Software Factories Driving Modernization at DOD

Lt. Col. Charlie Bahk is the inaugural Director of the U.S. Marine Corps Software Factory (MCSWF), a pilot effort to create a world-class Marine-led software development capability. Charlie also serves as the Deputy Commandant for Information, Headquarters U.S. Marine Corps (USMC). In these capacities, he enables USMC modernization efforts by leveraging emerging technologies to support commanders at the speed of operations, increasing lethality and readiness. Previously, Charlie served as the Occupational Field Manager for Communications, the second-largest community in the Marine Corps. He is a combat veteran with multiple overseas deployments and received a Bronze Star for wartime service. A native of San Antonio, Texas, Charlie received a Bachelor of Science in Marine Engineering Systems degree from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.

Mr. Jason Bonci is the Department of the Air Force Chief Technology Officer at Office of the Chief Information Officer. His responsibilities are to drive the adoption, resilience, and strategic technical vision of the Enterprise IT portfolio.

Prior to his current position, he was the Senior Director of Public Sector Engineering at Akamai Technologies in Cambridge, Massachusetts. There he led a team of 60 engineering, operations, and consulting professionals in designing and operating Akamai’s public sector portfolio. This included being the technology provider behind the Department of Defense’s Global Content Delivery Service program that powered delivery, security, and optimizations for over 2,000 capabilities. Under his architectural guidance, this service became part of the technical underpinning of the DoD’s internet access delivery system, the Air Force enterprise cloud program (CloudOne) and the Army’s identity and credential access management system. Mr. Bonci also designed and fielded the Shepherd protective domain name service program in conjunction with Defense Digital Service which helped protect Defense Industrial Base companies and national critical infrastructure. Over this 14 year tenure, he had numerous roles in the public sector, including engineering management and as an individual contributor in systems engineering and web applications.

Prior to Akamai, Mr. Bonci was involved in the Open Source community as an engineer at VA Linux and as a contributor to the Debian Linux Distribution. Having worked as an independent security researcher, he is a contributor to the DoD Vulnerability Disclosure Program. He is also an Eagle Scout.

Lauren Knausenberger is CIO for the Department of the Air Force. Knausenberger leads three directorates: Enterprise Information Technology, Data and Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity. She supports 20,000 cyber operations and support personnel around the globe with a portfolio valued at $17 billion and provides oversight of the Air Force’s IT investment strategy. She also integrates warfighting and mission support capabilities by networking and securing air, space and terrestrial assets.

Knausenberger joined the Air Force in 2017 as chief transformation officer and director of cyberspace innovation to drive innovation across the Defense Department, speed adoption of emerging technologies, and create stronger partnerships between DOD, startups and the venture community. Prior to that, she held a number of roles in the private sector including at American Management Systems, CACI and most recently as founder and president of Accellint Inc., a consulting firm and venture partner with NextGen Angels. Accellint specialized in solving national security problems and investing in commercial technologies that could be applied to a government mission.

Colonel Richard Lopez is the senior materiel leader for Kessel Run, the Air Force’s premier agile software development organization. Kessel Run uses commercial software development tools, methodologies, and culture to deliver command and control and targeting software at the pace necessary to deter and defeat adversaries in an era of great power competition. His team is modernizing the worldwide air operations center enterprise, targeting and geospatial intelligence systems, and a range of unit-level systems for maintenance, command and control, and intelligence. His team also maintains the all domain common platform where Kessel Run-managed applications and services reside.

Christopher Yates is a Chief Architect at Red Hat. He has worked extensively within the federal public sector across the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), civilian sector, and with systems integrators for over a decade. Prior to working in the public sector, Mr. Yates worked in the commercial industry as a software engineer in the financial and healthcare sectors.