Kent Beck created Extreme Programming and Test-Driven Development by doing what others said not to. Author of four influential books, former Tektronix, Apple, and Facebook engineer, longtime industry tinkerer obsessed with craft, AI, and how we treat each other while building software.

Mina Hsiang, former Administrator of the United States Digital Service (USDS), led the agency through a period of historic growth and modernization. Under her leadership, USDS launched the first free government tax filing tool and streamlined critical services for Social Security and veterans. Her work focused on shifting federal agencies toward high-security, cost-effective strategic investments that saved tens of billions of dollars.

Suzette Kent served as the fourth U.S. Federal Chief Information Officer at the Office of Management and Budget—the first woman in the role. Her career spans partner roles at Accenture and EY, and managing director at JP Morgan.

Jonathan Mostowski is the President of Agile Acquisitions, drawing on 20+ years leading procurement strategy across federal government and private sector. Jonathan previously served at the US Digital Service, Defense Digital Service, and NGA, helping government buy and deliver technology better.

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Paul Rayner is a software design consultant, EventStorming facilitator, and founder of Virtual Genius, with 35+ years helping teams tackle complex systems. Author of The EventStorming Handbook, he specializes in collaborative modeling and Domain-Driven Design for startups to Fortune 500s worldwide.

Josh Marcuse is the Director of Defense Strategy & Growth, Google and serves on CapitalG's Advisory Board. He previously led the Defense Innovation Board and held senior DoW roles, and has founded or advised numerous nonprofits and tech-policy organizations.

Thomas Roderick, PhD, is the Founder, Chief AI Officer and CTO of Flamelit, where he leads data science and AI work for the public sector—helping government agencies, non-profits, and IT firms turn AI into better decisions and operational results.

Steve Pereira is lead consultant at Visible Value Stream Consulting and co-founder of the Flow Collective. Since 2017 he's developed Flow Engineering to make flow improvement in large organizations accessible, collaborative, and actionable.

Lori-Ann Rissler is the founder of LASR Ops. A former contracting officer at Kessel Run and the U.S. Air Force, she brings deep acquisition and government contracting expertise to her work.

Chris Hughes is VP of Security Strategy at Zenity, securing the shift to Agentic AI. With nearly 20 years in IT and cybersecurity, he's a U.S. Air Force veteran and former civil servant in the U.S. Navy and GSA's FedRAMP program.

Russ Miles is an AI & Platform Engineering Training Expert, and the author of The Sovereign Engineer. Russ trains software engineers on AI literacy across speed, security, resilience, agentic, and platform engineering.

Dr. Dolores Kuchina-Musina is the CEO and Founder of REXOTA Solutions. A scholar-practitioner with a decade-plus in federal, state, and international procurement, she specializes in Other Transaction Authorities and acquisition reform, turning complex research into actionable strategy for her clients.

Dan Ward is the Co-Founder of SparkLit Group. A retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, he spent 20+ years as an engineering officer across the Air Force Research Lab, the Intelligence Community, and the Pentagon, then served as a senior principal systems engineer at MITRE.

Bryan Guinn is the Chief Growth Officer at SBIR Advisors. With 25+ years building and scaling technology companies, he now helps dual-use startups win funded defense programs, spanning proposal strategy, capture planning, and commercialization across the Air Force, Space Force, Army, Navy, and SOCOM.

Nick Setterberg is the Staff Engagement Manager at Skylight, working in Defense and Security. He previously led parts of Chrome's Privacy Sandbox at Google and helped launch the Air Force's Kessel Run software factory. He serves as a Major in the Air Force Reserves.

Bryon Kroger, Founder and CEO of Rise8, previously co-founded Kessel Run, where he led enterprise-scale DoD DevSecOps transformation. A former Air Force targeteer turned digital innovator, he launched Rise8 in 2019 to help change agents deliver mission outcomes faster.

Lloyd Evans is Head of Cybersecurity at Rise8 and a U.S. Air Force veteran. Throughout his career, he has supported federal agencies including the U.S. Department of War, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Max Reele, Director of Delivery at Rise8, leads cross-practice teams to accelerate mission-critical outcomes. A retired Air Force officer with 20+ years in government tech, he’s held leadership roles at DIU, Kessel Run, and BESPIN.

Rob Monroe is the Product Management Enablement Lead at Rise8, with over ten years spent driving product innovation across commercial startups, enterprises, and the federal government. His focus now: a future where fewer bad things happen because of bad software.

Mike Gehard is Rise8's software engineering and AI lead, with more than twenty years in technology. He helps teams put AI to work against the business goals they're chasing, and coaches engineers new to software development into high-functioning team members.

Stay tuned as we announce new speakers regularly.