Rising Star judges

Leslie Barry is a veteran of the government information technology community, but given her energy and passion, one would never guess it. A two-time winner of Federal Computer Week’s Federal 100 award, Barry has taken a particular interest in mentoring, working with the Industry Advisory Council’s Partners Program for future leaders in government and industry. She is serving her second term on IAC’s board of directors as vice chairwoman of professional development.

For her day job, Barry was recent appointed to a newly created position at GTSI. Previously, she was Computer Associates’ director of business development.

Ira Hobbs
Chief Information Officer
Treasury Department

Ira Hobbs has had a distinguished career. In 2004, he was named chief information officer at the Treasury Department, where he is the principal adviser on information technology issues for the agency’s secretary and senior managers. Before that, he served as deputy CIO at the Agriculture Department for seven years.

Hobbs has a special passion for workforce issues. He has been among the leaders on the CIO Council’s Workforce Committee for years. That committee is working to improve the recruitment, retention and skills development of federal IT employees. He has been an ardent proponent of workforce planning.

Hobbs is a five-time winner of the Federal 100 award.

Prasad Karunakaran
President
Zenyon

Prasad Karunakaran is president of Zenyon, a small 8(a)-certified software development and information technology services company. He is also one of the leaders of AFCEA International Bethesda, Md., chapter’s Young AFCEANs, which approached Federal Computer Week with the idea of an awards program to honor the good work done by young people in the government IT community.

Steve Kelman
Professor
Harvard University

Before Federal Computer Week columnist Steve Kelman became a professor, he ran the federal government’s procurement shop. As administrator of the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Federal Procurement Policy from 1993 to 1997, Kelman played a prominent role in the Clinton administration’s attempts to reinvent government.

Now Kelman is the Weatherhead Professor of Public Management at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He has twice won Federal 100 awards.

Phil Kiviat
Partner
Guerra Kiviat

Phil Kiviat has had a long and distinguished career in government information technology. He is a partner in Guerra Kiviat, a strategic marketing and sales consulting firm specializing in solutions, sales strategy, market analysis and positioning. Kiviat has more than 40 years of technical and managerial experience in information systems design and implementation. He was the first technical director of the Federal Computer Performance Evaluation and Simulation Center established by the Air Force in 1972. He has written two books on simulation programming languages.

Kiviat is a founder of the Industry Advisory Council and serves as president of AFCEA International’s Bethesda, Md., chapter. He is also a four-time winner of the Federal 100 award.

Mark Krzysko
Assistant Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Strategic Sourcing and Acquisition Processes
Defense Department

Mark Krzysko assumed his current position at the Defense Department last January. He serves as a senior leader at DOD, where he has worked to implement strategic sourcing. He is responsible for transforming business capabilities and determining new sourcing opportunities.

He joined the Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy Office as deputy director of e-business in 2002. He was responsible for the transformation of the acquisition community into a strategic business enterprise, which involved driving the adoption of e-business practices, leading the move to modernize processes and systems, and managing the investment review process and portfolio of business systems.

Susan Raymie
Information Technology Contract Specialist
State Department

Susan Raymie is an information technology contract specialist at the State Department and co-chairwoman of Young Government Leaders.

She is also a founding member and chairwoman of Young Professionals at State, an innovative networking organization for early career and midlevel employees at State and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Founded in 2003, the organization has attracted nearly 1,100 employees worldwide, representing almost 50 percent of the agency’s new hires in that period.