The finalists for WashingtonExec’s 2023 Pinnacle Awards were announced Sept. 25, and we’ll be highlighting some of them until the event takes place live, in-person Nov. 16.
Next is Mark Valcich, general manager of civilian, public sector at Intel Corp., who’s a finalist for Healthcare Executive of the Year, Public Company category. Here, he shares key accomplishments, proud career moments and focus areas.
What key achievements did you have in 2023?
My team and I implemented two impactful use cases with federal agencies that are significantly enhancing healthcare research:
We worked with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to build the Argonne National Lab’s Aurora Exascale System; the nation’s first Exascale High Performance Computing system built on Intel Xeon CPU Max architecture. The system will deliver the compute power needed for the most advanced healthcare research, as well as other fields like biochemistry, engineering, astrophysics and energy research.
In collaboration with the National Cancer Institute and the U.S. Department of Energy, my team has worked closely with the US Department of Energy and the US Department of Health and Human Services to advance cancer research with Argonne’s Aurora Exascale Super Computing through a collaboration called CANcer Distributed Learning Environment (CANDLE), an open source, collaboratively developed software platform that provides deep learning methodologies for accelerating cancer research.
Throughout these and other use cases, my team has solidified a model that relies on multiple layers of protection to ensure security and compliance for these systems, as well as ensuring that these more modern, connected and agile data environments remain secure.
What are you most proud of having been a part of in your current organization?
I had the privilege of building, managing and leading an Intel group of employees specifically focused on the multi-billion-dollar federal civilian and healthcare market. The team is helping agencies to leverage innovation as the underlying technology architecture of enterprise digital transformation, as well as implement exascale supercomputing to transform the federal healthcare research field.
The group is laser-focused on strategic collaboration with government agencies and Intel partners to build and implement next-generation technology that will positively impact the lives of citizens across the country.
What are your primary focus areas going forward, and why are those so important to the future of the nation?
One area my team is focused on is helping our government partners recognize the importance of considering the supply chain when developing and enforcing their cybersecurity strategies in the delivery of healthcare system and technological platforms needed to care for patients.
The strategic sourcing of products is critical to account for third-party risks, availability, and overall resilience of the supply chain. The team works relentlessly to deliver open and secure technology though a secure supply chain that is integrated into hundreds of thousands of devices across the federal healthcare system.
Intel is committed to fortifying the global semiconductor supply chain, emphasizing its strength, resilience, and accessibility for mission-critical applications. Our focus extends to ensuring the availability of semiconductors to meet the diverse needs of civilians, the intelligence community, higher education, manufacturing sectors, defense agencies, and more.
Safeguarding the security of semiconductors, data, and information right down to the silicon level is paramount in safeguarding our nation.