WASHINGTON, DC – CompTIA will present the 7th annual CompTIA Tech Champion Awards on February 5th to three leaders focused on driving innovation, job growth and advancements for the information technology (IT) industry.
The 2019 CompTIA Tech Champions are Senator Gary Peters (D-MI), Congressman David Schweikert (R-AZ) and Stephen T. Cobb, technology thought leader and Senior Security Researcher at ESET.
The Tech Champion Award is given annually to one member of the House of Representatives, one member of the Senate, and one executive from industry who has exemplified leadership in the technology sector.
The Awards dinner will be held at the 2019 CompTIA DC Fly-In, a two-day event that brings together technology executives, business owners, tech councils and policy makers from across the country.
Senator Gary Peters
Senator Gary Peters has been at the forefront of the technology industry’s most pressing issues since joining the Senate in 2014 and serves as co-chair of the Senate Payments Innovation Caucus. But his passion for small business and entrepreneurship started long before then.
After election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008, Peters helped write and pass the Small Business Jobs Act -- which has resulted billions of dollars in new small business lending activity and millions of jobs.
In the Senate, Peters has worked across the aisle to advance legislation that will foster a skilled workforce, including a bill signed into law last year that strengthens career and technical education training programs. He also introduced bipartisan legislation to help train and retrain high-skilled cybersecurity workers in the federal government. And Peters led efforts to introduce the AV Start Act, which is a crucial framework for advancing the safe development and deployment of autonomous vehicles.
Congressman David Schweikert
Congressman David Schweikert co-chairs the Congressional Blockchain Caucus where he’s leading efforts to educate lawmakers on how blockchain can be implemented to solve some society’s most vexing challenges. He has been a proponent of legislation and regulation to drive technology advancements, not curtail them.
He’s also introduced bipartisan legislation to modernize tax laws for cryptocurrencies, and to establish a 10-year plan to accelerate the development of quantum information science and technology applications.
Congressman Schweikert has supported legislation that promotes research for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math programs and streamlines federal investments at the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He also participates in the annual Congressional App Challenge that encourages students across the nation to create their own apps and pursue careers in tech.
Stephen T. Cobb
For more than 30 years, Stephen T. Cobb has been a leading international voice on data privacy and information security. He is an entrepreneur who has sold two IT startups to publicly-traded companies – InfoSec Labs to Rainbow Technologies and ePrivacy Group to Symantec.
Cobb is one of the first people to earn the Certified Information System Security Professional (CISSP) qualification.
An author of more than a dozen textbooks, Cobb has dedicated his career to ensuring that students fully understand the fulfillment and opportunities available in an IT career. He has helped organized annual Cyber Boot Camps for middle school and high school students and has spoken about information security and data privacy issues in a dozen countries.
About CompTIA
The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) is the leading voice and advocate for the $1.5 trillion U.S. information technology ecosystem; and the more than 35 million industry and tech professionals who design, implement, manage, and safeguard the technology that powers the world’s economy. Through education, training, certifications, advocacy, philanthropy, market research and membership programs, CompTIA is the hub for advancing the tech industry and its workforce.
About CompTIA Public Sector & Advocacy
Through our Public Sector and Advocacy arm, CompTIA champions industry innovation, a skilled workforce and solutions that drive business. We advocate on behalf of a diverse technology sector through public affairs efforts at the federal, state, local and international levels and through exclusive public sector councils. We bridge the tech ecosystem and government impacting all technology companies — from small solution providers and software developers to the world’s largest manufacturers and communications service providers. CompTIA gives eyes, ears and a voice to technology companies, informing them of policy developments – and providing the means to do something about it.
Steve Ostrowski
Senior Director, Corporate Communications
(630) 678 - 8468
sostrowski@comptia.org
Roger Hughlett
Director, Corporate Communications
(202) 503 - 3644
rhughlett@comptia.org
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Access Now$2 trillion – Estimated direct economic impact of the U.S. tech industry, representing 8.8% of the national economy.
582,000 – Number of tech business establishments in the U.S.
9.1 million – U.S. net tech employment at the end of 2022.
286,400 – Estimated number of new technology jobs added in the U.S. in 2022.
4.1 million – Number of postings by U.S. employers for tech job openings during 2022.
