Corporate Finalists

Isaac Abbs is the Chief Information Officer at Pima Community College. A transformational, people-first leader, Isaac elevated IT from a back-office utility to a strategic business partner, pioneering a comprehensive digital transformation across the college. Driven by a mission to empower learners, he builds high-performing teams, modernizes enterprise security, and champions AI-driven innovation—delivering Fortune 500-level technology on a public-sector budget.

Our team’s landmark achievement was leading a digital transformation that elevated IT from a support function to a strategic, visionary partner. Operating within a public-sector budget, we rebuilt core infrastructure, eliminated technical debt, and established a robust security program. We revolutionized the student experience by integrating disparate legacy tools into a sleek, mobile-first digital hub serving nearly 40,000 students, overhauled identity governance to protect more than 100,000 identities, and implemented behavioral AI for advanced threat detection. We optimized contracts, forged strategic alliances to maintain fiscal discipline, and boosted stakeholder satisfaction to over 95%.

Dana Kline is Vice President of Information Technology and CIO at Cordia, where he leads enterprise IT, cybersecurity, data, collaboration, digital transformation, and responsible AI adoption supporting critical energy infrastructure across the United States. Known for building high-performing teams, developing leaders, and transforming IT into a strategic business partner through cybersecurity innovation, operational excellence, and measurable business outcomes. His leadership combines business alignment, disciplined execution, and a strong commitment to developing people.

Starting as Cordia’s first IT employee after a carve-out, I built both an IT organization and a leadership culture centered on accountability, trust, and customer service. We exited TSA services, integrated acquired energy centers, modernized NetSuite and Salesforce, connected core operations platforms, and positioned AIM as a governed enterprise AI program. Cybersecurity evolved into a business resilience capability, achieving 100% CIS 18 compliance, increasing MITRE ATT&CK coverage from 37% to 86%, and using AI-driven automation to resolve more than 99% of security alerts. These efforts reduced cyber insurance premiums 29% and improved IT Net Promoter Score from -45 to 53.

I serve as Executive Vice President of IT & Security at arrivia, holding a converged CIO/CISO mandate and leading a 100+ member global organization spanning cloud, infrastructure and cybersecurity, running 24x7x365 operations. Over 20+ years, I’ve built enterprise programs achieving PCI DSS, SOC 2 and ISO certifications, transforming business through technology, led cloud transformations delivering millions in savings and pioneered agentic AI governance. I believe technology and security, led together, are how a business earns trust.

In 2025, Benito delivered $1.4M in validated savings by linking five initiatives under one strategy — contact center AI, a Digital Employee Experience program, enterprise cost optimization, digital landscape expansion, and SRE practices with agentic AI — executed in partnership with the CFO on cost and COO on customer experience. The most consequential shift: deploying agentic AI and automated healing moved us from a reactive, ticket-driven posture to autonomous incident detection and resolution, lowering MTTR and eliminating toil. The result proved increased revenue, cost discipline and innovation are mutually reinforcing — and positioned us as a credible operator of agentic AI in action.

I have over 30 years’ experience working in the technology profession. My experience started with serving in the Marine Corps and broadening to diverse sectors like distribution, transportation, financial services, and healthcare. I have developed and matured technology teams throughout my career with a focus on stabilizing resources on teams of uniquely talented technicians, improving project delivery and synergy between technical and business teams. I also created several non-profit organizations to support families in need.

We have completed significant infrastructure updates and are now identifying areas for improvement between critical systems. The lack of standardized data elements across systems creates inefficiencies and limits interoperability, reporting accuracy, and data-driven decision-making. We are rebuilding platforms to address these gaps, creating opportunities for us to consolidate functionality under fewer licensed products. We recently improved our provider application process, reducing the amount of time necessary for candidates to apply and DMG staff to onboard. Processes that previously took weeks are now being achieved in days.

Ken Roberts is CTO of Unitek Learning, leading technology strategy and building platforms that improve student outcomes and operational performance. He brings more than 20 years of experience leading technology and product organizations in private equity-backed SaaS companies. Ken has modernized legacy platforms, scaled global engineering teams, and integrated more than a dozen acquisitions. At Unitek, he is focused on using cloud, data, AI, and great teams to strengthen healthcare education and enable long-term growth.

In my first 100 days, the team did the technology equivalent of changing tires on a moving car. We took the SIS live, kept the new ERP on course for October, built a three-year technology and AI roadmap targeting lofty value creation goals, and added product and architecture capabilities. The real accomplishment was not simply surviving a crowded project list. We created a foundation for better data, automation, and decisions while moving technology beyond “keep the lights on.” Everything now points toward the same finish line: helping faculty teach, employees work smarter, and more students succeed.

Carla Way is a technology executive with more than 34 years of experience leading digital transformation, enterprise technology strategy, and organizational innovation. She is recognized for aligning technology with business outcomes, advancing AI governance, and building collaborative, high-performing teams. Throughout her career, Carla has focused on improving operational efficiency, strengthening organizational growth, and creating technology strategies that enable organizations to innovate responsibly while delivering lasting business value.

One of my greatest accomplishments has been transforming technology from an operational support function into a strategic driver of organizational growth. I led initiatives that improved scalability through vendor optimization, technology consolidation, and operational efficiencies, resulting in annual cost savings while enhancing service delivery. I also championed cross-functional collaboration by breaking down organizational silos, improving reporting visibility, and aligning technology with business objectives. More recently, I established an AI governance framework to support responsible innovation while mentoring emerging leaders, creating a culture of shared accountability, continuous improvement, and sustainable long-term growth.