Overview

October 15
11AM PT, 2PM ET

Register

As governments modernize their digital services, they face growing challenges around trust, security, and citizen experience. Traditional identity and credential verification processes are often slow, costly, and vulnerable to fraud. Verifiable Credentials offer a new way forward—delivering secure, trusted connections that empower citizens while streamlining government operations.

Join Government Technology and Portage CyberTech for a live webinar to explore how governments can issue, manage, and verify digital credentials at scale, creating trusted interactions between agencies, citizens, and third parties. Attendees will gain practical insight into how this technology enhances efficiency, protects privacy, and fosters interoperability across jurisdictions.

Key topics we’ll cover include:

  • Verifiable Credentials 101: What they are and why they matter for governments.
  • Citizen-Centric Control: How citizens can store, manage, and selectively share their credentials with confidence.
  • Cross-Government Interoperability: How verifiable credentials enable secure verification across departments, municipalities, and even across borders.
  • Fraud Prevention: How instant, cryptographic verification reduces risk and strengthens trust.
  • Privacy by Design: How verifiable credentials improve privacy by bringing to life selective disclosure that ensures only the minimum data required is shared.
  • Real-World Example: A look at how governments could issue verifiable credentials and how citizens can use them to seamlessly access services.

Join us to discover how verifiable credentials can help your government deliver faster, safer, and more citizen-friendly services—while building a trusted foundation for the future.

Speakers

Bruce Lévis headshot

Bruce Lévis

Chief Strategy Officer, Portage CyberTech

Bruce Lévis is co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Portage CyberTech. With over thirty years of experience, Bruce’s career has covered almost every aspect of public sector digital transformation from enterprise hardware to data warehousing and analytics, to digital asset management, to cybersecurity. Over the last ten years he has focused mainly on identity and access management. He is an active member of the Digital Identity and Authentication Council of Canada (DIACC) and is on the board of directors of CILEX, a Canadian-based Incubator-Accelerator. Prior to Portage, Bruce founded The Levis Group, a management consulting company that worked with established corporations and start-ups. As part of the Levis Group he co-founded, helped build, and sold two successful start-ups: Askari Solutions Inc. and Becker-Carroll. Prior to the Levis Group he held sales and leadership in companies like Once Corporation (now part of Bell), Computer Associates, and Northern Micro.

Bob Besharat  headshot

Bob Besharat

Chief Product Officer and Chief Technology Officer, Portage CyberTech

Bob Besharat is a seasoned technology executive and strategic innovator with over 30 years of leadership experience in cybersecurity, enterprise architecture, and digital transformation. Throughout his career, he has held senior executive roles guiding global organizations through complex technology initiatives and large-scale operational change. Currently serving as Chief Product Officer and Chief Technology Officer at Portage CyberTech, Bob has led transformative programs that have delivered scalable solutions and generated over $400 million in revenue. His leadership is defined by a deep understanding of emerging technologies, business-driven architecture, and operational excellence—empowering organizations to accelerate innovation, reduce risk, and achieve measurable outcomes across diverse industries including finance, healthcare, higher education, and government. In addition to his executive leadership, Bob is deeply committed to advancing education and industry collaboration. He is an adjunct faculty member at Lambton College and Concordia University. Bob holds an Honours degree in Computer Science from Carleton University and has completed a graduate-level Executive Leadership program from Cornell University. He also maintains professional certifications such as TOGAF, CISSP, ITIL Foundation, SABSA, and Six Sigma Green Belt.

Nancy Rainosek headshot

Nancy Rainosek — Moderator

Senior Fellow, Center for Digital Government

Nancy is the former Chief Information Security Officer for the State of Texas. She has over four decades of IT experience in Texas state government and the private sector. Additionally, she served on the Executive Committee of the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center. Nancy has been recognized on many occasions both at the state and national levels, including the prestigious Thomas M Jarrett State Cybersecurity Leadership Award from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, for her tremendous contributions.