VIP Guests

Dr. Vinton G. Cerf
VP & Chief Internet Evangelist, Google

Dr. Cerf was the co-creator of the protocols which became TCP/IP, the standard for what is now called the Internet. He is widely acclaimed as one of the greatest innovators of the century.

He has since worked for a number of companies, including MCI (later MCI-Worldcom) and was the leading engineer in the creation of MCI Mail, the first commercial email service connected to the Internet. He has received the U.S. National Medal of Technology and a large host of other awards and accolades for his decades of technical work. He is now the Chief Evangelist of Google and remains a favourite to become a chief advisor to the White house.

Dr. Cerf is the chairman of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and founded the Internet Society, an industry working group for Internet standards and documents.

Vivek Kundra
Federal CIO of the United States of America

Vivek Kundra was appointed by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty on March 27, 2007 to the Cabinet post of Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the District of Columbia. As CTO, Kundra leads the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO), an organization of over 600 staff that provides technology services and leadership for 86 agencies, 38,000 employees, residents, businesses, and millions of visitors.

Since Kundra became District CTO, he and OCTO have been honored with a series of major information technology (IT) awards. In 2008, InfoWorld Magazine named Kundra among its “CTO 25,” 25 senior IT leaders from government, nonprofits, and private industry who apply creativity, tech savvy and management skills to drive excellent results. In addition, the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium recognized Kundra among outstanding IT innovators who use leadership skills, business-technology acumen and out-of the-box thinking to address ever-increasing challenges facing their organizations.