Speakers

J. CLARK KELSO
CALIFORNIA CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER

Professor J. Clark Kelso serves as Governor Schwarzenegger’s Special Advisor on Information Technology and Chief Information Officer for the State of California. As Chief Information Officer, he is responsible for providing State leadership on information technology policy and for working collaboratively with other information technology leaders throughout state government.

Professor Kelso has held several other leadership positions in California government. He currently sits as the Governor’s designee to and Chair of the California Earthquake Authority. He has previously served as Acting Director of the Department of General Services, Acting Director of the Department of Information Technology, Acting Insurance Commissioner, and Scholar-in-Residence at the California Administrative Office of the Courts. Professor Kelso is the Director of the Capital Center for Government Law and Policy at the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law. Professor Kelso earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Illinois, and a juris doctorate degree from Columbia Law School. He was a law clerk to Judge Anthony M. Kennedy on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal.

DEBRA BOWEN
CALIFORNIA SECRETARY OF STATE

A pioneer in open government reform, election integrity and personal privacy rights, Debra Bowen became the sixth woman in California history elected to a statewide constitutional office when she was elected as Secretary of State in November 2006. As the state’s chief elections officer, Secretary Bowen is responsible for overseeing state and federal elections, a role that requires her to test and certify all voting equipment. Her goal is to ensure that voting machines certified for use in California elections are secure, accurate, reliable and accessible, and every voter’s ballot is counted exactly as it was cast. As Secretary of State, Bowen is also charged with managing many business filings, campaign finance and lobbying activity filings, the state archives and other key government services.

An attorney, Bowen most recently served 14 years as a lawmaker in the State Assembly and Senate. She authored landmark consumer protection laws to protect people from becoming identity theft victims and closed the digital divide by authoring the first-in-the-world law that put all of California’s legislative information online.

JIM DAVIS

ASSOCIATE VICE CHANCELLOR - INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & CIO UCLA

Jim Davis is the Associate Vice Chancellor - Information Technology & CIO and a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at UCLA. In his Associate Vice Chancellor position, Jim has broad responsibility for universitywide technology planning and for coordinating implementation. He coordinates the IT planning, policy setting, prioritization and decision-making processes and is responsible for the strategic deployment of the academic and administrative operations, services and resources in support of the university mission and its
central and distributed technology requirements.

COLLEEN PEDROZA
CALIFORNIA STATE INFORMATION SECURITY OFFICER

Colleen Pedroza is California’s State Chief Information Security Officer. She has been in State service for many years and has a strong background in information security, serving as an Information Security Officer for two different state agencies. She has 20+ years of service in the information technology field; and has served at the management level for the past nine years. Colleen has a bachelor’s degree in information systems and her background also includes efforts in operational recovery planning, risk management, project management and training. She has held the State Chief Information Security Officer position since August 2006.

CARLOS RAMOS
DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF SYSTEMS INTEGRATION

Carlos Ramos, was recently appointed as Director of the Office of Systems Integration (OSI). OSI manages and oversees a $5.5 Billion project portfolio comprised of some of the largest
and most complex IT projects in state government. As director, Carlos Ramos is responsible for successful management, development, implementation and oversight of projects that support a myriad of Health and Human Services programs. Prior to his appointment as Director of OSI, Carlos served as Assistant Secretary, California Health & Human Services Agency (CHHS) and was the Agency Information Officer (AIO), a position he held since March 2004. As AIO, he provides oversight, assistance, policy advocacy, coordination, and guidance for the IT programs and projects of the 13 departments that are part of CHHS. As Director of OSI, Carlos retains his responsibilities as the CHHS AIO. Previously, he was Director of the Teale Data Center for two years and prior to that he was the CIO for the Department of Social Services for three years.

MICHELLE DENNEDY
CHIEF PRIVACY OFFICER FOR SUN MICROSYSTEMS, INC.

Michelle is responsible for the continued development and implementation of Sun’s data privacy policies and practices, working across Sun’s business groups to drive the company’s continued data privacy excellence. Data privacy is a cornerstone of Sun’s approach to compliance with complex, demanding regulations including Sarbanes-Oxley, the EU Directive, California State Senate Bills, as well as escalating policy and process oriented requirements being imposed globally. Michelle also works with Sun’s product development teams and partners to deliver best-practice privacy enabling products and services.

Michelle co-founded Sun’s internal Privacy Council, an organization that includes and engages with stakeholders from across the company and is dedicated to promoting and promulgating a cohesive practice throughout the organization to protect Sun’s relationships with its customers and employees. Leveraging her persuasion skills honed in law practice and courtroom litigation, Michelle is a sought-after and provocative public speaker, evangelizing new approaches and business justifications for soundly-defined, transparent privacy policies and systems that protect healthy, safe global businesses.

Michelle has a JD from Fordham University School of Law and a BS degree with university honors from Ohio State University.

ALEX KAM
ACTING DIRECTOR CALIFORNIA OFFICE OF HIPAA IMPLEMENTATION

Alex Kam has been in the Director of CalOHI since October of 2006. Prior to assignment, he served as the CalOHI’s Operations Branch Chief since the Office’s inception in2001. As Operations Chief, he is responsible for the statewide HIPAA compliance reviews, program and administrative operations, and legislation. Prior to his assignment with CalOHI, Alex worked at in California Department of Social Services in the welfare programs area.

CalOHI is part of the Health and Human Services Agency and has statutory responsibility to coordinate State governments implementation and compliance to the federal Health Information and Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. In FY 2007-08, the proposed budget for HIPAA implementation is $78,674,000. In addition to overseeing statewide HIPAA
implementation, CalOHI supports development and implementation of privacy and security standards for the Health and Human Services Agency regarding electronic health exchange.

ROSETTA JONES
VICE PRESIDENT OF CORPORATE RELATIONS
AT VISA USA

Rosetta Jones serves as Vice President of Corporate Relations at Visa USA. Ms. Jones leads Visa USA’s issues management efforts in the areas of security and privacy, consumer protection and litigation, as well as related corporate/executive communications with Visa’s member banks. She is responsible for the creation of Practical Money Skills for Life, Visa’s award winning, multilingual resource for educators, students, parents and consumers, which was developed to meet the growing stakeholder need for personal financial education.

Ms. Jones also serves as a spokeswoman for Visa USA and has appeared in numerous broadcast and wire stories, including most notably CNN, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Chicago Tribune.

Prior to joining Visa USA, in 1997, Ms. Jones worked with Ketchum Public Relations in Atlanta, Georgia where she developed and managed communications programs for accounts including MCI, Orkin Pest Control and the Georgia Peach Commission, helping to brand the Georgia peach.

Jones graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a bachelor’s degree from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She is a member of the IPR Measurement Commission and sits on the Call for Action board.