Jodi Ito, Chair
University of Hawai’i
Jodi Ito is the chief information security officer of the University of Hawai’i (UH) System in the Office of the Vice President for Information Technology since 2000 and has been with the University since 1982.
She is responsible for the security and protection of the information assets across the University of Hawai’i System. These responsibilities include the development and management of policies and procedures for the UH information security program, conducts risk & vulnerability analysis for critical assets, oversees investigations into cyber incidents, & develops/conducts training on information policy & security issues across all 10 UH campuses and affiliated research & education centers. She has also organized several large scale red/blue team cybersecurity exercises on the UH cyber range involving University students, Hawaii National Guard, military, state and federal government agencies.
She is a Principle Investigator and Program Director for the NSA’s GenCyber Camps in Hawaii to introduce cyber security to high schools students and teachers. She is also the co-PI on the NSF/NSA Scholarship For Services grants to provide full-ride scholarships for students pursuing cyber security degrees and the NSF Computer Science Principles for Hawaii to train high school teachers to be able to teach AP Computer Sciences Principles. She is also member of the REN-ISAC, MS-ISAC, Educause, and Infragard. Prior to becoming the Chairperson of CyberHawaii, Jodi headed up the Education & Workforce Committee and has been a lead organizer for CompuGirls Hawaii.
She graduated from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa with both a Bachelors of Science degree in Computer Science in 1982 and a Masters of Science degree in Information and Computer Science in 1987.
Edward Ontai, Vice Chair
DataHouse
Eddie Ontai is the President of DataHouse, Hawaii’s premier technology consulting firm. Before joining DataHouse to implement groundbreaking IT solutions for Hawaii’s industry leaders, he served as the Vice President of Administration for Catholic Charities Hawaii. A past board member of Legacy of Life Hawaii, the Oahu Workforce Investment Board, and Healthcare Financial Management Association, Eddie’s 25 years of professional management experience span from the corporate world to nonprofit service and community advancement. He holds a B.S. in accounting from Loyola Marymount University and previously held business development positions at St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawaii and the Rehabilitation Hospital of the Pacific.
Vassilis Syrmos, Vice Chair
University of Hawai’i System
As Vice President for Research and Innovation of the University of Hawai’i System, Vassilis L. Syrmos is charged with providing critical leadership and coordination of systemwide research and innovation efforts, including management and direction of UH’s research support, technology transfer and many compliance functions. One of his priorities will be to support significant growth in research through the University of Hawai’i Innovation Initiative, which seeks to increase the state’s research enterprise over the next decade.
Dr. Syrmos has previously served as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. In that capacity, he has worked on a range of projects including developing major research facilities such as the Daniel K. Inouye Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE Hale), the state’s only laboratory to be rated LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Platinum.
Since 1991, he has been with the department of electrical engineering at UH Mānoa, where he is a professor. He has also served as the Associate Dean of the College of Engineering. He spent a sabbatical leave at The Boeing Company as a research fellow. His interests include geometric and algebraic approaches in linear system theory, computational algorithms methods for signal and image processing, robust/optimal filter design in systems, medical imaging, and prognostics and diagnostics methods related to condition based maintenance systems.
Dr. Syrmos is the author/coauthor of more than 100 journal and conference papers and the book Optimal Control, 2nd edition, John Wiley, 1995. He was an associate editor of Circuits, Systems and Signal Processing.
He has served in numerous international conferences in technical program committees, editorial boards and organizing committees. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Office of Naval Research, the Naval Air Systems Command, the Naval Sea Systems Command, the Air Force Research Labs at Wright Patterson, the Army Research Labs, The Boeing Company, Hawaiian Electric Company and Hamamatsu Photonics.
Dr. Syrmos has been a consultant for the Canada France Hawai’i Telescope (CFHT), Innovative Solutions (Nova-Sol), Science Technology International (STI) and others. He is a Boeing AD Welliver Fellow, a member of the advisory board of Hawai’i Technology Development Venture program, a member of the Sigma Xi research organization and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
He is a board member of the Research Corporation of the University of Hawai’i (RCUH), the Pacific International Center of High Technology Research (PICHTR), Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai’i Authority (NELHA), the Hawai’i Academy of Sciences (HAS), O’ahu Economic Development Board (OEDB), and XLR8UH, the University of Hawai’i’s first proof of concept accelerator.
Dr. Syrmos obtained his PhD at Georgia Institute of Technology in electrical engineering and a diploma in electrical engineering from Democritus University of Thrace, Greece.
Peter Dooher, Secretary
Servco Hawai‘i
Peter Dooher is the Senior Vice President of Digital Strategy at Servco Pacific Inc. He is responsible for Servco’s omnichannel initiatives as well as its product management, data visualization and analytics, CRM strategy, technology and application development functions. Prior to joining Servco, Peter spent most of his career in Retail, supporting organizations enterprise digital and technology efforts working from a developer up to a CTO and spent 12 years at J.Crew & Madewell, the New York-based multi-channel specialty retailer, where he directed the transformation of the IT organization that drove the jcrew.com e-commerce business to more than double its revenue, launched madewell.com and jcrewfactory.com. During his tenure, he served in various roles, most recently as Vice President of eCommerce and Retail Application Development responsible for directing and managing enterprise-wide customer technology applications designated for omnichannel operations. Before J.Crew, he worked at Accenture LLC for over 9 years implementing technology architecture and integration solutions throughout various industries, from startups to fortune 500 companies across the globe.
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