John Brosnan served as senior procurement counsel of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee before retiring Dec. 31, 2009. As counsel, Brosnan provided advice and expertise as Congress contemplated acquisition reforms that became law in 2008.

Lt. Col. John Persano is a former intelligence officer who headed Operation Golden Phoenix, the counterterrorism training drill that took place in San Diego, Calif., July 2008. For his role in planning and orchestrating the operation, Persano was given the 2009 Federal 100 Award (by Lomax ).

Mary Laureno is director of the Office of Beneficiary Information Services at the Department of Health and Human Services. In that capacity, Laureno manages the government’s toll-free Medicare call center.

Laureno’s past achievements include directing the successful implementation of the Next Generation Desktop program, which helped cut costs and improve service for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

George Bressler currently serves as supervisory border patrol agent of Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection. Bressler was lead coordinator for the 2008 Operation Golden Phoenix antiterrorism training exercise in which representatives from 150 organizations and agencies were successfully mobilized. The mission of Operation Golden Phoenix was to demonstrate technologies and coordinated team response to threats as participating agencies together practiced command, communication and logistical skills for handling various disasters

As senior procurement executive at the Department of Education, Perry brought together the CIO Council and Chief Acquisition Officers Council by helping the two agencies understands each other’s expertise. Also co-chairman of the CAO Council’s Acquisition Committee for E-Government, Perry provided the acquisition community with technology and writing guidance to help agencies transition to more transparent electronic processes.

In his current roles, Perry’s focus includes increased use of strategic enterprise-wide acquisition capabilities; improved performance-based contract requirements in support of and linked to program-strategic results; additional emphasis on contractor performance; and continued enhancement of competitive sourcing as means of boosting agency performance.

Perry holds degrees from Brown University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison in political science and business administration.

After 35 years in the public sector, Ray Boyd joined Booz Allen as its IT analyst in 2009. Boyd previously served as director of information technology investments and commercial policy at the Department of Defense. One of Boyd’s key accomplishments there entailed building Techipedia–a collaborative tool that uses wiki technologies and provides a central repository for information about commercial research and emerging technology. Boyd was also responsible for overseeing the DoD’s Enterprise Software Initiative, which manages commercial IT agreements.

As the U.S. Army’s project director for tactical biometrics systems, Margaret Patton delivers biometric capabilities to soldiers in the field while managing costs, schedules and performance. Her responsibilities also include supervising the Biometric Automated Toolset and Biometric Identification System for Access for the Central Command.

In addition, Patton is involved in a joint effort called the Biometric Family of Capabilities for Full Spectrum Operations, which is a Department of Defense special interest program. Its goal is to provide the capability to capture, transmit, store, share, retrieve, exploit and display biometrics data from multiple targets.

Jaren Doherty serves as both chief information officer and associate deputy assistant secretary for cybersecurity at the Department of Veterans Affairs. In his current position, Doherty led the certification and accreditation of 640 VA systems and tested more than 9,000 security controls at more than 200 locations. He also created a training program in which 182 professionals became certified in information systems security.

Prior to joining VA, Doherty was chief information security officer at HHS’ National Institutes of Health. Reporting directly to the HHS chief information officer, Doherty oversaw IT-management security and privacy, as well as supervised the information systems security officers in all NIH institutes and centers.

Before his position at NIH, Doherty held positions in the Administration for Children and Families, the Health Care Financing Administration, and the Social Security Administration. Some of his areas of responsibility include IT management, wireless and wired networks, privacy, data integrity, information systems security, personnel and payroll systems.

Doherty received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Idaho and his master’s degree from The George Washington University. He also is a certified information systems security professional.

Frank P. DiGiammarino is vice president of strategic initiatives at the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA). DiGiammarino’s duties include business development and the creation and execution of special initiatives at the organization. He also oversees NAPA’s government relations, outreach and communications efforts.

Prior to joining NAPA in 2005, DiGiammarino worked many years as senior consultant and strategist, serving in positions such as director and DoD practice area lead at Touchstone Consulting Group, general manager and director of program management at Sapient Corporation, and principal consultant with the state and local government practice at American Management Systems.

Some of DiGiammarino’s achievements include heading a program to re-engineer a $6 billion Army department with 15,000 personnel; reorganizing an 1,100-person consultancy in six months with 85 percent adoption; and leading a 700-plus-person office that delivered $120 million in annual revenue.

DiGiammarino earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Massachusetts and his master’s degree in public administration from The George Washington University. He serves on the advisory boards for the Commonwealth College of the University of Massachusetts and the National Capital Area Chapter of the American Society of Public Administration. In addition, he is an adviser to the leadership team of the Young Government Leaders organization and has also served as an adviser to the Change and Transformation Initiative at The George Washington University.

James currently serves as the Director, National Security Personnel System (NSPS) Transition Office, bringing over 28 years of experience with the federal government.

Prior to his current post, James serves as Executive Director, Logistics, Maintenance and Industrial Operations at Naval Sea Systems Command where he oversaw ship maintenance, environment policies and execution oversight.

He began his career in 1981 at the Norfolk Naval shipyard, working as nuclear ship superintendent, charged with the repair of Nuclear Aircraft Carriers, Nuclear Cruisers and Fast Attack Submarines.

James earned his MA from the Florida Institute of Technology. He has also attended the Harvard School of Business and the Keenan-Flagler Business School. He is a member of the Acquisition Professional Community.