HSDF 4th Annual Border Security Symposium

The Homeland Security & Defense Forum (HSDF) is proud to present, in partnership with GSIS, its 2021 HSDF Border Security Symposium from Thursday, December 9, 2021.

This virtual forum features senior government leaders from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, the U.S. Border Patrol, and DHS Headquarters, as well as industry experts, and more!

The program includes timely discussions on The CBP Budgetary Outlook, Overview of Border Patrol Operational Needs and Requirements, Leadership, Acquisition, & Technology to Enhance Border Security, Ports of the Future and Supply Chain Risk Management, and Utilizing 5G and the Internet of Things to Enable Mission Success.

Videos

Agenda

Speaker Bios

Exhibit Hall

Sonny Bhagowalia, Assistant Commissioner and CIO, Office of Information & Technology, U.S. Customs and Border Protection

At the United States (U.S.) Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Mr. Sanjeev “Sonny” Bhagowalia currently holds the Senior Executive Service position of Assistant Commissioner (AC), Office of Information and Technology (OIT) and CBP Chief Information Officer (CIO). Mr. Bhagowalia has over 36 years of senior technical, managerial and executive leadership experience in private industry, the U.S. Government, and state government. Mr. Bhagowalia has spent over 21 of those years in senior executive capacity, including over 17 years as a member of the Senior Executive Service (SES), one year as a ...

Bob Costello, Chief Information Officer, CISA

Robert (Bob) Costello is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). As the CIO, he leads the Agency’s efforts to develop, deploy, secure, and support technology solutions for the agency. Prior to this, he was a Public Sector Civilian Strategic Advisor at World Wide Technology. In this role, he engaged with federal government customers to identify and solve their most complex challenges, leveraging his extensive federal agency experience to develop and deliver innovative solutions that meet their needs and serve their mission. Bob brings ...

Luke McCormack, Former DHS Chief Information Officer

Mr. Luke McCormack served as CIO for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from December 2013 to January 2017. In that role, he oversaw and coordinated management of the Department’s 22 agencies, and was responsible for always-evolving strategy and execution of enhanced IT management and security initiatives. Mr. McCormack has extensive IT and leadership experience, both inside and outside of DHS, as well as in the public and private sectors. He previously served at the Department of Justice as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Information Resources Management/Chief Information Officer, where ...

David Aguilar, Principal at GSIS and Former Deputy Commissioner of CBP and Chief of U.S. Border Patrol

David Aguilar is a Principal at GSIS. At GSIS, Mr. Aguilar advises clients on a broad range of national homeland and international security matters including border security and logistics, global trade and commerce, supply chain management and security, risk management, viability assessments, and strategic planning and implementation. Mr. Aguilar focuses on tailoring global risk management solutions related to supply chain security, customs compliance, and all issues related to border protection at and between international ports of entry. Mr. Aguilar had a distinguished 35 year career in federal law enforcement, having ...

Randolph “Tex” Alles, Acting Under Secretary for Management Department of Homeland Security

Randolph D. “Tex” Alles became the Deputy Under Secretary for Management in July 2019. In his role, Mr. Alles oversees Department-wide management and oversight for all support functions, such as Information Technology, budget and financial management, procurement, human capital, security, and asset management. Mr. Alles previously held several leadership positions at the Department of Homeland Security. Most recently, he served as the 25th Director of the United States Secret Service from April 2017 to April 2019. As Director, he was responsible for the successful execution of the dual Investigative and ...

Raul Ortiz, Chief U.S. Border Patrol

Raul L. Ortiz became the 25th Chief of the United States Border Patrol on August 15, 2021. He oversees domestic border security operations outside the Ports of Entry along our nation’s borders, which includes more than 5,000 miles with Canada, nearly 2,000 miles with Mexico, hundreds of coastal miles, and our territories in the Caribbean. He proudly leads more than 20,000 Border Patrol Agents and Professional Staff across the country as they perform the homeland security mission. Chief Ortiz draws over 30 years of law enforcement experience to ensure the ...

Jeffrey Caine, Chief Financial Officer, U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Mr. Jeffrey Caine currently serves as the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Assistant Commissioner (AC) for the Office of Finance (OF). In this role, he serves as the principal advisor to CBP leadership for budgetary and fiscal matters for a $17 billion appropriated and fee-funded budget, as well as revenue collection and management, accounting policy and systems, internal controls, financial operations, and audit administration. Prior to his current position, he served as the CBP Deputy CFO and Deputy AC for OF. He returned to ...

Patrick Casey, Chief Technology Officer, EVP of DevOps & Global Head of Engineering ServiceNow

Patrick Casey was one of the founders of ServiceNow, and worked with Fred on the Company before it was incorporated, before joining officially in March of 2006. He currently serves as ServiceNow’s Chief Technology Officer, EVP of DevOps & Global Head of Engineering. He previously served as Senior Vice President of Platform Engineering, and Principal Architect, both roles focused on the ServiceNow platform. Prior to joining ServiceNow, Casey was the Product Author of the application suite at Peregrine Systems, Inc from 1998 – 2000, and held positions at Adobe Software ...

Cameron Chehreh, Federal CTO and VP, Pre-Sales Engineering Dell Technologies

Cameron Chehreh currently serves as Chief Technology Officer and Vice President Pre-Sales Engineering for Dell Technologies Federal. In this role, Cameron is responsible for strategy execution, leadership, and innovation management for Dell Technologies portfolio for the Civilian Government, Department of Defense and Intelligence Community customers worldwide. Prior to joining Dell, Cameron was CTO of General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) Intelligence Solutions Division, providing innovative solutions across the Intelligence Community. While at GDIT he also founded a commercial cyber security company under the GD brand to bring commercial best practices to ...

Adam Clater, Chief Architect, North America Public Sector, Red Hat

Adam Clater is the Chief Architect for Red Hat’s North America Public Sector organization. He works internationally with federal agencies, integrators and Red Hat partners & Communities to promote and define the use of enterprise open source solutions. Adam is passionate about the use of enterprise supported open source innovation for the betterment of government and our nation and has been recognized as a thought leader within Red Hat and throughout the public sector industry. Adam is frequently published in GovEec, Government Computing News, FedTech Magazine and other publications ...

Kurt Farber Director, DHS CBP TASPD Program Manager, Defense & Civilian Sector SAIC

Leads the CBP Targeting Analysis Systems Program Directorate (TASPD) supporting mission critical CBP solutions that help secure our nation’s borders ...

Christopher Long, Founder, Homeland Security and Defense Forum

Christopher Long is a small businessman from Vienna, VA who has worked for over thirty years to shape public policy that supports innovation, economic growth, security and a better quality of life for society. A focus has been on the modernization of government IT infrastructures to deliver new, better, and more efficient services for a more citizen-centric government. Another has been supporting the homeland and national security missions. Over his career, Mr. Long has founded several organizations to support good policy and facilitate industry-government collaboration, including his firm, Washington Resource ...

Tom Overacker, Executive Director, Cargo and Conveyance Security Office of Field Operations U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Mr. Overacker currently holds the Senior Executive Service position of Executive Director, Cargo and Conveyance Security, Office of Field Operations, in Washington, DC. In this key role, Mr. Overacker provides leadership for all aspects of CBP’s cargo processing and trade operations at Ports of Entry and Centers of Excellence and Expertise (Centers). He oversees non-intrusive inspection and radiation detection technology for the agency; policies and procedures for cargo verification and cargo control; and for trade compliance. He also directs the Customs – Trade Partnership against Terrorism (C-TPAT), and the Container ...

Liz Schmelzinger, GSIS

Elizabeth B. Schmelzinger has 35 years of experience in Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Department of Homeland Security. Ms. Schmelzinger retired from CBP as the Director of the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT). CTPAT is a voluntary public-private sector partnership program which recognizes that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) can provide the highest level of cargo security only through close relationships with the principal stakeholders of the international supply chain. Ms. Schmelzinger led the re-engineering effort to update CTPAT Minimum Security Standards in close partnership with ...

Chris Wurst, Executive Director, Enterprise Networks and Technology Support Directorate, CBP

Christopher Wurst was appointed as Executive Director, Enterprise Networks and Technology Support Directorate (ENTSD) at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency in March 2021. ENTSD manages the largest data network in DHS by providing support to over 1,500 CBP locations worldwide; this includes providing all cloud connectivity, supporting four datacenters, as well as the world’s largest Land Mobile Radio (LMR) network. The team also provides mobility solutions, maintenance on non-intrusive inspection equipment, LMR infrastructure support, and solutions for the effective deployment of new technologies at CBP. ENTSD is made ...

Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency at DHS

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) works with partners to defend against today’s threats and collaborates to build more secure and resilient infrastructure for the future. CISA’s new logo officially launched April 30, 2020 and has layers of meaning representing the Agency and its mission.

The threats we face—digital and physical, man-made, technological, and natural—are more complex, and the threat actors more diverse, than at any point in our history. CISA (pronounced phonetically like ‘sissa’) is at the heart of mobilizing a collective defense as we lead the Nation’s efforts to understand and manage risk to our critical infrastructure.

Our partners in this mission span the public and private sectors. Programs and services we provide are driven by our comprehensive understanding of the risk environment and the corresponding needs identified by our stakeholders. We seek to help organizations better manage risk and increase resilience using all available resources, whether provided by the Federal Government, commercial vendors, or their own capabilities.

As organizations navigate through unchartered waters, more and more are turning to Dell Technologies to solve their toughest technology and mission challenges. When you need us most, you know Dell Technologies will be there. Now more than ever, you need an ally by your side who has the technology expertise, end-to-end solutions, world-class services and relentless spirit to help your agency so that you can be prepared for what comes next. Accelerate digital transformation with Dell Technologies.

Dell Technologies

Red Hat continues to serve as a trusted partner for government agencies, providing modern practices and technologies that can help your agency innovate while meeting regulatory requirements and reducing risk.

Government agencies need to modernize and transform services to more quickly adapt to evolving mission needs and meet the expectations of their stakeholders. Red Hat brings an open framework and broad solution portfolio to help agencies accelerate innovation by uniting people, processes, and technology. We enable agencies to benefit from the best of open source innovation while mitigating risk.

Red Hat products are tested, certified, and supported, to help your agency securely meet its mission with more efficiency, agility, and speed.

America's Partnership for Homeland, Cyber, and National Security

HSDF 4th Annual Border Security Symposium

December 9, 2021

HSDF 4th Annual Border Security Symposium

Jeff Caine, CFO at U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency, Fireside Chat with Chris Long

Border Patrol Operational Needs and Requirements with US Border Chief Raul Ortiz and David Aguilar

Leadership, Acquisition, and Technology to Enhance Border Security. With Undersecretary Tex Alles

Panel Discussion: Ports of the Future and Supply Chain Risk Management

Panel Discussion: Utilizing 5G and Internet of Things to Enable Mission Success