For staff and executives: Join us for sessions on preparing for the next era of local government leadership

Shonte Eldridge is a Senior Director and Strategy Leader @ DocuSign (formerly @ AWS) who helps government leaders transform their business, not just upgrade technology. She is the former Deputy Chief of Operations for the City of Baltimore, MD. She has over 15 years of public sector experience at the city and state level.

Claudia Arriaga is Vice President of Customer Success for OpenGov, the leader in modern cloud software for local governments and state agencies. Arriaga oversees a team that serves the unique needs of over 1,100 local governments and state agencies, ensuring that government leaders achieve their goals around resiliency, collaboration, efficiency, and transparency. She has over 20 years of experience serving the public sector with technology, software, and consulting services. She has an MBA from George Washington University.

Nick Kittle is a best-selling author and government performance and innovation coach at Cartegraph. He’s spent 15 years in government, managed 17 government divisions, served as a chief innovation officer, and implemented over 65 first-of-its-kind pilot projects. Kittle has written and spoken extensively for Government Technology, ICMA, National League of Cities, Harvard Government Innovators Network, and more.

For more than 10 years, Krista has served as the City of Kansas City’s Budget Officer. Passionate about priority-based budgeting, she has moved the City’s budget process to a strategic one that highlights outcomes. Krista has a Bachelor’s of Science is Business Economics from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and is currently completing her Public Leadership Certification from Harvard Kennedy School.

Micah Intermill serves as Director, Solutions Engineering for OpenGov, focusing on customer support, budgeting and performance, product strategy, and industry trends.

Prior to his role at OpenGov, Micah served as Budget Director with the City of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Over a four-year period, Micah successfully overhauled the City’s budget system, processes, and modernized budget office staffing in service of providing relevant and actionable budget and policy recommendations department heads, the Mayor, and City Council. Immediately prior to joining the City of Minneapolis, Micah served as Chief Financial Officer for the Department of Administration at the State of Minnesota. Micah holds over 15 years of experience in the public sector in roles ranging from budget and finance, human resource and strategic management, operations, and advocacy.

As Budget Manger, Mark oversees the development and management of Boulder's spending and capital plans. With a portfolio of over $400 million, including a $134 million General Fund budget, he supports city leadership and Council in strategic resource allocation, policy decisions related to long-term financial impact, and other key initiatives in support of an equitable and sustainable annual budget plan to meet community goals. Mark has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Boulder, CO.

Mary Blowe has worked for the City of Winchester for 23 years, starting as a Field Tax Auditor and working her way up to her current position as Deputy City Manager/Chief Financial Officer.  She is a  member of the GFOA and Virginia GFOA, and has been explicitly recognized for her financial reporting and documentation. Mary drove the City’s initiative to move financial transparency and strategic plan data online. Mary is highly passionate about sharing her knowledge with others in the public sector.  Mary is a presenter in the Virginia Chamber of Commerce Leadership Program. For the past two years, Mary has educated students on decision-making and budget allocation in the program.

Monica Cook currently serves as Solutions Engineering Director for OpenGov. Prior to OpenGov, Monica was a researcher at California’s non-partisan think tank, the Public Policy Institute of California where she conducted statistical analysis contributing to work evaluating the effectiveness of federal and state programs on poverty and economic opportunity. Monica began her career as a Head Start teacher in San Francisco.  She holds a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from Duke University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Elizabeth Holleb has worked at the City of Lake Forest for over 10 years, and previously was the Finance Director at the City of Highland Park.  Elizabeth is a member of the GFOA and IGFOA where she has presented on numerous occasions. Prior to her career in the public sector, Elizabeth studied Accounting at the Miller College of Business at Ball State University.

For the past four years, David Camp has served as the Director of Permitting and Inspections of Chatham County, North Carolina. To keep up with the County’s 20%+ population growth, his Department has launched permitting as a shared service to these cities in the region. His team plays an integral role in ensuring various departments collaborate so that projects comply with code.

Kim Douglas has served as the Inspections Assistant for the City of Burnsville, MN, for almost 9 years. Ms. Douglas had worked in the construction industry for over 20 years, before bringing her expertise to the public sector. She spearheaded the implementation of a new permitting system for the City and enjoys providing solutions through editing forms and workflows to meet the needs of the various departments that use the platform to collaborate.

Andrew Knife Chief is the Director of Community Development in the City of Claremore, OK, where he is responsible for developing, updating, and implementing the Claremore Comprehensive plan. After a short stint in the private sector, he began working for the Pawnee Nation, of which he is a member. He served as the Nation’s tribal historic preservation officer and was most recently executive director and chief operating officer of the tribe’s development corporation. Mr. Knife Chief and his team are in the midst of implementing an online portal for permitting, so we welcome his fresh perspective on how to do it well.

Scott Coble currently serves as Solutions Engineering Director for OpenGov. Over the past 20+ years, Mr. Coble has served in roles ranging from the Budget Manager of Montgomery County, MD, Government’s Office of Management and Budget as well as software engineer at Fortune 500 companies like General Electric and Lockheed Martin. Today, Mr. Coble leverages his extensive knowledge and experience in both the public and private sectors to advise governments across the country on budget management and digital transformation.

Mariel Reed is cofounder and CEO of CoProcure, the free marketplace for piggybackable and cooperative contracts. Previously, Mariel was an early employee at Coursera, a venture backed education technology company, and a public servant at the City and County of San Francisco. During her time in local government, she felt frustrated that the technology she used as a consumer to order takeout or hire a plumber was so much better than the technology available for making public purchases. She started CoProcure to help empower public servants to deliver better, faster public services from a more diverse group of vendors using technology.

David Yarkin is a recognized expert on innovation in public sector procurement. As Pennsylvania’s chief procurement officer, David led what has been called “the most sweeping transformation of state procurement in decades.” During his tenure, the Commonwealth saved $140 million annually through strategic sourcing and quadrupled its small, minority and women owned business participation rate. During his time in state procurement, David experienced firsthand a seminal challenge faced by his peers nationally - the mediocre job that the traditional reference process does in informing purchasers about a supplier’s past performance. He founded Procurated to solve this problem for the public procurement community.

David founded Government Sourcing Solutions, a public procurement consulting firm in 2005 and served as CEO until 2021 when he stepped back from day-to-day responsibilities there to focus full-time on growing Procurated. He graduated cum laude from Harvard University and lives in Washington, DC with his wife Courtney and kids Anna, Ben and Sam.

SVP OpenGov Procurement, is the Product Owner for the procurement and contract management suite for OpenGov. Thao is a govtech executive with 22 years of experience leading cloud-based software companies and projects at the Federal, State, Regional, and Local levels. For 10 years, Thao was a member of the founding executive team for Granicus. Thao has also worked as a reliability engineering consultant for Facebook, Google, Twitter, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Amazon, Pinterest, and CBS Interactive. He received his electrical engineering degree from Tennessee Technological University.

Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi came into the Assessor’s Office determined to bring change to a broken property tax system that was stacked against middle-class residents. He’s innovating on a critical government function by using data in new ways.

Zac is the CEO of OpenGov, the "GovTech" cloud software leader. OpenGov powers more effective and accountable government in more than 1500 cities, counties, and state agencies across the United States. Before co-founding OpenGov, Zac served as Advisor to U.S. Army General H.R. McMaster on the Anti‑Corruption Task Force at the ISAF headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan. He previously practiced trial litigation at Keker, Van Nest & Peters in San Francisco, and served as law clerk to the Honorable Sandra S. Ikuta on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Zac studied corruption in Mexico as a Fulbright Fellow and has taught American Government at San Quentin Prison. He holds a JD from the Yale Law School, an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School, and graduated valedictorian from the University of Maryland. Zac serves on the board of and as advisor to various technology companies and funds, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the YPO. He has been named a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, a Goldman Sachs 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs, and San Francisco and Silicon Valley Business Journal 40 under 40.

Darryl Martin has been County Administrator for the second largest county in Texas for over 13 years. Prior to that he was Assistant County Manager for Clark County, NV. Dallas County is home to over 2.4 million residents. With the City of Dallas as its hub, the County includes over 20 suburban cities and towns.

José Madrigal is the City Manager for the City of Durango, CO. Prior to that he was Deputy City Manager for the City of McKinney, TX and Director of Strategic Services for the City of Irving, TX. He has also worked as a consultant to executives of municipalities and private sector companies seeking government affairs advice.

Rodney Harris began working at Cabarrus County in June of 2019. His responsibilities include oversight of County finance, budgeting, procurement, libraries and veterans services.

Rodney started his career with Mecklenburg County as a Management Analyst. Later, he became Director of Business and Financial Management and Procurement Manager. He also served as financial manager for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

Rodney has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Master of Public Administration. Both degrees are from the University of NC at Charlotte. He holds a participation certificate in the NC Municipal and County Administration Course. Hel also holds a participation certificate for the Public Executive Leadership Academy (PELA). Both certificates were awarded through the University of NC at Chapel Hill.

Suresh brings to OpenGov over 15 years of finance, strategy and operations leadership experience in Enterprise Software, both in private, high-growth and public companies. Most recently, he served as the first CFO of Freshworks where he successfully laid the foundation for a public company. Prior to Freshworks, he was the Vice President of Finance & Treasury at AppDynamics, acquired by Cisco for $3.7B. Before joining AppDynamics, he held Finance leadership roles at VMware and Microsoft. He started his professional career as an engineer at Sun Microsystems. Suresh holds an MBA from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MS in Computer Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (India).

Joel Fulton is the co-founder of Lucidum, the attack surface management company that eliminates blind spots across cloud, security, and IT operations. He is also the co-founder of Silicon Valley CISO Investments, a leading group of Chief Information Security Officers that operate as an angel investor syndicate.

Previously the Chief Information Security Officer for Splunk, Dr. Fulton has also led security and risk teams at Symantec, Google, Starbucks, Boeing, several financial institutions, and led a security and regulatory compliance consulting firm for ten years.

Security Magazine named Dr. Fulton one of the Most Influential People in Security. He was also named Chief Executive Officer of the Year and Cybersecurity Executive of the year by the Cybersecurity Excellence Awards. Dr. Fulton is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and customer events on Insider Threat, AI and Machine Learning, Cybersecurity, pragmatic risk management, and global security management.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Excelsior College, a master’s of science in information security from Capella University, and a doctoral degree in information assurance and security from Capella University.

As the Director of Education, Policy, and Training for OpenGov, Kelley’s mission is to enable our employees to accomplish their goals securely. Currently leading OpenGov’s SOC2 compliance effort, she is committed to driving best practices for the security of our systems, data, and employees. Kelley has a passion for building trust and driving the results needed to create an authentic culture of security across the enterprise.

For over a decade, Kelley has built training and compliance programs for the Federal Government, DoD, and private sector. Her love of security is fueled in equal parts by the rapidly evolving risks to our nation and the amount of time and technology her 3 children have access to.

Kelley holds a Bachelor’s Degree from George Mason University and served two years on theBoard of Directors for the National Cybercrime Support Center. In her free time, Kelley enjoys reading, gardening, and spending time with her family.

Terrence leads our Product Management and User Experience organization and brings over 25 years of product and software leadership experience to the OpenGov product team. His career began at GE where he helped launch the industry’s first procurement software solution built exclusively for the public sector. Since then, he’s gone on to hold senior product leadership positions building enterprise software with a focus in Strategic Sourcing, Procurement, Financial Management Systems, and Supply Chain Management, including leadership of IBM’s $300M Source-to-Settle portfolio which, at the time, was IBM’s largest single SaaS solution. Terrence completed his BA at the University of Connecticut

Terrence will be joined by his team of seasoned Product Management experts!

Almis Udrys is the Director of Professional Services for OpenGov and is based out of San Diego. Prior to joining OpenGov, Almis served the City of San Diego as the Assistant Chief Operating Officer where he guided the City in making policy decisions surrounding equitable transportation, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and funneling new revenue to underserved community infrastructure investments.  

Thomas Graham is a Senior Product Manager for OpenGov’s Reporting & Transparency Platform. Since joining OpenGov in 2018, Thomas worked in customer-facing roles of implementations and support before moving into product development. He spends his days talking with customers to understand their pain points, incorporating that feedback into our roadmap, and working closely with OpenGov's engineering team to deliver new features - primarily in NextGen Reporting.

Thom has been with the City of Tampa for five years and has worked for other governments in the area for ten. As Accounting Business Process Supervisor, Thom leads a team of Analysts dedicated to the support of the Budget Division. The Team implements software, leads trainings, develops processes, and identifies ways that the City can run faster and smoother with limited resources.

Samantha Chandler currently serves as Solutions Engineer for OpenGov. Samantha has over a decade of experience in public sector budget and finance management and prior to her role at OpenGov served most recently as the Budget Coordinator for the Department of Finance and Administration at the State of Tennessee. Samantha worked with a variety of state agencies on all financial matters including budgeting, accounting, procurement, and strategic planning, as well as managing the statewide internal service and enterprise fund operations. She also helped to modernize the State of Tennessee’s budget request process through the implementation of statewide budget planning and analysis software.

Prior to his role of Director of Solutions Engineering at OpenGov, Micah served as Budget Director with the City of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Over a four-year period, Micah successfully overhauled the City’s budget system, processes, and modernized budget office staffing in service of providing relevant and actionable budget and policy recommendations department heads, the Mayor, and City Council. Immediately prior to joining the City of Minneapolis, Micah served as Chief Financial Officer for the Department of Administration at the State of Minnesota.

Amber has nearly a decade of experience in government and a decade in the private sector. Prior to joining OpenGov, Amber served as the Chief Budget Officer for Escambia County, Florida through the pandemic and Hurricane Sally. She also served as Senior Accountant with the City of Pensacola, Florida, where she was an integral part of one of the City’s largest projects in its history.

Dan Ralley is the Assistant City Manager for the City of Hilliard, OH.  In Hilliard, Dan helps to oversee the City’s Community Development Department which includes Building Standards, Planning, Engineering, and Transportation and Mobility.   Prior to that, he was the Assistant City Manager for the City of Upper Arlington, OH where he concurrently served as Director of Community Development in Upper Arlington from 2014 to 2019, which included supervision of the Planning and Building Standards Divisions. In both Hilliard and Upper Arlington Dan helped to implement new permitting systems that significantly improved online submissions, digital payments, processing workflows, and most importantly customer satisfaction.

Earlier in his career, Ralley served as City Manager of Petoskey, Michigan, from 2009 to 2014, and Village Administrator of the Village of Cardington, Ohio, from 2004 to 2009. He received his master’s degree in Public Administration from Maxwell School in 2004, his Juris Doctor degree from Syracuse University College of Law in 2004, and his bachelor’s degree in public policy from the University of Chicago in 1996.

Gerrod Franklin is a Solutions Engineer at OpenGov, Inc. Prior to joining OpenGov, Gerrod spent 8 years in local government, working in community development and business analysis roles for the City of Indianapolis and the fast-growing City of Fishers, IN. In this role, he implemented multiple digital service solutions and reworked business processes to enable significantly more efficient permitting, licensing, and code enforcement workflows for the City to keep pace with development and the needs of its growing communities. Gerrod is also the co-founder and owner of a photography company with his wife and he has an Urban Planning and Development Degree from Ball State University and an MBA from the University of Southern Indiana.

Evan Pleasant has worked to implement software solutions and improve processes with nearly 100 local governments. Prior to that, Evan worked in Community Development via utility-funded energy efficiency programs.

Araceli Esparza, CPPO, has over 30 years in government procurement, most recently as a consultant to cities looking to transform their procurement processes. She has served the City of Santa Monica, CA as a Procurement Manager and City of Santa Barbara, CA as a Purchasing Supervisor.

Adam Butler worked in state and federal procurement for almost 20 years prior to joining OpenGov. Prior to joining OpenGov, Adam most recently led a team of procurement professionals and contractors at the U.S. Department of State. He worked in a variety of procurement-related projects, including: contracting and procurement operations; regulatory and policy writing; procurement systems administration, design, implementation, and governance; logistics; and digital transformation.

Leah has worked with the City of Arlington, Public Works & Transportation department for nearly 5 years. She is a key player in the city’s use of Cartegraph for smart asset management–utilizing data to provide the best support to the department and city as a whole.

Quint has over 25 years of government experience, having worked in the county, city, and private sector with a focus on public works. In Quint’s current role as a subject matter expert at Cartegraph, he speaks to various municipalities and special districts across the country on how to become more efficient, effective, and productive organizations. Quint has also published multiple articles on effective asset management best practices.

An award-winning civic innovator and author, Nick mentors local governments along their high-performance journey and empowers them to build effective and innovative teams, develop efficient processes, and produce measurable, actionable results. In his 15 years of public service, Nick founded one of the first five government innovation offices in the country, directed 17 separate divisions, and implemented nearly 70 unique or first-of-their-kind pilot projects. Nick now travels the country working with local governments to help them build sustainable innovation and high-performance into their work.

Vivian Cao has a long career in government and higher education administration, including strategic planning, budget management, capital administration and policy development. As the current Budget Director for the City of North Miami, FL, Vivian analyzes multiple large and complex departmental operating and capital budgets, from initial submission and development of the annual budget, to year-end close-out. Prior to joining the City, Vivian served as Director of Facilities Budget Management at Miami Dade College and as Assistant Finance Director for Florida International University (FIU) Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine.  Before joining FIU, she worked for Miami-Dade County where she successfully progressed through the ranks in various accounting and financial roles.  She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration, Accounting and International Business and an MBA of Accounting and Business/Management, both from FIU.

Heather Toner has been the Budget Analyst for Pasco County for the past six years. During her time there, she has been instrumental in the County’s recognition with the GFOA Distinguished Budget Presentation Award. She is passionate about using technology to bridge the gap between data and the budget.

Claudia serves as the VP of Customer Success at OpenGov. She is also a board member at the US Federal Data Coalition and Data’s Board of Advisors in Washington, DC. Before establishing the BD division at OpenGov, Claudia served as the VP of Sales and BD for Experian’s Public Sector organization. Prior to that, she ran the IBM WebSphere Business Unit as the brand executive responsible for leading the development of sales, marketing, and operations strategies, as well as structuring and negotiating complex enterprise agreements across the federal government. Claudia leads the inclusivity team at OpenGov working with over 10 mentees on career development. She is also passionate about her work with Caron Treatment Centers to help create awareness and raise funds to battle addiction.