Top 25 Cyber Execs to Watch in 2020

Tommy Gardner, Chief Technology Officer, HP Federal

As chief technology officer for HP Federal, Tommy Gardner overseas technology leadership, strategic technology plans, product strategies and customer and partner relationships. His portfolio spans federal agencies, educational institutions and state and local government segments.

In 2019, Gardner was one of the key architects of HP Federal’s proposal for the end-user hardware portion of the U.S. Navy’s Next Generation Enterprise Network Recompete contract, which HP ultimately won after a competitive process.

Gardner was also selected to co-chair the advanced computing roundtable for the U.S. Council on Competitiveness, where he advises on the future of computing architectures,  including cybersecurity architectures.

For the past year and a half, Gardner has been involved with the Quantum Economic Development Consortium, where he advises on quantum encryption for device protections and quantum networks. He leads HP’s efforts in strategy and policy in quantum information science and is working with the Energy Department on 3D printing of micro reactors.

Gardner is also a voting member of the DHS Task Force on Supply Chain Risk Management and co-chairs the Threat Evaluation Working Group. He advises the National Institute of Standards and Technology, ANSI and ASME on advanced manufacturing standards. He was also named a 2018 ASME fellow.

In terms of cybersecurity, HP has spent the past few years investing in security solutions, working to empower businesses and federal agencies with the endpoint security they need to secure employee, customer and government data.

As CTO, Gardner is an adviser within HP on security research and investment strategies. He advises on specific products as well as long-term research and was involved in HP’s acquisition of endpoint security firm Bromium in September 2019. In partnership with Bromium, Gardner co-promoted HP SureClick Enterprise, a security tool for secure web browsing, file downloads and access, as well as comprehensive monitoring and analysis using micro virtual machine containment.

Gardner’s expertise and leadership on the U.S. Navy’s NGEN-R contract provided HP Federal with the opportunity to provide new  hardware  used on the Navy Marine Corps Intranet, the OCONUS Navy Enterprise Network and the Marine Corps Enterprise Network. The goal is to update more than 400,000 pieces of hardware during the 3-year base period.

In terms of advancing federal cybersecurity, Gardner works closely with HP Labs and is currently involved in researching cyber physical systems that protect the end user and can be scaled for cyber protections of large systems.

Why Watch:

In 2020, Gardner is continuing to advance HP’s presence in the quantum information science field in partnership with HP Labs. Projects include research in quantum information and other innovations including device architecture and 3D printing. He also lends his expertise on supply chain risk management to help HP and public sector stakeholders navigate supply chain purchasing requirements and secure technology sourcing.

Most recently, Gardner assisted with HP’s COVID-19 response. As part of those efforts, he connected academic institutions and researchers with mask, ventilator and air purification designs to HP’s 3D printing facilities to rapidly produce much-needed equipment for health care providers. Gardner was instrumental in creating a secure supply chain for information sharing and production of this equipment at a rapid scale.