NSIC BOARD OF DIRECTORS & STAFF

Jason Kelley leads IBM Global Blockchain Services, partnering with client organizations and consortia to unleash the exponential business value of blockchain technologies and reinvented business processes. His teams provide the thought leadership and consultative capabilities needed to design, develop, and rapidly adopt digital ledgers, digital identity, trust, and transparency with IBM Blockchain offerings and solutions.

Mr. Kelley has been a successful entrepreneur, as well as a business unit creator for IBM having led IBM Global Business Services Solutions, Design & Innovation, and helping clients transform to differentiate and lead in the market through digital reinvention with the application of Agile, DevOps, and innovative technology. His teams bring endless energy, creativity, and outcomes for IBM clients around the world, delivering unique business capability with the marriage of analytics, automation/robotics, Watson, and cloud technologies. A holder of 4 U.S. Patents, Jason is also a U.S. Army Airborne Ranger veteran, serves on a number of boards, and leads the community of black employees & mentors (BEAM) globally for the IBM Services organization.

With several like-minded Texans, Tony helped organize the National Security Innovation Council of Texas in the summer of 2019. He recently completed more than four years of service with the University of Texas System where his duties included building the System’s strategic plan, conducting leader development programs for students, faculty, and administrators across the System’s eight universities and six medical institutions, and providing support for all veteran students and employees.

Prior to settling in Texas, Tony served more than 35 years in the U.S. Army, retiring at the rank of Major General in September 2014. His service took him worldwide, leading organizations varying in size from 100 personnel to 22,000 in peace and war. Tony remains in the roles of the US Army as a senior executive and returns to the Army several times a year as a senior mentor for a variety of leader development programs.

Additionally, he is a member of the Board of Directors for Texas 2036, a non-profit that applies data analytics and strategic thinking for public engagement on trending long-term issues impacting Texas, and he serves on the board of the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center Leadership Institute.

TAMEST Board President David E. Daniel, Ph.D. (NAE) is a former Deputy Chancellor of the University of Texas System and previously served as the fourth president of The University of Texas at Dallas from 2005 to 2015.

A civil and environmental engineer by education, Dr. Daniel got his start in private industry aiming to work on the engineering challenges that made a difference. Eventually, however, academia won back his heart and he got his doctorate from The University of Texas at Austin.

Though he loved research, Dr. Daniel slowly pivoted from a Professor and Department Head of Civil Engineering to becoming the Dean of the College of Engineering after being recruited to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Campaign. In 2000, he was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for his “leadership in developing the geoenvironmental engineering field, and major contributions to engineering practice involving landfills and waste containment systems.”

Despite a career full of demanding research and leadership obligations, Dr. Daniel has always found time to devote service and guidance to TAMEST and the National Academies. He has a passion to help research in our state and nation grow stronger and more inter-disciplinary. And he stays focused on fostering the next generation of researchers in Texas.

“Tamest Member Profile: Tamest Board President David E. Daniel, Ph.d. (NAE).” TAMEST (Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology), 24 Jan. 2022, https://tamest.org/news/profile-david-daniel

Ross Guieb is the Executive Director for the George H.W. Bush Combat Development Complex (BCDC) at the Texas A&M University System RELLIS Campus in Bryan, Texas.

Futuristic thinker and agile Senior Executive able to lead highly complex, matrixed organizations. Intensively involved in reshaping the Army’s approach to innovation having helped design, secure buy-in, and stand up the new U.S. Army Futures Command. Played a key role in imagining future combat scenarios and backing those possibilities into a revised R&D portfolio strategy, investment roadmap, and consolidation of the Army’s R&D organizational capabilities into the new entity. Core competencies include a proven ability to build and transform organizations and to influence and sell new concepts.

As Executive Director, Ross provides oversight of a unique ecosystem of state-of-the-art facilities,   researchers, staff and faculty, organized and focused to accelerate priority Department of Defense technologies from the lab to the field. This includes developing strategic partnerships across

DoD, academia, and the defense industrial base. BCDC represents a more than $200M combined investment from the Texas A&M University System, State of Texas, and Army Futures Command.

A decorated combat Veteran, Ross retired in 2020 as a Colonel with 29 years of service in the U.S. Army. As an senior staff executive, Ross played an instrumental role in the development of Army Futures Command and the reorganization of the Army’s modernization enterprise, and brings to the Texas A&M University System tremendous insight on how to best support national security research priorities.

Ross holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from the University of California, a Masters of Arts in Business and Organizational Security Management from Websters University, a Masters of Science in Adult Education from Kansas State University and a Masters of Science in National Security Policy and Resource Strategy from the Eisenhower School at the National War College. He is also a graduate of the FBI Academy, and received professional certification from the University of St Andrews (Scotland) Centre for the Study of Terrorism.  Ross was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit (x3), and Bronze Star (x3).  Ross was also awarded the Key to the City of London and Her Majesty the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal.

Ross is on a total of 13 boards (to include four non-profit boards).

Ross T. Guieb – Texas A&M University. https://npi.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/COL-Ross-Guieb-Bio.pdf.

Debbie Halbert is an expert in engaging and aligning diverse teams, creating effective ways to ensure organizations succeed in reaching their goals. She has demonstrated leadership in the areas of strategic planning, people management and program development.

In addition to ensuring an open and inclusive culture at IBM Austin, Debbie is responsible for the state of Texas initiatives, leveraging relationships to drive economic and environmental improvements. Examples include engaging IBM employees in community involvement and coordinating meetings with city and government officials, on such important topics including Diversity and Inclusive initiatives which includes diversity strategy and business impacts.

Debbie joined IBM in 1982 and has enjoyed a varied career in areas such as Business Controls and Human Resources. She is an active steering committee member of IBM’s Business Resource Groups, Technical Vitality, and Crisis Management teams. She represents IBM in several university partnerships, including The University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University and Southern University.

Debbie and her husband, Gary, live in Georgetown, Texas. She was the impetus behind a military support group at her church while their son was serving in Iraq with the U.S. Marine Corps. She has served 11 years on the Board of Directors for STARRY, missioned to nurture children, strengthen families, and restore hope through counseling, family support services, foster care, and adoption. She recently joined the National Security Innovation Council (NSIC) board as their Secretary. NSIC’s mission is to ensure Texas is
the partner of choice for accelerating national security problem-solving.

Dan began his career at a major Dallas firm in 1974, and moved to Austin in 1982. His almost 40 years of practice have been largely focused on representing business entities, entrepreneurs, and investors in a wide array of corporate and business transactions, including merger and acquisition transactions and equity and debt financing transactions. His experience spans several business sectors, both public and private, and includes serving as general counsel of an Austin-based telecommunications company that developed markets in Mexico and Central America.

Before co-founding the firm in 2007, Dan was a partner/shareholder in three of Texas’ most prominent law firms. Long active in community and civic affairs, Dan has served on numerous government and charitable boards, including service as Chairman of the Board of Regents of the Texas State University System, Director of the Texas Office of State-Federal Relations, and Chairman of the Board of Mental Health America of Texas, Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central and South Texas, Texas Lyceum Association, and The First Tee of Greater Austin. He is an alumnus of The University of Texas at Austin and The University of Texas Law School where he graduated with honors and served as an editor of The Texas Law Review.

“Attorneys.” Attorneys – Matheson Keys & Kordzik PLLC, http://www.mathesonkeys.com/attorneys.asp

John O’Grady is the Director, Army Futures Command for Raytheon Technologies. He is responsible for developing relationships and understanding the capability needs of Army Futures Command in support of Army and Joint modernization efforts. He ensures Army Futures Command has a clear understanding of what industry can provide to help support their mission, ranging across a broad portfolio of air and missile defense systems, long-range precision weapons, radars, command and control systems and advanced technologies.

John, is a retired, 30-year, career, Field Artillery, U.S. Army officer and decorated combat veteran with multiple combat tours with decades of leadership experience. He commanded at every level up to Brigade level.

He has held multiple assignments in Europe and NATO, as well as in the United States. He has served as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a senior advisor to multiple executive-level leaders. He also brings invaluable experience from his private practice as a leadership advisor to executives in both the public and private sectors and sports team coaches at the high school through professional levels. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the United States Military Academy and two Master’s degrees.

Larry Peterson ​​is an investor and serial entrepreneur with two successful exits, and has founded, co-founded or chaired numerous innovation and entrepreneurial initiatives in and around Texas.

He co-founded MassChallenge Texas, the world’s largest tech accelerator, and Innovation Policy advisor and member, Texas 2050 state economic umbrella group. He is current Chair, UTeach, the leading national model STEM teacher preparation program active at 44 universities in 22 states.  He is also former Chair, Texas Lyceum State Leadership Association, and current co-Chair of the Texas Lyceum Advisory and Development Council.

He was a founding member of the original New Mexico Technology Research Corridor (TRC) organization, encompassing $6 billion in annual research expenditures; co-chair of the Texas Software and Wireless Technology Cluster initiative, and an original member of the Texas Technology Working Initiatives Group (TWIG) chaired by Dr. George Kozmetsky, and chaired the El Paso Mayor’s Economic Advisory Council for eight years, launching the regional venture competition, tech accelerator, angel investment group, software association, and entrepreneur’s council, along with numerous other initiatives and organizations.

Under Mr. Peterson’s leadership, the Texas Foundation for Innovative Communities has developed a framework for high-performance regional economic growth, based on work with Dr. George Kozmetsky (often credited as the principal architect of the Austin “technopolis” model) and Chairman Pike Powers. During this time, the Foundation has achieved creation of an innovation ecosystem reference model; demonstration of a low-cost model to greatly extend Texas research funding; development of methodology to identify Texas’ differentiated research strengths; management of the most active region (Central Texas, accounting for more than half of all statewide metrics) of the Emerging Technology Fund (ETF) for the Office of the Governor; creation and management of the Texas Association of Research Parks and Incubators (TARPI); and recruitment and co-founding of MassChallenge Texas, the world’s largest tech accelerator. TFIC also provides advisory support to numerous organizations in Texas and around the world regarding development of innovation ecosystems, research parks and innovation districts. Mr. Peterson is a frequent speaker on topics of innovation, entrepreneurship, venture capital, and the design of innovation districts and research parks.

Guy Walsh is the founding executive director of its National Security Collaboration Center (NSCC). The NSCC, a core initiative in UTSA’s Downtown Campus expansion, will advance research, education and workforce development in cybersecurity, data analytics and cloud computing while anchoring the creation of an emerging high-tech corridor to support San Antonio’s future.

Walsh is among the nation’s foremost leaders in national security as the strategic initiatives lead for U.S. Cyber Command, the Department of Defense’s newest Combatant Command, which is co-located with the National Security Agency (NSA) at Fort George Meade, Md. His expertise includes cybersecurity operations, international affairs and partnerships, risk mitigation and crisis response, strategic planning and execution, and local and state emergency management.

In 2011, Walsh was handpicked by the NSA’s director and commander of the U.S. Cyber Command to operationalize cyber as the newest combat organization in the Department of Defense. His strategic vision led to the creation of Cyber Command’s Guard and Reserve Directorate in 2011, where he established numerous partnership and policy initiatives in collaboration with senior officials on the national security staff, Office of the Secretary of Defense, National Guard Bureau, National Governors Association, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice.

In 2015, Walsh was a founding member and deputy director of the Capabilities Development group, charged with integrating USCYBERCOM’s prioritized cyberspace capability development to rapidly deliver joint operational products and services required for generating, facilitating and monitoring effects in and through cyberspace. He was also a founding member, co-developer and champion for CYBER GUARD, a Tier 1 level exercise to develop a “whole of nation” (federal, state and private sectors) response to cyber threats to U.S. critical infrastructure and key resources.

In addition to his national security expertise, Walsh has significant military operational experience. A career A-10 Close Air Support pilot, Walsh graduated from the USAF Academy, serving as a flight, squadron and group commander prior to his appointment as the commander of the Air Force’s 175th Wing, part of the Maryland National Guard. While overseeing the Maryland group’s war fighting and emergency readiness from 2002 to 2009, Walsh led the Maryland Air National Guard response to support Hurricane Katrina operations in Louisiana and Mississippi.

In June 2009, Walsh was appointed by President Obama and the Secretary of the Air Force to serve as the inaugural commander of the 451st Air Expeditionary Wing (AEW) in Kandahar, Afghanistan. As the senior Air Force commander delivering airpower for U.S and NATO combat operations in Afghanistan, the 451^st Wing was composed of 1,400 personnel charged with conducting full-spectrum combat air operations in support of 100,000 U.S. and coalition forces. Under his leadership, the 451^st AEW provided close air support, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, tactical airlift and airdrop, aero medical evacuation, command and control and combat search and rescue operations throughout Afghanistan.

Chris Doneski is Director of Business Development and Army Customer Requirements and Advocacy for the Electronic Systems sector within BAE System. Prior to joining BAE Systems, Chris served 27 years in the US Army. As an Armor officer, he served in Armor, Cavalry, and Airborne Infantry units. His assignments included several years in the Combat Training Centers (NTC & JMRC), III Corps and Fort Hood Headquarters, and Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR).  He has deployed in assignments from Assistant S3 to Squadron Executive Officer and Brigade Chief of Operations.  Before retiring, Chris served as the Chief of Staff of III Corps, and the Deputy Director for Operations CJTF-OIR.  After the Army, Chris was a consultant in Austin and was Co-Founder and President of the Texas Defense Innovation Forum (TDIF). TDIF is a nonprofit established to help educate and connect the defense establishment with the greater Texas innovation community.

Chris earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Caldwell University and a MBA from the University of Maryland, University College.  He is also a graduate of the Command and General Staff College and the US Army War College. He received a Master’s in Security Strategy from the Army War College.

As Director of Army Programs- Army Futures Command, Chris’ primary area of responsibility is business development working with Army customers at AFC headquarters in Austin. Additionally, he has responsibilities working with Fort Sill, Fort Hood, and Picatinny Arsenal, He works closely with BAE Systems’ business areas to provide expertise regarding customer emerging requirements, technology development, and competitive responses to critical Army technology needs. He is heavily involved in the Austin Defense ecosystem working with all DoD components (AFC, AFWERX, DIU) as well as startups, traditional, and non-traditional defense partners. Founder of Texas Defense Innovation Forum, Austin Defense Council, and Balcones Chapter US Armor & Cavalry Association.

Chris lives in Georgetown, TX with his wife and daughter. He enjoys spending time with his family and playing golf.

Patricia is an emerging technology strategist.  Her experience includes management, consulting, and financial roles with a large systems integrator and tech companies in the quantum computing, cybersecurity, water tech, computer graphics and HPC space.  She worked with D-Wave, the world’s first quantum computing company, where she focused on university research and machine learning and continues to serve as an advisor to others in quantum computing. Patricia developed her passion for technology innovation while working at Silicon Graphics, Accenture and PwC. While at PwC and at Arthur Andersen’s world headquarters, she was a founding member of their first cybersecurity consulting groups.  More recently as VP, she led the Consulting, Sales and Partnership teams at a cybersecurity startup.  She holds a GIAC in Security Leadership.   Her volunteer endeavors include serving as a NDIA Lonestar Chapter Director, serving on the Board of Advisors for the Autonomy Institute, and also serving on the leadership committee which runs all the FIRST Tech Challenge youth robotics competitions in the Austin Metro area. Patricia is a Harvard Business School graduate, half-ironman triathlete and has summited Mt Baker, a glacier in Washington state.

TJWhite is a 30-plus year national security practitioner, strategist, and cyber operations expert leading joint military formations and combined intelligence community organizations. He has commanded at all levels within the Navy and Joint Service, most recently as the Commander, United States Fleet Cyber Command / United States TENTH Fleet / United States Navy Space Command and previously as the Commander, United States Cyber National Mission Force / USCYBERCOM. He is a former Director of Intelligence for United States Indo-Pacific Command and has served globally in various combat zones and conflict areas supporting competition dynamics. A former CINCPACFLT Shiphandler-of-the-Year, he misses his days driving a Battleship. He is a 1987 graduate of the United States Naval Academy and holds additional diplomas from the Naval Postgraduate School, Naval War College, National Defense University, and myriad professional education institutions.

Drew is the co-founder and managing director of the National Security Innovation Council. Prior to the NSIC, Drew supported Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce volunteer
executives for 15 years to helped secure critical amenities for the Central Texas eco-system, to include national security innovation advocacy with the Administration, Congressional and 2 U.S. Senate offices, state and local government, to include helping to secure the DIUx and Army Futures Command offices in Austin and impact the regional Basic Allowance for Housing. Furthermore, Drew aided with state engagement with the Central Texas delegation to reduce state-enforced property taxes, improve credential transferability, improve college/career/military readiness. He also pushed regional efforts to support Austin Community College’s doubling of the certifications earned by 2030, Workforce Solutions’ Master Community Workforce. Drew planned to upskill 10,000 Austin-ites in poverty through training to placement in jobs paying 200% of the federal poverty rate. Drew strategized increasing the number of direct flights to Austin, attract Austin’s first
professional sports team, and improve Metro Austin direct-to-college enrollment rates to 70% for the high school Class of 2020.

Chasteen’s career in media spans 27 years including publisher of the Austin Business Journal and Advertising Director at the Dallas and Jacksonville Florida Business Journals.  In her tenure with ACBJ, Chasteen earned four American City Eagle Awards for Excellence.   Her experience includes work with the Long Center as Chief Revenue Officer and the Austin Chamber of Commerce as Senior Vice President of Programs and Engagement and managed a team focused on membership acquisition, retention, sponsor sales, event management and several committees to support the Chamber programs.  The Chamber hosted over 30 events during the year focused on advocacy, regional economy, business growth opportunities and awards programs.

She has served on the following boards and leadership roles: Junior Achievement chair of the Awareness Committee and Executive Advisory Board for five years; vice chair of the Austin Chamber’s Small Business Solutions Task Force for three years and served on the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce Board for a three-year term.  She served as vice chair of Membership for the Austin Chamber of Commerce and has served as chair of the Business Awards nomination committee for three years, the Board of Trustees for the Austin Lyric Opera, the advisory board for the Heart Walk, and the Long Center Corporate Council.  In her spare time, she plays flute with HPBC orchestra.