Speakers

Joe Kirschbaum is a Director in the Defense Capabilities and Management Team of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). He assists congressional committees by overseeing evaluations of U.S. Government programs in the Strategic Warfare and Intelligence area, focusing mostly on the Department of Defense. 

Over his 30-year career with GAO, Mr. Kirschbaum conducted and led audits throughout the range of defense and national security programs. Among the topics he has covered are U.S. strategic nuclear forces; military cyberspace doctrine and operations; information operations;  intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; counterproliferation of weapons of mass destruction; chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high-yield explosive preparedness and consequence management; homeland defense;  Army and Navy force structure; and development of the Navy’s littoral combat ship. In 2013 Mr. Kirschbaum served as an acting director in GAO’s Homeland Security and Justice Team, overseeing evaluations of federal emergency preparedness and homeland security programs

Mr. Kirschbaum comes from a Navy family and upon graduating High School served briefly on active duty in the U.S. Navy’s nuclear propulsion program. Mr. Kirschbaum has a Bachelors degree in History and Political Science, a Masters degree in National Security Studies (both from California State University, San Bernardino) and a PhD in military history from George Washington University.

Mike Derrios is a strategic leader and expert in government acquisition with 30 years of federal, military, and private sector experience. He serves as the Executive Director for the Greg & Camille Baroni Center for Government Contracting in the Costello College of Business at George Mason University where he oversees research, education and training, and collaboration across government, industry, and academia to drive innovation in the $800 billion government contracting sector.

He is the former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Acquisition and Senior Procurement Executive for the U.S. Department of State, where he led all global procurement and grant operations for America’s foreign diplomacy and national security mission, managing an annual spend of $15 billion and a workforce of 1500 across 270 embassies and consulates. Previously, Mike served as the Head of Contracting Activity for the United States Coast Guard. In that role he led a $3.5 billion annual portfolio to recapitalize assets, saved a shipyard from bankruptcy to preserve the $10 billion Offshore Patrol Cutter program, and drove partnership with the U.S. Navy to build America’s first icebreaking vessel in 40 years.

A plank holder for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Mike helped to establish the new agency after the 9/11 tragedies and led the nationwide deployment of passenger and carry-on baggage screening equipment, valued at $5 billion, across 429 U.S. airports. He also served as the program director for expansion of TSA PreCheck®, launching a program that enrolls millions of Americans for expedited airport screening through a public-private partnership model.

As a senior business consultant at CACI, Mike helped to replace legacy contract writing systems for 20,000 procurement professionals across the Department of Defense. Starting his career as a Contract Specialist in the United States Air Force, Mike has been passionate about mission support ever since. He holds a Master of Business Administration degree from George Mason University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Workforce Education & Development from Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

Tom Tapley specializes in securing software supply chains for Federal environments, bringing deep expertise in aligning agency security, compliance, and operational requirements with modern technology solutions. With a proven track record in supporting mission-critical systems, he bridges the gap between evolving federal mandates and scalable, secure software practices.

In this role, Tom is responsible for leading Peraton’s information technology (IT) organization and its strategy, ensuring proactive and consistent technology support to the growth, financial, employee experience, and operational objectives of the company. Additionally, he serves as the senior IT advisor to Peraton’s executive leadership team.

Tom returned to Peraton having most recently served as senior vice president and chief information officer at ASRC Federal. While there, he led all aspects of its IT function and strategy execution. Following the acquisition of Perspecta in 2021, he became Peraton’s vice president of information technology. Earlier in his career, he held IT leadership roles at Vencore, BAE Systems Inc., and AIG.

Tom earned a bachelor’s degree in information systems with a concentration in homeland security from Strayer University.

JR Williamson is the Senior Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer of Leidos. In that role, he is accountable for all aspects of information security strategy, governance, risk, and full lifecycle cybersecurity operations for the corporation.  Specific duties include the governance and defense of the corporation’s computing environments: protection of unclassified and classified intellectual and digital assets against existing and emerging cybersecurity threats; developing and implementing effective risk-based security policies, procedures, and operating practices; executing cyber risk assessments and designing appropriate remediation plans; development and retention of our global cybersecurity workforce, and the evolution of our global information security technology and innovation processes.  

Mr. Williamson is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional and a Six Sigma Black Belt.  He chairs the Leidos Security Council; is a long-term member of the Executive Security Action Forum; the Security 50; the Gartner Advisory Board; the Defense Industrial Base Sector Coordinating Council; a member of the NSA Enduring Security Framework; Chair of the WashingtonExec CISO Council; the Customer Advisory Boards for Palo Alto, F5, Okta, Netskope, and Crowdstrike; and is the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Internet Security Alliance. 

Mr. Williamson is frequent public speaker on cybersecurity matters and is a co-author of four books including Cybersecurity for Business (2023), Fixing American Cybersecurity (2023), the National Association of Corporate Directors Cyber Risk Handbook (2026, 5th edition), and the Cybersecurity Social Contract (2016).

Mr. Williamson is blessed with a wonderful family of five and spends his free time with them and engaging in all things soccer (he is a professional soccer coach with a US Soccer National C license and a senior certified referee, and referee instructor and mentor).