Overview

June 12
11AM PT, 2PM ET

Register

Across jurisdictions, government agencies have made major investments in digital identity—but the results don’t always match the intent. Whether it’s low adoption, usability issues, or mounting privacy concerns, too many programs fall short of effectively serving residents or meeting internal benchmarks and compliance obligations.

But every setback leaves a trail of insight.

Join Government Technology and Portage Cybertech for a live webinar exploring what actually happens when large-scale CIAM (Customer Identity and Access Management) programs hit unexpected challenges—and how government teams' course-corrected to deliver better outcomes. From design flaws to delivery pivots, we’ll examine what works, what doesn’t, and how to build identity programs that deliver on both policy, privacy and user expectations.

You’ll learn:

  • Where common public sector CIAM strategies break down—and how to avoid them
    Learn from real-world missteps that reveal where public sector citizen identity programs often go wrong.
  • What residents actually need from your identity systems
    Explore how usability, accessibility, privacy, and trust directly impact adoption.
  • Which technologies can help solve common CIAM challenges
    Discover the tools and strategies available to build secure, scalable, and user-friendly digital identity systems. We'll showcase a successful program example that addresses key pain points.

Speakers

Ed Therrieault headshot

Ed Therrieault

Principal Digital Transformation Architect, Portage Cybertech

Ed has over 25 years of experience in the design, development, deployment and operations of privacy sensitive electronic service delivery solutions for both public sector and banking clients. Ed’s involvement in the domains of Identity, Credential and Access management, web content management and service transformation started with his participation in the creation of the Central Frame Database at Statistics Canada. He went on to participate in the creation of the Strategis ID and the web content management solutions at Industry Canada and has made immense contributions to the Govt of Canada's vision for citizen and business centric access to information and transactions.

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.

Guy Pensa headshot

Guy Pensa

Senior Product Evangelist, Portage Cybertech

With over 30 years of experience in the informatics field, Guy Pensa is a highly regarded Solutions Architect, Sales Engineer, Certified Technical Trainer, Mentor, and Subject Matter Expert in internet-hosted technologies and solutions. He has successfully solved a wide range of business challenges through his technical expertise. His knowledge spans various areas, including data management, directory services, identity services, integration services, messaging services, network services, operating systems, and security services—all hosted over diverse network architectures and communication protocols. Guy has also developed and managed a successful software services company, delivering cutting-edge technical solutions to international Fortune 50, 100, 500, and 1000 companies. His solutions often leverage open-source software to address complex business problems.

Deborah A Snyder headshot

Deborah A Snyder — Moderator

Senior Fellow, Center for Digital Government

Deb is an accomplished C-level executive, influencer and educator who has dedicated her career to improving state and local government services through policy and technology innovation. She has a broad range of experience in government programs, policy, cybersecurity, privacy and information technology. She formerly served as New York state’s chief information security officer, where she led the state’s cybersecurity programs and directed the NYS Cyber Command Center. She works with organizations and universities to strategically strengthen cybersecurity programs, defenses and preparedness, and to create and inspire the next generation of cyber leaders.

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