Robin Carnahan

Robin Carnahan is the former Secretary of State of Missouri and from 2016-20 founded and led the State and Local Government Practice at 18F, a tech consultancy inside the US government General Services Administration. She is a nationally recognized government technology leader and in 2017 was named one of the federal government’s “Top Women in Tech.” Carnahan is currently a Fellow at Georgetown University’s Beeck Center where she co-founded the State Software Collaborative. At GSA, Carnahan helped federal, state and local government agencies improve customer facing digital services and cut costs. In particular, she taught and empowered non-technical executives about how to reduce risk and deliver better results for the public by more effectively budgeting, procuring, implementing and overseeing digital modernization projects. As Secretary of State, Carnahan served as the state’s Chief Election Official and State Securities Regulator and was responsible for providing in-person and on-line services to hundreds of thousands of customers. An essential part of her job was leading the office’s technology modernization efforts. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from William Jewell College and J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. Robin frequently speaks, writes and testifies about government innovation through smarter use of technology.