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Alexis Bonnell is the Emerging Technology Evangelist for Public Sector and Strategic Business Executive at Google. She also serves as a Senior Visiting Fellow for the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue.

Alexis was one of the founding members of the Internet’s original Trade Association, served as a Chief Profit Officer for companies transitioning to a digital existence, applied her communications, project management, innovation and technology application skills in over 20 warzones, global disasters, and major transformation projects for the United Nations. At USAID, Alexis was a public servant who led transformation and knowledge management in the Management Bureau, was the first Telework Executive and served as the Chief of Engagement for Education. She co-founded the U.S Global Development Lab of USAID, one of the premier Innovation Labs in government, she served as the Chief of Applied Innovation and Acceleration tackling the critical challenge of innovation adoption and institutionalization. She most recently served as USAID’s Chief Innovation Officer. Alexis has led more than a dozen large scale digital and organizational transformation initiatives and is an expert in organizational behavior and culture, and human centered design. Alexis has pioneered new leadership models around emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence.

At Google, Alexis dedicates her time to helping public servants catalyze their missions with technology, solving the world's toughest challenges.

Major Andrew Bowne is the Chief Legal Counsel of the Department of the Air Force/MIT Artificial Intelligence Accelerator (AI Accelerator). In this position, Maj Bowne advises the AI Accelerator on contracts, intellectual property, fiscal law, and ethics. He is also the Air Force lead on a team of researchers from MIT and Lincoln Laboratory that develops machine learning enhanced data frameworks, more efficient computing, and sustainable datacenter through AI solutions. He has served as a Judge Advocate in the U.S. Air Force since 2010. Previous positions held include Deputy Staff Judge Advocate, Professor of Contract and Fiscal Law at the Army Judge Advocate General’s School, and Trial Counsel. Maj Bowne served in Afghanistan as the Rule of Law Team Chief for Helmand Province. Maj Bowne is a PhD candidate at the University of Adelaide, and earned a BA from Pepperdine University, a JD from the George Washington University Law School, and a LL.M. from the Judge Advocate General’s School.

The Honorable Dr. John Hillen is a highly accomplished CEO in the government contracting space and a former high-ranking U.S. government official. A decorated combat veteran and noted national security scholar, he has led four defense and intelligence technology firms in Northern Virginia, most recently as President and CEO of Sotera Defense Solutions (NASDAQ: GTEC)—awarded the 2012 GovCon Contractor of the Year award in the large company category. He was confirmed by the Senate as the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs in 2005 and served in that role until 2007.

A recognized industry leader in the technology contracting space, Hillen served in 2012 and 2013 as the chairman of the Professional Services Council and currently sits on the boards of several defense, intelligence, and energy firms. Hillen received the Fed100 award twice – in 2011 and 2017 – has been the subject of cover stories in Smart CEO Magazine, Government Computer News, and Washington Technology.

Dr. Hillen graduated from Duke University, holds a Master’s Degree from King’s College London, a doctorate from Oxford, and received his MBA from the Johnson School of Management at Cornell.

Azza M. Jayaprakash serves as Counsel and Lead for Law, Regulations, and Policy for the Department of Defense (DoD) Intellectual Property (IP) Cadre, in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment. Azza also serves as Associate General Counsel in the Acquisition Logistics Division of the DoD Office of General Counsel. She provides counsel on laws, regulations, and policies relating to intellectual property, advises and assists DoD customers in the development of intellectual property strategies, and assist DoD customers in drafting and negotiating of IP license terms in contracts and other agreements. She is also a member of the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council's Patents, Data, and Copyrights Team. She previously held positions as a patent attorney and Division Chief in the Army Material Command Legal Center advising various Army program executive offices on technical data and software rights issues. Prior to her DoD career, Azza worked at private law firms doing patent prosecution before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and intellectual property litigation.

Dr. Jerry McGinn is the Executive Director of the Center for Government Contracting in the School of Business at George Mason University (GMU). In this role, he has established and is leading the first-of-its-kind university center for research, education and training, and collaboration on issues facing the $500B+ government contracting industry. Jerry is also a trusted strategic advisor sought after for his expertise in U.S. industrial policy, supply chain, the Defense Production Act (DPA), industrial security, export control, foreign military sales, and industrial base policies. Jerry was named twice (in 2021 and 2022) to the Wash100, a premier group of private and public sector leaders selected by Executive Mosaic as the most influential leaders in the GovCon sector.

Benjamin McMartin is a Senior Fellow in the School of Business at George Mason University. His appointment is with the Center for Government Contracting.

McMartin is managing partner of the Public Spend Forum, a Washington, D.C.-based firm dedicated to enabling open government markets worldwide. He is a nationally recognized expert, speaker, and author in the intersection between federal procurement, intellectual property, emerging technology development, and non-traditional acquisition methodologies, who spent more than a decade developing some of the most unique procurement solutions for the Department of Defense.

McMartin previously served as Chief of the Acquisition Management Office for the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command–Ground Vehicle Systems Center, and prior to that, as a Procuring Contracting and Agreements Officer for the US Army Contracting Command–Warren. McMartin earned his J.D. from the University of Detroit-Mercy Law School and has been a member of the Michigan State Bar since 2008. He is twice the recipient of the Army Achievement Medal for Civilian Service, and a recipient of the Army Civilian Service Commendation Medal.

Maury Peiperl is co-author of the leading textbook on change management, Managing Change (McGraw Hill), as well as two books on careers and work, Career Frontiers and Career Creativity (Oxford) and the central reference in the careers field, The Handbook of Career Studies (Sage). He has also published in Harvard Business Review, Academy of Management Review, Human Resource Management, Group Organization Management and the Journal of International Business Studies, among others.

Prior to joining George Mason University, he was Director (Dean) of Cranfield School of Management, one of the UK’s leading MBA and Executive Development institutions, as well as a Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Cranfield University. Before Cranfield, Peiperl spent 10 years as Professor of Leadership and Strategic Change at IMD in Switzerland, where he developed and directed numerous executive development courses and held a variety of administrative roles. Before becoming a professor he worked for IBM, Merrill Lynch and LEK Consulting and as a research fellow at Harvard Business School.

Peiperl holds a BS in Engineering from Princeton University and an MBA, AM and PhD from Harvard University. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Deniece Peterson is Sr. Director of Federal Market Analysis at Deltek, leading an analyst team responsible for GovWin’s strategic research and analysis of federal budgets and spending, market trends, technology and acquisition policy, and business development best practices.

Peterson has over 20 years of experience in government contracting, market research and management consulting. Prior to her role with Deltek, Peterson worked for small businesses as a business and go-to-market strategy consultant, market research manager, and federal marketing course curriculum developer and instructor.

Peterson holds a BA in Economics and an MBA from the University of Denver.

Mr. William (Will) Roe Roberts is currently head of Acquisitions for the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC)/Chief Digital and AI Officer (CDAO), Office of the Department of Defense in Arlington, Virginia. Will is responsible for ensuring that acquisition pathways and methodologies are centered on the JAIC mission of providing AI capabilities to the warfighter and DoD workforce. The work includes creating enabling guides, advice, and contract vehicles to assist the DoD services in the unique nature of AI as an emerging technology and how to tailor DoD contracting to meet this need.


Previously, Will was a Contracting Officer (CO) for the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force (SAF), and worked Acquisition policy for the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) where he provided expertise on service acquisition policy for DoDEA. Additionally, he drafted the Service Acquisition Strategy (SAS) and Procurement Policy Memorandum (PPM) for the agency that incorporated current Federal procurement laws and policies and provided clear guidance and templates to ensure accurate reporting on elements such as Inherently Governmental Functions (IGFs), critical functions, and personal services.


Will became a member of the ABA and Florida Bar as of 2011, receiving his law degree from Stetson University College of Law. During his legal studies, he became fascinated with contract law and commercial business principles. Originally determined to privately practice within the Tampa Florida area, he was later exposed to Federal Contracting and the Federal Acquisition Regulation. Desiring to be “closer to the action” – he has since maintained a role as “Contracting Officer” over legal advisor and has been involved in negotiating contracts for the past ten years.

Dr. Kamaljeet Sanghera is the Executive Director of the Institute for Digital InnovAtion (IDIA) at George Mason University where her team supports the research community in the pursuit of cutting-edge work to share the future digital society. Before assuming the IDIA role, Dr. Sanghera served as the Executive Director of STEM Outreach for the Volgenau School of Engineering. She was also the Associate Chair of the Information Sciences and Technology department. Dr. Sanghera is a founding member of Virginia’s Governor’s STEM commission. She serves on the executive board of the Northern Virginia Computer Science Teachers’s Association and is on the advisory board of STEM for Her. Dr. Sanghera received the NCWIT Extension Services Award to implement systemic change to increase enrollment, retention, and graduation of women in technology and engineering undergraduate programs. Her efforts have positively contributed to the Go Virginia Tech Talent Pipeline initiative, where she worked closely with Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA), the Fairfax County Government Office, the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC), and Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS). Dr. Sanghera is also an active member of the Students and Technology in Academia, Research, and Service (STARS) program and the National Center of Women in Technology (NCWIT). She has worked on the Sisters Rise Up grant by Reboot Representation. Dr. Sanghera worked with AWS and NVCC in introducing the first BAS in the Cloud Computing degree. For these efforts, Education Dive, a digital publication for the education industry, gave George Mason University a highly regarded Higher Ed “Partnership of the Year” award.

Dr. Shree W. Taylor leads the Government Analytics & Innovation team at Elder Research. Formally trained as a computational mathematician, she has been delighted to create a rewarding non-traditional career centered around mathematics, business and innovation. She has served clients in the government, private and non-profit sectors for over 15 years, and is known for presenting highly technical analyses and topics to non-technical audiences in a format that is relatable and relevant to customers and stakeholders. Dr. Taylor loves to develop leaders; she is an authentic, empathetic and adaptive leader who engages with colleagues to help them reach their team and individual goals.

Dr. Taylor is a first-generation college graduate and is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. She earned her BS and MS in mathematics from Clark Atlanta University and her PhD in applied/computational mathematics from North Carolina State University. After post-doctoral research at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Dr. Taylor joined the Center for Naval Analyses where she worked on challenges of interest to the US Navy and Marine Corps.  She recently completed the Executive Master’s in Leadership Program from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.

Josh leads LMI’s concept development and customer delivery of capabilities for advanced analytics and artificial intelligence (AI), data and enterprise operations, and digital solutions. He previously served as LMI’s vice president of advanced analytics, directing a team that helped federal agencies leverage analytic-driven innovation to materially improve citizen services and operational performance as well as develop capabilities organically.

As a senior executive officer of the LMI Research Institute and LMI Ventures, the latter of which he helped establish, Josh manages a portfolio of partnerships, developing enterprise data management, modeling and simulation, and AI solutions so LMI can address immediate client challenges.

Prior to LMI, Josh was a U.S. Army officer, serving two overseas tours focused on infrastructure reconstruction efforts in Iraq. He later joined Deloitte’s public-sector practice, where he specialized in analytics-driven business model transformation and strategic planning engagements. Josh holds a bachelor’s in systems engineering from the U.S. Military Academy and a master’s in engineering management from Missouri University of Science and Technology.