​ Izzy Khawaja is a technology and program leadership professional with more than 10 years of experience guiding public- and private-sector organizations through large-scale modernization, digital transformation, and operational efficiency initiatives. With a background spanning analytics, program management, and emerging technologies, Izzy specializes in turning complex challenges across legacy environments into clear, actionable strategies that deliver measurable business value.

​ Izzy has led cross-functional teams across healthcare, transportation, government, logistics, and enterprise technology programs, helping organizations adopt modern platforms, automate workflows, and strengthen data-driven decision-making. At A&I Strategic Solutions, Izzy oversees strategic programs, partner engagements, and modernization efforts that help customers transition from legacy systems to connected, AI-enabled operational ecosystems.

​ Kelly Skiba is a Regional Sales Manager – Electrification at U.S. Energy®, helping fleets, ports, and municipalities deploy practical charging solutions for heavy-duty vehicles. Specializing in Volt Vault™ EV charging, Kelly works with organizations to bridge infrastructure gaps and keep operations moving. With over 7 years in industrial and manufacturing sales, Kelly now serves the Upper Midwest and Northeast U.S., guiding customers through electrification strategies that balance reliability and flexibility. An active member of Wisconsin Clean Cities and RENEW Wisconsin, Kelly brings a collaborative approach to advancing sustainable transportation for fleets of all sizes.

Mr. C.N. "Nick" Parham currently serves as the Chief, Office of Maritime Cybersecurity Policy (CG-MCP), where he oversees efforts for overarching policy and guidance that support the implementation of the MTSA cybersecurity regulations and CG-5P’s cybersecurity missions for Coast Guard field activities. These efforts are critical to the facilitation of commerce in the maritime industry.

​Previously, he was a Marine Transportation System (MTS) Cybersecurity Coordinator for the Coast Guard's Atlantic Area Command (LANT Area) where he had served since January of 2021. The area of responsibility for LANT Area encompasses all inland and coastal maritime operations east of the Rocky Mountains including Puerto Rico with oversight of Marine Transportation System Specialist-Cybersecurity (MTSS-C) personnel stationed at five District offices and their thirty-one subordinate units. In this position, Nick was responsible for development and execution of Coast Guard cybersecurity regulations and policies impacting maritime transportation system stakeholders. He was also responsible for the strategic coordination of missions conducted by thirty-nine MTSS-Cs assigned within LANT Area. As the MTS Cybersecurity Coordinator, Mr. Parham operationalized the Coast Guard’s Cyber Strategic Outlook by building relationships between Coast Guard units, especially between Coast Guard Cyber Command and the local field units, to deliver much needed resources to national MTS critical infrastructure. This was delivered through Cyber Protection Team (CPT) assessment and response missions as well as enhancing cyber resiliency through shoreside and vessel security

Mark Lester is the Information Security General Manager at the South Carolina Ports Authority, where he leads efforts to enhance cybersecurity resilience across one of the nation’s most critical maritime infrastructures. A graduate of The Citadel and former U.S. Air Force Officer, he brings over 20 years of Department of Defense contracting experience supporting national security missions.​

​In addition to his leadership role at the Port, Mr. Lester serves as an Adjunct Professor in The Citadel’s Department of Cyber and Computer Sciences, bridging academic excellence with real-world cybersecurity challenges. He is an active member of numerous advisory and working groups, including The Citadel Cybersecurity Advisory Board, the FBI Critical Infrastructure Working Group, the U.S. Coast Guard’s Area Maritime Security Committee Cyber Subcommittee, and the South Carolina Council on Competitiveness’ CyberSecureSC initiative.

​Mr. Lester has participated in high-profile cybersecurity exercises such as the U.S. Army Cyber Institute’s Jack Voltaic 2.5 and 3.0 and holds advanced certifications including CISSP, DHS Cyberterrorism Defender, and DHS Cyberterrorism First Responder. Beyond his professional commitments, he plays bagpipes, is an avid reader, periodic chess player, and a licensed Amateur Extra Class ham radio operator.

​Captain Kate Higgins-Bloom took command of U.S. Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay in June 2023, where she leads 815 active duty, reserve, and civilian personnel: 2,100 Coast Guard Auxiliary volunteers, and 17 Coast Guard field units across three states. Sector Delaware Bay is responsible for all Coast Guard missions – ranging from search and rescue to securing a marine transportation system that contributes over $90 billion annually to the regional economy – across much of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and all of Delaware out to 200 miles offshore.

​Kate’s previous staff assignments included Chief of the Office of Emergency Management and Disaster Response, where she set service wide policy and doctrine for Coast Guard emergency management and incident response. Prior to assuming leadership of CG-OEM, she was a member of the Coast Guard’s Office of Emerging Policy (CG-DCO-X). At DCO-X she led the Service’s strategic foresight program, Project Evergreen, and spearheaded the creation of enterprise strategies such as the 2019 Coast Guard Arctic Strategic Outlook and the 2020 tri-service maritime strategy “Advantage at Sea.” Other staff tours include Executive Fellow at the Brookings Institution and White House Fellow in the Executive Office of the President.

Kate has held a variety of operational leadership roles afloat and ashore. She led the Sector Hampton Roads Command Center to coordinate over 1200 “all hazards” maritime responses by 35 different government agencies, saving 713 lives and safeguarding more than $95 billion in commerce. Afloat, she commanded USCGC BARANOF (WPB- 1318) during a yearlong deployment in the Arabian Gulf. She has also deployed with incident management teams to oil spills and presidential inaugurations; serving as an action officer for the Principal Federal Official for Hurricane Katrina and for Operation Allies Welcome. Kate graduated from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy with a B.S. in Civil Engineering, and from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government with a Master of Public Administration.​

CAPT (Ret.) André Murphy is Co-Founder of Captain and Commander Cyber Services. He previously served as the Senior Federal Technical Strategist in the Office of the CTO for CrowdStrike. Performing Federal CTO duties, he led company strategic initiatives across product, engineering, Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC), sales and marketing groups better aligning the CrowdStrike Platform to Federal Civilian, DoD, and Intelligence Community cybersecurity priorities, enabling mission outcomes.​

André retired from the U.S. Coast Guard in 2023 after serving as the Chief Information Security Officer. He capped off his 26-year military career by leading initiatives to mature the Coast Guard’s Cybersecurity Strategy, developing cybersecurity policies and standards to manage enterprise information security risk, establishing cyber governance bodies for the service’s information security program as well as co-chairing a committee to steer Zero Trust projects.

He previously provided cybersecurity and mission assurance serving as the Information System Owner and Program Manager for the Coast Guard’s Combat Management System. He led risk assessments to minimize residual risk using the NIST Risk Management Framework enabling the Coast Guard to use the system to interdict over $640M in illegal narcotics.

André received a master’s in software engineering from Auburn University and holds the following professional certifications: Certified Information Systems Security Professional, Certified Information Security Manager, Certified Cloud Security Professional, ISA 62442 Cybersecurity Fundamentals Specialist and ISA 62443 Cybersecurity Risk Assessment Specialist.

A former ship agent and logistics provider with over a decade of hands-on port operations experience, I now focus on building practical digital tools that match the realities of marine operations.​

Nawaf Nazir is a Staff Research Scientist in the Energy and Environment directorate (EED) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA. His work is at the intersection of optimization, control systems and machine learning with applications to interconnected energy and transportation systems . He is the Principal Investigator of several multi-million dollar Department of Energy and ARPA-E projects related to energy efficiency and resiliency, in which he has managed a diverse team of researchers at PNNL in addition to collaborating with academia, government, and industry. He uses his knowledge in convex and non- convex optimization to solve large-scale optimization problems in energy systems in a scalable manner with the goal of improving system resiliency, reliability and efficiency. He has spearheaded and chaired several workshops and panels at venues such as Transportation Research Board (TRB), Power and Energy Society (PES) General Meeting, PES Grid-edge conference, American Control Conference, INFORMS and SIAM. He is a Senior Member of IEEE, an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Power Systems (TPWRS), an Associate Editor of IEEE Control Systems Society, a member of the IEEE Transportation Electrification Council, and a member of the Transportation Energy committee of TRB. He holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech and a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Vermont. ​

Suresh Vijayakumar joined Honeywell Process Solutions in 2011 as a Technical Consultant and over the years, he has risen to the position of Global Business Development Manager for Telecommunication, Industrial Security and One Wireless Business. With around 22 years of experience in the Telecommunication and Security industries, and 17 of those years at Honeywell, Suresh is a distinguished Subject Matter Expert in his field.

His expertise spans a wide range of systems including Access Control Systems (ACS), Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV), Perimeter Intrusion Detection Systems (PIDS), Radar Video Surveillance Systems (RVS), Local Area Networks (LAN), Wide Area Networks (WAN), Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN), Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS), Public Address/General Alarm (PA/GA) systems, UHF/VHF Radios, Structured Cabling and Intercom Systems within the industrial sector. Suresh has extensive experience working across North America, EMEA, and APAC regions, demonstrating his ability to manage and execute complex projects globally.

Before his tenure at Honeywell, Suresh held several significant roles including Solution Architect for Defense & Homeland Security at Tata Advanced Systems, Lead Engineer at Honeywell Automation India Ltd, and a position at SAMC within Reliance Infocomm. His academic credentials include a Bachelor's degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering and a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration.

At Honeywell, Suresh has played a crucial role in winning projects of various scales, from large-scale undertakings to smaller ventures. He regularly engages in customer presentations, roadshows, demos, user group presentations, global webinars, and training sessions to promote Honeywell’s solutions and share his expertise.

Berto Ponce is a data and systems engineering leader with more than a decade of experience helping ports, logistics operators, federal programs, and Fortune 100 enterprises modernize their most complex operational environments. With an engineering mindset and a background in analytics, architecture, and integration, Berto specializes in bridging legacy OT systems with modern IT and AI-driven platforms to improve decision- making, visibility, and operational flow.

He has led and supported large-scale modernization efforts across supply chain logistics, health, transportation, automotive, finance, and insurance. Today, he leads strategic initiatives at A&I Strategic Solutions, where he helps organizations evaluate, adopt, and deploy connected-intelligence solutions, including ForgeTrack, that enhance resilience across the full intermodal ecosystem.