Javier Fernandez, CEO, Omaha Public Power District

Javier Fernandez joined OPPD in June 2017 as vice president and chief financial officer. He was selected by the OPPD Board of Directors to serve as President and Chief Executive Officer starting in July 2021.

Fernandez came to OPPD from the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), U.S. Department of Energy, in Portland, Oregon. He had been with the federal power marketing organization since 2012, most recently serving as executive vice president and chief financial officer. He previously served as senior vice president of Fixed Income Capital Markets for D.A. Davidson & Company and VP of Public Finance for Seattle-Northwest Securities Corporation.

Joseph Ruddy, Chief Innovation Officer, Port of Virginia

Joe Ruddy is the chief innovation officer for the Port of Virginia and in this role he oversees the Port’s strategic planning, process excellence, commercial pricing and customer service teams. Before stepping into the CINO’s role, Joe was chief operations officer and helped Virginia International Terminals, which is the port’s private terminal operating subsidiary, earn its reputation as an honest and reliable terminal operations organization. Before that, he served as the director of operations and labor at VIT.

Amelia Shachoy, Assistant Director for Physical Infrastructure, US GAO

Amelia Shachoy is an Assistant Director for Physical Infrastructure issues at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), where she leads studies on federal asset management. Prior to joining GAO, she spent 11 years with the City of New York and worked in the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB).  In 2018, Amelia managed the team in developing a framework with criteria to evaluate asset management at federal agencies (GAO-19-57), and is just about to publish a report on applying this framework to federal agencies’ asset management practices in the context of resilience to natural disasters (GAO-21-596).