Page 54 - FCW, March/April 2020

2020 Federal 100
Combiz R. Abdolrahimi
Leader of EmergingTechnology and Innovation, Government and Public Services
Deloitte Consulting
Digital Swiss Army knife. With one eye on the IT horizon and the other on creating coalitions to get there, Abdolrahimi is framing the future of digital government. Having served at the departments of State and Trea- sury, the Senate and the White House before shifting to the private sector, he combines the perspectives of a regulator, lawyer, policymaker, builder and facilitator to drive government innovation. He helped bring block- chain microservices to the Depart- ment of Health and Human Services, robotic process automation to the
IRS and communities of innovators to advance public/private collaboration across government. His efforts also extend to artificial intelligence, bio- metrics, cybersecurity, identity man- agement and intelligent automation.
Gundeep Ahluwalia
CIO
Department of Labor
Platform power. Ahluwalia spent 2019 modernizing Labor’s infrastruc- ture and transforming its services to citizen and non-citizen customers. He helped eliminate almost $63 mil- lion in legacy IT costs and helped the department earn its highest Federal
IT Acquisition Reform Act scores yet. The new platform offers 25 services and tools to streamline digital ser- vices and data-sharing capabilities. The application process for tempo- rary worker visas is a prime example: Online applications are now standard, and collaboration with the depart- ments of Agriculture, State and Home- land Security has improved dramati- cally. The shared content management system also sped the launch of several new user portals, including Appren- ticeship.gov, DisasterAssistance.gov and HireVets.gov.
Mohamed N. Ahmed
IBM Distinguished Engineer, Master Inventor and Director, AI Applied Research Laboratory
IBM Federal
Gerard Badorrek
Chief Financial Officer
General Services Administration
Robot master. Badorrek is the top financial executive responsible for managing GSA’s $30 billion annual budget, and he’s also one of the government’s leaders in robotic process automation. He has merged the two talents together to make his office a center for the use of RPA
for financial services. Last year, Badorrek’s team deployed 33 bots to handle routine tasks and saved 70,000 work hours across GSA business functions. He has also evangelized for RPA across government by creating and leading the RPA Community of Practice, which now has more than 700 members from 50 agencies.
Bo Berlas
Chief Information Security Officer
General Services Administration
The integrator. Berlas has moved GSA’s cybersecurity program away from compliance-oriented approaches to a more operational security footing. He created a culture of innovation that encompasses an understanding
of purpose and threats, clearly defined values and an environment that capitalizes on the diversity of the people, their experiences and ideas. Thanks to his efforts, GSA now has one of the highest rated cybersecurity programs in government. Berlas also led several governmentwide security efforts, including the development
of FedRAMP Tailored for low-impact software-as-a-serve cloud solutions and an agile framework for secure implementation of robotic process automation.
Architect of the future. In 2019, Ahmed worked with the Transporta- tion Security Administration on a 3D deep-learning solution that detects threat objects in CT scans of carry-on luggage, led the development of a vir- tual assistant framework for federal and state agencies to answer disas- ter victims’ questions and minimize contact center calls, and invented
the Video Exploration and Under- standing Agent, which analyzes aerial videos to improve decision-making at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. His ability to understand gov- ernment’s challenges, build (or invent) creative solutions and coach others makes him a trusted agency partner. “He’s changing the world, not just the market,” a colleague said.
Combiz R. Abdolrahimi
Gundeep Ahluwalia
Mohamed N. Ahmed
Gerard Badorrek
Bo Berlas
54 March/April 2020
FCW.COM