Public Sector Heroes Podcast

Public Spend Forum Founder Raj Sharma in conversation with the founders of Fitz Frames.

Episode 26: OpenText by Public Spend Forum

Public Spend Forum Founder Raj Sharma in conversation with Kevin Cornish of Moth + Flame.

How different would your life be without the digital services you rely on today? It's a difficult question to consider, given how these modern marvels are so ubiquitous as to be taken for granted in our first world. But that's far from the case in developing countries, and digital literacy is a particular problem in the African Valley. Farmers there produce a significant portion of the region's economic output, but still live in poverty. That's what led Kume Chibsa, our guest on Episode 24 of the Public Sector Heroes podcast, to identify digital development as the public problem she wanted to solve. “When you look at their social setup, the digital inequality scares you, especially in the covid-era. Some of them don't even have analog phones, or lights, power, water. You've got all the social inequalities on top of the digital inequality. For me, that's where I saw the necessity of my platform, where we can bridge these gaps all at once.” As the founder and CEO of AfroValley, Kume has had to be creative in terms of how to solve this big problem in ways that first world citizens might not appreciate. “I used to live abroad, and I returned to Ethiopia after 20 years. The first thing I did was to visit the government, to understand how I can help them. Africa is very socialist, and the sectors are controlled by the government. I thought I could push the government for funding, but realized quickly that capital in Africa is quite expensive. So I decided to self-fund a feasibility study, and engaged the government to help me get data.”

On episode 23 of The Public Sector Heroes Podcast, host Frank McNally talks with Florence Kasule, Director of Procurement at the United States Digital Service, to talk about inspiring women in procurement, innovating in government technology, and overcoming acquisition challenges.

On episode 22 of The Public Sector Sector Heroes Podcast, we talk with Dave Harden, formerly of AFWERX, about a career in helping innovators bring dual use technologies into the Department of Defense.

On episode 21 of The Public Sector Heroes Podcast, we sit down with Jenny Clark, the "Oprah" of government contracting, to discuss the long journey that companies face when they enter the public sector marketplace, and what things they can do to save a lot of time and heartache. Links: Solveability GovCon Summit: https://solvability.com/govcon-summit/ Free 10 Week GovCon Bootcamp: https://govshop.com/blog/how-to-become-a-government-contractor/

On episode 20 of The Public Sector Heroes Podcast, we sit down with "Go To" Guy Timberlake to discuss his career in government contracting as an advocate for small businesses and his recommendations for anyone interested in competing for government contracts.

On this episode, Raj Sharma talks with Neel Doshi, co-founder of Vega Factor and author of Primed to Perform, a book that “explains the counterintuitive science behind legendary cultures” based on research into how total motivation leads to higher performance and improved culture within organizations.

Caleb Holt is the Founder and CEO of SafeTech, a membership-based 501c3 that works to commercialize technologies to enhance public safety, first responders and our military. On episode 18 of the Public Sector Heroes podcast, he talks about how his background motivates him to support and help grow public sector technologies.

The Public Sector Heroes Podcast is back for its 3rd season with a very special guest, Fatema Hamdani, cofounder of Kraus Hamdani Aerospace. In this episode, Hamdani discusses their recent record-breaking unmanned aerial vehicle flight at the Army's Yuma Proving Ground and how her team uses engineering innovations and biomimicry to fly their craft farther, longer, and better.

In episode 16 of the Public Procurement Leaders Podcast, host Raj Sharma of Public Spend Forum talks with Tammy Rimes, former Purchasing Agent for the City of San Diego and current Executive Director for the National Cooperative Procurement Partners to gain insights from her lifetime in public procurement. Special thanks to our sponsor for this podcast, Ivalua, a global leader in public procurement technology. www.publicspendforum.net www.ivalua.com

On episode 15 of the Public Procurement Leaders podcast, special guest Peter Smith tells host Raj Sharma about his procurement journey and experiences with public sector contracting in London.

On episode 14 of the Public Procurement Leaders podcast, host Raj Sharma welcomes Marcheta Gillespie, former Director of Procurement for the City of Tuscon and current Director of the Global Council for Women in Procurement.

Complex service acquisitions require new thinking and collaboration to deliver full value to the organization. In this episode of the Public Procurement Leaders podcast, host Raj Sharma talks with Prof. Kate Vitasek, purveyor of the Vested® business model, about how her five rules for services acquisition can foster an environment of innovation, improved delivery, reduced costs and increased value.

In episode 12 of the Public Procurement Leaders Podcast from Public Spend Forum, host Raj Sharma sits interviews Tania Ghossein of the World Bank to discuss her work in benchmarking public procurement practices around the world.

Emilio Franco, Senior Director of Procurement Business Modernization at the Public Services and Procurement Canada, is our guest for episode 11 of the Public Procurement Leaders podcast. Host Raj Sharma talks with Emilio about his path to the procurement profession, his approach to modernizing procurement in Canada, and what it takes to effectively deliver change in a large government organization.

On episode 10 of the Public Procurement Leaders podcast we speak to Ryan Murray and Vincent Pernetti, leaders in the New York City Mayor's Office of Contracting Services (MOCS). Host Raj Sharma talks with Ryan and Vincent about their operational mission, how procurement as a system can fairly and responsibly work with vendors, and best practices for managing change in a public sector organization.

For a special episode of the Public Procurement Leaders podcast, we invited three private sector leaders who develop and sell cyber security solutions to the federal government. We asked each of them a series of questions about what's working, what needs improvement, and what advice they have for their counterparts in government procurement organizations. Their results comprise this special episode of the Public Procurement Leaders Podcast, with guest host Frank McNally.

On episode 9 of the Public Procurement Leaders podcast, host Raj Sharma talks with Mike Derrios, Head of Contracting and Senior Procurement Executive for the U.S. Coast Guard. During the conversation, Raj and Mike discuss plans for a new Heavy Polar Icebreaker, Mike's responsibilities to update an aging Coast Guard fleet, and steps he is taking to make it easier for government to procure emerging technology.

On a special episode of the Public Procurement Leaders podcast, guest host Frank McNally talks with Keaston Simmons about his latest project, CitizenSteward. CitizenSteward seeks to improve the labor market for government procurement organizations through its CitizenSteward Directory, the only searchable, sortable, and filterable higher education program directory. Hear Keaston talk about his new venture and his vision for the future, and learn more about CitizenSteward below: https://citizensteward.org/

On a special episode of the Public Procurement Leaders podcast, guest host Frank McNally of Public Spend Forum talks with technologists in the public and private sector about modernizing government technology using micro and modular procurement techniques. Featuring Chris Cairns of Skylight, Keith Deavan at Media Barn, and Mark Junda of Department of Veterans Affairs.

On episode 8 of the Public Procurement Leaders Podcast from Public Spend Forum, host Raj Sharma talks with Alan Thomas about his role as Commissioner of the General Services Administration's Federal Acquisition Service and his leadership priorities.

On episode 7 of the Public Procurement Leaders podcast from Public Spend Forum, host Raj Sharma talks to Harrison Smith about his role as Deputy Chief Procurement Officer at IRS, maximizing outcomes, and applying lean startup principles to the procurement sector.

In episode 6 of the Procurement Leader podcast, Raj Sharma of Public Spend Forum speaks with General Wendy M. Masiello, USAF (Ret.), about her distinguished career as an acquisition executive in the Department of Defense and her advice for leaders and staff alike for success in the procurement profession.

In this episode, Raj Sharma of Public Spend Forum talks with Danielle Hinz about a new generation of procurement professionals that won't be afraid to ask why, the promise of Amazon Business for King County where Danielle is CPO, and changing from a "no, because..." to a "yes, if..." culture.

In this episode of the Procurement Leader Podcast, Raj Sharma talks with Jenny Doherty, Chief Procurement Officer for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, about transforming the procurement function using lean principles and good old fashion professional development.

On this episode of the Public Procurement Leaders podcast, host Raj Sharma interviews Jason Soza, Chief Procurement Officer for the State of Alaska. Jason shares his excitement about the future of procurement, his efforts to achieve process change in his state, and his three tips for building a world-class procurement function.

Raj Sharma, Chairman of Public Spend Forum, the world's only platform dedicated to public sector procurement, hosts the Public Procurement Leaders podcast. On each episode, Raj interviews leaders from the public and private sectors that are making a positive difference for how government's spend money to support their citizens and stakeholders. On this week's episode two, Raj hosts Jack Pellegrino, Director of the Office of Purchasing and Contracting for the county of San Diego.

In our inaugural episode of The Public Procurement Leader, Raj Sharma, Founder & Chairman of Public Spend Forum. talks with Gary Lambert, Assistant Secretary for Operational Services for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. This 30 minute conversation includes tips from Gary's diverse professional background, the necessity of flexibility for innovation, and the importance of truly understanding your business and how it fits in to the overall enterprise.

In today's episode, we talk with Soraya Correa, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) chief procurement officer, about her department's innovative approach to industry engagement. Talking with industry is a hot topic these days, and DHS, with its reverse industry days, has hit on a great way to open those communication lines. Also interviewed in this episode is Harrison Smith from DHS, and Jeff Goldberg from TIAG. You can also see more information about Reverse Industry Days on Public Spend Forum. Sign up today! http://community.publicspendforum.net/blogs/ash-bedi/2016/10/27/dhs-pioneers-reverse-industry-day

In today's episode of the Public Impact Podcast, Public Spend Forum Advisor Shelly Kapoor Collins talks with Raj Shah, the managing partner of the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx), about the organization's mission and some of its successes so far. For more on DIUx: https://www.diux.mil/ For more on Public Spend Forum: http://community.publicspendforum.net

Plenty of people know the story of the Tech Surge that helped save Healthcare.gov, led by folks like Todd Park, Mikey Dickerson and Ryan Panchadsaram. But not as many people know that after the surge ended on March 31, 2014, there was still much work to be done. And fewer people know that a significant portion of that work was done by a handful of technologists who quit their private sector jobs to stick around and write code for the government. And they did it while living together in a McMansion on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Check out Nava's site: http://navahq.com/ And join us at our new Open Global Community: http://community.publicspendforum.net/

On today's episode of the Public Impact Podcast, we talk with NASA's director of open innovation, Beth Beck about the agency's Space Apps challenge. Every year, NASA works with hundreds of citizen scientists, designers, engineers and coders over 48 hours to create very cool solutions to some of the space agency's biggest challenges. For more on Space Apps: https://2016.spaceappschallenge.org/ For more on Public Spend Forum: http://publicspendforum.net

San Francisco Chief Innovation Officer Jay Nath talks about his many accomplishments in pushing government to be more open to citizens and industry. To learn more about Public Spend Forum, visit http://publicspendforum.net/ Jay's article on the Procurement Bus: http://www.governing.com/gov-institute/voices/col-san-francisco-improving-procurement-process-rfp-bus.html Follow Jay on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jay_nath And follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PSpendForum

In today's episode of the Public Impact Podcast, we revisit our interview with Dave Zvenyach in light of the news that 18F's Micro-Purchase Platform is saving the government lots of money. Here's the article Frank references in the intro: http://www.federaltimes.com/story/government/acquisition/2016/08/15/micropurchase-auctions-18f-getting-big-value-small-buys/88401228/ Subscribe to the show in iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/public-impact-podcast/id1123856095 Subscribe on Android: http://subscribeonandroid.com/feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:232697862/sounds.rss Links mentioned in the show: Public Spend Forum: http://publicspendforum.net/join-us Dave Zvenyach: https://18f.gsa.gov/team/vdavez/ 18F: https://18f.gsa.gov/ The $1 procurement: http://publicspendforum.net/welcome-to-the-1-bid-whats-the-price-of-open-source-code/

In this week's episode of Public Spend Forum's Public Impact Podcast, Wendy Taylor, Director of the Center for Accelerating Innovation and Impact at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), tells us about how her organization battled the spread of the Ebola virus, and how that approach informs their mission as they take the fight to Zika. Links mentioned in this show: https://www.usaid.gov/grandchallenges/zika http://www.sprtechnologies.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRab2bGahCE http://publicspendforum.net https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzNaA0aPa-0

In today's episode, we talk with retired Air Force Lt. Col. Dan Ward about how—despite the Federal Acquisition Regulation's reputation for inhibiting innovation— he learned to love the FAR as an engine for change. To learn more about Public Spend Forum, visit http://publicspendforum.net/ To check out the learning path we discussed on the show: http://publicspendforum.net/fire Dan's site where you can download the FAR document: http://thedanward.com His books: https://www.amazon.com/Simplicity-Cycle-Making-Things-Without/dp/0062301977/ https://www.amazon.com/FIRE-Inexpensive-Restrained-Elegant-Innovation/dp/006230190X/ Follow Dan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedanward And follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PSpendForum

On today's episode, Public Spend Forum Co-Founder and Chair Raj Sharma talks with retired Air Force Lt. Col. Dan Ward about his approach to innovation, building a culture of trust when it comes to taking risks, and how he changed things up at the Air Force by doing less. Dan is the author of two books, The Simplicity Cycle and FIRE: How Fast, Inexpensive, Restrained and Elegant Methods Ignite Innovation. Links mentioned in the show: http://thedanward.com His books: https://www.amazon.com/Simplicity-Cycle-Making-Things-Without/dp/0062301977/ https://www.amazon.com/FIRE-Inexpensive-Restrained-Elegant-Innovation/dp/006230190X/ Follow Dan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedanward Join us at Public Spend Forum: http://publicspendforum.net/

Bidview is a mobile application designed to connect government buyers with companies more efficiently. But the story of Bidview's origins goes much deeper. In this episode of Public Spend Forum's podcast, we talk with founders Sevie Sarabia and Jesse Longoria about their experience in the military, and how it spurred them to solve problems back home. Visit Bidview: http://www.bidviewtexas.com/ Public Spend Forum: https://publicspendforum.net

In this episode of Public Spend Forum's brand new podcast, Code for America Executive Director Jen Pahlka talks about innovation, changing the way we buy in the public sector, and the amazing work the organization has done on behalf of kids in California. Hosted by Public Spend Forum Founder Raj Sharma and Board Member Shelly Kapoor Collins. Subscribe to the show in iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/publi…ast/id1123856095 Subscribe on Android: subscribeonandroid.com/feeds.soundcl…62/sounds.rss Links mentioned in the show: Public Spend Forum: http://publicspendforum.net Code for America: http://codeforamerica.org To read more about the Child Welfare program, we recommend starting here: https://www.codeforamerica.org/blog/2015/11/30/a-new-approach-to-procuring-government-technology-in-california/

In the very first episode of Public Spend Forum's brand new show, we talk with 18F's Acquisition Management Director Dave Zvenyach about innovation, agile development and that (in)famous $1 procurement. Subscribe to the show in iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/public-impact-podcast/id1123856095 Subscribe on Android: http://subscribeonandroid.com/feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:232697862/sounds.rss Links mentioned in the show: Public Spend Forum: http://publicspendforum.net/join-us Dave Zvenyach: https://18f.gsa.gov/team/vdavez/ 18F: https://18f.gsa.gov/ The $1 procurement: http://publicspendforum.net/welcome-to-the-1-bid-whats-the-price-of-open-source-code/