Contact Information: Contacts: Judy Napier Deputy Secretary of Technology Commonwealth of Virginia 804-786-9579 Email Contact Kaitlyn Caterinicchia Media Coordinator COVITS 2007 703-742-7178 Email Contact
COVITS 2007 Agenda Features Former Governor Mark Warner, Executives From CEB, Sycamore Networks, and Google
| Source: COVITS 2007
RICHMOND, VA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- May 14, 2007 -- Virginia Secretary of Technology Aneesh P.
Chopra today announced the addition of key speakers to the COVITS 2007
agenda: former Governor Mark R. Warner, Jay McGonigle, Chairman of
Corporate Executive Board Co., Gururaj "Desh" Deshpande, Chairman and
Founder of Sycamore Networks Inc. and donor of the Deshpande Center for
Technological Innovation at MIT, and Michael Bradshaw, Head of Federal
Enterprise for Google, Inc. They join Secretary Chopra and Lemuel C.
Stewart, Chief Information Officer of the Commonwealth of Virginia, on the
roster of speakers for the conference.
"At the intersection of innovation and operational excellence, we have
found leaders who will inspire attendees with what they have achieved and
what they are planning," Chopra said. "We'll learn about the urgency of
aligning innovation to public sector needs like renewable energy, about
immersion in best practices to foster innovation in large, complex
enterprises, and about ways to link university and community leaders in
solutions to regional challenges such as low-cost broadband access, job
opportunities through telework in rural areas, or micro-health insurance."
COVITS, the Commonwealth of Virginia Innovative Technology Symposium,
attracts senior-level executives and decision makers in technology from
state and local government, business, and education. The ninth annual
conference will be held September 16-18 in Chantilly, Va, supported by key
industry sponsors including Northrop Grumman, CGI, Verizon Business,
Northern Virginia Technology Council, Microsoft, Dominion Resources,
Oracle, Cisco, GTSI, Virginia.gov and Carilion Health System. The
conference's media partners include Government Technology, Public CIO, and
Emergency Management.
As the Commonwealth of Virginia continues to build on its landmark $2
billion public-private partnership to modernize its IT infrastructure, the
COVITS 2007 theme of "Proceeding in Partnership" focuses on incorporating
innovation to drive up performance in government operations. In addition to
celebrating state and local agency case studies that advance Virginia's
Strategic Plan for IT, the COVITS 2007 program devotes attention to three
research and development topics: the role of IT in lowering energy
consumption; the value of modeling and simulation to manage project risk;
and surfacing tomorrow's microelectronics devices that will transform
education and transportation.
Former Governor Mark Warner served as governor of Virginia from 2002 until
January 2006. His administration inherited $6 billion in budget
shortfalls... and ended with a surplus that allowed the largest single
investment in K-12 education in Virginia history, a reinvestment in one of
the nation's premier public college and university systems -- and a record
investment in cleanup of the nation's largest estuary, the Chesapeake Bay.
Governor Warner did this by cutting budgets, finding efficiencies and
making business-like reforms to state government and public schools, and
eventually taking on a modernization of Virginia's entire tax code to
promote fairness, long-term fiscal integrity, and the preservation of core
services. He put a focus on economic development in areas hard hit by job
losses -- turning around jobless rates in those regions. Along the way, he
chaired the National Governors Association, leading a national high school
reform effort to meet the challenges of a global economy. He was named
among Governing Magazine's "Public Officials of the Year" in 2004, TIME
Magazine's "America's 5 Best Governors" in 2005, and Newsweek's "Who's
Next" issue in 2006.
Jay McGonigle is Chairman of the Corporate Executive Board Company, with
responsibility for board operations, strategic oversight and select talent
development at this public company (NASDAQ : EXBD ). CEB is the leading
provider of best practices research and analysis focusing on corporate
strategy, operations and general management issues. CEB provides its
integrated set of services to more than 3,000 of the world's largest and
most prestigious corporations, including over 80% of the Fortune 500. These
services include best practices research studies, executive education
seminars, customized research briefs and Web-based access to a library of
corporate best practices, benchmarking databases and decision-support
tools.
Gururaj "Desh" Deshpande, Founder and Chairman of Sycamore Networks, Inc.,
is an influential technology entrepreneur and visionary whose companies and
ideas often reshape entire industries. Led by Dr. Deshpande's vision and
direction, Sycamore has helped create a fundamental paradigm shift in the
role and architecture of the optical network -- transforming a once static
optical infrastructure into an intelligent and dynamic network foundation
for the delivery of new services. Dr. Deshpande serves as a member of the
MIT Corporation, and his generous donations have made possible MIT's
Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation. The Deshpande Center was
created to serve as a catalyst for innovation and entrepreneurship by
supporting research and collaboration among entrepreneurs, young companies,
and MIT students, alumni, and faculty.
Michael Bradshaw, Head of Federal Enterprise, Google, Inc., manages
Google's business with the U.S. government. He leads a team based in
Washington, D.C., responsible for selling and marketing Google's innovative
Enterprise solutions to the federal government. Mike began his career in
IBM Federal as a systems engineer and moved into account management of
Civilian Agencies. He also worked for Oracle in their Mid-Atlantic
commercial sector. Mike received his MBA from George Washington University,
and his undergraduate degree from the College of William and Mary.
About COVITS, www.covits.org
COVITS (the Commonwealth of Virginia's Innovative Technology Symposium)
annually brings together senior-level executives and technology decision
makers from state and local government, business, and education to propose
and discuss solutions to Virginia's critical technology issues. The
conference, in its ninth year, is hosted by Virginia's Secretary of
Technology, Aneesh P. Chopra, on behalf of Governor Timothy M. Kaine.
For more information about COVITS 2007, call 703-481-5242 or visit
www.covits.org.