Charlene Knisely is a Security Delivery Senior Manager at Accenture Federal Services with over 12 years of experience in cybersecurity risk management, governance, and compliance. She currently leads the Cyber Strategy & Compliance team supporting the Office of the Chief Information Security Officer in a Cabinet-level agency. Her responsibilities include strategy & policy, cybersecurity awareness & training, enterprise cyber risk management, Federal reporting & compliance, collaboration tools, and business operations. Charlene supports growth and delivery objectives by focusing on innovative thought leadership and building strong client relationships. She also ensures her team of 25+ cybersecurity professionals have the knowledge, tools, and capabilities needed to do their jobs, by providing mentorship, project and training opportunities, and work-life balance.

Prior to joining AFS, Charlene was a Cybersecurity Portfolio Lead for ActioNet, an Information Security Audit Lead for Digital Global Connectors, an Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, and a Cybersecurity Analyst for Trowbridge & Trowbridge, LLC.

Previous to her work in cybersecurity, Charlene worked in the healthcare field as a medical technologist, which shaped her approach to managing clients and teams through compassion and empathy. She graduated from the University of Maryland with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Psychology and is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and Project Management Professional (PMP).

Charlene lives in Gaithersburg, MD with her husband, two children, and two dogs. She spends her free time ferrying her children around to various extracurricular activities, reading as many books as she can, and obsessively taking Pilates classes. 

Grace Flaak is a Delivery Lead in AFS’ Defense & Intel Portfolio where she oversees the operations and growth of multiple managed services. She has previously managed service delivery for high-profile clients across commercial and government (both federal and local) sectors nationwide. Grace is a data-driven problem solver who enjoys facilitating team collaboration to deliver optimal processes and structure.

In addition to her program responsibilities, Grace is involved in leadership development as Accenture’s DC Asian Pacific American (APA) ERG Lead. She mentors leaders from the APA community, celebrating their heritage while fostering professional growth. A graduate of Ascend CELP Cohort 5, Grace serves as one of the CELP Program Leads, supporting AFS’ long-standing partnership with Ascend. Grace graduated from UVA and currently lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and 2 young children. Her spare time is filled with her children’s activities but in her extra spare time, Grace enjoys spending time with friends and family, reading a good book, and eating.

Harinder is a first-generation American, who immigrated to the US in 1995. As an inquisitive mind, he keeps up to date on new tech trends, their application to real world scenarios, and their impact (both positive and negative) on the day-to-day.

He has worked across industry (Healthcare, Entertainment, Not-for-profit), he brings a unique perspective to help drive success for his federal clients.

He lives in Maryland with his family and is an avid sports enthusiast, bicyclist, and enjoys the great outdoors.

Ka is a seasoned IT professional who worked in commercial and federal practices with over 18 years of complex program delivery, system integration, application development, and production support using various SaaS, PaaS, and Enterprise Software combined with an innovation-minded approach.

He is certified in Salesforce with over 12 years of hands-on experience. In addition, he has extensive experience in enterprise solution design and technical delivery using different CRM Patient Services platforms, Data Warehouse/Lake Solutions, Data Analytics platforms, and Master Data Management applications through Agile Delivery.

Ka lives in Virginia with his family and is a fanatic of the Philadelphia sports team.

Larry Zhang is a senior engineering leader at Amazon. He currently leads a large team building the foundation for Amazon’s future retail and e-commerce technology. Prior, he was a senior engineering leader at Amazon Web Services (AWS) where his team built the secure identity, access, and resource management foundation for customers to scale in the AWS Cloud. Before joining Amazon, Larry was a Director of Software Engineering and Distinguished Software Engineer at Capital One. He has over two decades of experience leading globally distributed teams spanning engineering, product management and operations, and building highly scalable and low latency distributed systems for some largest enterprises that also include Fidelity Investments, Fifth Third Bank and Freddie Mac. Larry has a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Virginia Tech, and he holds a US patent related to provisioning application services in the cloud environment. Larry enjoys reading, travelling and skiing during winters. He and his wife currently reside in McLean, VA.

Linh has more than 15 years of public accounting experience providing diversified tax services to clients in a variety of industries. Linh has an in-depth knowledge in ASC740 income tax provision and corporate tax consulting/compliance for various multinational public and non-public corporations in government contracting, technology, health care, and communication industries. He has successfully identified and advised clients on various tax restructuring and planning issues as well as cash saving opportunities, such as tax credits and incentives, accounting method changes, etc. Linh also has experience with implementing the income tax provision software and managing and improving the global finance/tax process using different tax software. 

As a Managing Director at BDO, Linh’s responsibilities include managing and growing a book of business, working closely with clients to successfully manage and minimize tax liability as well as tax risk, and developing professionally and technically a group of tax team of 35 people. 

Manu is a Government Relations Senior Manager at Accenture Federal Services with over 22 years of experience with Information Technology and Management consulting business delivery to the Federal Government. He is responsible for leading all legislative and advocacy efforts for AFS’s largest business portfolio which includes all Federal agencies within the Healthcare and Financial Services space, as well as various service focused agencies like U.S. Postal Service, FRTIB, Agriculture, Labor and Transportation. Manu builds, maintains and expands relationships with Members of Congress and staff on behalf of AFS and provides senior leadership with real-time intelligence on the ever-changing political landscape in D.C.

Manu also manages all internal and external lobbying and political spending requirements, as well as all reporting to senior AFS leadership and Congress. He joined Accenture in November 2000.

Manu graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Management and Political Science from George Mason University. He lives in Virginia with his wife and son and enjoys a wide variety of leisure activities with his family.

Michael Ly is a CPA and auditing professional with over 13 years of experience between public accounting and private industry with extensive accolades. He is a team leader and team player who thrives under pressure and utilizes creativity, excellent analytical skills, and an impactful coaching style to achieve results. Currently, Michael is a Director on tour at PwC's National Quality Organization, specifically working in the Quality Review and Monitoring Group to facilitate PwC's internal inspection programs. He formerly worked to lead audit engagements with international teams on privately held companies with revenues in excess of a $1B+. Michael is also the Ascend Greater Washington Treasurer for the last four years. During his tenure, he oversaw the growth of the Greater Washington's chapter's revenues to record heights while also steering the chapter's finances successfully through the covid-19 pandemic. He has been recognized for his efforts with receiving the 2021 Board Member of the Year award and Ascend Greater Washington's High Impact Leader Award. 

Mollika Phlong is a cybersecurity leader and solution architect with over 17 years of experience in cyber and strategic risk management, solution delivery and full lifecycle software development for targeted and enterprise-level government initiatives. Mollika has a broad and deep knowledge in information assurance, program management, risk management, security architecture, vulnerability management and cloud security.

She has led and managed large-scale federal government projects related information security, IT risk and compliance, and systems implementation and integration. Her area of specialization includes cybersecurity program management, cybersecurity process improvement and governance, FISMA compliance, cloud security, security architecture and design, implementation of DevSecOps principles, and security regulations and frameworks including NIST 800 series special publications. 

Ms. Phlong has a record of successfully leading high-profile projects to completion by leveraging advanced analytical and communication skills. She has an active Top-Secret clearance and CISSP certification.

Paul Park is a Senior Manager within Accenture Federal Services’ National Security Portfolio and part of the Applied Intelligence (AIX) practice, a capability group that helps clients use data, AI/ML, and various data science techniques to drive enterprise transformation. 

Paul began his career as a data scientist focused on people analytics and since then has served across multiple domain areas to include operations, strategy, finance, cyber, national security and intelligence.

Paul enjoy's spending time with his family & friends and eating out (he's totally flipped into a hobby), as well as being a sports fanatic & car enthusiast.

Ruma is a Senior Manager at Deloitte in the Cloud Engineering Offering. She brings more than 15 years of experience leading large-scale modernization projects that enable business transformation for federal clients through Agile implementation, business model transformation, and innovation. Her primary area of expertise focuses on IT project management of application modernization efforts. Ruma has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and a Master of Science in Information Systems Technology. Ruma is very passionate about women in technology and promoting diversity in the workplace.

Innovative thought leader responsible for delivering complex value driven, cloud based ERP technology solutions with 25+ years of industry experience. He is responsible for building, managing, and expanding client relationships, guiding clients to adopt strategic IT initiatives to deploy newest technology innovations and generate value. Expertise includes IT Strategy, Planning, Sales, Solution Delivery and Program Management with P&L responsibility. Sudhakar is also responsible for growing consulting business and developing people to consistently deliver high performance. 

Sudhakar lives in northern Virginia with his wife and two daughters. He is an avid volleyball player who also enjoys hiking, kayaking and being with nature.

Uyen Tran is a Business Manager at Salesforce / CELP Program Lead

Uyen is an accomplished business leader and trusted advisor with over 17 years in Medtech and healthcare life sciences spanning provider, medical and surgical devices, biologics, pharmaceuticals, robotics, software, and digital technologies. With over 10 years in leadership and management roles, Uyen has also led teams through change management and several M&A integrations, 3 being multi-billion-dollar acquisitions. Consistent results and recognized excellence led to being the first and only female sales leader in her division at Wright Medical and business unit at Stryker, and serving on several executive strategy committees, advisory councils, and corporate partners teams. Transitioning into the tech industry, Uyen now works with healthcare and life science startups and growth companies in the U.S. and Canada to transform, scale, and drive better business decisions with the world's leading data analytics platform, Tableau - now part of Salesforce. 

Uyen is a first generation American whose parents were Vietnam War refugees, sponsored and immigrated to the U.S., and achieved the American dream running a family business in the DMV for over 30 years. They taught her appreciation and honor for the freedoms and opportunities we have, and instilled a grit, drive, and faith in her that is deeply rooted. Passionate about serving others, Uyen strives to do so through her work. She loves being active, sports, comedy shows; her favorite times are spent with her family, especially her husband and daughter.

Will (William) is a Senior Manager with over eleven years of experience leading teams and managing successful projects across the Defense, Security, and Justice sector —most recently within Deloitte’s Cloud Engineering practice. He has project management, technical architecture, cloud management and enablement, cybersecurity, and software implementation experience that spans the software development lifecycle. In his current role, Will is a technical program manager of a large HR transformation project in the aviation security sector, modernizing and transforming HR solutions for the agency, and ultimately (and most importantly) ensuring all employees get paid timely and accurately. Will is a disruptive force in the Cloud Engineering space, which is constantly striving to make an impact that matters and transform the future of work.