Page 84 - FCW, August 2021

James Saunders
Chief Information Security Officer
Small Business Administration
A big force at SBA. Saunders’ lead- ership was indispensable in ensuring the security of SBA’s response to leg- islation that required the rapid distri- bution of nearly $700 billion in loans and grants to companies affected by the pandemic. His team incorporated security into new cloud-based sys- tems, including a Lender Gateway that was built in eight days, and continued to protect agency systems despite
a significant increase in malware, phishing and other threats to SBA and small businesses. As the agency added nearly 15,000 new employees, Saun- ders did not lose security visibility. He proactively ensured that field workers could connect from public, unsecure networks without compromising SBA systems.
Andrew Schnabel
Vice President, Federal
Zscaler
Scaling up and out. As telework continues and the government moves to complex multi-cloud environments, virtual private networks cannot scale to support and secure users and data. That’s why Schnabel is a tireless advocate for zero trust as a simpler, more cost-effective security solu- tion. He was instrumental in Zscaler’s participation in the Defense Depart- ment’s zero trust proof of concept, which is expected to pave the way for DOD to move from a network-centric to a data-centric security model. Under Schnabel’s leadership, Zscaler has helped a wide range of agen-
cies strengthen remote work tools, increase capacity, improve perfor- mance and upgrade security to enable continuity of operations.
Cristy Scott
Contracts Director
Department of Health and Human Services
The closer. With steadfast certainty and tenacity, Scott led the award of HHS’ $2.6 billion Enterprise Infra- structure Solutions contract — the most complex and largest acquisition of its kind at HHS. And she did it in less than 16 months during the larg- est workforce transformation in U.S. history. She implemented a structured process for the complex evaluation of EIS options, responded to increased demands for mobile and remote sys- tems, and cleared significant bureau- cratic hurdles. She also reduced costs for HHS by more than $700 million through contract negotiations and avoided the vendor protests that have plagued other agencies.
Sonal Shah
Executive Director
Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation
Pushing for equitable policy. Shah brought together people at all levels of government and the nonprofit sec- tor to work on initiatives for social good. She is passionate about using analytics to inform equitable policies at the federal, state and local levels and in civil society, and her efforts have had a particular impact on decisions that benefit underserved communities. She also served as co-
chairwoman of the Biden campaign’s government policy committee, leading work that infused innovation into the development of policies that were brought forward by the presidential transition team and are now being implemented.
Robert Shea
National Managing Principal, Public Policy
Grant Thornton
Management maven. As co-chair- man of the ACT-IAC Agenda 2021 Presidential Election Project, Shea assembled a team of subject-matter experts to advise the incoming Biden administration on management and technology issues, with a major theme of strengthening trust in govern-
ment through a focus on improving the citizen experience. As co-host of the “FedHeads” podcast, he explores critical issues facing government technologists and managers. Addi- tionally, Shea continues to champion the importance of complying with
the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act by reminding public servants of their obligations to rely
on evidence in management and decision-making.
2021 FEDERAL 100
James Saunders Andrew Cristy Scott Sonal Shah Robert Shea Schnabel
82 August 2021 FCW.COM