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BSA’s 2011 CTO Forum: Harnessing Technology Innovation to Do More with Less

By September 12, 2011

BSA kicks off its 2011 CTO Forum today — an annual series of meetings between some of the top technologists in software and computing and their counterparts in the federal government. Over two days, nine high-ranking technologists from BSA member companies will meet with 14 high-level technology decision-makers in the Obama administration to brainstorm ways the federal government can harness new innovations to do more with less in this era of tight budgeting.

This year’s CTO Forum comes at a critical juncture in Washington — a time when policymakers are eager for new strategies to capture efficiencies to help streamline government, spur economic growth, and create jobs. BSA member-company CTOs will offer specific ideas around three inter-related issues:

  1. Harnessing cloud computing to save money and transform the way the government does business. How quickly we reap the cloud’s benefits will be shaped by decisions being made by policymakers today.
  2. Strengthening intellectual property protections to spur technology innovation. Reducing piracy is vital to the health of the commercial software industry and the broader technology ecosystem it powers.
  3. Utilizing IT to reduce energy consumption. Software can be a catalyst for simultaneously cutting energy consumption, creating jobs, and saving money.

In addition to sharing their unique expertise and insights in these areas, BSA members will be sharing a vision of how new technologies can continue transforming the economy in the short, middle, and long term — and how policymakers can take practical steps to unleash technology’s full promise.

Joining me for these important discussions will be a distinguished group of technologists from nine BSA member companies, including Jeff Kowalski of Autodesk, Bhupinder Singh of Bentley Systems, Greg Bodine of CA Technologies, Paul Czarnik of Compuware, Eric Martin of Intuit, Craig Mundie of Microsoft John Bates of Progress Software, Mike Fulkerson of Rosetta Stone, and Joe Pasqua of Symantec.

They will meet with US Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, US Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel, US Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria A. Espinel, General Services Administration Associate Administrator Dr. David L. McClure, National Institute of Standards and Technology Director Dr. Patrick Gallagher, Advanced Research Projects Agency — Energy (ARPA-E) Director Dr. Arun Majumdar, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Ambassador Philip Verveer.

We expect to have provocative discussions about some of today’s most pressing technology issues. I will outline the substance of those issues in greater detail over the next several days.

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As President and CEO of BSA | The Software Alliance from 1990 until April 2013, Robert Holleyman long served as the chief advocate for the global software industry. Before leaving BSA to start his own venture, Cloud4Growth, Holleyman led the most successful anti-piracy program in the history of any industry, driving down software piracy rates in markets around the world.

Named one of the 50 most influential people in the intellectual property world, he was instrumental in putting into place the global policy framework that today protects software under copyright law. A widely respected champion for open markets, Holleyman also was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the President’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations, the principal advisory committee for the US government on trade matters.

Holleyman was a leader in industry efforts to establish the legal framework necessary for cloud-computing technologies to flourish. He was an early proponent for policies that promote deployment of security technologies to build public trust and confidence in cyberspace. And he created a highly regarded series of forums for industry executives and policymakers to exchange points of view and forge agreements on the best ways to spur technology advances and promote economic growth.

Before heading BSA, Holleyman was a counselor and legislative adviser in the United States Senate, an attorney in private practice, and a judicial clerk in US District Court. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, a J.D. from Louisiana State University, and has completed the Stanford Executive Program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

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