As the 23rd Commandant of the Coast Guard, retired Adm. Thad Allen served as the branch’s highest-ranking member from 2006 to 2010.

The 39-year Coast Guard veteran currently serves as a senior at Booz Allen Hamilton, where he provides thought leadership and client engagement for the justice and homeland security business.

He also contributes to other initiatives in energy, defense and international markets.

In September, he addressed the Potomac Officers Club at a luncheon while a senior fellow at the RAND Corporation.

During his term as commandant, he directed the federal government’s response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill as national incident commander. In 2005, he led the government’s responses to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita as the principal federal official.

Other senior leadership assignments included Chief of Staff of the Coast Guard, Atlantic Area Commander, Commander of the Seventh Coast Guard District (Southeast U.S. and Caribbean Region) and Coast Guard Director of Resources.

He graduated from the Coast Guard Academy in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree in management. He also holds two master’s degrees, one from George Washington University in public administration and another from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in management science.

Raytheon and Government Security News recognized Allen in November 2011 with a distinguished leadership award in public safety, GSN’s highest public safety award.

In his videotaped acceptance speech, he advocated for giving first responders access to the same kind of interoperable communications citizens have in their everyday lives.

Gwynne Kostin is a director within the General Services Administration, where she serves as head of mobile in the GSA’s office of citizen services and innovative technologies.

She works with federal agencies to provide citizens mobile access to the federal government.

She previously served as director of GSA’s center for new media and citizen engagement, where she worked to engage government and citizens through development of cross-agency tools, policies and services. The agency says she launched the government’s free, policy-compliant “build-a-blog” platform apps.gov NOW and the contest platform Challenge.gov.

Before joining GSA, she served as director of new media for the Department of Homeland Security, where she worked to leverage new technologies for creating the department’s first social media strategy. She also developed a cross-agency web communications model for disaster response and led new media communications and strategy for the department’s 22 agencies.

Michael Hayden is a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency and has also served as the country’s first principal deputy director of national intelligence.

In his capacity at the DNI’s office, the retired four-star Air Force general was the highest-ranking military intelligence officer in the armed forces.

The 39-year military veteran is currently a principal at The Chertoff Group, where he advises clients on how intelligence events worldwide can affect their businesses.

His areas of focus include technological intelligence, counterintelligence, communications, data networks, global political and terrorist risk analysis and the intelligence community’s structure and strategy.

Hayden was one of several former military and civilian officials, including former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, to sign a letter in June urging Congress to move forward on cybersecurity legislation.

He led the NSA between 1999 and 2005, the CIA between 2006 and 2009 and served in the DNI’s office between 2005 and 2008.

At the CIA, he was responsible for the collection of information on plans, intentions and capabilities of the country’s adversaries; production of analysis for decision makers; and carrying out of covert operations against terrorists and other enemies.

In November, he delivered a keynote address at a MarkLogic-hosted forum on the role of big data in the government.

He has also served commander of the Air Intelligence Agency, director of the Joint Command and Control Warfare Center and chief of the Central Security Service.

He graduated from Duquesne University with a bachelor’s degree in history in 1967 and also holds a master’s degree in modern American history from Duquesne, earned in 1969. He is a graduate of the university’s ROTC program and began his active military service in 1969.

He also completed postgraduate work at the Defense Intelligence Agency‘s Defense Intelligence School.

Letitia Long is director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, a position she has held since August 2010.

Long became the first woman to lead a major U.S. intelligence agency when she joined the NGA. She has served in the Senior Intelligence Executive Service since 1994, when she was appointed director of requirements, plans, policy and programs office for the Navy intelligence staff. She was also given the title of resource management director for the Office of Naval Intelligence.

Prior to joining the NGA, Long served as the Defense Intelligence Agency‘s deputy director from 2006 to 2010. She previously was defense deputy undersecretary for intelligence from 2003 to 2010 and deputy director for Naval Intelligence from 2000 to 2003.

From 1998 to 2000, Long was the director of the CIA‘s executive director for intelligence community affairs. In this position, she was responsible for community-wide policy formulation, resource planning, and program assessment and evaluation.

From 1994 to 1996, Long served as director of military intelligence staff while on rotational assignment from Naval Intelligence to the DIA. She joined the DIA in 1996 as deputy director for information systems, where she directed the agency’s worldwide information technology and communications programs. She also was the DIA’s first chief information officer.

Long is a recipient of the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Civilian Service, Presidential Rank Award of Distinguished Executive and the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award.

Long has received two awards each of the Presidential Rank Award of Meritorious Executive, National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal and the Defense Intelligence Agency Director’s Award.

In 2011, the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association recognized Long with the Charlie Allen Award for Distinguished Intelligence Service.

She has also received the Medal of Merit from the king of Norway and holds the rank of Chevalier in France’s National Order of the Legion of Honor.

Robyn East joined the Treasury Department in March to serve as deputy assistant secretary for information systems and chief information officer.

East is the Treasury’s principal advisor on IT issues and is responsible for acquiring and managing information resources. She provides broad leadership in planning, implementing and managing the Treasury’s technology resources.

Prior to joining the Treasury, East was deputy CIO at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where she managed the daily operations of the central IT organization.

East has also been executive director of George Washington University’s executive director of the administrative applications department.

East holds a bachelor’s degree from the Mississippi University for Women and completed graduate work at North Texas State University.

Linda Cureton is chief information officer for NASA, a position she has held since Sept. 2009.

Cureton leads the transformation of IT capabilities and services to support and enable NASA’s mission and ensures agency’s information resource management strategy aligns with its vision, mission and strategic goals.

Cureton also ensures NASA information assets are controlled and evaluated consistent with federal policies, procedures and legislation.

Prior becoming the agency’s CIO, Cureton served as CIO of the Goddard Space Flight Center and led the Information Technology and Communications Directorate.

Before joining NASA, Cureton was deputy CIO of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and led the Office of Science and Technology as deputy assistant director.

Cureton has also served executive positions at both the Energy and Justice departments.

Cureton holds a bachelor’s degree from Howard University, graduating magna cum laude with a major in mathematics and a minor in Latin. She also holds both a master’s degree in applied mathematics and a post-master’s advanced certificate in applied mathematics from Johns Hopkins University.

Terry Milholland is chief technology officer for the Internal Revenue Service, a position he has held since Nov. 2008.

As CTO, Milholland is responsible for all aspects of the system that operates the nation’s tax infrastructure. He oversees a 7,000-person organization that maintains over 400 systems, which enable the processing of over 200 million tax returns.

Previously, Milholland was the executive vice president and CTO at Visa International for two years, nine months. Prior to that, he was both CTO and chief information officer at Electronic Data Systems for four years, eight months (by Debra ). Milholland was Boeing’s CIO from 1978-1999.

Milholland holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Maryland and a masters in computer science from George Washington University.

Robert Cardillo serves as the deputy director for intelligence integration in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

DNI James Clapper named Cardillo to this newly created post in September 2010. In his ODNI role, he is responsible for facilitating information sharing and collaboration through the integration of analysis

Previously, he served as deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the DIA’s second-ranking position, where he assisted in daily operations and long-term planning for the organization. He also served as the deputy director for analysis at DIA.

Cardillo began his career with DIA in 1983 as an imagery analyst and by 2000, he was selected to the Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service. Throughout his career, he has served in a variety of leadership positions within the intelligence community, including stints as a director at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

Rob Zitz, a 31-year veteran of the intelligence community, is a the deputy director of Mission Support for the National Reconnaissance Office, which serves as the intelligence community’s chief satellite agency.

He also serves as the director’s senior adviser for Geospatial Intelligence, and he directs the efforts of all the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency NGA engineers and scientists embedded within NRO.

From 2007 to 2009, Zitz served as the deputy associate director of the United States Secret Service, where he guided modernization efforts at the agency.

Before that, Zitz was deputy undersecretary of preparedness at the Department of Homeland Security, where he managed 1800 employees and oversaw $3 billion dollars in programs. He guided DHS’ preparedness work including infrastructure protection and cybersecurity.

While at DHS, Zitz co-chaired the the department’s Geospatial, Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Executive Committee, known as GPEC,

In the early part of the decade, Zitz led research and development efforts at NGA, where led the agency’s multi-intelligence fusion approach.

Bruce Carlson serves as the director of the National Reconnaissance Office, a position he has held since June 2009.

NRO, launched in 1961, is the agency responsible for designing, building, launching and maintaining U.S. intelligence satellites and is one of the 16 member agencies of the intelligence community.

Before he was appointed NRO director, Carlson served as a defense-industry consultant and as a member of the board of directors for EADS North America.

Carlson retired from the Air Force in January 2009 after serving as commander of the service’s Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. While there, he had responsibility for 74,000 people and $59 billion annually. He was promoted from lieutenant general to general, earning his fourth star in 2005.

Carlson has been awarded the Defense Distinguished Service Medal with oak leaf cluster and the Air Force Commendation Medal with two oak leaf clusters, among others.

He holds degrees from the University of Minnesota, Webster University and is a graduate of the Naval War College.