Industry Luminaries

General Stu is a strategic leader who is deeply experienced in all aspects of the business of National Security and Defense. Transitioning from 36 years of military service, he joined Accenture in January 2016. Stu now serves Accenture clients, working at the intersection of industry and the military, enabling each to understand the best of the other. He is a member of Accenture’s Global Defense Leadership Team and Accenture’s Global Defense Advisory Council. Stu champions digital as core to defense and as the business of defense leaders.

While serving in the military, he commanded and oversaw Canadian Armed Forces Operations at home, on the continent and globally across land, sea, air, space and cyber. He also worked closely with more than a dozen interagency and international operational partners.

Upon retirement from active service in the Canadian Armed Forces, Tom joined Alberta public service, first in the Department of Municipal Affairs, then in the Legislature as a chief of staff in the Departments of Infrastructure and Education. While there, he worked with many partners at the municipal and federal levels.

Tom joined the Canadian Forces in 1986 and graduated from the Royal Roads Military College. He served as an Instructor and a Tactics Instructor with the Canadian Forces, where he focused on developing young leaders. His return to Regimental Duty included a tour in Bosnia and the appointment as Regimental Adjutant. Tom deployed to Afghanistan with his Squadron for a six-month tour of duty in January 2002 as part of Canada’s first commitment of forces to that nation. Subsequently, he was posted to the National Defence Headquarters where he worked in the offices of the Minister of National Defence and Chief of Defence Staff.

Peter provides strategic advice with a particular focus on technology and digitally enabled policing, cybercrime, strategic leadership, and organizational modernization and change.

Peter brings more than 36 years of experience with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police along with significant expertise in a broad range of policing and law enforcement activities, nationally and internationally. He held a series of senior leadership and executive positions in policing services and retired in 2017. While there, he was responsible for the leadership, strategic direction and national delivery of a broad range of critical policing services including technical operations, information management and technology. During his tenure, he transformed the governance and service delivery of National Police Services and oversaw the development of the organization’s first cybercrime strategy.

Peter is a nationally recognized leader in government transformation and was a Strategy Lead for Accenture's State, Provincial and Local Government practice, where he helped to address the policy challenges that governmental, education and nonprofit organizations are facing.

Prior to joining Accenture in 2012, Peter served in many roles including Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Finance, Minneapolis' Superintendent of Schools, the city's Deputy Mayor, Corporate Vice President of the Dayton Hudson Corporation (now Target) and as President of the Bush Foundation, one of Minnesota’s largest independent foundations. In 2006, Peter was a candidate for governor of Minnesota.

Peter co-authored the 2006 book "The Price of Government: Getting the Results We Need in an Age of Permanent Fiscal Crisis" and is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

Bill Kilmartin is a Public Service strategy consultant, providing guidance to state and local governments in Rhode Island, Florida and Washington and beyond with an emphasis on financial, human resources and procurement transformation.

Bill had a 23-year career in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and 10-year position as the State Comptroller and the President of the National Association of State Comptrollers. Bill works with organizations to incorporate sophisticated tools and methods into their technology implementation and enterprise resource planning solutions.

As the State Comptroller from 1989 to 1999, Bill directed efforts to transform statewide administrative processes through technology. Bill has won numerous awards, including Achievement of the Year from the Association of Government Accountants and being inducted into the NASACT Hall of Fame.

Ron was the 35th Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy (CRCN) from 2016-2019, retiring as a Vice Admiral. He was responsible for force generation and force development, and he also provided advice and support to deputy ministers and ministers.

During his tenure as CRCN, he was called upon to be the Acting Vice Chief of the Defence Staff for five months and he was appointed as the Canadian Armed Forces/Department of National Defence’s first Chief Data Officer for one year. Ron has extensive headquarters and operational experience.

David is a proven information technology and business executive who coalesces senior teams around key strategic, operational and financial decisions. He has a successful track record as a member of, and advisor to, executive committees in financial services and government, guiding and influencing decisions that enhance product and service delivery.

For the Government of Ontario, David was accountable for strategy and planning for IT delivery across 30 diverse ministries. He led IT transformation from inefficient siloes to a federated model with application solutions supported by cost-effective shared infrastructure services. David also created an evolutionary IT strategy focused on digital government services, the use of data and the role of IT in innovating government services.

At Accenture, Pari was the strategic leader for North America’s public administration and back-office practice, focused on enterprise value realization and finance strategy. She has provided advisory services to finance leaders for the State of California, Wisconsin, Texas, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Florida. In addition, she has worked with higher education institutions such as Georgia Tech, Emory University and George Mason University.

Pari is a tested public sector leader who has held cabinet-level and senior executive positions in state government and has served as a Vice Chancellor and CFO at a national, multi-campus university system.

Serving as Ohio’s Budget Director from 2006 to 2010, she coordinated the state’s response to the Great Recession, including optimizing utilization of ARRA Federal stimulus resources.

A CPA by background, Pari has 25 years of experience in accounting, audit and financial reporting. She also has experience implementing back-office transformation activities for ERP implementations, as well as a track record in implementing relevant ERP financial systems using SAP, Workday and PeopleSoft.

Jesse is a public transit expert with 25+ years of experience in organization transformation and project management. At the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) he drove annual savings of $25 million by creating a standalone shared service center to process all administrative functions, including Finance/AP, HR/Payroll, Procurement/Sourcing and Customer Service. This work included implementing an agency-wide ERP and developing service level agreements to measure cost, effectiveness and performance while driving continuous organizational improvement.

In earlier roles at MTA, Jesse served as Deputy Budget Director for the Budget Office, CFO of the MTA MetroCard Company and Deputy Director for Strategic Planning and Business Development in the Real Estate Department.

Jesse is passionate about helping public service organizations transform to deliver better outcomes and greater efficiency for the people they serve.

Jeffrey recently retired as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and was awarded Emeritus status for his achievements. In that role, he was responsible for all finance, budget and planning, capital planning and construction, information technology and operating activities.

Jeffrey led an impactful financial, enterprise, and physical transformation at WPI over his 16-year tenure. Through its Enterprise Transformation Program and ERP implementations, WPI significantly improved its business processes, enhanced operating efficiencies, developed a data-driven decision-making environment and strengthened internal controls. Additionally, he created WPI’s Office of Sustainability and led the University’s COVID 19 response.

Prior to retiring from Accenture, Rick served as a managing director in Health and Public Service for more than 16 years, using his experience in rural and regional economic development. Rick served 13 years in government first as the executive vice president of the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center, as the first director of AdvantageWest and then as the assistant secretary for the North Carolina Department of Commerce in 1996.

Beginning in September 1997, Rick was appointed by Governor James B. Hunt as the North Carolina Chief Information Officer to guide IT initiatives over his three-year tenure. He continues to work with state and local government as the Chair of the National Association of Chief Information Officers Corporate Leadership Council.

Jody is the only person to have successfully led one of the nation's largest FBI field offices and one of its top police agencies, the Chicago Police Department.

As superintendent in Chicago, Jody implemented police strategies that reduced violent crime by 15% and overall crime by 10%. He also led formation of the Bureau of Professional Standards, which served as a focal point for all factors impacting professionalism and led to a significant decline in lawsuits against police officers.

Jody has been a frequent lecturer at the Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University and the Northwestern University School of Continuing Studies in addition to serving as a guest commentator on public safety matters locally and nationally. He provides expertise in Police Operations, Leading Organizational Change and Risk & Vulnerabilities Assessment.

He holds a BS in Chemistry from the University of Tampa.