OELS 2026

22-24 September 2026 | National Harbor, MD


   Keynote Speakers   


Mica Dolan

President & CEO, Advanced Technology International

Jennifer Rocha

Senior Strategic Partnership Manager, TechConnect Division, ATI

Regina (Gina) Sims

Director, DoW Office for Small Business Innovation

Jennifer Thabet

Office Director Small Business Programs Office, DARPA

Justin Welch

Operations Director, Idaho National Laboratory

John Williams

Executive Director, Small Business Innovation Research Consortium (SBIRC)

  Speakers   


Pedro M. Allende

Under Secretary for Science and Technology, Department of Homeland Security

Kawa Amina (invited)

Energy Innovation Lead, DIU

Kyle Asman

Founder & Managing Partner, Backswing Ventures

Madeline Augustin

BDS Technology Strategy Sr Manager, Boeing

Kirk Avery

Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems, LM Senior Fellow, Mission Systems and Autonomous Technologies Chief Architect, Lockheed Martin

Sunhee Baik

Research Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Ken Barrett

Chief Business Officer, Arzeda Corp.

Brian Benestelli

Director, Cyber Risk Engineering, Axio

Eric Bennett

Senior Technical Expert, Vehicle Electronics and Architecture (VEA), GVSC, US Army

Jaipreet Bindra

Senior Advisor, University of Ottawa

Joshua Bissell

MOSA Lead – Senior Systems Engineer, US Army - Headquarters – ASA(ALT) - ADASM(DES)

Josh Booth

Chief Architect, FLRAA PMO/Aether Aerospace

Suzanne Borders

CEO and Founder, BadVR, Inc.

Katie Bornfleth

Marketing Communications Project Manager, TechConnect Division, ATI

Nick Borton

SOSA® Consortium Director, The Open Group

Alex Boydston

Digital Engineering Chief, Capability Program Executive Aviation (CPE Aviation)

Cayle Bradley

Technology-to-Market Advisor, ARPA-E

Jamie Breakfield

Technical Director, Naval Shipbuilding and Advanced Manufacturing (NSAM) Center of Excellence

Veronica Breckenridge

Founder/Managing Partner, First Bight Ventures

Doug Britton

EVP and CSO, RunSafe Security

Joe Bryan

Principal, Muswell Orange LLC

Patrick Buckley

Digital Solutions Architect, Integration Innovation, Inc. (i3)

Sophie Burkholder

Senior Investment Associate, Innovation Works

Stephanie Burns

Senior Technical Fellow, Collins Aerospace

Bob Burton

Director of Defense Technologies, North Carolina Military Business Center

Jonathan Cain

Sr. Engineering Manager, Raytheon

Jim Caley

Director of Operational Energy, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Energy, US Navy

Casey Carter

Senior Technical Fellow, PeopleTec

Joshua Carter

Associate Administrator, SBA’s Office of Investment and Innovation

Juan Pablo Carvallo

Staff Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Rabia Chaudhry

Director, DC Water Resiliency

Gabriela Ciocarlie

Stephen Bloom Chair Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science, Stevens Institute of Technology/CyManII

Conrad Clyburn

Chief Executive Officer, MedForeSight

Allison Cole

Head of Strategy and Engagement, Aerospace & Satellite Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Samuel Courtney

WOSA Lead Engineer, AFRL Air Warfare Directorate

Krista Covey

CEO & President, First Flight Venture Center

Lesia Crumpton-Young

Section Head for the Small Business section within the Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) Directorate Program Director, National Science Foundation

Andrew Crumrine

Senior Architect – MV-75 Cheyenne II, Bell

Preeta Datta

Director of Innovation, Americas, Evonik

Dr. Macam Dattathreya

Senior Scientific Technical Manager, US Army

John David

Chief Transformation Officer, BryceTech

Doug Doan

Founder & General Partner, Hivers & Strivers

Grayson Dorr

Program Manager, Advanced Technology International (ATI)

Bryan Doyle

Chief Autonomy Engineer for ALC, Shield AI

Steven Drake

Director, System of Systems Acquisition Decision Information, Assistant Deputy for Acquisition Systems Management (Data, Engineering, and Software), Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics and Technology) [ADASM (DES) / SAAL-ZE / ASA(ALT)]

Scott Duff

Head of Government Relations, General Matter

Susan Ebner

Co-Chair, National Defense Industrial Association's Cyber Division's Cyber Legal Regulatory Policy Committee

Thomas Edgar

Chief Cybersecurity Research Scientist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Jeff Eggers

Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Rsquared

John Ellersick

President, Next Run Technology

Rick Eno

Board of Directors, Locus Fermentation Solution

Joe Epstein

Strategic Parternships Lead for Space, Lockheed Martin

Faris Fakhry

Investor, Lowercarbon Capital

Justin Fanelli

Chief Technology Officer, US Navy

Andras Forgacs

Founding & Managing Partner, Inceptional Partners

Adam Frederick

Program Manager, Maneuver Air Directorate

Caleb Freeman

Associate Technical Fellow, Sierra Nevada Corporation

Adam Gately

Business Development Executive, DeepSig, Inc.

Josh Giegel

CEO, Gambit Defense, Inc.

Todd Gillen

Head of Business Development, Fluree AI

Tom Gillespie

Partner Head of Alliance Fund, Geodesic Capital

Jacob Glassman

Deputy Assistant Secretary of War for Critical Technologies, Office of the Secretary of War

Guilherme Goretkin

Principal Engineer for Safety and Embedded Software, Ansys part of Synopsy

Francis Govers

Director of Engineering for Unmanned Systems, Airbus US Space and Defense

Jen Greenstein

Senior Director, Evaluation, Focused Initiatives, North Carolina Biotechnology Center

Joel Griffin

Co-Founder & President, Riphean Group, Riphean Investments

Dale Grogan

Managing Partner, Michigan Capital Network

Mark Grubb

Next Generation 911 Technical Subject Matter Expert, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

Daryl Haegley

Technical Director, Air & Space Force Cyber Resilience Office for Control Systems, US Air and Space Force

Kent Halverson

Deputy, Technical Operations Group, Aptima

Denis Hamel

Director, Developmental Flight Tes, Airbus Helicopters, Inc.

Eric Hannis

Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Strategy and Acquisition Reform, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics and Technology)

Raymond Hartley

Product Manager, US Army PM C2 Infrastructure, CPE C2IN, CMOSS Mounted Form Factor

Bob Harwig

Senior Manager, S&C Electric

Jason Hay

Director of Technology, BryceTech

Deborah Hemingway

Founder and Managing Partner, Ecphora Capital

Joanne Herring

Senior Advisor for Intellectual Property, Office of the Secretary of War (OSW), Intellectual Property Cadre

Daniel Hettema

Director of Digital Engineering, Modeling & Simulation (DEM&S), Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering (OUSW R&E)

Jarrett Holcomb

Manager (R&D), Southwest Research Institute

Jonathan Homer

Chief Security Officer & Vice President of Integrated Security, CPS Energy

Max Hopkins

Business Development Manager, Advanced Technology International (ATI)

Tom Houman

Vice President of Technology, Colvin Run Networks

Carolyn Hughes

Cyber-physical Systems Engineer, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab

Gordon Hunt

Co-Founder, Skayl

Sean Hunt

Chief Technology Officer & Co-Founder, Solugen

Bill Jacobs

Chief Technical Architect, US Army CPE Aviation

Greg Jaffe

President, Jaffe Policy Consulting LLC

Jonathan Jakischa

Principal, Open Innovation, TechConnect Division, ATI

Rich James

Systems Engineering SME and Deputy, Enterprise Platform, Innovation & Conformance Center (EPICC), US Army CPE Aviation / CE Solutions, Inc.

Nazish Jeffery

Principal, Helix Advisory LLC

Arlene Joyner

Deputy Assistant Secretary, Center for Industrial Base Management and Supply Chain (IBMSC), Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, (ASPR) Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

Rich Julien

Partner, BOKA Capital

Nick Kacsandi

Senior Business Development & Sales Manager, TechConnect Division, ATI

Andrew Kerbrat

Chief Systems Integration Officer, Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC), US Army

Dave Kliemann

Head of Cloud Risk, IBM Cloud

Laura Knott

Associate Director, Supply Chain Technology Sourcing, Raytheon

Lars Knutstad

Director of Business Development, Pow.Bio

Kate Kovalovsky

Senior Director of MBSE Services, Strategic Technology Consulting

Rosemary Kramer

Principal Deployment Strategist, LMI

Matthew Laudon

Vice President, TechConnect, TechConnect Division, ATI

Colleen Laughlin

Board Member, Station DC

Benjamin Leibowicz

Associate Professor, University of Texas, Austin

Jenny Ligon

Strategic Bio Innovation Program Advisor, TechConnect

Ilya Lipkin

Steering Committee Chair, Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA), USAF Air Combat Command (ACC) FedLab

David Liu

Senior Materiel Leader for the Mission Systems Architecture and Systems Engineering Group, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Air Force Materiel Command

Wesley Low

Systems Engineer, PM UAS, CPE Aviation

Andrew Magyar

Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer, Capra Biosciences

Bob Matthews

Technical Fellow and Advanced Concepts Engineering Lead, L3Harris

Michael Mazzocco

President & CEO, Alytic

William McCandless, Jr.

Systems Engineering Branch Chief, PM Fixed Wing, CPE Aviation

Andrew McClure

Director, Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) at the U.S. Department of Energy

Eric McFarland

Chief Science Officer, First American Nuclear Company (FANCO)

Jad Meouchy

CTO, BadVR, Inc.

Jonathan Mercado

Principal, First Bight Ventures

Caroline Michael

Technical Director, Pratt Miller

Erika Milczek

Chief Executive Officer, Curie Co

Sarah Mineiro

CEO and Founder, Tanagra Enterprises

Kevin Mish

Program Manager, Abbott on Call

Valerie Moon

Executive Director, Communications Cybersecurity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (C2 ISAC)

Emma Mooney

Outreach & Project Manager, TechConnect Division, ATI

Brad Moran

Principal PNT Systems Engineer, MITRE Corporation

Rachel Moudy

Senior Technical Advisor, Technology, KBR

Fowad Muneer

Program Manager, U.S. Department of Energy Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response

Laura Murphree

Senior Marketing and Program Manager, TechConnect Division, ATI

David Murray

Vice President, Peerless Technologies Corporation

Kelly Murray

Co-Founder and Executive Director, Center for Cross Sector Coordination

Wilson Nance

Consultant to Deputy Secretary of War - Deregulation, Security, Advanced Technologies, Department of War

Tom Overbeck

Innovation Commercialization Director for Precision Fermentation, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM)

Craig Owens

Program Manager, Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program, Lockheed Martin

Marcell Padilla

Senior Technical Architect, ACPE Aviation E&A/CRL Technologies, Inc.

Justin Pierce

Strategic Development Manager, Space & Mission Systems, BAE Systems

Shelby Pierson

Founder and Principal, Invicta Analytics, LLC

Erik Pierstroff

Program Director, National Science Foundation

Eugene Plotkin

Senior Project Leader, Aerospace Corporation

Rob Proctor

Staff Field Application Engineer, Real-Time Innovations

Anthony Pugliese

Director of the Office of Technology and Commercialization and Chief Commercialization Officer for DOE, U.S. Department of Energy

Nick Purvis

Sr Principal Systems Engineer, RTX

Travis Rapp

Senior Technical Program Manager, Rapid Innovation Team, Google Public Sector

Lloyd Reaves

Chief Engineer Emerging Technologies, L3 Harris Technologies, Inc.

Jose Recio

Assistant General Counsel, Collins Aerospace

Jay Reckard

President, Reckard Consulting

Jullian Revell

DASO Lead Engineer, AFLCMC/EBZC

Matthew Rogers

ICS Cybersecurity Expert, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

Bart Romanowicz

Senior Advisor, TechConnect Division, ATI

Ben Roth

Hypersonic Missile Hardware Chief Engineer, Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane

Eileen Rubin

Program Manager, DHS Science & Technology

Ashley Sadorra

Technical Program Manager, Defense and Space, Idaho National Laboratory

Jennifer Sanders

Executive Director, North Texas Innovation Alliance

Christophe Schilling

Chairman, Future Origins

Austin Schmitz

Systems Engineer, Canvas, Inc.

Christopher Schnelle

Staff Engineer, Southwest Research Institute

Ben Schrag

SBIR/STTR Program Director and Policy Liaison, National Science Foundation

Ryan Scoble

Associate Director, Business Development for Army Rotary Wing Programs, Collins Aerospace

Robert Scout

Deputy Open Architecture Functional Lead / Avionics Architecture Team Deputy IPT Lead, NAVAIR/PMA-209

Jonathan Shaver

WOSA Program Manager, AFRL Air Warfare Directorate

Nikhil Shenoy

Founder and CEO, Colvin Run Networks

Jennifer Shieh (Invited)

Acting Director, Innovation, Small Business Administration

Eric Shull

Lead Systems Engineer, US Army - OCE - PAE Fires

Brittany Sickler

Strategic Advisor, U.S. National Science Foundation's Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnership (TIP)

Luis Simpson

Defense Technologies Associate, DAGER Technology

Matthew Sipe

Founder, Principal Consultant, To The King LLC

Ed Siu

Head of Strategic Alliances, Wind River X

Kate Sixt

Executive Director of the Office of the Chief Scientist, USDA

Conrad Smith

General Manager - Electronic Warfare, AeroVironment

Shane Snyder

Cyber & RF Effects Branch Chief, Army’s C5ISR Center

Major Martin Span

Branch Chief Engineer, AFLCMC/EBZC

Seth Spergel

Managing Partner, Merlin Ventures

John Squires

Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director, United States Patent and Trademark Office

Camille Stebbins

Deputy Director, Advanced Technology International

Mike Stebbins

Senior Vice President, Medical & Threat Countermeasures Division, Advanced Technology International

Jason Temple

Technical Director, Joint Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations Center (JEC), Joint Electromagnetic Warfare Center (JEWC)

John Thomas

Partner, Frontera Group

Jason Thomas (Invited)

Systems Engineering Lead, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy

Garrett Thurston

Principal Technical Fellow and Sr. Director of Services & Strategy, Dassault Systèmes

Joyce Tokar

Senior Engineering Fellow, Embedded Software Engineering, RTX

Lily Toto

Senior Associate, Two Lanterns Venture Capital

Galen Valentine

Chief Architect for the MV-75 Cheyenne II program and Associate Tech Fellow for Systems Engineering, Bell Textron

Brannan Villee

Division Director, Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA), DHS Science & Technology

Sonia Vohnout

Founder & CEO, OppsSpot, LLC

Tom von Eschenbach

Senior VP, Growth Operations & GM Huntsville Site, Parry Labs

Aaron Walker

Founder and CEO, Vadum, Inc.

Dave Walsh

Chief Strategy Officer, Qualis

Troy Warshel

Executive Vice President, Potomac International Partners, Inc.

Brent Wells

Senior Project Manager and Research Analyst,, Advanced Technology International (ATI)

Scott Wigginton

Architecture Technical Area Lead, US Army, DEVCOM AvMC

Gregg Wildes

Defense and Aerospace Executive, DDC-I

Lesley Wilhelm

Action Officer - Wargaming, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy (RDT&E), US Navy

George Winborne

Lead for Communications, Knowledge, and Performance Management, DoW Intellectual Property Cadre

Emory Winters

Chief Engineer, PM Apache, Development & Modernization Product Office

Ginger Wright

Program Manager, Idaho National Laboratory

Justin Wright-Eakes

Founder & Managing Partner, Oval Park Capital

Justin Yang

Co-Founder, DMV Bio

Matt Young

Technical Director for Collaborative Autonomy, Raytheon

Alexandre Zanghellini

Co-Founder and CEO, Arzeda

Naval Operational Energy Office, Tech Advisor, US Navy

Chief Technology Officer, Acting Chief Science Officer, National & Homeland Security, Idaho National Laboratory

Federal Cybersecurity Strategic Advisor, Dominion Power

Small Business Programs Program Manager, SBIR Co-Lead Commercialization, Lockheed Martin

Senior Architect – MV-75 Cheyenne II, Bell

Power and Energy Systems Deputy Division Manager, Special Warfare and Expeditionary Systems Department, Naval Surface Warfare Center – Crane Division

Co-Founder and CEO, Metavonics

Senior Embedded Engineer and Team Lead, DESE Research, Inc.

Managing Partner, In-Q-Tel

CEO, CyManll

Supplier Innovation Lead, Raytheon

Founder, Big Idea Ventures

Sr. Technical Leader - DER Integration, EPRI

Director and Chief Intellectual Property Counsel for Data Rights, Lockheed Martin

Vice President, Sales, Ericsson

Senior Partner, Converge Strategies

Chief Information Officer, Naval Facilities Command

Senior Technical Developer, Idaho National Laboratory

Vice Chancellor for Research and Engagement, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Lead Enterprise Liaison Engineer Boeing Defense Space & Security, Boeing

Chief Architect, Electronic Warfare Division, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC)

Technical Account Manager, Lynx

Chief Technology Officer, Empower AI

Chief Cybersecurity Scientist, Idaho National Laboratory

Strategic Advisor - Electric Distribution Grid Planning, Dominion Energy

Jammer Technique Optimization (JATO) National Lead, Navy’s PMA-234 Airborne Electronic Attack Systems

EMC² Program Manager, Naval Surface Warfare Center – Crane Division




Sponsors and Partners (co-located with Defense TechConnect Innovation Summit)

Sponsors & Partners



 Government Partnr


© Copyright 2026 TechConnect. All Rights Reserved. Disclaimer | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use