Executive Spotlight: Justin Fessler, VP of Public Sector at LogicMonitor

Justin Fessler is the vice president of public sector at LogicMonitor. He launched his career in the government contracting with IBM and served in leadership roles at Salesforce before taking on his current role.

In a recent interview with the Potomac Officers Club, Fessler reflected on his career journey. He also offered his insights on technological change in the U.S. government and innovation challenges. Read the full interview below.

What can you tell us about your background and how you’ve been able to adapt to the ever-changing challenges of the federal landscape over the course of your career?

I never expected to sell to the federal government, however, over 15 years later, I’m still excited to help drive change in how our government interfaces with the public. During this time, I’ve won large proposals, I’ve lost large proposals, I’ve learned an enormous amount and I’ve made some incredible friends along my journey.

What I know for sure is that the government is ever-evolving with its technological requirements and policy adjustments to keep up with industry and new technologies. I’ve been at the forefront of many of these technological transformations – especially when it comes to AI and natural language processing within the constantly evolving market of large language models – and have watched how the federal market has changed to adopt these technologies. While many believe that the government is ‘five to 10 years behind industry,’ there have been a lot of forward-thinking government leaders who have emerged to make changes to acquisition and technology adoption policies to allow the government to leverage these new, innovative technologies early on. This has driven a significant shift for the government to ‘catch up’ to industry. Now, it comes down to implementing the right policies like the Executive Order on the Safe, Secure and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence.

With emerging technology influencing the federal government and industry more by the day, what are some of the challenges on the business side of innovation that aren’t always discussed as often as they should be?

There is a lot of focus and buzz around generative AI in the federal marketplace, and I’ve watched this landscape transform over the last 15 years beginning with IBM Watson. However, the focus should be on business outcomes and how GenAI can help transform the way the government provides citizen services, not how to write more daily reports that only serve as a point in time. That’s one of the biggest reasons I came to LogicMonitor – business outcomes. Our platform ensures the continuity and reliability of services across the tech stack so that citizen-facing and government-facing applications are available when people need them. The GenAI that we incorporate is intended to tie into the core business systems that keep services operational and allow government IT staff to ask questions on how to get ahead of anomalies to maintain the operational status of those core business systems and prevent any downtime.

If your career came to an end tomorrow, what would you say have been the most significant accomplishments of your career? Where do you feel you made the most impact?

I’ve been fortunate to have had impacts on significant government programs that have ultimately saved lives through implementing more preventative measures for safety. However, one of the consistent threads in my career has been the opportunity to give back to my teammates as well as giving back to and volunteering with charitable and non-profit organizations. I’ve helped enable many inside and field sales teams to expand their knowledge in the AI domains that I’ve supported, and my employers have delivered high-value solutions to a very large set of government and commercial organizations. I continue that mentality as a mentor for underprivileged youths who haven’t been afforded every opportunity to obtain higher education and help them break into the job market. I wouldn’t be where I am today if leaders I’ve worked with hadn’t invested time in me, and all I can do is pay it forward.