Robert Ames is a Senior Vice President on the Technology staff at In-Q-Tel. In this role, he leads the technical strategy in support of IQT’s investments in Advanced Analytics. Robert works closely with government leaders to identify, adapt, and deliver high value innovations from start-up companies to support vital government missions. His focus and expertise is in the areas of Big Data, Advanced Analytics, Cloud Computing, and Systems Virtualization, and Automation technologies. Prior to his role at IQT, Robert was Director and Deputy CTO for IBM Federal. His role at IBM was to provide insight on his customer’s greatest challenges to IBM’s research and development organizations, and to build partnerships between IBM and its Federal clients. Those partnerships stretched technical boundaries and solved major problems as the government sought to modernize its computing and analytical capabilities, from the Navy’s shipboard environment, to the government’s largest data centers. Robert is a regular speaker at industry conferences, and is internationally recognized for his expertise in his Big Data and Cloud Computing. Information technology is Robert’s second career. Prior to embarking on this career, he was a professional opera singer, most recently singing with The Washington Opera.