Center Experts

Key Areas of Expertise:

• Selling to local, state and federal agencies
• Sales management
• Strategic planning
• Emergency notification technology
• Business management & turnaround
• Acquisitions

Rick Wimberly is a well-established professional and subject matter expert in the areas of public safety, alerts/warnings/notifications, homeland security, communications and government information technology.  He’s been in a leadership role pioneering two of the most accepted public safety products of the last fifteen years.  He currently serves as President of Government Selling Solutions (GSS), a sales training and consulting firm for companies seeking to improve their government selling business.

Previously, Wimberly held various business development and management positions at Dialogic Communications Corporation, a leader in critical public safety notification.  Here Wimberly’s efforts included Presidential cabinet-level briefings and development of relationships nationwide with key public safety officials. 

Communications solutions Wimberly introduced to Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Centers for Disease Control, and Federal Bureau of Investigation have become agency standards. Local government public safety relationships include cities, large and small, (i.e. Los Angeles, Boston, Seattle, and Baltimore) as well as regional consortiums and states. 

Prior to this, Wimberly was Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Zarc International, the top provider of non-lethal weaponry/pepper spray to public safety and military.  High-profile federal business relationships included the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, and Department of Defense.  The product was also used extensively by local public safety and was involved in peacekeeping initiatives (Somalia, Guantanamo Bay, Rwanda).  Internationally, he briefed most senior officials of the world’s second largest Army.

Wimberly is a frequent author and speaker on selling to government and emergency notification technology.  He and business partner Lorin Bristow are featured bloggers and authors for Emergency Management magazine.  They have also co-written a widely acclaimed book Seven Myths of Selling to Government.

Wimberly is also very active in creative problem-solving programs.  He holds leadership positions with Destination Imagination (DI), which has enhanced problem-solving and teamwork skills of millions of students worldwide. 

Gopal Khanna has a long history of industry, public, and civic leadership.  Most recently he served as CIO for the State of Minnesota. Prior to assuming his position in Governor Tim Pawlenty’s Cabinet, Khanna served in the administration of President George W. Bush, where he held several senior policy positions including CIO and CFO of the Peace Corps and CFO of the Executive Office of the President/Office of Administration. Prior to his service in government, Khanna held C-Suite and VP positions in the industry. 

Khanna has a reputation for his innovative thinking and transformational work in bringing government operations into the digital age - launching and setting in motion data center consolidation, e-licensing systems, and iGov programs.  His expertise in creating new, high-performing, and scalable organizations has led to a shared services model across multi-jurisdictions and saved stakeholders over $200M.  He has written about the need for a new doctrine on containing and managing cyber security threats, and has established a nation-leading cyber security program that provides the policy and standards framework for the executive branch and all units of government in the state.  As an industry leader Khanna led a five-state consortium to provide a game-changing approach to modernizing federally funded legacy systems in state and local jurisdictions. 

Most recently, Khanna was elected Chair for the Commission on Service Innovation, chartered to provide recommendations on how to restructure and improve the overall delivery of services to citizens by all governmental entities and jurisdictions. Additionally, Khanna serves as a member of Health Information Technology (HIT) Policy & Standards Committees’ Enrollment Workgroup, chaired by President Obama’s Chief Technology Officer at The White House, which has been tasked to develop a set of standards to facilitate enrollment in federal and state health and human services programs.

Elected by state CIOs across the country, Khanna served as president of the National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO) for 2008-2009.  He raised the organization’s and State CIO’s profile by building stronger working relationships with the National Governor’s Association (NGA); the National Council on State Legislators (NCSL); federal partners, i.e., The White House, OMB, DHS, HHS, ONC, and CMS; and other industry associations like MS-ISAC and NISGIC.

His work in the industry has earned Khanna many accolades, awards and recognitions. He is a recipient of the prestigious Federal 100 Award for his work on leveraging technology to change and modernize the operations of the United States Peace Corps. Khanna was cited by Government Technology as one of the 2009 doers, dreamers, and drivers for his work in furthering public-private partnership, cross-boundary collaboration, and transformation in state government; and by Information Week as one of “The Government CIO 50” in the United States for his leadership in the public sector. In April 2010, Khanna was listed by Twin Cities Business in “200 Minnesotans You Should Know” and in February 2011 named as one of the Premier 100 IT leaders in recognition of his achievements and “strategic vision and seamless leadership through turbulent times.”

Khanna currently serves as a member of the governing body of the Global CIO Executive Summit. He is also a member of the Harvard Policy Group on Networked-Enabled Services and Government at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and is a Senior Fellow and a member of the Board of Advisors of TLI at the University of Minnesota. An active member of the Minnesota community, Khanna currently serves as the president of TiE – Minnesota; member of the board of trustees of the Hindu Society of Minnesota; and member of the Nobel Peace Prize Forum. He has a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Maine and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) from Christ Church College, Kanpur, India.

Key Areas of Expertise:

• Designing, implementing and guiding large scale Performance Management Systems
• Assisting with implementing technology to improve customer satisfaction
• Assisting organizations with change management; business process mapping and improvement
• Helping the corporate world understand and work effectively with the public sector
• Leadership and motivational speaking

Until September of 2007 Bill served as Chief of Staff to Governors Kaine and Warner of Virginia. 

As Chief of Staff, Bill served as the Chief Operating Officer of the Commonwealth.  In 2005, Governing Magazine named Virginia the “Best Managed State in the Nation” and in 2007, Governing Magazine named him one of the nine “Public Officials of the Year.”

Prior to serving as Chief of Staff, Bill was the Director of the Virginia Retirement System, where he led the agency to three consecutive United States Senate Productivity Awards.  In July of 2008, Bill completed a performance review of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund, a $52 billion pension system.  Recently, Bill also completed an engagement with the Scottish Executive; advising the government on how to implement a national performance management system.

Bill joined state government after serving in the United States Marine Corps.  Bill graduated from Mary Washington College in 1978, and holds an MBA from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Key Areas of Expertise:

• Economic Development
• Workforce Training
• Telecommunications
• Financial Literacy
• Community Development
• Social Networking for Government Officials & Non-Profits
• Green Economy & Green Job Development

 

Alan Williams graduated from Rickards High School in 1993 and earned his B.S. and M.B.A. degrees in Business Administration from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU).

In November 2008, Williams was elected to the Florida House of Representatives by the voters of District 8, encompassing parts of Leon and Gadsden Counties. Representative Williams serves on the Energy and Utilities Policy Committee, General Government Policy Council, Government Accountability Act Council, Government Appropriations Committee, the Joint Committee of Public Council Oversight, and the Joint Committee on Collective Bargaining.

In the years immediately before his election, Williams was an Aide to Tallahassee Mayor John Marks, serving as liaison between the community and the Office of the Mayor. He advised the Mayor on appointments to all city advisory boards and represented the Mayor's interests as a board member for the Tallahassee Visitors and Area Convention Bureau and the NASA Challenger Learning Center Board of Advisors.

Williams offers his time to several community charities and organizations. One of his favorites is "Voices to Action", an organization of young professionals dedicated to improving the lives of foster care children in Tallahassee. Representative Williams also serves in numerous civic capacities. He is an active and enthusiastic member of Leadership Tallahassee, Opportunity Tallahassee, Leadership Florida, area Chambers of Commerce, United Way of the Big Bend Board of Directors and the United States Commission on Civil Right Advisory Committee, to name but a few.

Key Areas of Expertise:

• Alliance Management
• Change Management
• IT Policy and Planning
• Performance Measurement and Management

George Beard is a Hatfield Scholar and the director of the PSU lean government program.

Beard has over 20 years of experience in enterprise planning, acquisition, and deployment of information technology. His professional interests center on organizational effectiveness and the adoption of technology-driven change, particularly as affected by the Internet and network models.

Beard's federal, state, and local government experience spans 13 years and includes stints with the U.S. Department of Justice, Bonneville Power Administration, State of Oregon, Multnomah County, and Santa Barbara County.

During the last 10 years, George has worked for several technology and software firms in sales, marketing, corporate communications, alliance management and consulting. In addition, he has served as an adjunct faculty member at Willamette University, the University of Oregon, Portland State University, Lewis & Clark, and Marylhurst University, teaching graduate level courses on management uses of the computer, innovation, decision-making, data management and, currently, electronic government.

Beard holds degrees from Michigan State University, the State University of New York at Albany, and Portland State University.

 

Key Areas of Expertise:

• State-level Strategic IT Planning
• IT Operation and Management
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity
• IT Support to Government Field Operations

Bob Feingold is a Senior Fellow. Bob spent 26 years in the United States Air Force retiring in 1991 as a Colonel. During his career he occupied many Information Technology operational, policy, and command positions. After retirement, Bob provided project management consulting services to various large private sector firms, Department of Defense agencies, and several non-defense Federal agencies. In 2000, Bob became the CIO for the Colorado Department of Natural Resources and in 2001 was appointed as CIO for the State of Colorado. After retirement in 2003, Bob continues to provide professional consulting services to state government and local business in Colorado. Bob was appointed by Colorado's Governor to sever as a member of the Colorado Statewide Internet Portal Authority and continued that service to the State of Colorado through 2010.

Clay Jenkinson began presenting Thomas Jefferson in character in 1984 and has since made presentations in nearly every state to thousands of gatherings, including school children, supreme court justices, a gala celebration of the 250th anniversary of Jefferson's birth at a White House event hosted by President and Mrs. Clinton, and many assemblies of state legislatures.

Mr. Jenkinson is a Rhodes and Danforth scholar and winner of one of the first five National Endowment of the Humanities highest honor - the Charles Frankel Prize (now the National Humanities Medal). He has taught at Pomona College, the law school of the University of North Dakota, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the University of Nevada, Reno.

Clay Jenkinson has served as a member of the Nevada Humanities Committee and is the founder and director of the Great Basin Chautauqua. He holds degrees in the humanities from the University of Minnesota and Oxford University.

 

Key Areas of Expertise:

• Bridging the gap between vision and real-world solutions
• Simplifying citizen access to government
• Statewide strategic planning in IT and cyber security
• Social networking, Web 2.0, and web services platforms
• Portals and electronic payments systems
• Government technology contracting

Formerly Board Member, Texas Online Authority (Statewide Portal Authority); Chairman, Technology Sub-committee, Texas Online Authority; Director of E-Government and Web Services, State of Texas; Special Assistant to the State CTO, State of Texas; Agency CIO, Texas Department of Information Resources; CEO at Oridian, Inc.; Executive at several successful, venture-funded companies; Graduate of Harvard University.