| Start Time | End Time | Title/Description | Presenters |
| 7:00 AM | 6:00 PM | Registration | |
| 7:00 AM | 8:00 AM | NETWORKING BREAKFAST | |
| 8:00 AM | 8:15 PM | Welcome Remarks | Hon. David Norquist |
| 8:15 AM | 9:00 AM | Keynote Session: Under Secretary for Research & Engineering | Hon. Emil Michael; Colin Demarest |
| 9:00 AM | 9:45 AM | Keynote Session: Under Secretary of War, Comptroller/Chief Financial Officer | Hon. Jules W. Hurst III |
| 9:45 AM | 10:25 AM | NETWORKING BREAK | |
| 10:25 AM | 11:25 AM | There’s No Excuse – Understand Your Benefits & Retire Happy
Description
When it comes to your benefits & retirement, stressing out & worrying is not going to do any good. It is time to get the understanding you need to optimize your career. A limited understanding of FEGLI, Pension, Survivors Annuity, FEHB, Social Security and TSP could cost you thousands of dollars during your working career, and even larger amounts of money during your retirement. This workshop will provide the information & insight that we know is much needed. | Val Majewski |
| 10:25 AM | 11:25 AM | How DLA Is Using Data Analytics (NDIA/SDFM Joint Session) | James Johnson |
| 10:25 AM | 11:25 AM | AI-Enabled Financial Management: Governing the Data, Automating the Work, and Keeping Humans in the Decision Loop
Description
As the Department of War accelerates AI adoption, defense financial management leaders have an opportunity to move from manual, retrospective analysis to trusted, proactive decision support. This panel will explore how AI, automation, and governed data can strengthen auditability, improve funds execution, reduce manual workloads, identify anomalies, and support faster decisions across PPBE, audit, acquisition, and mission operations.
The topic is especially timely as the Department continues to emphasize AI adoption, auditability, and data-driven transformation. The DoW AI Strategy calls for faster experimentation, measurable outcomes, and broader use of AI across enterprise mission areas, while the Advana transformation memo connects AI acceleration directly to enhanced auditability and financial management decision support. Panelists will share practical applications, lessons learned, and governance considerations for scaling AI-enabled financial management responsibly while keeping humans in the decision loop.
Attendees will leave with actionable insights they can apply to improve audit readiness, decision-making, and mission outcomes in their own organizations. Attendees will gain practical insights into where AI and automation can deliver near-term value, what governance and data foundations are required to build trust, and how financial leaders can keep humans in the decision loop while scaling innovation responsibly. The session will provide lessons learned and actionable takeaways that attendees can apply in their own organizations to improve audit readiness, accelerate decision-making, reduce rework, and better connect financial data to mission outcomes. | Shawn Lennon; Danny Bethke; Andrea Fisher |
| 10:25 AM | 11:25 AM | The Modern Analyst’s Perspective: A Dive into the DON Budget Execution Dashboard
Description
Join a panel of experts from the Department of the Navy’s Office of Budget (FMB) and Financial Management Systems (FMS) directorate as they unveil a suite of modern financial dashboards. This session explores the transition from manual data compilation to dynamic, automated workflows that provide real-time insights for faster decision-making. Discover how this initiative is empowering analysts and leaders to own their data and enhance financial management across the enterprise. | Maureen Kearl; Ryan Cheng; Jack Ray |
| 10:25 AM | 11:25 AM | Don’t Fear AI – Use It: Practical Ways to Save Time, Work Smarter, and Deliver More
Description
Federal financial management professionals are under increasing pressure to support audit readiness, contract closeout, budget execution, funds recovery, and resource decision-making while managing growing volumes of financial, acquisition, and program data. Too often, valuable time is spent searching for information, reconciling documentation, responding to data calls, preparing reports, and navigating complex systems rather than performing high-value analysis and decision support. This session explores how Artificial Intelligence can be used responsibly and effectively to accelerate financial research and analysis, improve visibility into workload and process bottlenecks, and reduce the administrative burden associated with financial management activities. Through practical demonstrations and real-world examples, attendees will learn how AI can rapidly analyze large volumes of financial, contractual, policy, and programmatic information to support audit readiness efforts, contract closeout activities, funds recovery opportunities, budget planning, and resource allocation decisions. The session will demonstrate how AI can assist with acquisition research, budget analysis, report development, meeting preparation, workflow automation, and generation of required supporting documentation.
Participants will also learn how AI can improve the speed and quality of financial research, strengthen audit support, accelerate contract closeout activities, identify funds recovery opportunities, improve visibility into workload trends, process performance, and resource utilization, and support more informed resource decisions across their organizations. In addition, the session will address responsible AI usage, data protection considerations, validation of AI-generated outputs, and the importance of maintaining human oversight in financial management processes. Attendees will leave with practical techniques they can immediately apply within their organizations to improve efficiency, strengthen audit support, accelerate contract closeout and funds recovery efforts, enhance budget visibility, and devote more time to strategic analysis and mission-focused decision support. | Lisa McColgan and Donna Sullivan |
| 11:25 AM | 12:25 PM | NETWORKING/ LUNCH ON OWN | |
| 12:25 PM | 1:25 PM | Burning Questions & Blazing Sauces: DoW’s Path to Audit
Description
What do artificial intelligence, data modernization, and audit readiness have in common? In this lively discussion, Department of War leaders tackle the toughest questions facing the defense financial management community while navigating an increasingly spicy lineup of hot sauces. Through candid conversation, panelists will explore how AI, automation, advanced analytics, and enterprise data environments are helping organizations strengthen audit readiness, improve decision-making, and accelerate financial management transformation.
Attendees will gain practical insights into the opportunities and challenges of adopting emerging technologies in secure, highly regulated environments. Topics will include data quality, system integration, compliance, governance, workforce transformation, and the role of AI in improving transparency and accountability across the Department. Designed for financial managers, auditors, technologists, data analysts, and decision-makers, this session blends expert perspectives, real-world experiences, and actionable lessons learned to help advance the DoW’s path to a clean audit, all with just enough spice to keep everyone engaged. | Angel Wang, moderator; Danny Bethke; BG Adam Ake |
| 12:25 PM | 1:25 PM | From Use Case to Scale: Reusable Patterns for Accelerating Enterprise Platform Implementations in Financial Management
Description
Enterprise platforms can provide powerful capabilities for data integration, process intelligence, automation, workflow, analytics, and AI-enabled decision support. However, agencies often struggle to translate platform investments into measurable financial management outcomes because implementation readiness is frequently underestimated. Data must be trusted, process events must be usable, exceptions must be governed, audit evidence must be traceable, and decision workflows must be tied to financial-management priorities.
This panel will explore how agencies can accelerate implementation by starting with small, reusable patterns that are platform-ready and mission-relevant. Panelists will discuss how enterprise data platforms, process intelligence tools, and automation capabilities can work together when supported by reusable financial data products, source-to-decision lineage, event-log readiness, exception taxonomies, automation queues, governance rules, and audit-evidence linkages. The discussion will focus on practical lessons for smaller agencies seeking faster time to value without large custom-build efforts. | Sireesha Deena; Kyle Kohles; Shawn Lennon; Dale Savoy; Jonathan Kistler |
| 12:25 PM | 1:25 PM | From Data to Decisions: Advanced Analytics for Budget Optimization
Description
In a constrained and rapidly changing defense environment, budget leaders must convert financial, program, acquisition, readiness, and execution data into timely resource decisions. This panel will show how Department of War analytics, trend analysis, and scenario-based modeling to improve budget formulation, monitor execution, and evaluate tradeoffs. Panelists will present practical defense financial management examples, including using obligation and expenditure patterns to identify execution risk. | Tom Harker; Dr. Ann Tipton; Joe Hungate, moderator |
| 12:25 PM | 1:25 PM | From Vendor Data to Decision Support: Modernizing Defense Payment Integrity
Description
This session will explore how government organizations are responding to recent executive orders and guidance focused on fraud, waste, abuse prevention, and payment integrity. The discussion will examine how agencies are using data governance, analytics, automation, and prepayment screening tools to strengthen controls, improve data quality, and identify risk earlier in the payment lifecycle. Panelists will share perspectives on how these mandates are shaping practical implementation across civilian and defense environments, including the use of enterprise data platforms, integrated workflows, and decision support capabilities. The conversation will highlight lessons learned, common challenges, and opportunities for cross-government collaboration to move from fragmented data toward more trusted, actionable information. | Michael Smiley; Justin Marsico; Cynthia Raulerson; Gustav Chiarello; Dermot O’Reilly, moderator |
| 12:25 PM | 1:25 PM | From Spreadsheets to Superpowers: How Generative AI Is Putting Advanced Analytics in the Hands of the Federal Financial Workforce
Description
Federal financial management has long faced a stubborn gap: the analysts who best understand the data, the budget officers, cost analysts, and resource managers living inside the numbers every day have historically depended on data scientists and IT teams to build the tools they need. The result is a backlog of unanswered questions, delayed reporting, and analytic capability concentrated in too few hands. Generative AI and natural language-driven development tools are closing that gap , and fast. What once required Python scripts, SQL queries, or dedicated developer resources can increasingly be accomplished by a functional expert typing a plain-language request.
This session explores what that shift means for defense financial management organizations: the opportunity to dramatically accelerate analytics, automate reporting workflows, and produce audit-ready outputs at the speed of mission need. Attendees will examine the practical conditions that make this possible. The right tools, the right data governance guardrails, and a workforce that understands both the capability and its limits. The session will also address the risks: what happens when AI-generated analysis is wrong, how auditability is maintained, and how organizations can build confidence in outputs without recreating the bottlenecks they’re trying to eliminate.
The takeaway is not that financial analysts are becoming developers, it’s that the line between “understanding the problem” and “building the solution” is disappearing. Defense financial management organizations that recognize this shift early and invest in enabling their functional workforce will have a measurable advantage in speed, insight, and mission support. | Peter Hanzelka; Marley Bautista; Jessica O’Connell; Don Means Jr; Zachary Christman |
| 1:25 PM | 1:35 PM | TRANSITION BREAK | |
| 1:35 PM | 2:35 PM | C-Suite Summit | Carmella Burruss Teeter, Patrick Turner, Darren Kimura, Tara Murphy Dougherty |
| 1:35 PM | 2:35 PM | From PEO to PAE — Rewiring How the Department of War Buys | Lara Sayer; George Kovatch; Tom Simoes; Kate Käufer; Marisa Rhode, moderator |
| 1:35 PM | 2:35 PM | Tool Sprawl to Trusted Insight: What Defense Financial Leaders Must Fix Before Scaling AI-Enabled Decision Support
Description
Defense financial managers are being asked to use data, analytics, automation, and AI-enabled tools to support faster, more defensible decisions. However, technology alone will not solve the Department’s decision-support challenges. When new tools are layered onto fragmented legacy environments without a clear system decommissioning strategy, data governance model, and user adoption plan, organizations risk creating more complexity instead of better insight.
This session will examine how defense organizations can move beyond “tool implementation” and toward integrated, enterprise-ready decision support. Panelists will discuss the practical realities of modernizing financial management capabilities in environments where legacy systems, manual workarounds, inconsistent data definitions, and competing stakeholder needs remain significant barriers. The session will also explore emerging concepts such as secure AI-enabled access to approved agency systems, including model-context approaches that may eventually help users retrieve information across multiple authoritative sources. Rather than focusing on the technical mechanics of these capabilities, the session will emphasize the governance, change management, workforce adoption, and decommissioning considerations that must be addressed before advanced tools can deliver meaningful results at scale.
Attendees will leave with practical questions to ask before launching new analytics or AI-enabled capabilities, common pitfalls to avoid, and a framework for connecting technology modernization to measurable mission, financial management, and decision-support outcomes. | Erika Correll; David Magjuka; Justin A. Carder; Andy Mapes |
| 1:35 PM | 2:35 PM | Transforming Customer Service for the Total Force and Defense Industry
Description
At the heart of the DFAS modernization is the customer experience. This session will outline how DFAS is reshaping customer care across four strategic target areas: delivering seamless Total Force Pay, optimizing Industrial Base Pay, supporting the Department of War’s goals, and leveraging AI to build the customer’s trust. Through real-world scenarios from the field, hear how the DFAS teams are actively removing hurdles for defense suppliers today. Furthermore, discover how deploying Artificial Intelligence is impacting multiple functional areas. | Jonathan Witter |
| 1:35 PM | 2:35 PM | From Data Dumps to Decision Advantage: Human-Centered AI for Defense Financial Management
Description
The defense financial management community is producing more data than ever, yet senior leaders need more than dashboards, reports, and spreadsheets. They need timely insight, risk awareness, defensible narratives, and actionable recommendations. This cross-service panel will explore how financial managers can evolve from data collectors and report builders into strategic decision partners as analytics and generative artificial intelligence reshape the profession. Using Air Force, Navy, and industry perspectives, the panel will distinguish between traditional data analytics and AI-enabled decision support, identify practical near-term use cases, and discuss the human skills required to use these tools responsibly. Panelists will address how AI can reduce administrative toil, accelerate synthesis, improve strategic writing, strengthen PPBE and budget narratives, and help financial managers anticipate leadership, operational, and congressional scrutiny.
The session will also emphasize what AI is not: a replacement for professional judgment, source validation, clean data, or subject matter expertise. Attendees will leave with a practical framework for applying curiosity, credibility, and critical thinking to emerging technology adoption in defense financial management. The discussion is designed for analysts, comptrollers, CFOs, resource managers, and leaders across the military services who are seeking to turn data into better, faster, and more defensible decisions. | Ruba Elbasha, Guidehouse
Angel Wang, Guidehouse
Melissa Blakesly, Air Force
Cassandra Madden, Navy
Ashley Evans, Navy |
| 1:35 PM | 2:35 PM | Survey Says… Modernize! A Live-Action Look at PPBE Reform & FM Talent
Description
The Department of War (DoW) is undergoing transformation in resource allocation and talent management. But rather than talking at you about PPBE reform and Strategic Workforce Planning, we are handing you the mic!
Join Moderator Kimberly Carder for a highly interactive, live action “Financial Feud.” We are dividing the room and passing the microphone to YOU to guess the top answers to the enterprise’s biggest challenges in financial modernization, data analytics, and talent retention.
As you battle for points on the board, our expert commentators Tina Vetreno (PPBE SME) and Scott Bauer (OSW Component Functional Community Manager) will break down the reality of your answers. They will provide real-time updates on how upcoming PPBE updates, and the DoW Strategic Workforce Planning are designed to solve the exact pain points you identify. Come ready to speak up, compete, and learn! | Kimberly Carder; Tina Vetreno; Scott Bauer |
| 2:35 PM | 3:15 PM | NETWORKING BREAK | |
| 3:15 PM | 3:30 PM | Commemoration of 25th Anniversary of 9/11 | Hon. David Norquist, Rich Brady |
| 3:30 PM | 4:00 PM | SDFM Achievement Awards | Rich Brady |
| 4:00 PM | 4:30 PM | Keynote Session: Acquisition Transformation – Under Secretary for Acquisition & Sustainment HON. Michael Duffey | Hon. Michael P. Duffey; Com. William Maham; Thomas Ainsworth; William Bailey; Brent Ingraham |
| 4:30 PM | 4:35 PM | Closing Remarks | |
| 4:35 PM | 4:50PM | Hackathon Awards | |
| 4:50 PM | 5:30 PM | NETWORKING RECEPTION | |
