CONVERGE - The Hudson Valley Digital Innovation Conference

Francella Ochillo leads the Office of Public Engagement at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Her team serves as a bridge between NTIA and key stakeholder groups, keeping them informed and involved in agency initiatives. Before NTIA, she was detailed to Energy and Commerce’s Innovation, Data, and Commerce Subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives through her fellowship at Georgetown University.

During Francella’s tenure as executive director of Next Century Cities, she was a champion for digital equity, centering it as a foundational principle in broadband program development. Her research publications examine how digital inequities exacerbate other societal inequalities and cause a ripple effect in local and state economies. Focused on expanding who creates technology, Francella has served on grant selection committees, infused community-based perspectives into federal workgroups, and orchestrated campaigns to advance consumer-focused technology policies in federal, state, and local government proceedings.

Christopher B. Fisher is a Partner at Cuddy & Feder LLP. He is Chairman of the firm’s Telecommunications group and a past Chairman of the firm’s Land Use, Zoning & Development group, two of the largest infrastructure practices in New York and Connecticut. Chris served as a member of the firm’s Management Committee for the period 2003-2013 and as the firm’s Managing Partner for the period 2017-2022.

He is a founding board member of the New York State Wireless Association, serving as President from 2012-2018. He is a member of the Wireless Infrastructure Association’s Innovation and Technology Council and chaired a working group focusing on municipal government relations and small cell policy.

Chris is a tireless advocate for digital connectivity across the region. He serves as Vice-Chair of the Westchester County Association (WCA) and co-chairs its Digital Connectivity Initiative including a National Science Foundation/US Ignite Grant to address the digital divide in Yonkers, New York.

Chris has appeared on City & State’s Telecommunications Power 50 list and is routinely recognized as a U.S. Best Attorney and Super Lawyer in New York.  He has been honored on several occasions for his work within the community, including the Distinguished Service Award from the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University and the Leadership Award from WCA.

Driven by the telecommunications industry’s ability to empower communities, Ana leads state and local government affairs strategy at Crown Castle across the East. Prior to joining Crown, Ana was part of the team that spearheaded the New NY Broadband Program, a $500M initiative to connect rural and remote regions of New York State with high-speed internet access, managing a $70 million portfolio of legacy projects in Governor Cuomo’s office. She is a trustee for the Citizens Budget Commission and serves on the Board of the Regional Plan Association and Partnership for New York City.

John Emra is president of the Atlantic Region (the 13 state region plus DC from Maine to Virginia) for AT&T.  He leads the company’s strategy, policy, and corporate affairs activities, as well as guiding governmental and community policy decisions.  He works closely with community leaders, legislators, and other policy makers, as well as local and regional business leaders and customers, to help meet AT&T’s objective of connecting people with technology everywhere they live and work.

John began his career at AT&T in September of 2001 and worked as its regional vice president for external and legislative affairs in Connecticut until being named the company’s Connecticut president in 2013.  He served as president of AT&T New England from April 2020 to November 2023.

Before joining AT&T, John was a consultant to the company working on the formulation of national broadband policy by the US Congress and Federal Communications Commission as well as serving as the company’s national media spokesperson.  His other professional experience includes more than twenty years in the field of strategic communications including electoral politics, government service, and legislative advocacy.

Mr. Emra volunteers his time with a number of organizations including serving on the boards of: CAPA Connecticut, CBIA, Massachusetts Business Roundtable, Southern Connecticut State University Foundation and the YMCA of Greater New York.

In addition to his work at AT&T, John is an adjunct professor of communication at Fairfield University.

John has a Master’s degree from Purdue University and a Bachelor’s degree from Southern Connecticut State University.  He lives in Fairfield, Connecticut with his wife and two children.

Chris Bresnan is Senior Director of Government Affairs at Optimum, one of the nation’s largest providers of broadband, video, mobile, news, and advertising services. In New York, Optimum serves over 3.4 million homes and businesses. Chris leads Optimum’s New York advocacy team, overseeing legislative and regulatory strategy to advance the company’s key initiatives across the state. He has been instrumental in advancing key business initiatives, such as broadband adoption programs, including the Big Apple Connect partnership with the City of New York. Before joining Optimum, Chris served as Chief of Staff in the New York State Assembly. Chris holds a Master’s in Public Administration from Rutgers University.

Bob Knight is President & CEO of Harry, an integrated marketing agency, that works with influential Westchester companies like White Plains Hospital, ENT & Allergy Associates, United Hebrew, Neighbor’s Link, and the Westchester County Association, among others.

He and the team at Harry are also considered the nation’s leading broadband marketers and represent the ecosystem from engineering and construction firms to Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers and ISPs, to network operators, suppliers, and government.

Bob is serving his eighth year as a Commissioner of Economic & Community Development, Town of Ridgefield, Connecticut; is the co-chair for the Public Officials Committee of the Fiber Broadband Association in Washington, DC representing 150+ cities, towns, counties and state agencies; Board Secretary of the American Association for Public Broadband; a Board member of the Westchester Children’s Association; and since 2021, a Co-Chair of the Broadband Communities Summit in Houston, TX and Broadband Communities West in San Diego, CA.

Aarti Tandon is a seasoned lawyer, human rights activist, film producer, and event producer who has been developing strategic partnerships at the intersection of entertainment + technology + justice for two decades. She is most well-known for having secured a rare Presidential Commutation at just 33 years old.

She is the CEO of Smart City Expo USA where she convenes presidents, global mayors, government officials, CEOs, NGOs, and leading innovators on harnessing AI, big data, blockchain, and the $1.6 trillion global smart city marketplace to build smart, equitable, and sustainable 21st century cities.

“Cities cannot be ‘smart’ if we have homelessness, hunger, and poverty or if cities cannot access decent transportation, housing, healthcare, security, broadband, education, energy, clean air and water, or build generational wealth. We must use frontier technologies to prepare cities for tomorrow while addressing urgent issues of today,” says Aarti.

Aarti began her career as an information technology lawyer and then a decade in media and entertainment representing Grammy-nominated artists, filmmakers, magazine publishers, and more. She worked with India’s leading events company, Wizcraft, and oversaw the tours of the world’s most famous Bollywood stars. She has organized high-level delegations for the U.S. State Department in advance of the 2014 World Cup, consulted for Derek Jeter’s The Players’ Tribune, and worked on will.i.am’s sustainable joint venture with Coca-Cola, EKOCYCLE. Aarti facilitated the City of Columbia, SC giving Jay-Z a key to the city, and José Andrés’s World Central Kitchen feeding the most vulnerable in Augusta, GA during the pandemic.

Aarti served as Interim Executive Director of the Blue Sphere Foundation (an ocean conservation NGO) and as a content producer for The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s 2018 Goalkeepers event featuring President Macron and other heads of state. She was selected to participate in the 2019 Global Entrepreneurship Summit, served as a Senior Advisor for Black Media Strategic Engagement to the Bloomberg 2020 campaign, as Sponsorship Director of Juneteenth Unityfest, and as an advisor for the World Economic Forum’s inaugural Urban Transformation Summit in Detroit. She is a Climate Advisor to the Clinton Global Initiative and most recently served as Head of Strategic Partnerships for will.i.am’s AI platform, fyi.ai.

An early steward of criminal justice reform, Aarti helped successfully petition President George W. Bush to grant, in 2008, the early release of her client who was serving a 14-year federal prison sentence for a first-time non-violent drug offense – it was one of only 11 Commutations granted during President Bush’s eight years in office. Her continued efforts to reduce mass incarceration include having worked with the wrongfully convicted at the Deskovic Foundation and formerly incarcerated women at Project Liberation.

As a feature documentary filmmaker, her credits include: Producer, ”Catching the Sun”, a film on solar energy’s ability to address income inequality featuring Van Jones and executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio (Netflix, 2016); Co-Executive Producer, “The Uncondemned”, a film on the historic Akayesu case and first ever conviction of rape as a crime of war supported by Global Citizen with music by Aloe Blacc and Maya Jupiter, and; Co-Producer, “Survivors Guide to Prison”, executive produced by Susan Sarandon, Gina Belafonte, Adrian Grenier, and others committed to criminal justice issues.

Aarti is a graduate of Emory University (B.A., International Studies; Certificat, Sorbonne Université) and the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law (J.D.) where she served as Editor-in Chief of the Moot Court Honor Society and received the Jacob Burns Medal of Honor. Aarti is a Global Ambassador of Global Impact Initiative, and a member of the third class of the Aspen Institute Civil Society Fellowship and the Aspen Global Leaders Network. Aarti lives in New York City with her husband, Joseph.

John is the founder of Element Laboratories and a Managing Director in Slalom’s global strategy group. He created Slalom Element Laboratories to provide an inspirational and innovative physical space to fulfill Slalom’s purpose of helping people and organizations dream bigger, move faster, and build better tomorrows for all. John is a futurist by trade and brings a wealth of experience in technology, product, and business strategy to the clients he serves.  His passion of bringing the future forward to people has expanded from the west coast (where he lives with his wife Melissa) to the east coast where he recently opened Lab212 in 1 World Trade Center.  He has been pivotal in defining what Smart City strategies look like and helping organizations pragmatically navigate the complexities of technologies, networking, experiences, and adoption that many have faced.

Most recently, John launched a new immersion program in NYC, partnering with Chloe Taylor Technologies, schools, and city organizations to inspire local students to “Dream Bigger”. Prior to Slalom, John served as the Vice President at Synchronoss Technologies where he was pivotal in bringing some of the biggest consumer mobility, telecommunications, and entertainment products to market, transforming the experiences of how people interact with the world today.

Ross Maughan is the Managing Client Partner at IBM Consulting for the State of New York, where he leads the development and execution of projects and partnerships between IBM and City, State and County organizations. With 20 years of experience working with government clients across the world, Ross has built a reputation as a trusted advisor and expert in delivering complex projects and programs.

Throughout his career, Ross has held various roles, including consultant, development and product management, CTO and services delivery. His technical background has enabled him to architect and build several solutions that went on to become full software products, and he has a unique ability to bridge the gap between business and technical needs.

Since moving to the US in 2019, Ross has been dedicated to supporting the State of New York, leveraging his expertise to help organizations achieve their goals, improve citizen services and he was responsible for managing several complex projects in NYC during the pandemic. As a Managing Client Partner at IBM Consulting, Ross is committed to delivering innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of city, state and local clients.

Rohit T. “Rit” Aggarwala is Commissioner of Environmental Protection and Chief Climate Officer for the City of New York. Previously, he was a founding executive at Sidewalk Labs, Alphabet’s urban technology startup. Before that, he started Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Environmental Grantmaking program; led the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group under Mayor Bloomberg’s chairmanship; and navigated Mayor Bloomberg’s appointment as a UN Special Envoy. He also served as the Director of the NYC Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability, where he led the creation of the first PlaNYC, NYC’s sustainability plan. He started his career at McKinsey & Company. Aggarwala holds a PhD, MBA, and BA from Columbia University and an MA from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

Stephanie Pell is a fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and a senior editor at Lawfare. Prior to joining Brookings, she was an associate professor (with tenure) and cyber ethics fellow at West Point’s Army Cyber Institute, with a joint appointment to the Department of English and Philosophy, where she designed and taught West Point’s first cyber ethics course. Her scholarly work focuses on cybersecurity law and policy, cyberwarfare and conflict, privacy, surveillance and reproductive rights, access and justice. Stephanie’s work has been published in several law journals, including the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, the Berkeley Technology Law Journal, the Yale Journal of Law and Technology, the Duke Journal of Constitutional Law and Public Policy and the Connecticut Law Review, as well as in the popular national magazine Wired.

Prior to joining West Point’s faculty, Stephanie served as a majority counsel to the House Judiciary Committee and lead counsel on both Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) reform and PATRIOT Act reauthorization during the 111th Congress. She was also a federal prosecutor for over 14 years, working as a senior counsel to the deputy attorney general, as a counsel to the assistant attorney general of the National Security Division, and as an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida. Pell was a lead prosecutor in U.S. v. Jose Padilla (American citizen detained as an enemy combatant prior to criminal indictment, trial, and conviction on various terrorism charges), for which she received the U.S. Attorney General’s Exceptional Service Award, and in U.S. v. Conor Claxton (IRA operatives who purchased weapons in South Florida and smuggled them into Belfast, Northern Ireland, during peace process negotiations).

Meghan Cook is Director of the Cyber Incident Response Team (CIRT) and Assistant Director of the Office of Counter Terrorism (OCT) at the NYS Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (NYS DHSES). The CIRT provides proactive and reactive cyber services including Cyber Capability Workshops, Tabletop Exercises, Pen Testing, Risk Assessments, and Phishing Training Campaigns as well as cyber incident response for all non-executive State agencies, and State authorities throughout New York State.

For 25 years, Meghan was the Program Director for the Center for Technology in Government (CTG), a globally renowned research institute at University at Albany/SUNY as well as Adjunct Professor at Nelson A. Rockefeller College and Advisor to the NYS Local Government Information Technology Directors. She has published numerous research and practice articles, book chapters, and reports on digital transformation in location government, including the NYS Association of Counties Cybersecurity Primer for Local Government Leaders. She is a highly sought speaker and facilitator, having delivered over 350 thought-leadership and strategy development sessions for government leaders all over the world. Finally, Meghan has won several awards including Excelsior College’s Alumni Achievement Award and the SUNY Excellence and Chancellor Awards.  Linkedin: @megcook

Assemblyman Steve Otis serves Sound Shore communities of Westchester County by using his work on local, county, state and federal issues and long-time leadership in the environmental community to win results and move issues of importance statewide and to the 91^st Assembly District.

Otis chairs the Assembly Science and Technology Committee. He is the leading advocate for digital inclusion programs in the state legislature. These programs provide broadband access, devices and training to individuals excluded from essential digital world most take for granted. Digital inclusion programs are the leading nationally recognized model for addressing digital equity issues based on race, age or economic ability. His initiative to create a state Digital Inclusion Grant program was included in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 state budgets.

The committee’s work includes a focus on legislation to improve cybersecurity protection, provide oversight of state government use of artificial intelligence and automated decision-making systems, and issues related to data privacy.

Assemblyman Otis also helped initiate the Water Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2015, the state grant program to assist municipalities in financing needed clean water projects. Since the creation of WIIA, the program has provided over $2.5 billion in water grants to over 1000 projects statewide: creating jobs, making environmental projects possible and making these projects more affordable for local taxpayers. Westchester communities have secured over $124 million in grants for 49 projects. In addition, the Assemblyman’s proposal for a $250 million municipal stormwater grant program was included in the voter approved 2022 Environmental Bond Issue.

Li-Chiou Chen is Professor of Information Technology and Executive Director of Pace Cyber Center at Seidenberg. She is the principal investigator of the CyberCorps program at Pace, supported by the National Science Foundation, as well as the GenCyber programs, supported by the National Security Agency. In April of this year, Dr. Chen organized the Northeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NECCDC). As part of this competition, which was held at Pace this year, students from around New England worked in teams to defend their environments from professional hackers. Dr. Chen is also a member of the Westchester County Cybersecurity Task Force.