Mr. Adebisi is the Global Managing Director and President of the Ascellon family of companies. Under the leadership of Mr. Adebisi over the past 23 years, Ascellon has grown to become a global IT services and management consulting company by providing high quality technical consulting services to private industry and public organizations. Ascellon’s services include enterprise quality management, program management, data management, internet and web solutions, software development, leadership development and training. Ascellon’s customers include private and public-sector organizations in health care, finance and national defense.

Ascellon’s global headquarters is in Landover, Maryland with employees in 28 states, Puerto Rico and Nigeria.

Mr. Adebisi and Ascellon have received numerous major industry awards and recognition, including citations in Washington SmartCEO Magazine; Washington Technology Magazine; INC Magazine; Baltimore Business Journal; Government Computer News; BusinessWeek Magazine; and many others.

Mr. Adebisi’s career includes previous positions in Technology and Management Consulting within global consulting firms such as Deloitte Consulting (formerly KPMG Consulting) and Price Waterhouse Consulting. Mr. Adebisi is a graduate of John H. Sykes School of Business, University of Tampa, Florida where he earned a Master of Business Administration degree, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Information Systems and Business Administration.

Charitable Activities: Current Commodore, Board Member and Past Treasurer of Seafarers Yacht Club of Annapolis; Current member of Board of Directors of the Foundation Schools; Past Treasurer, National Black MBA Association; Certified Scout Leader and Volunteer; Mentor for Young Entrepreneurs through the Inner City Competitive Initiative (ICCI).

Sandra Arico represents the next generation of young leaders. She has been described as an enabler, a connector and a catalyst for change. Her curiosity, drive and passion for making an impact has led her on an extraordinary journey. Graduating from RMIT with an Entrepreneurship degree, two prestigious university awards - the RMIT Business Medal and the Patricia Guthrie Memorial Award - and a successful entrepreneurial events-based start-up, she was scouted by the CEO of Deloitte Digital to help drive digital innovation in a conservative professional services firm.

Having successfully helped Deloitte build an online education business from the ground-up, Sandra turned left and headed for the Guatemalan jungle, where she spent a year living in a remote community. The years that followed saw Sandra bringing her vision, creativity and commercial talent to CSIRO, to start-ups and community-building initiatives, to RMIT, where she managed and grew a thriving innovation program, and to Swisse Wellness where she was Global Head of Innovation. Sandra’s latest challenge has seen her shift gears and move north to a warmer climate, bringing her experience, passion, energy and fresh thinking to the burgeoning innovation ecosystem on the Sunshine Coast. She is currently working with aerospace tech company HeliMods and with start-ups and scale-ups through the Sunshine Coast Innovation Centre.

Clayton Banks is the Co-Founder and CEO of Silicon Harlem. The mission of Silicon Harlem is to transform Harlem and other urban markets into Innovation and Technology Hubs. Under his leadership, Silicon Harlem has been able to partner with the Department of Education for New York City to establish an after-school STEM-based startup accelerator, collaborate with the NYC Mayor’s office to assess wireless broadband in upper Manhattan and coordinate a virtual startup incubator for tech-based entrepreneurs. Banks has established and produces the only comprehensive technology conference in Harlem, the Silicon Harlem tech conference, focused on next-generation internet and its impact on urban markets economic development.

Prior to Silicon Harlem, Banks has been a pioneer in the cable and communications industry for over two decades. He set the vision for Ember Media, a development group that builds digital solutions and interactive applications for top brands and non-profit organizations, across multiple platforms. Known as a pragmatic visionary, Banks has implemented multi-platform strategies for MTV, ESPN, Budweiser, Essence Music Festival, Urban Latino, Prudential, New York Institute of Technology, United Technologies, National Urban League, Denny’s, Scholastic, and other top brands. He has produced multimedia and broadband content for Discovery Networks, HBO, Pepsi, Bloomberg TV, Showtime Networks, Bermuda Tourism, British Tourist Authority, Monaco Tourism, and countless other companies and organizations around the world. Banks has worked with former President of the United States Bill Clinton to publish a first-of-its-kind interactive college guide series called “The Key”, that targets underserved communities and features Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic Serving Institutions. The Key was featured on CNN, NY1, Univision, and several other media outlets around the country.

Jason Bechtold is the economic development director for the City of Westerville, a position he’s held since December of 2009. Bechtold has built a program in Westerville that actively fosters relationships to attract, retain and create business opportunities in the community and, most importantly, expand the local tax base. Prior to his employment with the City of Westerville, Bechtold worked in local government in the cities of Gahanna and Delaware, Ohio, focusing on economic and community development and planning.

Bechtold serves as the Vice President of the Mid-Ohio Development Exchange (MODE), a membership organization of local economic development organizations from throughout the eleven county Columbus Region.

Bechtold earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Baldwin Wallace University and master’s degrees in public administration and management as well as city and regional planning from The Ohio State University. Jason and wife Jennifer reside in Westerville and enjoy their two beautiful daughters.

Robert Bell is co-founder of the Intelligent Community Forum, where he heads its research, analysis and content development activities. He directs the multi-stage analysis of communities for the annual Intelligent Community Awards program and authors the in-depth profiles of the Top Seven Intelligent Communities that are core to ICF's mission. Robert developed and leads the Intelligent Community Master Class and Community Accelerator programs, as well as ICF's advisory services for communities, and is a frequent speaker at municipal and telecom events. More

Erin Bender is founding Executive Director of The Point at Otterbein University – a new collaboration, education and innovation center made possible by public officials at all levels of government, local business and community leaders, public schools, and creative faculty and students at Otterbein. It’s offers student-centered collaboration and cross-disciplinary, high-impact learning that bridges learning with doing, students with professionals, in one shared space at 60 Collegeview Road, west of Otterbein’s main campus. It is a conduit between abstract learning and concrete practice, blurring the lines between time spent in school and time building a career. As a result, it prepares students for success in a new economy. Bender came to Otterbein after working at OSU were she held various positions within the Office of Technology Commercialization. The office facilitates the transfer of university research to licensees for development of new products and services that benefit the public good, foster economic growth and generate revenue. Her past roles with the office include associate director, senior licensing officer and licensing associate. Prior to joining OSU, Bender was an associate at Kremblas, Foster, Phillips & Pollick, a boutique intellectual property law firm that serves small enterprises, large corporations, individual inventors, universities and research institutions. She also worked as a legal assistant at the Chemical Abstracts Service, a division of the American Chemical Society. In 2006, her family established C.A.B.B. Farms, LLC, a 65-acre family farm in Lexington, Ohio, that specializes in natural grass-fed and finished Angus cattle and hay production.

Henry has been an Abbotsford resident for six decades and as a long-time Abbotsford businessman, he is enjoying the opportunity to put his years of business experience to work for the city and people of Abbotsford.

Henry understands that great communities don’t happen without involvement, and has served on various boards and continues to do so as Mayor. Henry was elected to serve as a Council Member with the City of Abbotsford in 2011 and served one term. In November 2014, Henry was elected to serve as the Mayor of Abbotsford. In October 2018, Henry was re-elected to serve as Mayor for another four years.

Henry is a champion for the City of Abbotsford. He is a strategic thinker and exemplifies this along with Council through creating a strategic plan that focuses on Abbotsford as the hub of the Fraser Valley composed of four integral cornerstones - a vibrant economy, complete community, fiscal discipline, and organizational alignment.

Henry is proud to be a husband, father and grandfather. His family is his inspiration for making sure Abbotsford remains a wonderful place in which to grow up and grow old, well into the future!

Mark Buckley is the current interim CIO for the City of Rochester, New York. He has worked in Information Technology for all of his 36-year career, including private industry with large companies like Eastman Kodak and United Technologies Corporation. Mark changed his IT career path in 2016 to work in the public sector as an Application Services Manager for the City of Rochester, New York. One key driver in moving to the Public Sector, was the ability for Information Technology to improve service delivery for the greater good and prosperity of the City. When Mark started at the City, he organized and led the initiative to submit the 2017 Intelligent Community Forum Smart 21 application. This process provided valuable insight into the various services that were offered by the City, and the collaborative cross-functional processes and projects throughout. Mark’s ability to interview and present the great work of the City, placed Rochester in the top 21 in both 2017 and 2019. In Mark’s quest to continue to improve City services, he continues to build relationships, and share information on Rochester’s Intelligent Community journey.

Joel Carnes is a proven leader and an operations and innovation expert, who optimizes organizations and propels them to exponential growth in quarters, not years. He built new levels of success while leading operations and strategy at XPRIZE, driving the global leader in open innovation from $50M to $200M in three years.  Joel then took the reigns as COO of SecondMuse, a global design firm that creates and operates purpose-driven business incubators and accelerators. In this role he led the Partnership group through the complete redesign and relaunch of the company, including creation of a new product that now accounts for 80% of revenue. His other accomplishments include executive leadership positions in operations and strategy for Activision Publishing and The Walt Disney Company, where he lived out a life-long dream as Sr. Strategist in R&D at Disney Imagineering. Joel has preached the power of innovation and the effectiveness of Human-centered Organizations around the world, in locales as diverse as Dar es Salaam, Tokyo, Budapest, and Washington DC. Audiences have included global business leaders, philanthropists, the general public, and the US Congress.

Moez Chaabouni serves as a Sr. Account Executive at Informatica leveraging his many years of experience in the CIO role to be a trusted adviser and advocate for his customers and help their combined Business and IT teams move quickly to empower transformational data automation initiatives leveraging the right components of our market-leading Informatica Intelligent Data Platform for Data Integration, Cloud Data Management, Big Data Management, Data Quality, Data Security and Master Data Management. Moez is also an adjunct member of The Ohio State University faculty with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

Before he joined Informatica, Moez was the Deputy CIO with the City of Columbus where as a member of the Director's office participated in the overall operations and administrative management of the Department of Technology by directing the activities of the applications, GIS, Quality Assurance, Database, and Architecture groups. Moez also lead the nomination team for Columbus to win the Intelligent Community of the Year in 2015, laying the foundation for Columbus to win the US-DOT Smart City Challenge in 2016.

Moez received his bachelor’s degree in Computer Information Systems from The Ohio State University and a master’s degree as well as postgraduate PhD-track studies in Computer Science from Wright State University. Moez resides in Upper Arlington, Ohio with his wife Kathryn.

Ms. Maggie Chao is the Manager of Networked Communications Industry Development Department at Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Taiwan. Ms. Chao has 15+ years of experience in the ICT industry, where she currently manages the team under the Smart City Project Office delegated by Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs. With this capacity, she oversees all marketing and promotional affairs, and is the main representative for international liaison with corporates and not-for-profit organizations relevant to Smart City and Next Generation Communications. Prior to joining ITRI in 2002, Ms. Chao received her master’s degree from National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan.

Ing. Nicola Chemello is the Chairman of SecurCube srl, Italian digital forensics company specializing in phone records (CDR) analysis, forensics cell towers (BTS) coverage survey and IMSI Catcher detectors. He is EnCE, CCO, CCPA, CCME, Oxygen, XRY certified and he has been working on CDR analysis and BTS investigation since 2007. Annually, he provides trainings, in digital forensics examination to law enforcement, experts and universities worldwide.

In addition to heading Taoyuan’s IT department, Kenny Chen is director of the Asia Silicon Valley Redevelopment Agency of the city government and director of the Academic Resource Center at Huafan University. He has served as an assistant professor of that university as well as R&D manager at XDMA Technology Co. He holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate Institute of Space Science at the National Central University and is an expert in data analysis, electronic system design and IoT applications.

Jimmy Chiou serves in the senior administrative role of Deputy Secretary General of Taoyuan City Government in Taiwan. He holds a masters in political science from Taiwan National University.

Bill helps communities make the connection between telecommunications and economic development. As principal in Community Technology Advisors since 2000, he assists clients develop and implement programs of broadband infrastructure investment and technology promotion and training. Coleman believes that both are required for community technology and economic vitality. Prior to forming Community Technology Advisors, Bill managed Onvoy’s (now Zayo) Integrated Community Network (ICN) rural market development efforts. ICN, a Nortel Networks sales process, was a superb market development strategy to link a community’s economic development planning to telecom providers’ broadband infrastructure business planning, creating a win-win environment for providers and communities.

Earlier, Bill staffed the MN Department of Trade and Economic Development Star City and Business Retention and Expansion Programs, working with local community teams to vision, strategize and implement local economic development programs. Bill is a current board member of PCs for People, a non-profit dedicated to getting computers into the hands of those without. He is a former board member of the Economic Development Association of Minnesota and the Midwest Institute for Telecommuting Education.

François Croteau holds a BA in History and Art History from the Université de Montréal, an MBA from ESG-UQÀM, as well as a PhD in Urban Governance in Montreal. He has been a researcher at the Chair of Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development at UQÀM and a lecturer at the MBA. In addition to being Mayor of Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie since November 2009, he sits on the Executive Committee of the City of Montreal, where he is responsible for Smart City, Information Technology and Innovation. He is also a member of the Agglomeration Council and a member of the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM).

Andrea Cruciani is an entrepreneur and software architect based in Perugia, Italy who specializes in GIS, web, mobile and cloud technologies. He is CEO and co-founder of TeamDev, a software house developing GIS systems, multi-device applications and training and consulting services as a Microsoft-certified partner and and ESRI partner company. He is also CEO and co-founder of Agricolus, a startup that develops solutions for smart agriculture based on a cloud-ecosystem of precision farming applications, decision support systems, forecast models, smart pest and disease control and remote sensing.

Richie Doyen joined Unacast in 2018 after two and a half years selling big data capabilities at Dun & Bradstreet. Prior to that, he served 10 years in the United States Marine Corp serving in numerous roles form supply chain and logistics to recruiting.

Greg Dunn has represented telecommunication clients for more than 40 years, providing legal and strategic assistance to a variety of private and public clients.

Greg has a comprehensive knowledge of both public utility and broadband issues and regularly works with clients on Smart City initiatives and public-private partnerships. His clients include municipalities, The Ohio State Supercomputer Center, competitive local exchange carriers (CLEC), data centers and wireless providers. He also consults on state of Ohio broadband and Internet of Things (IoT) public policy issues with Ice Miller Whiteboard LLC and has Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) experience in electric issues.

Greg assisted with the development and creation of the Dublink concept in Dublin, Ohio, which includes 125 miles of fiber optics, a conduit system and a Wi-Fi system, all connected to a municipal data center and the Ohio Academic Resource Network (OARnet). Dublin has attracted international attention, including being named one of the top seven intelligent communities of the year by the Intelligent Community Foundation (ICF) in both 2010 and 2011. Dublink also received an award from the National Science Foundation and the White House's broadband initiative, US Ignite.

Another of Greg’s clients, the City of Columbus, has pursued the broadband plan written by Greg in 2007. Columbus’ successful execution of that plan has led to Columbus also being selected a top seven Intelligent Community by Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) for 2012, and being named Intelligent Community of the year in 2016.

Wendy Dupley is the Executive Director of the City of Abbotsford Economic Development and is a strategic, visionary and creative leader with global experience in both private and public sector environments. Talented in building strong partnerships and working collaboratively with a wide range of domestic and international stakeholders, Wendy’s specialty areas include identifying key domestic and international economic indicators, as well as workforce strategies to support business development. Wendy has completed business development assignments in Europe, the UK, the USA, Australia, Asia, South America and Central America. Wendy holds an impeccable track record of a more consensus building approach to achieving business goals.

Ari Fitzgerald’s practice focuses on wireless, satellite, international communications, and Internet-related issues as well as on communications-related policy matters within the U.S. Executive Branch, the White House, and on Capitol Hill. Ari also provides strategic and legal advice on a wide range of telecommunications and spectrum-related issues. He serves as counsel to several communications-related trade associations in the United States and Europe, and represents several telecommunications carriers, telematics providers, equipment suppliers, and investors in major spectrum-related and regulatory policy proceedings at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). He has also provided advice on telecommunications privatization and market liberalization issues. At the Federal Communications Commission, he served Legal Advisor to the FCC's former Chairman, William Kennard. In this position, he advised the chairman on wireless, international, and spectrum policy issues. Ari later served as Deputy Chief of the FCC’s International Bureau, overseeing the development of FCC policies on international telecommunications, foreign ownership, satellite services, spectrum allocation, and promotion of the Internet. Prior to working at the FCC, Ari worked as a lawyer in the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice, counseling the White House and federal government agencies on constitutional and administrative law matters. He also served as Legal Counsel to former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley.

Gina Funicelli leads applied research at one of Canada’s most successful and innovative two-year colleges. Gina has been immersed in roles in industry, the public sector and academia throughout her career and most recently was Dean, Applied Research and Innovation at Lethbridge College in Alberta. She brought strong skills and experience in creating and empowering teams that are highly successful in solving complex problems creatively and balancing innovative “out-of-the-box” thinking with pragmatism. Prior to Lethbridge College, she served as director of the commercialization office at multiple universities, director for economic development for the province, and director of products at NovaLIS Technologies.

Chris Gould serves as a Vice President of Operations at Bluewater Regional Networks, which was formed to create a locally controlled, carrier-grade high speed fiber network services company that provides reliable, affordable and customer focused services in the Sarnia-Lambton area. He has been responsible for all aspects of company launch including network construction, business control/KPI stewardship and policy/procedure development. Prior to this position, he served as VP Utility Development and VP Operations for Bluewater Power Distribution Corporation, where he was responsible for smart grid initiatives and day-to-day operations for electrical distribution.

Lawrence created the Drucker Playbook for the Public Sector and spearheads its marketing and delivery. He also serves as a senior advisor to the City of Lifelong Learning program.

Lawrence arrived at the Institute with a background in education and community service as well as freelance writing and editing. As a teacher, Lawrence spent more than two decades in public, private, and religious school systems, serving in roles ranging from first grade teacher to principal of a Hebrew high school and junior college. More than 20 years ago, Lawrence integrated community service within the educational programs at his school, and he worked extensively with City Year and the Penn-Edison Partnership in Philadelphia. As the director of Main Line Writing & Educational Services (later La Jolla Literary Services), Lawrence assisted academics, entrepreneurs, professionals, and students with their writing and editing needs.

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in religious studies, he served a stint on the Philadelphia Eagles media relations staff before embarking on his career in education. Lawrence teaches a graduate course on leadership in the University of Notre Dame’s ESTEEM Master’s program in entrepreneurship. He also serves as a Prairie Ambassador for the American Prairie Reserve, which is creating a three-million acre wildlife reserve in Montana.

Sam is currently the Director of Finance at LITE. Sam has spent 5 years teaching full-time at the secondary and post-secondary levels. Most recently, Sam completed a year in Poland as a Fulbright Scholar, where he taught and conducted research on entrepreneurship development and financing to new ventures in rural areas. He hopes to bring lessons learned to LITE, and the greater Memphis community. Sam is a proud graduate of Rutgers University, where he was a letter winner on the baseball team and earned dual degrees in Political Science and Economics.

Joost Helms is director of the Eindhoven International Project Office (EIPO), guiding and supporting regions and cities around the world on Triple Helix collaboration, Smart Cities and socio-economic development strategies. He also chairs the Eindhoven Academy, institute for education and training focusing on successful collaboration in the Brainport Eindhoven ecosystem.

With EIPO, Mr. Helms is working closely together with Binh Duong province (Vietnam) on implementing Binh Duong’s new socio-economic development strategy as co-director of the Binh Duong Smart Region project office.

He graduated Eindhoven University of Technology in Chemical Engineering in 1996, gained 10 years of experience as an entrepreneur and has been in politics for another 10 years. He served as Vice Mayor of the City of Eindhoven when his city was awarded ICF Intelligent Community of the Year in 2011. Like no other, he understands the differences in motives, interests and processes of the different partners within Triple Helix collaborative ecosystems.

Victor Hoskins became the Arlington Economic Development (AED) Director in 2015 and is most known for leading the team that successfully attracted Amazon HQ2 to Arlington County, VA, a deal that will bring 25,000 high tech jobs, invest $2.5 billion and occupy four million square feet of commercial office space. This is one of the largest economic development deals in North American history. It is estimated it will generate $3.2 billion in revenue for the State of Virginia and over $315 million for the County.

Since joining AED, he has led efforts that have resulted in approximately 229 deals, representing 11.5 million square feet in new and retained office leases and the creation or retention of more than 67,000 jobs. The diversification strategy he designed resulted the in the expansions and attractions of companies such as Nestlé, Grant Thornton, Lidl, Deloitte, Oracle/OPower, Applied Predictive Technologies, Amazon Web Services Innovation Center, March of Dimes and Phone2Action.

Previously, Mr. Hoskins served as Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development for Washington, D.C., where his achievements included the creation of 52,600 jobs through public private partnership projects and the groundbreaking and/or completion of 87 mixed use projects totaling $7.5 billion in 3 . years. Projects included the Southwest Waterfront and City Center. Mr. Hoskins repositioned the District to emerge as a “tech town” and a global city with a booming economy and growing population.

Mr. Hoskins holds a Master’s degree in City Planning: Real Estate Finance/ Economic Development from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a Bachelor of Arts, with Honors: Psychology/Urban Studies from Dartmouth College. He also studied Development Finance at Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government.

Jane Howington has more than 25 years’ experience as a city manager. Jane worked as city manager for Kalispell, Montana, from 2009 to 2012, assistant city manager for Dayton from 2007 to 2009 and city manager for Oxford, Ohio, from 2000 to 2007.

She earned a masters of public administration from Miami University, a masters of urban and regional planning from Texas A&M University and a bachelors of environmental studies from Ramapo College of New Jersey. Jane has been with Hudson for the last 4 ½ years.

Beginning in 1989, Li Wen (Ema) Hsieh has worked for the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI); one of Taiwan’s most important research organizations. She held several significant positions during her career here, including Head of PR, Project Manager in Latin America, and the New Business Director of the Technology Center for Service Industries.

After her retirement from ITRI in 2013, she was invited to be an advisor to the Joint Innovation Center of the Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Industry Association to assist the Taiwanese industry with expanding its sales to Latin America. In 2018, she joined the ICF Institute in Taiwan and is responsible for business development and marketing. She also has an extensive network with the smart city solution providers in Taiwan. Li Wen (Ema) Hsieh holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Chung Hua University, Taiwan.

Norman Jacknis
Senior Fellow, Intelligent Community Forum

Dr. Norman Jacknis is currently Senior Fellow at the Intelligent Community Forum. His responsibilities include leading ICF’s Rural Imperative, building on the ideas he developed for the US Conference of Mayors on a future-oriented economic growth strategy for cities. Before joining ICF, he was Director, Cisco’s IBSG Public Sector Group (the company’s open innovation and pro-bono strategic advisory group), where he worked extensively with states and local government, the National Association of Counties, the US Conference of Mayors and the staff responsible for the Federal government’s website and citizen engagement. In addition to citizen engagement, his focus was on economic growth, innovation, and the future of technology. More

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