Rizwan Ahmed

Rizwan Ahmed currently serves as Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the State of Louisiana. Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco appointed him to the position of CIO on March 15, 2006.

Rizwan has over 30 years of business experience in international banking, retail business, lottery operations and state government, and has worked in business environments around the globe. He has extensive technical experience with various computing platforms and telecommunications.

Previously, Rizwan served concurrently as Chief Information Officer for the Office of Group Benefits (OGB) and the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR). OGB is a state-run health insurance organization covering over 300,000 lives, and operating with a revenue stream of over a billion dollars. DNR is a statewide, high-visibility cabinet-level organization with an annual revenue exceeding $500 million.

At OGB and DNR, Rizwan has been instrumental in business engineering and overhaul of information technology. Innovative approach to solve business needs resulted in nationwide recognitions and awards.

Rizwan was nominated for Computerworld’s Smithsonian award and DNR’s technology has been stored in a time capsule at the Smithsonian to be reopened after 200 years.

Rizwan was also recognized as one of Computerworld’s 100 premier leaders and one of 100 most resourceful leaders by CIO magazine in 2003.

Rizwan serves on a number of professional and business organizations. Few are listed here:

	Served as President of the Council of Information Services Directors, a statewide group of IT professionals dedicated to improving the acquisition, implementation and effectiveness of technology throughout the State.
	Serves on Governor’s Statewide Interoperability Executive Committee (SIEC) as Vice-chairman.
	Serves as Vice-President on the Board of Directors for Capitol City Family Health Center Inc. in Baton Rouge.

Rizwan’s formal education includes studies at the Thames University located in London, UK. He is an electronics engineer with B.S. degree majoring in physics and statistics.

Kristie Green, FBI

Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) Kristine Z. Green holds a Juris Doctorate degree from Temple University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Emory University.

She was first assigned as an agent to New Orleans Division in 1996 working public corruption matters, and in 2000, began working cyber and cyber counterterrorism matters. In October 2006, Green was promoted to supervisor of FBI New Orleans' Cyber squad and became the FBI's Program Coordinator for Cybercrime in the State of Louisiana.

She supervises ten agents handling cases involving computer hacking, child exploitation, intellectual property theft, identity theft and internet fraud.

Tom Forrest, SAIC, Program Manager at Entergy

Tom Forrest is the SAIC Program Manager for its IT Services contract with Entergy the New Orleans based utility. Tom spent many years in IT Service Delivery and managed SAIC's UK Systems Integration organization before spending time in India helping establish an offshore delivery center. He originally trained as an economist and spent his early working life in Industrial relations.

David Puzas, IBM ISS, Director of Services

David Puzas is the director of services and customer marketing for IBM Internet Security Systems. With over 12 years of strategic and direct marketing in the information security and managed services provider space, Puzas is responsible for strategically marketing IBM Internet Security Systems' global presence and offerings in the managed security services space as well as driving customer retention and marketing strategies.

Prior to joining IBM Internet Security Systems, Puzas served as vice president of marketing and communications at Vigilinx. Prior to that, he was responsible for all aspects of marketing at METASeS and was also responsible for strategic marketing at Ibertech. Puzas holds a bachelor's degree in business administration with an emphasis in information systems from the University of Texas at San Antonio.