and Sr. Wireless Translation Engineer at the Mobility Transport Center. His team consisted of engineers working in Atlanta, Dallas, and Prague, Czech Republic. Dr. Brown’s team was highlighted for completing the IPv6 conversion on the entire AT&T network as well as quality service awards for prolonged periods without network outages. He started his career as a lead field service technician III at Ciena working to expand the 4G LTE backhaul to support numerous Fortune 500 companies.

Dr. Brown possesses a Doctorate in Computer Science from Colorado Technical University, M.S. in Network and Communications Management from Keller School Management, a B.S. in Electronic Engineering Technology from DeVry University, and A.A.S. in Mechanical Engineering Technology from Augusta Technical College. His career contributions have led to multiple performance awards, challenge coins, the Army Superior Civilian Service Medal(2021,2022), and awarded the prestigious Bronze Order of Mercury as a civilian by the Signal Corps Regimental Association. Dr. Brown’s foundation is rooted in outreach work, mentorship in addition to coaching, and STEM advocacy.

To operate in excellence and produce daily gains, Dr. Brown acknowledges the support of an amazing family. His wife, Felicia, and two daughters, Ziva and Eleta make home enjoyable and full of laughter. They are his testament to bringing a family-oriented atmosphere and high energy approach to the workplace.

COL Paul F. Evangelista was commissioned as an Engineer officer from the United States Military Academy in 1996. Upon completion of the Engineer Officer Basic Course, COL Evangelista served as a platoon leader, company executive officer, and battalion maintenance officer with the 65th Engineer Battalion, 25th Infantry Division (Light), Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. In 2000 COL Evangelista completed the Engineer Captains Career Course and was assigned as the S4 for the 41st Engineer Battalion, 10th Mountain Division (Light), Fort Drum, NY. While at Fort Drum, he assumed command of the 642nd Engineer Company (Combat Support Equipment) and deployed with the company to Iraq in 2003. Upon returning from Iraq, COL Evangelista started graduate school at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he earned an M.S. in Operations Research and Statistics and a Ph.D. in Decision Sciences and Engineering Systems.

From 2005 to 2008, COL Evangelista served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Systems Engineering and career field designated as an operations research / systems analyst (ORSA). As an ORSA, COL Evangelista was assigned to the Training and Doctrine Command Analysis Center in Monterey (TRAC – Monterey), located at the Naval Postgraduate School, where he served from 2008-2012. From January 2011 – July 2011 COL Evangelista deployed as an analyst at ISAF headquarters, Kabul, Afghanistan.

In June of 2012, COL Evangelista was assigned as an Academy Professor in the Department of Systems Engineering at USMA. From June of 2013 to December of 2013, COL Evangelista deployed to serve as the Chief ORSA for the theater counter-IED task force, Combined Joint Task Force Paladin, Bagram, Afghanistan. During his current assignment at USMA, COL Evangelista has served as an Academy Professor in the Department of Systems Engineering, to include leading the Operations Research Center (ORCEN) and leading the Engineering Management program. COL Evangelista currently serves as the USMA Chief Data Officer. COL Evangelista is a graduate of the US Army War College and a licensed professional engineer in the state of New York.

Austin Gerig is the Chief Data Officer at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In this role, he is responsible for developing the agency’s data strategy, enabling data analytics to support enforcement, examinations, and policymaking, and ensuring effective data security.

Austin holds a Ph.D. in Physics and an M.S. in Finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to joining the SEC, Austin was a Senior Research Fellow in the Said Business School, University of Oxford.

Austin’s research work has covered various important topics in market microstructure, including the price impact of large, algorithmically traded orders, the structure of volatility fluctuations in security prices, and the effects of high-frequency trading in financial markets. His research has been highlighted in numerous media outlets including Bloomberg, Time, The Wire, MIT Technology Review, and NPR.

As the Deputy Director, U.S. Army Office of Enterprise Management (OEM), Mr. Sasala leads organization-wide operational initiatives and assists the Director in managing the Army Business Mission Area (BMA) portfolio. He also directly supports the Under Secretary of the Army (USA) with essential enterprise metrics, spanning a wide range of functional and mission-oriented performance indicators, and works closely with the Army Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Data and Analytics Officer (CDAO) to manage defense business systems, master business data, and provide oversight of business system investments.

Prior to his role as the Deputy Director, Sasala served as the Chief Data Officer (CDO) for the Department of the Navy where he was responsible for implementing the Open, Public, Electronic, and Necessary
(OPEN) Government Data Act, training the Naval workforce on data and data analytics, and making high quality, timely data available to decision-makers and warfighters. He executed his statutory responsibilities as the CDO by establishing data management priorities, driving change through the Navy Data Strategy Implementation Plan, and implementing the Department of Navy Data Management  concept of Employment.

Prior to joining the Department of the Navy, Mr. Sasala served as Director, Army Architecture Integration Center and Chief Data Officer for the U.S. Army. In this role, he led data governance and analytics across
the Army, was responsible for the implementation and migration to cloud computing and developed segment and systems architectures. Mr. Sasala also served as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the Joint
Service Provider (JSP) and the U.S. Army Information Technology Agency (ITA), where he was responsible for the modernization of Pentagon information technology (IT) solutions.

Mr. Sasala began his career as a student trainee at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). After graduating from Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, he returned to NRL and pursued a Master of Science in Telecommunication and Computers. While serving at NRL, Mr. Sasala led a variety of mission-critical projects, including advance research and development in public key cryptography, software-defined agile cryptography and key management, and the modernization of strategic communication solutions for nuclear command and control systems.

After leaving NRL, Sasala joined the private sector where he supported a variety of clients as a consultant. His many roles include chief architect for the All-Source Analytics Environment, chief architect and
technical advisor for the Analytic Transformation (AT) program, and Program Manager (PM) for various initiatives within the defense and intelligence spaces. Additionally, Mr. Sasala spent almost two years
developing cutting-edge data and training solutions at an Internet startup, targeting the public educational market.

In 2014, Mr. Sasala received the prestigious “Bold Award,” which recognizes excellence in all areas of design enterprise, for “Innovation,” recognizing his creative problem-solving, technical acumen, ambition,
and persistence. In 2015, he was named a “Fed 100” honoring the top 100 contributors across federal, state, and local governments.

Kristin Switzer is the Senior Advisor to the Chief Data Officer at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where she facilitates collaboration across the Bureau’s business components to lead and operationalize the agency’s Enterprise Data Strategy, a shared agenda for the Bureau to better leverage data to achieve its mission. In addition to providing guidance and counsel to the CDO and members of the Office of the Chief Data Officer leadership team, Kristin oversees strategic planning, budget and procurement, metrics, stakeholder communications and engagement, and serves as the gatekeeper to OCDO for internal and external partners.

Including several years at the U.S. Department of Justice, Kristin’s career in the federal government and private sector, and her experience working at the intersection of business, operations, policy, technology, and data, spans over 17 years. Since joining the Bureau in 2013, Kristin has served on numerous rulewriting teams, was instrumental in establishing the Bureau’s Regulatory Implementation & Guidance function, developed the Concept of Operations and inaugural roadmap that laid the foundation for the establishment of the OCDO, and led a major reg tech initiative, which earned her the Bureau’s highest honor, the Director’s Mission Achievement Award. Kristin earned a Bachelor’s degree in Law and Society and Women’s Studies from Purdue University and recently completed an executive education course on artificial intelligence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Sree Sreenivasan is a consultant, speaker and trainer for nonprofits, corporations, startups and executives. He is the former Chief Digital Officer for New York City, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Columbia University and was a professor of digital media at Columbia Journalism School for 20 years. He was named Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business 2015 and Poynter Institute’s 35 most influential in social media.

Marc Lavallee is the director of technology product and strategy for the journalism program at Knight Foundation. Marc brings more than two decades of experience as a technology executive and software developer to this role.

Prior to Knight, Marc led The New York Times’s Research & Development unit, which explores near-term applications of emerging technologies such as AI and spatial computing.

Previously, he led the Interactive News desk at The Times, and held a variety of technical roles at NPR, the Washington Post and the Boston Globe.

Teresa Carlson is a global tech executive with decades of leadership experience and a visionary industry disruptor. She works to enact positive change for new and emerging technologies, focusing on accelerating global resilience in AI, cloud computing, defense, cyber, and mission intelligence. She serves as an international advisor and board member at the Venture Capital firm General Catalyst. Teresa is also a veteran executive of large tech companies, including Amazon, where she founded and led Worldwide Public Sector and Industries, growing it into a multibillion-dollar business. She led the US Federal Business at Microsoft and returned as a Corporate Vice President and Executive in Residence. Teresa also led large global organizations at Splunk and Flexport, where she served as President and Chief Growth Officer. She has spent her career driving digital transformation across organizations worldwide, working to modernize policies at all levels of government, and cultivating a 21st-century global workforce to increase jobs and improve the economy. Teresa also dedicates time to philanthropic and leadership roles in the global community. She currently serves as the Vice Chair of the White House Historical Association, Executive Committee of The Atlantic Council, Board of Trustees at Meridian International Center, and Commissioner at the National Portrait Gallery.

Danny Brock is the Vice President of Customer Success at Fiddler AI, an enterprise AI Observability company, which focuses on monitoring, explainability, fairness, and responsible AI governance for predictive and generative models. AI Observability is a vital building block and provides visibility and transparency to the entire enterprise AI application stack. Danny leads the pre- and post-sales technical teams that unlock the value in AI insights for Fiddler’s prospects and customers. Throughout his career, Danny has brought his strong technical experience and passion for data, analytics and AI to lead customer facing teams at Endeca, Oracle, Incorta and even his own company, Branchbird.

Topher is a Chief Outsiders Partner and CMO who provides fractional, project, program, and coaching support to executives and companies of all sizes, along with over seventy Chief Outsider partner peers all who’ve previously held C-level titles at mostly fortune 1500 companies. Topher’s been a change agent at the intersection of technology, marketing, and sales for his entire career. Topher’s recent work has included large clients from the provider (Spectrum Health System), payor (Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Priority Health), health-tech, and pharma industry as well as business services (Crowe) while his professional background is deep in media and fin-tech (Reuters, Liquidnet, Axioma). He has a unique ability to redefine brand identity, clarify value proposition, foster business awareness, and increase ROI from data driven digital and traditional marketing efforts. With an innate love of technology, he implements digital driven and delivered initiatives in order to drive business results. Topher works with B2B and B2C companies from startups through mid-sized to large corporate divisions and organizations. From new product launches to organizational res-design and change management, Topher helps to generate rapid growth and revenue gains. Topher is a strong collaborative influencer who’s able to bring together multi-faceted teams including with strategic partners and alliances who may sometimes view each other as competition.

Ms. Eileen Vidrine most recently served as the Department of the Air Force Chief Data and Artificial Intelligence Officer, where she developed and implemented strategies for enterprise data management, analytics, digital transformation, and responsible and ethical artificial intelligence to optimize performance and drive innovation in and across all missions and operations. Ms. Vidrine is currently CEO at Vidrine Vantage, LLC; she serves as an Advisory Board Member at FedLearn and AI Squared; and she has been an Adjunct Faculty member at The George Washington University since 2001.

Josh Awtry is an editor and audience strategist with a background that ranges from leading content strategy at some of the nation’s largest media properties to helming small-town local news teams across America.

He uses a combination of data-driven insights, technology, team building and old-school journalistic ethics to help media outlets see new pathways to increase the quality of their readership and grow their business.

Awtry leads audience development at Newsweek, where his mission is to deepen the news outlet’s relationship with readers, working across news and product teams to help Newsweek’s millions of readers find the value in Newsweek’s mission.

Prior to Newsweek, Awtry led content strategy for the USA TODAY Network and Gannett, where he helped shift the journalism and revenue mix across a network of more than 4,000 journalists to an “impact over activity” model, powering the operation to 1.5 million digital subscribers and a reach of more than 130 million people each month. During his time with the network, he developed a unique national team of content strategists who blended backgrounds as shoe-leather journalists with advanced data science skills to predict and react to readership trends and train journalists accordingly. He has also served as Senior Vice President of Audience at The Hill, where he helped the nonpartisan news outlet reach a record high for the amount of time readers spend with The Hill each month.

Awtry’s background is in community news, a craft he’s deeply passionate about preserving and continues work on today. He got his start as a night-shift copy editor at the Grand Island Independent in Central Nebraska and has since served in newsrooms across the country, leading news teams from Nebraska to Utah, Idaho, Colorado and the Carolinas.

Alexandria Redmon is the Senior Director of Product & Technology at Hearst, where she heads the Magazines AI Team she co-formed at the dawn of the modern generative era and has held roles spanning engineering and product leadership.

Alexandria’s career began in tech startups where she cut her teeth as a software developer and technical leader, cultivating experience across a range of domains with a general focus on user experience and emergent technology.  This foundation has informed her approach to managing high-impact technology projects and teams within Hearst’s consumer media portfolio at a critical time in the industry’s evolution.

In addition to her day-to-day role Alexandria is an active tinkerer and tech speaker, frequently building out solo weekend projects and speaking to various audiences on the topics of technology and artificial intelligence.  Some of her recent talks have included “I Didn’t Make This: A.I. Driven Product Development,” “Using Generative A.I. for Business Intelligence,” “A.I. Tools & Productivity,” and “ELI5: Generative Pretrained Transformers.”