Leigh Tami began her tenure as the City's Chief Performance Officer. In this role she is responsible for leading the Office of Performance and Data Analytics (OPDA). Tami started her career with the City in May 2015 as a senior performance & data analyst in OPDA and played a vital role in helping to establish the new office. She also held the position of Performance & Data Analytics Division Manager, leading the office through a transitional period. Since beginning her tenure as Chief Performance Officer, she has been recognized as one of the Top 25 Doers, Dreamers, and Drivers of 2017 by Government Technology Magazine. Under Tami’s leadership, OPDA has greatly expanded its scope and capabilities, evolving to become the City’s “nerve center” for data analytics and business intelligence.

Michael Dunaway is the Director for the National Incident Management Systems and Advanced Technologies (NIMSAT) Institute at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and chairman of the Public Safety Supercluster for the NIST Global City Teams Challenge (GCTC).  Previously, he served as Senior Director for Preparedness and Resilience Programs at the National Headquarters of the American Red Cross, and as Chief for Risk Management and Program Manager for Community Resilience in the Science & Technology Directorate, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.  He holds a B.S. from the United States Naval Academy, M.A. in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, and Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from George Washington University. He is a certified Search & Rescue Technician with the DELMARVA SAR Group.

Franco leads a team of experts responsible for the go to market strategy for education & research, health & human services, revenue management and Smarter Government. Franco and his team guide government officials at every level – U.S. Higher Education, U.S. federal, U.S. state & local, and in Canada – to effectively use modern cloud-based solution and emerging technologies to help government organizations deliver on their mission. In addition to working with customers, Franco authors, publishes white papers and articles on leveraging technology to drive business value for governments. He is also a frequent speaker at government conferences. He is a graduate of McGill University in Montreal, Canada and has completed an Advanced Certificate for Executives in Management, Innovation, and Technology at MIT Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, USA.

Dr. Mohammad "Mo" Shakouri is a Silicon Valley investor, entrepreneur, and international executive with over 25 years of experience in communications and electronics industry.  Dr. Shakouri is well-versed in formulating large-scale partnerships and introducing broadband network initiatives to emerging markets and communities. As an internet connectivity evangelist, Dr. Shakouri has been working with leading Silicon Valley internet and tech companies.  He serves as Dir Community Broadband Joint Venture Silicon Valley, as Chairman of the WiMAX Forum and is Founder and CEO of Microsanj.  Dr. Shakouri earned his Ph.D in Electrical Engineering & Applied Physics from Stanford University, and a BSEE from San Jose State.

Thea Walsh, AICP is the Transportation Systems and Funding Director Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission. MORPC is a voluntary association of Central Ohio governments and regional organizations that envisions and embraces innovative directions in transportation, energy, housing, land use, the environment and economic prosperity. Thea Walsh is a 16 years of public servant focused on transportation, economic development and community planning. She has worked at county, regional and state levels of government. Thea has a BA in Public Administration and Urban and Regional Planning from Miami University and a Masters of Public Administration from Wright State University. In 2017, Thea was selected by Columbus Business First as one of the Forty Under 40 Honorees for being a “mover and shaker” in the Central Ohio community for her role in Smart Columbus, the Hyperloop Midwest Connect Proposal and a Downtown C Pass Program.

Derick Lee is the Founder of PilotCity, an organization on a mission to prototype the city of the future in San Leandro, California by incubating the city’s cross-sector innovation ecosystem of government, education, industry and citizenry. Lee‘s first area of focus will be in education, to build entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs from within city schools. Working with Alameda County Office of Education, San Leandro Unified School District and Hayward Unified School District to deploy business incubators and accelerators, he sees this as the long-term sustainable step in building an emotionally-invested innovation ecosystem with the young citizens that are from the city. Lee is also the Chief Community Officer of ZipPower, deploying a distributed renewable energy network in San Leandro; Career Pathways Manager for the San Leandro Chamber of Commerce; and former Innovation Fellow for the City of San Leandro with the leadership of the nation’s 3rd civic Chief Innovation Officer, Deborah Acosta.

Director of MOST AERO Labs and co-Director of UAV MASTER Labs conducting research in the following areas: Genetic Fuzzy AI, Collaborative UAV control and task planning, multi-agent decision making, UAV operations for enhanced situational awareness and resource allocation, disaster management using UAVs, estimation and control for feedback aerodynamic flow control, active vibration suppression, system identification of rotorcraft & morphing VTOL aircraft

Mitchell Kominsky is the Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer for Venture Smarter. Mitchell is leading the company's effort to build a platform, based on artificial intelligence, to help cultivate the Internet of Things ecosystem. Additionally, Mitchell is a founding advisor to 1776, a global incubator and seed fund with $12.5M under management and advised high-tech startups from seed stage to venture-backed companies with more than $30M in funding. Mitchell recently served as a senior counsel for U.S. Senate Leadership on emerging technology, and is the author of various cybersecurity laws. As a Counsel in the U.S. Congress, Mitchell led high-profile investigations and congressional hearings into matters at the intersection of emerging technologies and national security.

As OKI’s Strategic Initiatives Manager, Robyn Bancroft is responsible for the analysis of contemporary issues and opportunities affecting transportation planning for the region. She manages cutting edge transportation studies related to freight, economic development, transit and technology. Robyn holds a Masters degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, a Bachelor of Arts degree with Cum Laude honors in Art History, Criticism & Conservation from Florida State University, and a Certificate of Historic Preservation Studies from the University of Georgia-Athens. She has been a member of the American Planning Association since 1992 and received her American Institute of Certified Planners status in 1997. Recently, she was appointed as the Metropolitan Planning Organization Council’s representative to the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s Freight Advisory Committee.

Dr. Jiaqi Ma is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering and Construction Management of the University of Cincinnati. Prior to that, he is a Project Manager and Research Scientist working at the FHWA Turner Fairbank Highway Research Center. His areas of expertise include smart mobility, Connected Automated Vehicles, Intelligent Transportation Systems, traffic modeling and simulation. He has led, managed and participated in many research projects funded by USDOT and state DOTs, covering a wide range of areas including bottleneck identification and reduction, Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control, Benefit/Cost analysis of Traffic Incident Management Strategies, and vehicle automation-based Speed Harmonization, etc. He is a Member of the TRB Standing Committee on Vehicle-Highway Automation, and Co-Chair of IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society Technical Committee on Smart Cities and Smart Mobility.

Zack Huhn is the founder of Venture Smarter and the Chair of the IEEE Smart Cities Standards Subcommittee. In 2016 Zack launched Regional Smart Cities Initiatives to help smaller and medium-sized communities realize smart city success stories just like major cities. The initiative is rooted in using best-practices planning tools, technology standards, and solutions that promote interoperable connectivity, mobility, and resilience. In line with UN Sustainable Development Goals, Zack coined the phrase “Smart City Development Goals” and created a support ecosystem to help leaders leverage smart and connected technologies to compress the time to realizing desired SDG’s and related outcomes. Through this lens, Zack encourages leaders and communities to use technology as a tool to improve outcomes for people - creating better places to live, work, and visit regardless of socioeconomic, geographical, or physical barriers. By sparking equitable social mobility, Zack believes that smart city solutions will be the key driver of economic development and growth in our cities and regions in the years and decades to come. It is these passionate efforts that earned Zack a spot on the list of Top 50 Global Leaders in Smart Cities, among other awards and recognitions.

Jean Rice works with federal agencies and national associations on new broadband initiatives, including tribal connectivity and broadband summit, dig-once, broadband and economic development, community connectivity indices and public private partnerships. For NTIA’s Recovery Act grant program, Ms. Rice worked with over $700 million in grants to deploy broadband networks in tribal, rural and underserved areas. She is a member of the Federal Smart Grid Task Force. Previously, Ms. Rice was CEO of the telecommunications consulting firm for governments Rice, Williams Associates.

As the transportation policy & coalition manager for the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, Pete Metz oversees a coalition of business leaders advocating for expanded investment in transportation that connects people to jobs, education and healthcare and supports a talent rich workforce. The Chamber is focused on communicating the business case for expanded transportation, including investment in infrastructure projects, expanding access for public transit, and preparing our region for the future of transportation. In this role, Metz helped lead the development of the Cincinnati Mobility Lab, a public-private partnership between transit authorities, government entities, and Uber. Metz also manages the Transportation Business Coalition, a consortium of senior business leaders engaged on developing and implementing a vision for our region’s transportation. Prior to joining the Chamber, Metz was the chief of staff to Cincinnati Vice Mayor David Mann where he worked on a wide range of issues, including housing, economic development, and transportation and is a veteran of both local and statewide political campaigns. Additionally, Metz spent time in Washington, DC, where he worked on federal transportation policy at Transportation for America. A native Cincinnatian, Metz studied political science, urban geography, and urban governance at The Ohio State University.

Dean is currently a Principal Consultant with the IOT+LTE Consulting group. In this role, Dean consults with clients in the Public Safety sector on technology areas of Mission Critical Communications, specifically in LMR and LTE, Internet of Things for Public Safety and Next Gen 9-1-1. Previously, Dean was with Motorola Solutions for 9 years working as a distinguished member of the technical staff (DMTS) and as a cross system architect for LTE/LMR/IOT Public Safety Solutions both within the Israel and Canada. Prior to working with Motorola Solutions, he worked for IBM in a number of roles as a telecommunications consultant, Global Telecom Solution Architect and Software Product Manager both within Europe and United States. He has also served as a member of the Board of Directors for an Industry Forum called the ATM Forum.

Dean is also a member of the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC), where he is the Vice Chair of the Public Safety IoT workgroup. Furthermore, Dean is also a Co-Chair of the GCTC Public Safety Super Cluster (PSSC) where he is one of the authors of the Public Safety Blueprint and Smart Public Safety Solution offering.

Andrew Bremer currently serves as the Managing Director of Local Affairs for DriveOhio, interfacing with Ohio’s communities and ensuring the coordinated implementation of DriveOhio’s pilot corridors and “smart” partnerships. Specifically, Andrew serves as coordinator for ODOT’s involvement with the City of Columbus for the city’s implementation of the USDOT Smart Cities Challenge and represents DriveOhio to the Smart Belt Coalition. Andrew formerly served at the Ohio Department of Transportation as the Deputy Director of Strategic Initiatives and Programs overseeing ODOT’s project development of automated and connected technologies and associated infrastructure. Other relevant positions include serving as ODOT’s representative to the Ohio Rail Development Commission and the Multi Agency Radio Communications (MARCs) Steering Committee. Andrew earned undergraduate degrees in History and International Studies and a Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from the Ohio State University.

Michael Beck holds MBA in Int'l Business from Vienna University of Economics in Austria and in MIS/Int'l Marketing from Kent State University in Ohio. He spent 11 years working for NCR Corp. in Dayton, OH in various international assignments. Graduate of Leadership Cincinnati Class 34, he serves on various Boards, among them XOOPS Foundation, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Cincinnati USA, SWORWIB (Southwest Ohio Region Workforce Investment Board), SHPE (Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers), and UC School of Information Technology Advisory Board. Since moving to Cincinnati in 2002, Michael has been dedicated to giving back to the community he now calls home. Through his www.CodeForKids.us initiative, he is working with low-income schools to narrow the Digital Divide and increase participation of women and minorities in the IT education pipeline and workforce of Greater Cincinnati. Through his partnership with CPS and FamiliesFORWARD, Hays-Porter Elementary School was selected to be Ohio's first High-Tech Elementary School, and CAA will start a pilot coding/robotics program in its Head Start program in the West End. His continuing collaboration with schools and organizations in the West End engages parents, educators, businesses and non-profits as they work to broaden the STEM knowledge of students and to break the cycle of poverty. As an Open Source evangelist, he volunteers as a project coordinator for XOOPS Project, an Open Source Content Management System, which received several international awards. Always a fan of innovation, he's been an avid promoter of innovation and Smart City concepts in Cincinnati.