Federal IT Spotlight at TechNet Indo-Pacific 2024

Mr. Benjamin Needles (Ben) currently serves as the Chief Technology Officer for the J2, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. As CTO, he serves as the principal advisor on technology issues to the J2 and the Joint Intelligence Operations Center (JIOC), and represents the J2 on technology issues for the National and theater defense intelligence enterprise. He is additionally responsible for innovation and modernization within the J2.

Ben’s background has covered a wide array of issues. He served as the INDOPACOM J2 Functional Manager for Open-Source Intelligence and as the Chief of Innovation & Automation within the JIOC. He has additionally served as the JIOC Senior Intelligence Officer for Executive Production, managing the daily intelligence production for the COM and senior staff. Ben came to INDOPACOM in 2015 as the Counterterrorism & Counter-WMD Mission Manager, serving in that role for three years. Previous assignments include the Defense Counterterrorism Center & Joint Inter-Agency Task Force-Counterterrorism, and DIA’s Iraq Intelligence Cell. Ben deployed to Iraq in 2006 for 15 months that included the Surge, serving as the Senior Strategic Analyst for Northern Iraq.

Mr. Joshua Reiter is the Department of the Navy Deputy Principal Cyber Advisor (PCA). In this role, he is responsible for supporting the PCA in advising the Secretary of the Navy, Chief of Naval Operations, and Commandant of the Marine Corps, and implementing the Department of Defense Cyber Strategy within the Department of the Navy. Mr. Reiter also serves in the additional capacity as the Department of the Navy Chief Information Officer’s (DON CIO) Chief Workforce Officer. He was originally appointed to Defense Intelligence Senior Level (DISL) in December 2018 as the Director of Cyber Workforce Policy and Planning under the Cybersecurity Directorate of OPNAV N2N6.

A former U.S. Coast Guard licensed merchant mariner, for the first several years of his career, Mr. Reiter served as a DoD civilian mariner with the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command as Third Officer aboard USNS Saturn (T-AFS-10), USNS John McDonnell (T-AGS 51), USNS Apache (T-ATF 172), USNS Hayes (T-AG-195) and as Second Officer/Navigator aboard USNS Sirius (T-AFS-8).

Mr. Reiter spent three years as the Manager of Maritime Information Systems for the Massachusetts Port Authority, overseeing the information technology infrastructure for the Port of Boston. He spent one year working in private sector information technology, prior to 9/11. After 9/11, Mr. Reiter spent over 17 years serving in a variety of roles at the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) in Washington, DC, including Executive Director of the Nimitz Operational Intelligence Center, the U.S. Navy’s pre-eminent center of excellence for operational and strategic analysis of events associated with the maritime domain.

Mr. Reiter is also a retired Navy Reserve Information Warfare officer whose assignments included the Office of Naval Intelligence, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).

Mr. Reiter earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science/Mathematics from the State University of New York Maritime College at Fort Schuyler, and a Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), Society for Human Resources Management Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP), Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) and a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute.

David Rouse leads Verizon’s Department of Defense and National Security global sales organization. Verizon delivers mission oriented-solutions globally in support of the National Security agencies, international defense organizations, the DoD and its mission partners.

In his previous roles with Verizon, he served as Director for US Department of Defense sales, Associate Director for Department of Defense wireline sales, Managing Client Partner for the US Department of Air Force, Department of Navy, and DoD Healthcare segments, and as Client Partner on the Defense Information Systems Agency account. Rouse was responsible for the company’s early support and increasing role with defense enterprise service offerings in the areas of mobility, cybersecurity, and various technology transformation initiatives.

Beyond Verizon, Rouse served in a variety of technical, sales, and leadership roles with Lumen Technologies and Sprint in support of customers in the federal, state, education, healthcare, utility, and financial industry segments. He also has start-up experience with Quantum Xchange.

Prior to his time in industry, Rouse was a telecommunication engineer at the Defense Information Systems Agency. His work focused on global voice and video communications solutions, including support of Desert Shield/Storm.

Rouse holds a master’s degree in telecommunications and computers from the School of Engineering and Applied Science at The George Washington University, and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from West Virginia University. He also holds a master’s certificate in organizational leadership from Villanova University.