Updates below!
Join GTSC for our 10th annual focus on the missions of U.S. Customs and Border Protection! Through COVID, terrorism, transnational crime, cybercrimes, and political and economic instability threaten the homeland. This week will examine CBP's 12 strategic initiatives designed to harness and apply the power of data, intelligence, and advanced analytics, develop and maintain top-quality IT infrastructure and access, and expand our international and intelligence partnerships to leverage the benefits of interoperability and collaboration to protect the country. Webinars feature a keynote speaker. and panel discussion for approximately 1.5-2 hours daily. See the agenda here.
For CBP 2021 you will receive the login information for the day's webinar before 10:00 am -- or at least 3 hours prior to the start -- each day. If you registered for the full series, you'll get your link to join the webinar each morning. Same with registrations for individual sessions. Please follow the link you are sent to gain access. We send this information both through eventbrite and through our personal email. PLEASE mark both as safe senders with your email system to ensure you get the information. Thank you for participating and we look forward to a great week!
If you are not a member of GTSC and have decided you need the information, collaboration, and teaming needed for success, reach out today and JOIN US!
November 1st
State of Border Security
Keynote
Panel
On this 20th Anniversary of 9/11, GTSC's Homeland Security Today asked leaders in the border community to contribute a "State of Border Security" to discuss the nation's efforts to secure our border, and what policy questions are before us for the next 20 years. Please read our esteemed speakers contributions here and join us to hear this critical discussion.
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
David Aguilar
Former Acting Commissioner, U.S. Customs and Border Protection
State of Border Security: The Border Patrol Before and After 9/11
Carla Provost
Former Chief, U.S. Border Patrol
State of Border Patrol: Security at Risk with Agents Overwhelmed
Todd Bensman
Author
Senior Fellow, Center for Immigration Studies
State of Border Counterterrorism: Challenges Threaten Security Successes
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Sonny Bhagowalia
Assistant Commissioner & CIO
Office of Information Technology
At the United States (U.S.) Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Mr. Sanjeev “Sonny” Bhagowalia currently holds the Senior Executive Service position of Assistant Commissioner (AC), Office of Information and Technology (OIT) and CBP Chief Information Officer (CIO).
Mr. Bhagowalia has over 35 years of senior technical, managerial, and executive leadership experience in private industry, the U.S. Government, and state government. Mr. Bhagowalia has spent over 21 of those years in senior executive capacity, including over 17 years as a member of the Senior Executive Service (SES), one year as a Senior Level (SL) in the Federal Government, and three years as a Senior Executive in State Government. He has served in key CIO leadership roles at five agencies: Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior, State of Hawaii, U.S. Department of Treasury and CBP, U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He also served in Chief Executive Officer (CXO) roles as a Deputy Associate Administrator for Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies at General Services Administration, and as a Program Management Executive/Assistant Director at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice. Mr. Bhagowalia also served for 14 years in Industry at Boeing, a Fortune 30 company, ultimately serving for five years in senior technical leadership roles as a Chief Engineer/Manager and an honorary Senior Principal Engineer in the Boeing Company.
Keynote
Speaker
November 3rd
Intelligence & Analysis in Border Security
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
James Mandryck
Acting Deputy Assistant Commissioner
Intelligence & Analysis
CBP Procurement Update Panel
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM
Diane Sahakian
Head of Contracting Activity (HCA)
Acting Assistant Commissioner, Office of Acquisition
Earl J. Lewis III
Deputy Head of Contracting Activity and Executive Director, Procurement Directorate
Michael C. Amaral
Chief, Strategic Programs Branch, Contracts Support & Strategic Programs Division, Procurement Directorate
Border Enforcement Management Systems
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
David Hansen
Executive Director, Border Enforcement Management Systems
Dave Hansen is a native of Chicago, Illinois, and began his career with Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Office of Information and Technology (OIT) in July 2018. In February 2019, Dave began serving as the Deputy Executive Director (DXD) of Passenger Systems Program Directorate (PSPD) and in July 2020, assumed the role of Acting Executive Director (AXD) of PSPD. Before beginning his career with CBP, Dave dedicated over 35 years of service to the United States Marine Corps, serving several different leadership roles. For the last several years of his career with the Marine Corps, Dave served as a Civilian Program Manager, overseeing some of the largest programs led by the Department of Defense (DoD), including supporting the Operating Forces spanning Small Arms, Night Vision, Vehicles, and Enterprise IT Systems.
November 8th
Supporting a Secure Border: Operations Support
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Kathleen Scudder
Executive Director, Planning, Analysis and Requirements Directorate Operations Support
Ms. Scudder serves as the Executive Director for the Planning, Analysis, and Requirements Evaluation Directorate.
Ms. Scudder has extensive knowledge and experience in border security and law enforcement operations. She started her career with the U.S. Border Patrol in Nogales, Arizona, on September 25, 1996, and has been a leading force for integration, coalition-building, and strategic-level planning and implementation. In 2004, she transferred to the Border Patrol Station in Erie, Pennsylvania, before transferring to Headquarters in Washington, DC to serve as the Operations Officer, Office of Border Patrol. Shortly thereafter, Ms. Scudder was promoted to Assistant Chief within the Southwest Border Division, serving as the CBP Agency Liaison to DHS Operations Coordination and Planning Directorate for Department-level strategic planning efforts for 18 months.
November 10
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Scott Miller
Program Manager, Revenue Modernization Program
Scott S. Miller serves as the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Program Manager for the Revenue Modernization (Rev Mod) program. The program is a Department of Homeland Security Major Acquisition Level 3 program and is located within CBP’s Office of Finance. As the Program Manager for almost 2 1⁄2 years, Mr. Miller continues to lead the 33 team members and oversees a budget in excess of $10 million per year. The Rev Mod program is enabling CBP Officers (CBPOs) to reallocate a portion of their time from the labor-intensive manual collection of ~$2.5B in non-cargo related duties, taxes and fees at the ports of entry back toward their mission critical law enforcement and trade facilitation duties. The program implements innovative applications, tools, and methods moving
toward a “cashless” port of entry. As Program Manager, Mr. Miller leads the Rev Mod Program on all program- and project-related matters. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Miller served as the Rev Mod Deputy Program Manager from July 2017 until June 2019.
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Dave Fluty
Executive Director Laboratory and Scientific Services Operations Support
Mr. Larry (Dave) Fluty was appointed in April 2018 as the Executive Director, Laboratories and Scientific Services Directorate (LSSD); in the Office of Operations Support (OS); at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Mr. Fluty served as Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction, at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In this position, he led a multi-disciplinary professional and technical staff that protects the Nation and the DHS workforce from the
deadly health consequences of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Mr. Fluty also oversaw programs that transitioned from the legacy Office of Health Affairs (OHA), supporting government and community stakeholders in the prevention, detection, and response efforts for chemical and biological incidents and mass casualty disasters.
Laboratory and Scientific Services: Operations
November 16
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Jon Miller
Executive Director, Operations, AMO
Jonathan Miller is the Executive Director, Operations, Air and Marine Operations (AMO), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). AMO’s mission is to safeguard our nation by anticipating and confronting security threats through our aviation and maritime law enforcement expertise, innovative capabilities, and partnerships at the border and beyond. AMO has approximately 1,800 federal agents and mission support personnel, 240 aircraft, and 300 marine vessels operating throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. We conduct our mission in the air and maritime environments at and beyond the border and within the nation's interior.
As the Executive Director, he oversees domestic and foreign aviation and maritime missions; plan operations; formulate requirements; and advises the Executive Assistant Commissioner on operational issues.
November 18
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Chief Raul Ortiz
Chief, U.S. Border Patrol
Chief Ortiz draws over 30 years of law enforcement experience to ensure the more than 20,000 Border Patrol Agents and Professional Staff across the country have the training, resources, equipment, and support they need to carry out the homeland security mission.
Chief Ortiz began his career with the U.S. Border Patrol on May 13, 1991, in San Diego Sector as a member of Academy Class 247. Chief Ortiz worked his way up through the ranks at Chula Vista, Brownfield, and Campo stations. In 2000, he promoted to Del Rio Sector, where he served as Assistant Patrol Agent in Charge and Patrol Agent in Charge of the Comstock Station. He also served as an Assistant Chief Patrol Agent at Del Rio Sector Headquarters.
Chief Ortiz took his dedication to national security to the global stage in 2009, where he served as Director of the Border Management Task Force, Senior Advisor to the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and as the DHS Attaché in Kabul, Afghanistan. He returned to the United States in 2012, when he promoted to Deputy Chief of Law Enforcement Operational Programs at Border Patrol Headquarters in Washington, D.C., where he served as principal advisor on enforcement operations and administrative requirements to accomplish the Border Patrol’s strategic plan.
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Diane Sabatino
Deputy Executive Assistant Commissioner, Field Operations
Diane J. Sabatino became the Deputy Assistant Commissioner of Office of Field Operations in July 2020. In this role, Mrs. Sabatino oversees nearly 31,250 employees including approximately 25,400 CBP Officers and CBP Agriculture Specialists that protect U.S. borders. An annual operating budget of $6.5 billion provides for operations at over 330 ports of entry, and many programs that support the national security, immigration, customs, and commercial trade-related missions of CBP. Prior to her current assignment, Mrs. Sabatino served as the Director, Field Operations of Miami and Tampa Field Offices for nearly five years starting in August 2015. As the DFO, she had a workforce of over 2,800 employees with oversight of all inspectional operations throughout the State of Florida encompassing 12 seaports, including the top 3 cruise ship ports in the world; and 19 airports, to include Miami International Airport. While serving as the DFO, she was also designated as the Lead Field Coordinator for Incident Response charged with managing the response to multiple hurricanes for all U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) resources that comprise FEMA Region IV.
November 23
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Sunil Madhugiri
Chief Technology Officer
Sunil Madhugiri joined U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in 2019 as a Chief Architect. He was recently selected as the Acting Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for CBP’s Office of Information and Technology (OIT). The Office of the CTO, CBP’s dedicated hub for technological leadership, drives innovation through a variety of crucial activities such as managing vendor engagement, researching emerging technologies, and arranging proof-of-concept demonstrations.
As Acting CTO, Mr. Madhugiri is responsible for leading the creation and identification of novel technology products that are designed and developed iteratively using highly adaptable agile methodologies and open standards to strengthen CBP operations. Mr. Madhugiri also chairs the Technical Review Board, a governance body that focuses on improving the quality, cost effective-ness, sustainability, and resiliency of CBP’s IT solutions.
RESCHEDULED: December 14, 2021
Supporting a Secure Border: Enterprise Services
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Benjamine "Carry" Huffman
Acting Deputy Commissioner
Benjamine "Carry" Huffman is the Acting Deputy Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in Washington, DC. Prior to this role, Huffman was Executive Assistant Commissioner of Enterprise Services where he oversaw the provision of mission support services, specialized skills, resources, and equipment that enables over 60,000 CBP employees to safeguard America's borders thereby protecting the public from dangerous people and materials while enhancing the Nation’s global economic competitiveness by enabling legitimate trade and travel. Enterprise Services is comprised of approximately 5K personnel at 206 locations across the United States and includes eight functional offices: Accountability, Acquisition and Procurement, Facilities and Asset Management, Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology, Programming, Administrative Services, and Training.