Page Members - Apex Assembly

Preston Fort - Senior Manager, Data Integration Development & Operations

Preston is a creative, self-motivated and accomplished Information Technology Leader in Business Intelligence, Data Integration and Analytics. Preston has over 15 years of managing comprehensive large-scale, Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, and Data Integration programs. He has a strong background in creating and maintaining entrepreneurial Centers of Excellence departments. Preston brings an unparalleled record of delivering innovative mission-critical projects on schedule and within budget, by creatively leveraging strategic planning, budget controls and cost estimates. Lastly, Preston has outstanding communication talents with proven ability in building, leading, and mentoring highly efficient teams, to train technical personnel, and to convey complex concepts in understandable terms.

Pete Verma - Director - Global Delivery Analytics

Senior IT executive with extensive background in Predictive Analytics and Business Analytics. Solid track record of developing and delivering wide variety of solutions enabling businesses to get deeper actionable insight. Complimented by strong management and entrepreneurial experience in high-volume, client-oriented environments including cloud computing and SaaS technology in healthcare, telecommunications, and insurance industries. Responsible for leading mentoring and developing analytics talents. Works and coordinates with executive teams to develop vision and mission of analytics services, maximize profitability, and minimize risk to improve shareholders value. Defines future direction of and ensures alignment with overall organization and department vision and direction including strategy and guiding principles

Katalina Reynolds de Otegui - Sr Director Global Business Continuity

Katalina Reynolds de Otegui has over fifteen years of experience in the Financial Services industry working at a local, regional and global level. During her career Katalina has focused on the Risk sector successfully managing Business Continuity Programs in Europe, USA and South America as well as leading various process improvement initiatives to reduce SLAs and time to revenue whilst improving the customer experience. Prior to joining Equifax she worked at Zurich Financial in Switzerland and Mitsubishi UFJ in London. She is currently a Senior Director at Equifax responsible for Business Continuity, Client Security Questionnaires and Risk Assessments.

Israel Medina - VP - IT Delivery

Israel Medina is a VP and Workstream Manager for SunTrust Bank. In this role, Israel, who joined the bank in 2014, leads teams that operate in the U.S. and India and collaborates with marketing and sales leaders to enhance clients’ online experience on SunTrust Banks’ unauthenticated websites. Israel has more than 17 years of technology and business experience. Prior to SunTrust, he worked for Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM) and Nokia Networks. Israel has gained a strategic, multicultural vision of business based on his work in the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean Islands, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Chile, Colombia and Venezuela as well as his experiences with complex organizations in Europe and Asia.

In addition to his role as workstream manager, Israel is the co-chair of SunTrust’s Hispanic and Latino Teammate Network. Through this volunteer position, Israel works directly with the Hispanic and Latino community in Atlanta to identify areas in need of support. He also helps to increase awareness and understanding of issues facing Hispanic and Latino teammates and cultivates a more inclusive and supportive workplace. Israel was named a 2017 Teammate Network Chair by SunTrust Chairman and CEO Bill Rogers, CFO Aleem Gillani and CAO Jorge Arrieta for his dedication to inclusion and diversity at SunTrust and in the community.

Israel also volunteers at the UGA Small Business Development Center (SBDC), educating small business owners about opportunities to grow their businesses by using digital technologies.

He has a bachelor’s degree in electronics engineering and an Executive MBA from Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business. Israel is originally from San Cristobal, Venezuela and is married with two sons. He and his family love soccer and are big fans of Atlanta United.

Chris Horace Manager - IT Contracts & Vendor Management

Chris has deep expertise in leading Strategic Sourcing and Vendor Management organizations in the development and implementation of global strategic initiatives for Indirect categories such as Outsourcing, IT, Telecommunications, Travel, Benefits, Professional Services, Facilities, Capital Equipment and other spend areas. Prior to joining Southern Company, Chris held various positions in Sourcing and IT roles at The Coca-Cola Company, General Electric, SunTrust Banks and EDS.

Chris has been responsible for multiple Sourcing departments, $3 billion in annual spend, Outsourcing programs in over 150 countries, and hundreds of millions of dollars in savings along with significant risk reduction. Chris has developed Sourcing and Vendor Management programs in three Fortune 500 firms taking them from a tactical level to a strategic level. Chris also has a deep background in technology as well having led General Electric’s Corporate DBA Group as well as having been a Developer at EDS. Chris holds a degree in Management Information Systems from Rutgers University.

Bob Toupin - Chief Information Officer

Bob is currently Chief Information Officer at BlueLinx Corp, a $3.2B wholesale distribution company. He was brought in to help turn the company around through cost saving initiatives and to utilize business intelligence to help increase margin. He also started up a Sales Excellence department which was responsible for the effectiveness of 400 sales people as well as a Pricing group. The result was a 130BPS margin increase in 12 months. The strategy worked, and in 2018 the company purchased its strongest competitor and increased revenue by $1.3B and added 30 locations. Bob is currently leading the IT integration efforts, including ERP, Infrastructure, and Cultures.

In addition to IT, Bob has Public and Private Equity company experience. He is a certified Six Sigma Greenbelt and Blackbelt, and has his Executive MBA from Terry College of Business. He currently resides in Atlanta with his wife and 2 daughters.

Bradley Schaufenbuel - CISO, Paylocity

Bradley J. Schaufenbuel is currently the Chief Information Security Officer at Paylocity. Prior to his current role, he held security leadership positions at Sidley Austin LLP, Midland States Bank, FirstMerit Bank, Midwest Bank, Zurich Financial Services, Experian, and Arthur Andersen LLP. Bradley is the author of multiple books (including two “For Dummies” titles) and has had numerous articles published in professional journals on a wide variety of topics related to information security and governance. He is licensed to practice law in Illinois and is a member of the United States Supreme Court Bar. Bradley holds twenty-three professional designations in the areas of information security management, IT compliance, information privacy, fraud examination, IT audit, computer forensics, ethical hacking, business continuity planning, project management, cloud security, and process improvement, including the C|CISO, CISSP, CISM, CISA, CCSP, CIPP/US, CIPP/E, CSSLP, PMP, CRISC, CGEIT, ISSMP, ISSAP, CFE, C|EH, CBCP, CCSK, DFCP, CIFI, CSOXM, CSOE, ITIL v3 Foundation, and Six Sigma Black Belt. He holds an MBA from DePaul University’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business and a JD and an LLM in information technology and privacy law from the John Marshall Law School in Chicago. Bradley has served as a director on several corporate and non-profit boards, is a regular speaker at industry conferences, and has served numerous clients in the legal, financial services, and healthcare industries as a freelance consultant.

Vineet Bansal - CTO & CISO, IPTIQ by Swiss Re

Vineet Bansal is the Chief Technology Officer and CISO for iptiQ Americas, a new B2B insurance unit within Swiss Re that is focused on delivering digital, simple and high-value Life & Health insurance solutions for middle market customers. In his role, Vineet is responsible for technology strategy and direction for next generation Insurance Greenfield platform driven by data, integration, SaaS solutions and cloud. Vineet is also responsible for Information security with his role as a CISO ensuring protection of customer data and cloud infrastructure while helping iptiQ meet all insurance regulatory compliance including NAIC model law, HIPAA, NYDFS etc.

Before joining iptiQ Americas in Feb 2017, Vineet worked with Fidelity Investments in various leadership roles leading global technology teams in the business areas of personal investments, defined benefits, life insurance and annuities. Vineet led a team of over 100 analysts, developers and project managers serving several Fortune 100 clients and $25M budget for benefit calculation and record keeping platform. Vineet was also responsible for Client technology strategy, functions, process and people. He also led several multi-million dollar technology initiatives including new product integration with Metlife, new business application system using Ebix and Business Intelligence Analytics using Oracle OBIEE. Vineet was also instrumental in building the CRM center of excellence in India in 2004-2005 and Defined benefits development teams in India in 2011-2012 and China in 2012-2013.

Prior to coming to Fidelity, Vineet fulfilled various technological roles with prestigious Indian companies like Ramco Systems Corp and Tata Consultancy Services.

Vineet received a Bachelor of Science and Engineering Degree from Nagpur University, India and Masters of Business Administration from DAVV, Indore University, India. Vineet has been a Merit holder in both Engineering and MBA.

Cathy Yesenosky - Head of IT Risk, Governance & Compliance, SMBC

Cathy is a senior IT Risk executive with 25+ years experience across the financial services industry, focusing on information security, application and supplier risk management, governance, controls, privacy, compliance, policies and standards, and coordination with regulators and internal/external audit. She recently joined Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. (SMBC) as the Head of IT Risk Governance & Compliance (GRC), where she is responsible for establishing a new global GRC function for the Bank. She is also leading an Information Security gap analysis for the new Bank Holding Company (BHC).. Cathy has held a variety of roles in both IT Risk Management and IT Governance, and has established enterprise-wide IT GRC programs and ‘three lines of defense’ models at several firms. Prior to SMBC, Cathy held senior risk and technology roles at a number of companies, including: JPMorgan, Citigroup, UBS, New York Life and TD Bank. She received an MBA from NYU Stern, and holds a CISSP certification.

Manah Khalil - IT Application Security Director, Verizon

Manah Khalil is the IT Director of Application Security and has over 22 years of experience in Application Development and Information Security. Prior to his role at Verizon, Manah was a Test Lead and Program Manager at Microsoft working on the Commerce Server, BizTalk Server and WCF Framework. His current responsibilities include the roll-out of the DevSecOps practices across all business units, the vulnerability management program, and the Single Sign-On services. Manah is a strong advocate of application security awareness and innovation in IT problem-solving. He has in his portfolio over 30 patent filings and grants covering software architecture, identity management and application security. Manah is a two-time recipient of the Verizon Credo Award and the Microsoft Gold Star.

Alan Daines - CISO, FactSet

Alan currently serves as FactSet’s SVP and Chief Information Security Officer where he oversees the global cybersecurity organization where he looks to balance business objectives with security risk, maintaining compliance and securing the enterprise environment. FactSet Cybersecurity are major contributors to the successful execution of FactSet’s strategic objectives. At FactSet Alan and his team focus on all aspects of the cybersecurity program including ensuring infrastructure availability, threat detection and mitigation and security of FactSet’s software development lifecycle.

Prior to FactSet Alan spent nearly 20 years at Dell and Dell | EMC as their global CISO and lead their security transformation as well as managing Dell’s security program through the largest technology acquisition in history, taking the company private and the acquisition and divestiture of over 50 companies over a 10 year period.

Furthermore Alan has also practiced many other aspects of IT and led several infrastructure practices, in the large enterprise, throughout his career. These have included IT outsourcing, engineering, IT architecture, support and program/project management roles.

Alan was born and educated in the UK and spent the first half of his career in roles across EMEA. More recently Alan has been based in Dell’s headquarter in Round Rock, Texas and currently FactSet’s headquarters in Norwalk, Connecticut, bringing a broad perspective to his leadership roles.

Alan is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) with the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium, Inc (ISC2).

Scott Palzkill - Vice President IT, Alight Solutions

Scott is a Vice President IT responsible for corporate applications within finance and sourcing. Over the last couple years, Scott has been heavily involved in M&A activity.
With over 20 years of experience, Scott’s career began as an Industrial Engineer working for Georgia Pacific. He then transitioned to IT consulting working for Accenture where he spent 10 years focused on numerous ERP implementations and upgrades. Scott has been with Alight since being spun out from Aon 18 months ago.

Scott has a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.

David Loewy - CISO, State University of New York

David Loewy, PhD, is the Chief Information Security Officer at the State University of New York (SUNY), a position he has held since May 2015. Dr. Loewy is an information technology professional with more than two decades of experience in information systems and health care.

Tracing its history to 1860, SUNY Downstate is one of the country’s leading urban medical centers. Downstate comprises University Hospital of Brooklyn, five health-related colleges, and a major biotechnology initiative. It is also a large research center and the only academic medical center in Brooklyn, a borough of more than 2.5 million residents. Downstate is one of the 64 campuses in the SUNY System.

Dr. Loewy works with key SUNY staff from the information technology (IT) area, external providers, data custodians, and governance groups in the development of policies, standards, and procedures; coordinates the development and delivery of education and training programs on information security and privacy matters for employees, consultants, and other authorized users; and performs and documents risk assessments and implements policies, procedures, and controls to address areas of risk.

In his tenure at Downstate Dr. Loewy has developed an overall compliance strategy and developed and deployed a Risk Assessment Program. He also coordinates with other SUNY health science centers to develop information security policies, standards, and procedures. In addition, Dr. Loewy speaks at National conferences regarding the Cyber Security Awareness program he developed and implemented at SUNY.

Prior to joining Downstate, Dr. Loewy led HealthCare Informatica Corporation, providing healthcare entities with a range of services pertaining to regulatory compliance requirements, especially those related to the privacy and security of patient information. The mission of the corporation was to transform technology from being a challenge to an asset for healthcare organizations.

In this capacity, Dr. Loewy served in a variety of contractual roles both nationally and globally. He was a HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) Privacy and Security Subject Matter Expert (SME) and Program Manager for Cleardata in Phoenix and medCPU in New York and Israel, and performed a similar role for CNA Insurance in Chicago. He was earlier ICD-10 Program Director for Hartford HealthCare in Connecticut. He served as Senior Project Manager for Maine Medical Center in Portland; Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York; CHS (Community Health Systems) in Tennessee, Alabama, and Illinois; and KCI in Texas, North Carolina, Montana, and Budapest, Hu

Dr. Loewy also was Senior Healthcare Consultant and Project Manager for Electronic Health Resources, LLC; and Senior Project Manager for the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the government of the District of Columbia. From 2006 to 2008, Dr. Loewy was International IT Management Expert – Healthcare, National Web Portal, for the Ministries of Finance and Health in Mongolia.

Dr. Loewy received his Bachelor of Science degree from Harvard University and his PhD from the Mongolian University of Science and Technology. He has received Project Manager Certificates from Boston University and a Project Director Certification from the International Project Management Association. His activities include membership in the New York City Emergency Preparedness Committee; serving as a member of Downstate’s Middle States Accreditation Distance Learning Policy and Procedures Work Group; and being a member of the Board of Directors and Compliance Resource of Cape Fear Group Homes.

Dr. Loewy is a member of the Project Management Institute and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; contributing member of the Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA); contributor to Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) ICD-10 National Pilot Programs; contributor to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework; and an Information Security Media Group speaker and podcast presenter.

Dr. Loewy is the author of Y2K Compliance Methodology for Nuclear Power Generation Sites (© 1998) and the HIPAA Survival Kit for Providers (© 2002, 2008, 2011, 2014) as well as various magazine articles.

Bharath Ramasubban - Senior Director, Digital Enterprise Strategy & Execution, GE Power

Digital enterprise transformation and technology leader with expertise implementing innovative operating and supply chain strategies for Fortune 100 companies. Identifies and implements key digital disruptions (cloud, analytics, mobile, and delivery models) aligned to business strategy with focus on improving operating efficiency, promoting speed to market, and enhancing competitive position.

Highly effective delivery leader who builds high-performing global teams and strong stakeholder relationships. Accomplished speaker in industry forums on supply chains and delivery models for large-scale business transformations.

Van Munoz - Senior Architect, AT&T

Van has been working in IT security for over 18 years, mostly in the financial sector where his latest experience has brought him to the pharma and telecom sector. The majority of Van’s career was at Citi where he managed endpoint systems and security. Van served as a CISO contractor for United Bank for Africa, PLC, managing and improving IT security to meet regulatory requirements. He later joined Novartis Pharmaceuticals providing threat intelligence working with global threat intel teams to ensure any exposure was mitigated. Currently with AT&T, Van is helping to implement a new SIEM tool and endpoint solutions with AT&T’s MSSP.

Diwakar Goel - Chief Data Officer, GE Digital

Top performing senior technology leader with a career encompassing: Big Data, app development, ERP, and operations. Trusted strategic advisor for the C-Suite having demonstrated an ability to lead organizations through transformative change, leveraging cutting-edge technologies.

Fernando Chilvarguer - VP IT Engineering, The Bay Club Company

Tech executive with consistent track record of building, mentoring, and managing motivated teams.
Exceptional ability to balance technical requirements with business objectives while managing organizations through change; extensive international experience with an understanding of foreign cultures.
Accomplished software developer and entrepreneur with 20 years of experience in a variety of industries.

Wil LeBlanc - VP, Service Delivery, Altice Usa

Wil LeBlanc is passionate about translating the intrinsic potential of automation technologies into actual business results. Invariably, this requires creative thinking, and the coordinated engagement of people, process, and technology to achieve the result. Wil has led 5 different IT transformations in his pursuit this goal. (US Army, Safeway, US Marine Corps, Sears Holdings, AlticeUSA) He is currently serving as the Vice President for Service Delivery at Altice accountable for the Service Desk, Operations, Network and Systems Infrastructure, Client Technologies, Application Support, Operations Automation, and Service Management. He is a strong proponent of Machine Learning & AI as the next wave of business automation, and is exploring a variety of opportunities to bring business benefits to fruition. Wil holds a Master’s in Systems Engineering from Johns Hopkins University, a Bachelor’s in Business from the University of Arizona, and a rare ITIL Master credential.

Roy Bené - VP Information Technology & ISO, NexBank

With over 24 years of IT and Information Security experience beginning in his military career, Roy is no stranger to the challenges faced from a security standpoint in the world of IT, today. For the past 3 years, Roy has been the IT director and ISO for NexBank SSB. During this time he has implemented several changes to the bank’s infrastructure by deploying new, more secure, technologies, as well as made changes to the bank’s Information and Cybersecurity programs that have been key in keeping NexBank ahead of the curve. Prior to NexBank, Roy spent a lot of his civilian career as an IT consultant. From 1994 to 2007, Roy enjoyed a very prosperous Naval Career.

Outside the IT realm, Roy has a sincere passion for the culinary arts. A Le Cordon Bleu graduate, he has cooked in 3 different countries and has a commercial kitchen in beautiful Salem, Massachusetts. Roy was also awarded best home chef (instructor) in Fort Worth in 2015 by Thumbtack.

Roy is a huge proponent of charity work and has been involved with several projects at Make-A- Wish, Habitat for Humanity, and, American Red Cross. He donates his time to disaster relief initiatives, as well as provides free IT support to churches and other non profits who may not be able to afford IT services. Roy, a native of New Orleans, lives in Grand Prairie, Texas with his wife Tammy.

Aaron Gette - CIO, The Bay Club Company

A proven thought leader and influential IT professional with over 20 years of experience. Aaron has worked with Startups and Fortune 500 companies in the Bay Area, delivering CIO and CTO level leadership. Aaron’s ability to build and manage high functioning teams has led to the successful growth of companies, converting traditional IT infrastructure into revenue generating powerhouses. Aaron is effectively redefining the culture of IT and delivering a business minded IT team to drive The Bay Club’s growth into new mass affluent markets.

Vihar Deshpande - Director, UBS

Technology leader specializing in various aspects of Information Systems Security including enterprise-wide IAM solutions, Identity Risk Analytics, Security Risk Management and Governance.
Currently a Director at UBS AG responsible for driving strategic firm-wide initiative around Access Management Analytics.
Previously held key positions at TD Ameritrade, Broadridge Financial Solutions, Credit Suisse just to name a few.

Peter Billson - Director of Corporate IT, Turtle & Hughes

A life-long technologist whose career has covered all aspects of the information technology landscape – from the desktop to the data center and, now, the cloud.
Pete is currently working with Turtle & Hughes, a multi-national electrical distributor, WBE and employee-owned company. Pete is tasked with implementing and integrating new technologies into the business.
Before joining Turtle, Pete ran a technology-consulting firm that provided business and government clients with a wide array of technology services.

Irwin Major - Deputy CISO, IDT Corporation

Irwin Major – serves as Deputy CISO of IDT Corporation and Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founding Partner of IO Security and is responsible for the day-to-day leadership and general management of the companies.
Over the last two decades, Irwin has been integrally involved in the telecom and optical fiber industry. He pioneered the business of trading optical fiber globally and supplied and financed fiber optic infrastructure projects in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. Irwin implemented global program development for direct sales and partner channels of optical components and systems.

Phebe Arouni - IT Director, World Vision

Phebe joined World Vision in March 2018 after more than 20 years of international, cross functional and cross cultural professional experience in Process Improvement, IT, Project and Risk Management at U.S. Fortune 500 companies. Her LEAN Six Sigma and continuous improvement experience have enabled her to lead teams to deliver on numerous business improvement, business impact design, service and change management initiatives, by fostering collaborative connections across diverse geographical locations and engagement across functional areas.

Paul Rish - Manager IT Security, BlueLinx

Paul Rish has been navigating the Information Technology world since 2003, when he founded his consulting firm, Rish Telecommunications, only a few months after graduating from DeVry University with his Bachelor of Science in Information Technology. During his tenure as Principal Consultant and Owner, he managed projects for many companies, including Merrill Lynch. He’s managed various cross functional teams, building relationships with peers and executives from Georgia to Washington state. His 15 years’ experience with retail, medical, non-profit and software industries has led him to BlueLinx Co., manufacturing and distribution. As a systems architect, Paul is involved in day-to-day operations, working collaboratively to ensure customer satisfaction and functionality of the infrastructure. His focus includes cybersecurity and infrastructure modernization, and he often spends downtime researching the latest skills and approach to keep himself current. He has served as Director of I.T. departments for several years with various organizations such as Baileys Fine Jewelry /Pandora. He and his wife, Alissa, relocated to the Atlanta area as part of a church plant, where Paul has leverages his skill for the Lord. He manages the set-up and Production logistics weekly. Throughout his career, he’s embraced opportunities for occupational and personal growth, granting him vast experience across the Information Technology field.

Matthew Moore - Group VP -Third Party Cyber Risk, SunTrust Bank

Matt is an experienced information security leader with background in management consulting, power & utilities, and financial services sectors. He is currently based in Atlanta, Georgia. His current role is focused on aligning cyber strategy to business strategy, risk management, and third party cyber risk. He holds several certifications, including CISSP, CISA, and CIPP.

Paola Saibene - Global Privacy Officer, Flowserve Corporation

Paola Saibene has a background that blends multiple areas, such as IT Strategy & Innovation, Cybersecurity, Data Privacy, Compliance, etc. She has 24 years of working in IT, from programming, network, systems and architecture, to governance and risk management, and folding them into the efforts towards digital transformation and acceleration of large projects and programs. Additionally, her dual masters degrees in psychology and linguistics are leveraged in her digitalization approach to the enterprise.
Paola has been a CIO/CTO four times, two of which in multi-billion dollar organizations, serving both in the public and the private sectors. She blends sustainability methodologies within ecosystems strategies to maximize efforts and reduce cost. Presently Paola runs the Data Privacy and Data Protection Office at Flowserve.

Mickey Disabato - Vice President, Information Technology Security and Compliance, Tronc

Experienced Vice President Information Technology in IT Security and Compliance with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry. Skilled in Cyber Security, Privacy Law, Enterprise Risk Management, Agile Methodologies, Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), and Management. Bachelor’s degree focused in Information Technology from DePaul University.

Myra Cole - Director of Advanced Technology, CBS Corporation

A 30+ year verteant of the Broadcasting Industry, Myra Cole has spent her career overseeing technical operations and developing technologies for CBS television. She began her career at a CBS affiliate station in Fort Wayne, Indiana doing everything from audio, video, videotaape, and graphics to transmitter maintenance and master control. She began working with CBS in January of 1990 as an Enginerr-in-charge (EIC) of studio productions like the NFL Today, The NCAA Road to the Fina Four, As the World Turns, and many more, plus overseeing technical teams at the 1994 Lillehammer winter Olympic Games and the 1993 Presidential inaugurations. She continued her career as Director of Technical Operations and the DIrector of Advanced Technology for the CBS Worldwide Distribution group, who’s responsibilities include the international, streaming, cable, and domestic distribution of CBS’ and 3rd party content. She is extremely excited about the changes that are transforming the broadcast industry by incorporating IT driven solutions and technologies., and hopes to be able to help bring these solutions to fruition at CBS.

Larry Montoux - CISO, Cottonwood Financial

IT Risk and Security leader in an agile development environment while ensuring the enterprise meets governance and compliance requirements. More than 25 years of professional experience in information security, systems administration, networking, software development, and vendor management. Extensive knowledge of IT governance, IT risk management and mitigation strategies. Certifications include CISSP, CISA, and NSA-IAM

Nasser Fattah - Managing Director, MUFG Union Bank

Nasser Fattah is a Managing Director at MUFG Union Bank with 20+ years in the finance industry implementing global cybersecurity risk management programs that address regulatory requirements, industry best practices and ever changing landscape of cyber threats and vulnerabilities. He also partners closely with business, risk and IT partners on a) major corporate transformational initiatives (cloud and mobile first strategy, robotics, virtual/direct banking, agile development, etc.), b) vendor/partner selections via 3rd-party program, and c) and drive cyber requirements in architectural patterns, project life cycles, DevSecOps, and SDLC, to name a few.

Before joining MUFG Union Bank, Nasser managed the Information Security Program for AIG Financial Division across Latin America and Asia. He also worked at ADP to achieve ISO certification, and managed the information security risk management program, including 3rd-party reviews.

Kurt Sohn - Vice President, Disaster Recovery, AIG

Kurt Sohn has worked in Business Continuity (BC) / Disaster Recovery (DR) since 1997 and serves as Vice President of the Global DR Program within AIGs Infrastructure Services organization. AIG IS provides centralized business process services including delivery of IT services to AIG locations in more than 130 countries. Kurt and his team provide DR Program Management support for all AIG IT services.

Chris Olive - Sr. Channel Engineer, North America, Thales eSecurity

Chris Olive is Sr. Channel Engineer, North America at Thales eSecurity. He is a seasoned, impassioned and intuitive IT Security professional with a unique blend of communicative, sales and marketing and hands-on technical capabilities. Able to present, architect and advise the C-Suite, senior-level executives and mid-managers on relevant technologies, how they overlap, inner-relate and solve critical business issues in the enterprise in a secure way. Broad technical skill set with an emphasis on security that encompasses on-prem, in the cloud, networking, servers, hardware and software architecture as well as development and implementation in these spaces.

Courtney Schraer - SVP - Security Engineer, Marsh & McLennan Companies

Courtney Schraer, Lead Specialist-SVP of Security Architecture, Marsh & McLennan Companies: Courtney has a Masters in Information System Security from NYU as well as an undergraduate degree in Psychology from William Paterson University. With roughly 10 years of experience within several different industries including pharmaceutical, financial, healthcare, retail, insurance, and utilizes. She has focused on internal audits, vendor risk management, security architecture, vulnerability assessments/penetration testing, static/dynamic code analysis, governance, compliance, privacy, vendor onboarding, process, standards, policies, application security, documenting risk and privacy issues. At Marsh, she is responsible for implementing security application controls and a comprehensive review of security infrastructure controls on new and existing projects both in the US and globally as well as for all their entities. She works on process improvement and gap analysis internally regarding security and risk management from all angles . Previous work experience includes several senior level positions with companies such as Horizon BCBSNJ, Becton Dickinson, Lloyds Banking Group, Suez, Bed, Bath & Beyond. Currently working on getting her CISSP certification along with her Cloud certification.

Gregory Wilson - Head of Information Security, 1st Global

Gregory Wilson is the Head of Information Security at 1st Global and has more than 15 years’ experience in Information Security and Risk Management. Greg is responsible for Information Security, IT Compliance, Privacy and E-Discovery. Greg has led information security teams and worked in risk management efforts at companies such as TPG Global, Lehigh Hanson, JP Morgan Chase and Verizon. Gregory Wilson currently serves on the Dallas CISO Executive Committee Governing Body and is a SecureWorld-Dallas Steering Committee member. Greg is a CISSP, CISM, CGEIT, PMP and PSM and has a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Oklahoma.

Catherine Bruce - Director, Application Info Services OmniChannel Portfolio, Tiffany & Co.

IT Leader specializing in developing high performing collaborative teams with shared goals and values. Often cited by peers and business partners as strong partner who leads by example and holds the highest standard of excellence. Portfolio specialties include customer facing applications for sales and after sales service using Sterling Order Management application as well as custom built applications.

Jeff Jenkins - CISO, First Advantage

Jeff Jenkins is Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer for First Advantage, a global leader in business information and background screening services. In his current role he is responsible for helping build and maintain all aspects of the corporation’s information security program. Prior to his role with First Advantage Mr. Jenkins served as CISO or in a security leadership role for a number of private and public sector organizations including Cbeyond, Equifax, First American, S1 Corporation, Georgia’s Dept. of Human Resources, and Cobb County Public Schools. Jeff currently holds CISSP, CISA, CISM and CGEIT certifications and has been a participant at various conference and roundtable events on information security, compliance and risk management topics.

Beth Gollogly - VP, IT Strategy and Major Programs, Conduent (spin-off from Xerox)

Beth Gollogly is VP, Strategy and Program Management in Conduent’s Information Technology Services organization assuming this role January, 2017. Beth joined Xerox in 2012 as Vice President, Business Transformation & Integration based in Norwalk, CT focused on performance improvements in the Services business. She led the ITO operational divestiture to Atos in 2016 and participated in the spin-off of Conduent from Xerox.

Prior to joining Xerox, Beth holds over 25 years of experience in transformation and CIO-level technology roles, primarily at GE and IBM. She has also led global internal technology strategy and portfolio management at Thomson Reuters and prior to that launched Iron Mountain’s business process and enterprise program management practices.

Beth holds Quality Leader and Six Sigma Black Belt certification from GE where she focused on sales productivity and revenue improvements for 4 years. She spent 3 years in Europe as Program Executive leading GE’s transition to the Euro and served as Integration Executive for a $400M acquisition at GE Capital. Beth was CIO for an emerging Insurance business venture for 5 years while at GE Capital and went on to become Global CIO for IBM Global Finance for 4 years.

She is a graduate of GE’s Information Management and Financial Management Leadership Programs and holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Accounting from Pennsylvania State University.

Albert Rodriques - SVP, Bank of America

I am an accomplished technology leader with over twenty years of progressive leadership in designing, implementing and executing integrated solutions that improved business processes while consistently delivering business value to a diverse customer base. I have extensive expertise in streamlining business capabilities enterprise wide to enhance productivity, and strengthen IT controls. I built a reputation as a change agent, excellent communicator, innovative leader with experience negotiating contracts with vendors and clients for services and equipment.

Florence Shaffer - Director of IT, Americas, Burberry

Florence Shaffer currently leads technology for Burberry across the Americas, after starting with the fashion brand in Asia. Before settling on retail, she spent her 15 year career delivering innovative solutions within Silicon Valley startups and Fortune 500s across a number of industries. Always with a focus of driving business growth and customer delight.

Elimu Kajunju - Senior Director, Global Privacy Office, McKesson

Elimu Kajunju is the Senior Director and Senior Privacy Counsel at McKesson Corporation. He is responsible for developing and maintaining enterprise programs around privacy by design, de-identification, data lifecycle, web/mobile/cloud/big data privacy, privacy notices, international privacy compliance (Canada and the EU) and workplace privacy and providing privacy legal counsel to McKesson businesses and enterprise functions. Prior to McKesson, he has held similar positions at UnitedHealthcare, Boston Scientific and Carlson Companies. In addition to a bachelor degree in business, a law degree, and multiple IAPP certifications, Elimu also possesses the CISSP and CISSP-ISSAP certifications.

Valerie Christie - Global IT PMO Leader & Chief of Staff to the GCISO/CTO, Bunge

Valerie Christie is the Global IT Risk and Security PMO Leader and Chief of Staff to the GCISO / CTO at Bunge, a $40 billion agribusiness company headquartered in White Plains, NY. She was been with Bunge for 7 years and is currently responsible for high-performing strategic and portfolio planning, financial performance, operational excellence, vendor management, and communications.
Valerie’s diverse background and capabilities makes her an exceptional leader, strategist and innovative driver of business success. She is a CPA and Lean Sigma Black Belt with deep experience in IT, program and portfolio management, and business transformation. Prior to joining Bunge, she was with Arrow Electronics, a Fortune 500 distributor of electronic components and services.

Golan Ben-Oni - Global CIO, IDT Corporation

Golan Ben-Oni is the Global Chief Information Officer for NYSE: IDT, GNE, STRP. Golan oversees IDT, Genie Energy, StraightPath, and IDT’s media IT, Security, Infrastructure and Architecture Program in its six vertical markets, Telecom, Finance, Energy, Pharmaceuticals, Education and Entertainment where he is responsible for bimodal IT (DevOps, and Traditional IT), Security (Law Enforcement and Investigations, Security Operations, Legal and Compliance), Architecture and Networking (Hybrid Cloud and Software Defined Data Center, Big Data and Analytics), Research and Development (Software Defined Security and SDN/NFV), and Provides Executive Leadership for Incumbent and Startup Security Vendors. Golan heads IDT’s Computer Security and Networking University in Newark, NJ as Dean to create the next generation of Security engineers to meet the needs of the industry challenges. Golan has been a contributing member to the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), and has also recently started a customer focused Security Operations Practice launched to coincide with a New York Times article, entitled, “An Attack the World Isn’t Ready for.” As CEO of I/O Security Golan been working together with Government, and Private Industry on a Global Basis to address severe challenges in Security, Compliance, Training and Process Development.

Lynne Davis - SVP Global Head of BCM and DR, Jefferies

Lynne has had a diverse career within the Financial Services sector across several business lines and product groups. She currently runs Global Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery for Jefferies. In this role, she is able to blend her 20+ years of experience across IT, Treasury, Derivatives and HR to provide solutions on how to improve resiliency and support the most critical business processes across various divisions within the organization. This is her fourth position at Jefferies in nine years.

Lynne also has lead responsibilities for the recruitment of the firm’s Corporate IT Training programs. (She also partners with Stevens Institute of Technology in their financial engineering department where students can work part time for course credit.) This role allows her to drive improved results to attract and develop IT talent within Financial Services with an eye towards helping progress diversity by mentoring young women and under-represented minorities in the field.

She was recently invited to participate in the SIFMA (Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association) Industry Resiliency Committee to focus on key topics affecting the Financial Services industry including Regulatory and Crisis Management.

Lynne previously held senior roles in Technology Program Management, Global Lateral Recruiting and Derivatives Middle Office at Merrill Lynch and UBS. Lynne holds a BS in Finance from Lehigh University.

Louis Muniz - Head of IT Infrastructure & Security, Wilson Elser

Louis is an information technology professional with over 20 years of hands-on and management experience leading infrastructure engineering, information security, and technology support services across various industries (e.g. Manufacturing, Law/Legal). He is often focused on identifying opportunities to reduce technology cost and complexity, increase organization efficiency and productivity, and improve customer satisfaction.

Michael Harasimowicz - Managing Director, Corporate Data & Analytic Solutions, JPM Chase

Michael Harasimowicz is the Managing Director for Corporate Data and Analytic Solutions within the JP Morgan’s Corporate Technology Group. Mike leads the analytics and delivery of high profile projects involving Big Data infrastructure, governance, and machine learning for Compliance/Risk, Security, Technology, and Legal partners across the Firm. Mike came to JPMC as a Military Veteran of 25 years; retired as a Colonel and Wing Commander. Mike was at the forefront of digital warfare, cyber operations and policy development within the White House (NSC) Staff, National Security Agency, and the Air Force.

Gerald Waldherr - VP Information Technology, Mondi Group

I am of Austrian nationality but lived and worked in different countries in Europe; Sweden, France, Germany, Austria, Italy and Liechtenstein.
After more then 8 years in the consulting business I started to work as an application responsible within the Mondigroup. We implemented this application in all locations of that segment and started in 2009 outsourcing the application help-desk to India. I traveled 4 times a year to India and met many interesting people and had the pleasure to learn things about the culture. In 2014 I took the opportunity to move to the US to help with the post merger activities from an IT, application and business integration point of view. Since September 2015 I am responsible for the IT team and the IT tasks in North America (USA and Mexico). My second foot is in business integration – for the biggest segment in North America. The goal is not only implement IT but also use it in an efficient way.

Andy Neller - Cyber Security Operations Manager, Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield

Dynamic leader in cybersecurity focusing on providing best-in-class security programs, security architecture, governance and regulation compliance, secure cloud migration, and IT security risk management strategies and services to enable delivery of solutions to the business. Over 20 years of cybersecurity experience providing innovative and scalable capabilities, services and consulting to stakeholders in support of a preventive data loss security posture.

Isabel Espina - VP, Enterprise Architecture, ADP

As Vice President of ADP’s Enterprise Architecture Center of Excellence, Isabel Espina is responsible for defining the standards around technology, data, processes, security, and infrastructure for ADP’s Global Products.

Prior to that, Isabel spent six years as Chief Data Architect of ADP’s Innovation Lab. The Innovation Lab serves as an incubator for automated, intelligent and predictive Human Capital Management solutions and places emphasis on data science, mobile, cloud and user experience. Isabel has contributed to many patents filed by ADP. She was most recently key to the launch of ADP’s Marketplace, Semantic Search, Big Data, and Behavioral Intelligence.

Isabel was selected as ADP’s Woman of Vision for 2016 based on her leadership and innovation.

Prior to ADP, Isabel worked for Citibank, N.A. supporting various database technologies for the retail bank.

Isabel has a passion for seeing diversity growth in the technology industry. She has mentored several women at ADP.

Carol Suchit-Hudson - CISO, NICE Systems

In her current role as the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Carol is responsible for championing and executing a leading class Information Security program across all divisions at NICE Systems. NICE provides software solutions to more than 85 of the Fortune 100 focusing on solutions to improve business performance, increase operational efficiency, prevent financial crime, ensure compliance and enhance safety and security.
She brings almost 20 years of experience in the delivery of enterprise information security and technology solutions. Previously, as a senior vice-president/technology executive in the Global Information Security division at Bank of America leading a security engineering group responsible for quality & sustainability across the global portfolio. Prior to Bank of America, she held executive level information security positions at the City of New York and Johnson & Johnson.

Carol has a diverse range of information security experience in several industries; financial, government, healthcare, transportation and Big 4 consulting. Her skill set includes security engineering, audit, regulatory compliance & governance, security awareness, and security policy development. Carol has been honored as one of Computerworld Magazine’s Premier 100 IT Leaders. She holds a B.S. in Operations Management and an M.S. in Management Information Systems, both from New Jersey Institute of Technology. She recently completed her M.S. In Computer Science, Cyber Security from NYU’s Polytechnic School of Engineering, a designated Center of Academic Excellence by the National Security Agency (NSA). Carol holds several industry certifications including CISSP, CISM, PMP, FEMA-NIMS, and ITIL. Additionally she has a graduate certification from the Board Leadership Institute at Seton Hall University and sits on the board of two non-profits.

Michael Nelson - VP, Third Party Assessment Program, Bank of America Merchant Services

Mr. Nelson provides over 20 years of experience in the IT and Payment industry, providing leadership capacity for Information Security and Compliance. Michael’s skills and experience include technical security architecture design and deployment, information security and business continuity risk assessments, policy and compliance efforts including program design and policy development. Michael has extensive experience with PCI-DSS, NIST, ISO 27001, and ISO 22301 which he has leveraged to build and maintain Information Security and Compliance programs. Mr. Nelson has worked with many enterprise organizations including Coca Cola Corporation, Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG), and VeriFone. Michael’s current role is VP, Third Party Assessment Manager with Bank of America Merchant Services and lives in the Atlanta area.

Kevin Nevias - Director & BISO, Realogy Corporation

Kevin Nevias is a Director and Business Information Security Officer at Realogy Holdings Corporation. Kevin has more than 25 years of Information Technology experience and has worked within the Risk Management and Cyber Security areas over the last 10 years. Prior to working at Realogy Kevin held several senior level IT roles at UBS as well as JPMorgan Chase. Kevin has a Master’s degree in Security and Information Assurance as well as multiple certifications including CISSP, CISA, CISM, CGEIT, CRISC, CEH, CHFI and CCNA.

Realogy Holdings Corp. (NYSE: RLGY) is a global leader in real estate franchising, relocation and title services with company owned business operating under world renowned brands such as Coldwell Banker®, Sotheby’s International Realty® and The Corcoran Group®.
Realogy’s affiliated brokerages operate around the world with approximately 192,000 independent sales agents in the United States and approximately 97,000 independent sales agents in more than 116 other countries and territories.

Howard Miller - CIO & CISO, Columbia University in the City of New York

Howard Miller is currently the Chief Information Officer (acting as of 11/17) & CISO for the Columbia Business School at Columbia University and an accomplished executive and senior IT leader with expertise in the design, development, and deployment of technical strategy and policy. Howard was also formerly the IT Director of Security and Compliance for Life Technologies Corporation from January 2006 to May 2012 and served as the Senior Manager, PMO and Corporate Financial Systems for Applied Biosystems, Inc. from September 2001 to January 2006. He earned his BS in Computer Science and his Masters in Business Administration from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Howard also has his PMP, CISM and CRISC certifications. Howard has completed the Gartner Academy for Leadership Development for CIOs and High Impact Leadership through Columbia Business School Executive Education. In his current role at Columbia, Howard is responsible for the Project Management Organization (PMO) and the technology portfolio for the school. Additionally, Howard leads the Information/Cyber Security function and the Business Management Office.

Phani Dasari - Global VP, Global Third Party Risk Management Office, ADP

Phani is responsible for the strategic direction and overall execution of the Global Third Party Management program at ADP; responsibilities include leadership of diverse & geographically spread-out teams of senior leaders, assessors, consultants and oversee program activities to ensure effective risk management and mitigation throughout the third party life cycle. He provides thought leadership in redefining the risk assessment process and supports the continuous improvements of the GTPRM program. Acts as a valued partner to the business in the execution of their responsibilities surrounding the GTPRM program. Works closely with Enterprise Risk Management team as a key member of the second line of defense for GTPRM oversight. Introduces, oversees and implements enhancements to ADP’ GTPRM program. Ensures that the program is in compliance with GDPR and all other applicable Regulations.

Prior to the above job, Phani was Global VP, Client Security Management Office and was responsible for creating ADP’s Trusted Client Experience in all aspects of client security lifecycle interactions and driving the client security assurance program objectives and strategy as defined by global security organization (GSO). He is also responsible for engaging diverse ADP business units and communicating client security requirements internally and also communicating GSO and Client Security Management Office functions and capabilities externally. Working directly with client account teams to address client security concerns and requests. Providing consultative services to the legal departments. Also hosts ADP’s Client Security & Privacy Advisory Board annually.

Prior to joining ADP, Phani was a member of EMC Corporation; he worked as Client Security Advocate and Senior Risk Analyst. In his four years tenure at EMC he worked extensively with communication experts on customer-centric security awareness, provided security related metrics that assist management in prioritizing efforts to address security and GRC requirements, responded to information security-related regulatory and compliance inquiries and assisted incident response teams to represent customer’s security interests in EMC. Acted as the liaison with the business units to ensure that Information Security policies, standards, and practices are communicated, interpreted, and implemented. Provided risk consulting services for several integration projects at EMC/RSA.

Before joining the EMC, Phani was a research assistant at The University of Findlay, OHIO and did project and content management for few years as well.

Phani holds an undergraduate degree in Statistics and Computer Science and a Masters Degree in Computer Science from Andhra University, India. He did his MBA from The University of Findlay, OHIO. He is also a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP), a Certified Information Security Auditor (CISA), Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP) and an ISO Security Lead Auditor (ISO 27001 Security Lead Auditor).

In addition, Phani has been an active participant at a number of ADP Community-based events including but not limited to the following:

Stay Safe Online Presentations at Local Schools/Businesses
Security/Privacy Awareness Presentations at Bring Your Child To Work, Habitat for Humanity

Amy Testino - Director IT Retail Operations and Services, Shiseido

Amy Testino serves as Shiseido Cosmetics America’s Retail IT Director of Operations and Services. She is responsible for the execution of technology within the Retail Stores across all brands. Amy is a performance-driven executive and store operations subject matter expert with progressive management experience.
Prior to her current position at Shiseido, she was responsible for Store Systems at Toys R Us, Inc. Amy lead the project team responsible for the launch and implementation a new of Order Management System along with a new website launch. Amy’s 30+ year career includes a background in POS, Financial Reporting, Store Operations, Order Management, the Connected shopper experience and dynamic Dashboards. Her focus on the needs of the Retail Leader is strong.
Ms. Testino holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing/ Management from Siena College.

Marcel-Franck Simon - Senior Director, Information Security Engineering and Architecture, CVS Health

Marcel’s involvement with information security dates back to the Morris Worm of 1989, when only national-security types saw InfoSec as vital, while everyone else saw it as incidental or an annoyance. Since those innocent and carefree days Marcel has tracked InfoSec ever more closely, full-time since 2002 at different companies in the health care sector. He has broken, or found brokenness in and then rebuilt, many controls and technologies, and remains hopeful despite all available evidence that we some day will learn to write applications and build systems that do what they claim to do, reliably and securely, and do nothing else.

Avisek Ghosh - Associate Director, Corporate Security, Cognizant

Over 15 years of global experience in IT Security and Risk Management, with professional skills in Audit and Compliance, Mergers & Acquisitions and Third Party Risk Management. Have a background of Comp Science Engineering followed with a MBA in IT Systems and Marketing. My current role is multi-faceted and global, managing the Mergers & Acquisitions portfolio for Information Security Risks, to ensure a risk based due diligence is conducted followed by a seamless integration into the Organization, leading the Global vendor / third party security risk review program ensuring all outsourcing engagements are secured and compliant to Organizational policies, managing the Global ISO 27001 Certification program for Cognizant, encompassing 70+ centers across 12+ countries and governing SOC 1 / SOC 2 attestation process for multiple Client engagements, in coordination with Big 4 audit firms.

Dwana Franklin-Davis - VP Employee Digital Experience, Mastercard

Highly motivated senior manager with over 15 years of experience. Excels in rapid growth, fast-paced environments and possess a strong background in the financial services, information technology, and retail industries. Excellent communication skills along with sound decision making qualities. Possess superior interpersonal skills with the ability to build customer loyalty. Hard working and is consistently a top performer. Proven abilities to build and lead teams while providing cost effective IT solutions.

Igor Gorelick - CISO, NYC Employee Retirement System

Information Technology / Security professional with more than 20 years of experience in Health Care, Financial and Public Sector fields.
Education in Match, Physics, Computer Science, Health Information Management.
Professional Certifications: CISSP, RHIA, CISA, ITIL.

Dharika Hopkins - Senior Director, Information Management, Cox Communications

Experienced leader and executive professional with proven results through listening, learning, motivating and fostering team environments. Provide clear value proposition and maintain relationships, resulting in true partnerships. Forward-thinking and bridging gaps to provide results in transformational, complex and challenging scenarios. Strong communication and presentation across all levels (executive, management, operational and delivery).

Offering 20+ years of proven experience delivering strategies and solutions within information management, business intelligence, business process design, data management, data governance, master data, program management and IT execution. Served as an employee and a consultant in both the business and IT at Fortune 500 organizations across the Financial Services, Retail, Healthcare, Telecommunications and Automotive industries.

Erwin Carrow - VP & BISO, U.S. Bank

Strategic-operational leadership for security utilizing creative and innovative aptitudes, skills, and expertise in Information Technology. Develop IT security solutions for governance, compliance, assurance, forensics and operations with a holistic approach throughout an organization with specific and sustainable business requirements.

A born change agent. Unquenchable passion for security challenges — produce creative problem solving with a win-win solution orientation. Results-driven professional that thrives in collaborative environments with colleagues motivated by accountability, integrity, and the pursuit of excellence. Respectfully challenge the status quo and provide continuous improvement and innovation in the outcomes produced.

Instrumental in implementing security controls / constraints to IT footprint for both traditional and cloud-based service environments. Implement and maintain efforts for global ISO/IEC 27001, NIST, COBIT, SAE16, SOC2-3, standards and certifications. Ensure compliance for PII/HIPAA, SOX, CALEA and PCI-DSS requirements.

Direct and drive information and information system objectives to align, sustain, improve, and innovate information solutions, tools, communications and support for organizational objectives. Supported various constituents with information technology and support services, along with fiscal management of associated personnel and resources.

Conduct enterprise risk assessment and planning, perform information and information system audit programs and audits to assess risk management, compliance, policies, and strategic initiatives, evaluate internal information system controls, and provide management guidance for improving of operations.

Environments include current OS technologies and associated services, traditional and cloud-based infrastructures. Designing, purchasing, performance monitoring, fault tolerance strategies, troubleshooting, and disaster recovery of all network assets and applications.

Kausar Kenning - GVP Cyber Security Insights, SunTrust Bank

Highly accomplished analytical professional with a strong background in cyber security, analytics, audit, IS governance, data security, data management. Very accomplished in leveraging advanced data analytics for internal audit and developing audit, data security, and data governance strategies for the enterprise. Exceptionally skilled at combining enterprise data management with business intelligence and analytics to achieve superior results for a variety of organizations in diverse industries. Demonstrated strengths in predictive analytics, data analysis, data mining, and statistical analysis. Specialized in providing actionable business intelligence to leadership to make business decisions that affect the bottom line.

Adept at strategic planning as well as detailed execution, excellent program implementation skills. Recognized for well-defined business acumen and outstanding presentation, oral and written communication, technical, auditing, and research capabilities. Holds an M.S. in Data Analytics and has earned a PMP and CISA certification.

Kenneth Foster - Head of Global Cyber Risk Governance, First Data

Accomplished US Navy Veteran information technology professional and CISO with 20+ years of experience in public and private sector. Transformational leader that excels at developing and implementing strategic, technical, and operational security/infrastructure architectures that are properly aligned with business goals and objectives. Established history of innovation, while utilizing technology and processes effectively to minimize operational cost and to strategically align Information systems with corporate goals.

John Dickson - VP, Cybersecurity, Republic National Distributing Company

John is a results driven, business focused IT Infrastructure and Cyber-security Vice President with extensive experience and a proven track record of translating business requirements into functional systems for Republic National Distributing Company.

John, recognized as a visionary leader in Cybersecurity, IT infrastructure, business continuity/disaster recovery, business risk management, and diverse team management, strives to improve IT productivity in a cost effective manner so that business units meet today’s goals and are capable of adapting to tomorrow’s needs.

John is known for his ability to collaborate with both business leaders and IT professionals in order to transform and securely align Information Technology with corporate goals.

Ariel Robles - Director Global IT Infrastructure, Lendlease

Seasoned and experienced Director of Global Data Center & Network Infrastructure Operations with over 25 years experience on information technology within telecommunications, financial and managed services/hosting industries. Strong experience on networking and data center computer operations, network infrastructure management, managed services (public/hybrid/private clouds), performance management, organizational development, succession planning, service delivery models, network end-to-end plan network & security design, capacity management, risk management, disaster recovery, business continuity, project management, program management, process management, cost estimation, business cases, large scale projects, data center & infrastructure design. International experience on multi-site operation and network command centers. Business and financial management experience with multimillion budgeting in excess of 20 million, SLA’s, ITIL, incident, change & problem management, service transition, PCI, SOX & SAS70 compliance, NOC & command center management.

Bill Duenges - SVP Information Security, Aircastle

Bill Duenges serves as the Senior Vice President of Information Security for Aircastle Advisor LLC. In this role, Bill is responsible for the company’s cybersecurity strategy as well as leading the infrastructure and security teams. Bill’s 18 years of experience includes disaster recovery/business continuity planning, security awareness training, compliance programs, network security and risk mitigation in addition to infrastructure and support.
Bill is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) and a Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP).

Parthasarathi Chakraborty - Head of Security Architecture & Strategy, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America

A CISSP, CCSP, CEH, CHFI & ITIL certified professional in Cyber security executive leadership role. Holds a Bachelors in Engineering, Masters in Cyber Security and pursuing another masters in Technology Management from Columbia university. Overall 21 years of experience in network, infrastructure and cyber security in leadership and transformation roles.
Current Role: Head of Cyber Security Architecture & Strategy, Guardian Life Insurance Co. Responsible to cyber security vision, strategy, standards and technology rationalization program at Guardian Life. Sit on New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Advisory board
Prior Roles: Cyber Security leadership with Merrill Lynch, Bank of America & JP Morgan Chase

Dave Merrill - 2nd Vice President - Data Security Travelers Companies

David Merrill is currently 2nd Vice President of Data Security at Travelers, leading it’s Data Protection program. Previously he established Traveler’s CyberSecurity Management Center. David was formerly the strategist for endpoint security and malware protection in the IBM’s Chief Information Security Office while also advising dozens of IBM’s Fortune 500 clients. David also served as IBM’s Global Security Operations Manager where he directed the daily operation of IBM’s worldwide internal IT security. David has been a popular keynote speaker and industry-recognized expert in the areas of endpoint, mobile, and cyber security. David shares his perspective on the challenges of endpoint security and mobile security with his popular messages “Swimming with Sharks” and “Servers to Smartphones”. Bloomberg News, eWeek, Network World, Baseline, CIO Insight, SiliconAngle, Forbes and Institute of Advanced Security have all interviewed David. A multiple patent holder, David is also the inventor and architect of the IBM Threat Mitigation Service (ITMS), the automated malware response system in use within IBM.

Andi Azzolina - Director IT Data Services, JetBlue Airways

Andi Azzolina has led software development, data services and enterprise architecture teams in Information Technology for the past 20 years. After working for many years in healthcare and higher education, Andi joined JetBlue Airways in 2011 as the Director of Shared Development Services. She currently directs the Enterprise Information Management and Analytics team. In addition to her role at JetBlue, Andi is a board member of Per Scholas where she is also a student mentor. She is a tireless advocate for technology education and career pathing for under-represented populations.

Patricia Clay - CIO, Hudson County Community College

Patricia Clay (Trisha) is a strategic Information Technology leader specializing in infrastructure and applications support management, project management, collaboration, and information security. Prior to joining the Hudson County Community College team she was the Director of Information Technology for DeSales University, a private, 4 year institution of higher education. There she managed all aspects of the Information Technology landscape, including networking, servers, computer hardware and software, information security, and enterprise level applications. She assures a high level of customer service in a complex environment. Ms. Clay has a Master’s of Business Administration with Project Management concentration from DeSales University. She is a member of EDUCAUSE HEISC Awareness and Training Working Group. She is a frequent presenter at local and regional conferences.

Whitnee Hawthorne - Director Strategic Execution, IT, JetBlue Airways

Whitnee Hawthorne serves as JetBlue’s Director Strategic Execution within the Technology Department. She is responsible for the execution of the technology group’s strategy and vision. Her team includes the PMO, IT Finance and Strategic Operations.

Prior to her current position at JetBlue, she managed the TrueBlue partnerships and spearheaded the launch and implementation of JetBlue’s Barclaycard with MasterCard. Before joining JetBlue, she served in Customer Experience, Loyalty and Marketing roles at American Airlines, E*TRADE Financial, and HBO, with a focus on repeat interactions with key customers.

Ms. Hawthorne holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Babson College and a Bachelor’s Degree in International Business from Northeastern University.

Christine Converse - CIO, Fortress Investment Group

Christine Converse-Hogan is a Managing Director (MD), Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Fortress Investment Group, a leading, highly-diversified global investment management firm. Ms. Converse-Hogan has 25+ years of experience successfully building and managing advanced technology and operational platforms for financial organizations including global technology transformation, cyber security, trading, client reporting, data analytics, financial planning, back office operations, facilities and corporate real estate. Prior to joining Fortress, Ms. Converse-Hogan was the Managing Director of Information Technology (IT), Application Development and Infrastructure at Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM). From 2000-2004, she led a team of 100 technology professionals and provided support to CSAM offices in Hong Kong, Australia, and London. From 1993-2000, she was the Managing Director of Information Technology and Investment Operations at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) Asset Management.

Ms. Converse-Hogan is very involved in charitable, industry and social organizations. In 2016, she was a Clarisa Award recipient and honored at the Women of Valor Awards Tea for her commitment to St. Francis Food Pantries & Shelters. She serves on the Board of Trustees for CancerCare. She is also the Co-Chair of the annual CancerCare Golf Classic where she helps to raise awareness of the organization as well as drive their fund raising effort. She participates on the Women’s Leadership Council of the United Way for New York City (NYC) and is a volunteer with the Junior League of NYC. She is a member of the University Club of New York, CoreNet Global NYC serving on the Technology Committee, Financial Women’s Association (FWA), 100 Women in Finance and the Executive Women’s Golf Association (EWGA). Ms. Converse-Hogan received a BA from Rutgers University.

Mark Kramer - Global Information Security Program Director, Citi

Mark Kramer is the Global Information Security Program Director for Citi’s Global Consumer Bank and also leads Citi’s Global PCI Compliance Program. Prior to joining Citi, Mark held information security leadership roles at Merck, Schering-Plough and Organon BioSciences as well as IT leadership roles at Organon Pharmaceuticals, Organon Teknika and Warner-Lambert. Mark has a Ph.D. in Biometrics from The Ohio State University, a Master’s degree in Operations Research from Case Western Reserve University and holds the CISM, CISSP and CRISC certifications.

Rahul Bhardwaj - Information Security, Governance, Risk & Compliance Principal, FICO

Rahul is responsible for providing strategy and direction on designing, growing and maintaining Enterprise GRC within FICO portfolio of products/services encompassing FICO cloud. Work alongside development, operations, professional services and management to lead the development and implementation of key controls throughout the software development life cycle to ensure the compliance and certification of FICO’s products with ISO 27001, PCI DSS, SOX and SOC2 standards.
Liaise with Corporate Security, Legal, Privacy and other divisions on corporate GRC matters and best practices and will lead the roll-out and implementation of the corporate GRC automation solution across FICO.

Dora Boussias - Sr. Enterprise Architect, Information Management and Architecture, Stryker

Dora Boussias is a strategic thought leader, passionate about organizational transformation towards data-driven culture, with extensive implementation expertise in Enterprise Information Management (EIM) and Enterprise/Solution Architecture (EA). She brings high energy and enthusiasm for her work; leading with business context, leverages technology and architecture best practices to drive actionable insights fueled by high quality, relevant and timely data, on solutions that balance strategic direction with pragmatic needs.

Currently and throughout most her career in senior leader enterprise roles, Dora has had the opportunity to make an impact with her work at global organizations such as Stryker, GE Capital, and Prudential. Her 20+ year career includes exposure to Financial Services, Healthcare/Medical Technology, and Retail.

John McCormick - CTO & CISO, TIAA/ Gresham Investment Management

John McCormick, Chief Technology Officer & Chief Information Security Officer, joined Gresham Investment Management in April, 2013. Prior to joining Gresham, John held senior IT leadership roles at Brookfield Asset Management, JP Morgan Chase, ADP Brokerage Services, Microsoft, and Deloitte Management Consulting. John holds degrees from New York University, Stern School of Business (MBA, major: Information Systems) and Union College (BS, major: Electrical Engineering, with a Computer Science concentration).

Tracie Grella - Global Head of Cyber, AIG

Tracie Grella is Global Head of Cyber at AIG. In this role, Ms. Grella is responsible for the company’s cyber-related products and services, ensuring AIG is creating solutions and delivering expertise to help Commercial and Consumer Insurance clients manage and mitigate this evolving risk.

Ms. Grella had previously served as Global Head of Professional Liability for Financial Lines for AIG, responsible for establishing underwriting strategy and implementing best practices in multiple lines of business including cyber liability, reputational risk insurance, architects and engineers liability, and specialty professional liability worldwide. Ms. Grella began her insurance career with AIG in 1995 as a professional associate in AIG’s U.S. Executive Liability division, and subsequently held a number of positions of increasing responsibility, including President of National Accounts, Chief Underwriting Officer, and Division President for Professional Liability in the U.S. and Canada.

Ms. Grella is commonly called upon as an industry expert by insurance trade and mainstream publications on cyber liability and professional liability issues. Ms. Grella was named a 2015 Insurance Executive to Watch by Risk & Insurance and a 2014 Woman to Watch by Business Insurance. Ms. Grella holds a B.S. in finance from Rutgers University and holds a CPCU designation.

Richard Kessler - Director of Cyber Security Strategy, KPMG

Rich is a Director in the Cyber Security Services practice and specializes in information governance, data governance, and operational risk control. He is part of the Strategy and Governance pillar with a specific focus on enterprise data and information governance (IG), and privacy. As a key facilitator for digital transformation, he has led global programs to simplify and improve complex data related policies, business and technical requirements, operational risk management and control processes, investigative functions, compliance monitoring, and change management. He has managed electronic communications archiving operational environments and has designed, implemented and managed corresponding global data quality management functions. He advises firms on ways to design and implement programs that address IG, records and information management (RIM), electronic discovery, privacy/EU GPDR compliance, operational risk management, litigation readiness and response, data governance, technology risk, and enterprise change management. He has extensive experience working with organizations in the financial services, pharmaceutical, healthcare, biotech, legal services, insurance, retail, and aerospace industries, as well as with assisting law firms and attorneys with litigation, regulatory, and general investigative readiness and response.

Alex Dalay - Head of IT & Operations Risk Management, Israel Discount Bank

Alex is an experienced technology leader with a background of audit and consulting in the financial services industry. He has advised the world’s leading financial institutions with the development and delivery of programs in the areas of technology risk management, cybersecurity, third party risk management. Currently, he leads the technology and operations risk management function at an international financial services organization.

Ivan Durbak - CIO, Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center

Ivan has been a senior IT healthcare executive for over 25 years, with extensive experience in planning, developing, and managing information system applications, conducting IT audits, implementing IT security solutions, and re-engineering business workflows.

Currently, Ivan is the CIO at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center: an integrated delivery system with two hospitals, several emergency centers, and 27 outpatient clinic centers providing over 1.1 million clinic services annually to a large segment of the central and south Bronx areas.

Previously, Ivan has worked as an independent consultant, as a CIO at an academic health center, as a full-time college professor, and earlier as a tennis professional.

Karl Schoen-Rene - Senior IT Security Executive, Knights of Columbus

Karl spent 7 years working for PWC and has been in the IT Security space for over 20 years. He has been successful at designing, building and enhancing a risk based, cost effective security and privacy program during his 15 years at the Knights of Columbus. He has used his MBA from Cornell University to give him insight on how to educate the Board Audit Committee and Senior Management regarding regulatory requirements. He has worked with internal and external auditors to pass regulatory examinations with no material errors. He has been on the board of directors for the Greater Hartford Chapter of ISACA for many years, driving the Certification education programs. He is also a member of the IIA and IAPP. His life journey includes his wonderful bride, Candace and their six, children.

Christopher Cirone - VP - Technology Risk Management, BNY Mellon

Christopher is responsible for the effective identification, prioritization and reporting of technology risk, while providing the leadership to drive down technology risk across the bank. Christopher develops the risk governance standards by which risks are managed and he provides expertise and support of various tooling used throughout the technology risk life-cycle.

Christopher joined BNY in 2016. Prior to joining BNY, Christopher served as a Business Technology Risk Manager at TD Securities where he conducted risk and control assessments for over 150 global applications while developing action plans in response to regulatory and audit examinations of the New York and London offices. Christopher has also spent time at Citibank, where he specialized in Access Management and owned a program to drive down Segregation of Duties risk.

Christopher holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from The College of New Jersey and a master’s degree in Management Information Systems from Stevens Institute of Technology. He has over fourteen years of experience working in technology within the financial services industry.

Shahir Shah - Sr. Director, Sr. Business Security Officer, ADP

Visionary leader with over 19 years of experience in the information security and IT fields. Joined ADP in 2013 playing a pivotal role in laying the foundation of present day BSO services for the Corporate business units, driving centralized security, privacy & risk services to the BU’s. Prior to ADP, provided consulting services to Fortune 500 companies for 7+ years in Ernst & Young.

Specialties:

– Operational Risk Management
– Security strategy
– Security policies & standards
– Cyber Security
– Security architecture
– Identity & access management
– Data security
– Application, database, host / OS and network security
– Application architecture and development

Naresh Podilla - CISO, Pall Corporation

Naresh Podila is the CISO at Pall Corporation where he is leads the development, implementation and monitoring of a strategic, comprehensive enterprise-wide Information Security and IT Risk Management program. He is responsible for identifying, evaluating, and reporting on information security risks in a manner that meets compliance and regulatory requirements, and aligns with and supports the risk posture of the enterprise.

James Cusick - CSO & Director IT Operations, Wolters Kluwer

James Cusick is the Chief Security Officer & Director of IT Operations. He is responsible for systems planning, IT Operations, Infrastructure Services, Product Support, and Information Security at CT Corporation. Previously, James led software engineering teams for CT, creating large scale B2B applications. Prior to that he held various technical leadership roles at AT&T, AT&T Labs, and Lucent’s Bell Laboratories’ Software Technology Center. James is the author of over 75 technical publications including a recent eBook on Software Engineering. He is a member of the IEEE and a current Project Management Professional. James is a graduate of both the University of California at Santa Barbara and of Columbia University in New York City.

Willie Session - Head of Security Risk & Chief Security Risk Officer, HSBC

HSBC Bank (2017 – Present)
Head of Security Risk, US,
Chief Security Risk Officer; overseeing Information Security Risk, Physical Security Risk, Contingency Risk, Insider Risk, and Geopolitical Risk Programs. Supporting the full spectrum of HSBC financial services.
Altice USA (Formerly Cablevision), Senior Director of Corporate Security (2015 – 2017)
Head of global corporate security operations, which included physical, aviation, and travel security, executive services/protection, intelligence and investigations, law enforcement services, legal compliance, security technology administration, and third-party risk management. Led business continuity, emergency management, and cybersecurity operations. In this role security services were provided to a leading national telecommunications, media and entertainment company with 20K employees and 1K facilities, that provides residential and business telecommunication (Internet & Cable TV) services to more than 4.6 million customers across 20 states and hyper-local news and programming in New York tri-state region. Altice USA, is a subsidiary of Altice Group with operations in Belgium, Dominican Republic, France, Israel, Luxembourg, Portugal, and Switzerland.
Federal Bureau of Investigation, Various Locations
ASSISTANT SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE (1991 to 2014)
Led and directed cybersecurity, surveillance, counterterrorism, counterintelligence, computer forensics, covert technical applications and intelligence programs for National Security branch of FBI. Coordinated cross-functional activities to provide intelligence and operations support services for complex counterterrorism, counterintelligence, cyber, public corruption, white-collar crime, criminal enterprise, human trafficking, civil rights, violent crime, and child-related crime investigations. Delivered compelling presentations to advance initiatives, liaised with media, and maintained productive relationships with business, government, and law enforcement leaders

Angelo Longo - CISO, Resorts Casino Hotel - A Mohegan Property

I am an Information Security Leader that has more than 28 years in technology, security and consulting. During that time, I have directed groups/teams, maintained business continuity, conducted disaster response, lead projects, developed enterprise architectures, devised security practices and implemented innovative information technology solutions to deliver critical business solutions for clients. Further, I am a veteran of over 200 consulting engagements ranging from simple deployments to massive architectures with complex geo-political environments.

Certifications: CCISO, CISM, CISSP, MCP

Experience in:
Crisis Management, Finance/Budgeting, Group/Project Leadership, Proposals, Sales/Business Development, Planning and Deployment of Assets, Project Management, Resource Planning, Strategic Planning, Training/Mentoring/Team Building, Vendor Management, Business Continuity/Disaster Planning, Information Assurance/Security, Enterprise Architectures, Cloud/SaaS Architectures, IT Operations, Virtualization, Mobilization of infrastructure

I have served clients in the Federal, State and Local Agencies, Financial Services, Real Estate, High Tech, energy, Transportation, Health Care, Petrochemical, Gaming, Manufacturing, Banking, Educational, Hospitality, Insurance, Legal, Pharmaceutical, Telecommunications, and other industries.

I have experience in both large and small organizations. My expertise is in IT security, cloud infrastructure, data-centers and business process integration.

David Finkelstein - Chief Information Officer, RiverSpring Health

David Finkelstein is a seasoned IT professional with over 30 years of healthcare IT experience, primarily in Long Term / Post-Acute Care (LT/PAC). With experience on both the software vendor as well as healthcare provider sides, he brings a unique perspective in IT strategic planning, IT infrastructure, desktop and application support, project management, vendor selection, strategic outsourcing, and team building. He is the Chief Information Officer at RiverSpring Health, an internationally recognized geriatric service organization offering a full continuum of care ranging from modern apartments for independent seniors to the most intense level of nursing care serving more than 12,000 older adults in the greater New York area. As CIO, he is responsible for the oversight of all enterprise wide IT and Telecommunications functions.
David most recently served as CIO for CareOne Management, LLC, an LT/PAC provider serving nine states. Prior to CareOne, David spent over 15 years as CIO for Village Care, and one of the co-founders of the 6N Systems, Inc. a leading long term care information system. David is a LeadingAge CAST commissioner, former LTC Special Interest Group Chairperson at HIMSS, and a frequent speaker at a number of regional and national conferences. David received his BBA degree in Business Computer Information Systems from Hofstra University in 1985.

Sunil Sastry - Director Analytics and Data, Tata Global Beverages Ltd

Sunil is a seasoned leader with a well-rounded experience in managing IT function, strategic business partnering, consulting and program delivery. He is well-versed in working with diverse cultures and over the past 24 years, has lived and worked across India, USA, and UK. He is the global head of Business Analytics and Data with Tata Global Beverages. TGBL is a USD 1.6 billion beverage company with brands like Tetley Tea, Eight O’Clock Coffee and Himalayan Water.

Eugene Kolker - Vice President & Chief Data Officer, IBM

Eugene (Gene) Kolker, PhD
Eugene’s mission is to leverage data and analytics as strategic assets for better-informed decisions, cost-effective business transformations, and identifying new business opportunities.

Eugene is an award-winning, innovative, collaborative, and client-centric Chief Data (Analytics) Officer with over two decades of data management, data science, analytics, and management experience. He builds high-performing, multi-disciplinary teams, focused on consumer centricity, optimizing operations, financial performance, and business value.

Eugene is the Vice President and Chief Data Officer at IBM Global Services (~40% of the entire IBM revenue). As a part of his role, he has led a culture change to enable data-driven decision making and a transformation towards high-quality, enhanced client experience and cost-effective, integrated services. He created the result-oriented, cross-disciplinary Center of Excellence in Data & Analytics and achieved over $285M in revenue in 2017.

Before joining IBM, Eugene was the Chief Data (Analytics) Officer at Seattle Children’s Network, one of the first and the longest serving CDAOs at one enterprise. Eugene led the Data and Analytics Program and focused on leveraging data governance, management, and analytics to improve client experience and drive transformation. He collaboratively achieved 3.5X growth, reaching over $2B in revenue annually. Eugene created an award-winning system for quality care benchmarking to prioritize quality, safety, and network improvements, drive innovation, and optimize the cost-effective use of resources. This metrics-based system introduced best practices, enhanced clinical operations, network efficiencies, and customer experience, and resulted in a 20 rank increase in the national USNWR ranking. He also led the Informatics team, focusing on data integration, statistics, machine learning, and natural language processing.

Previously, Eugene was the Founder and President of BIATECH Innovation Center, which was acquired by Seattle Children’s. Currently, Dr. Kolker is an Affiliate Professor at Tandon School of Engineering, New York University and the Division of Biomedical and Health Informatics, University of Washington, Seattle. Eugene has over 130 publications in 40 different journals and served as the Co-Founder and Executive Editor of the journals “Big Data” and “OMICS”.

In March, 2018, Eugene was placed into the “Top 50 Data & Analytics Professionals” by Corinium Global Intelligence. In 2015, Eugene was honored by the HIMSS members as one of the top three “Innovators” in their H.I.T. Awards, which recognize industry leaders improving Healthcare through Information Technology. He was named one of the “Top 16 data-driven geeks to watch” by HIMSS. One of his papers on integrative analysis of personal biomedical data won the first prize in the Metabolites Best Papers Award. Eugene was also placed into the “Top 25 Chief Data/Analytics Officers” by LinkedIn.

Education: M.S. in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, summa cum laude with honors, Ph.D. in Bioinformatics with fellowships, and MBA program.

Andrew Moyad - Head of Vendor Risk Management, The Blackstone Group

Andrew Moyad is the Head of Vendor Risk Management for The Blackstone Group. Prior to joining Blackstone in April 2018, Andrew led Vendor Risk Management at BlackRock and has spent more than 20 years in information security, vendor management, vendor risk management, and sourcing roles for engineering and financial services firms.

Phillip Dundas - Head of Technology & Change, Schroders Investment Management

Phillip Dundas joined Schroders in New York in 2015 and is responsible for leading the Americas change and technology team across six countries. This includes program delivery, business change, digital, infrastructure, business analysis, security, production support, investment and distribution delivery, project and business development.

Prior to Schroders, he served for ten years as Associate Director at Macquarie Group. He was pivotal in multiple acquisitions including Delaware Investments, establishing the firm’s first high-frequency trading desk, delivered multiple capital markets compliance programs and led the global Wintel function.

Previously, Phillip held senior infrastructure positions at Coca-Cola Amatil and The Industrial Bank of Japan

Phillip holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (Computing) and Master of Commerce (Advanced Information Systems Management). He is currently undertaking a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) with Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Phillip has lived in New York, Philadelphia and Sydney.

Amit Thakur - Director, American International Group (AIG)

Amit Thakur is a Director at American International Group (AIG), and leads development, implementation and maintenance of IT solutions in General Insurance Pricing and Portfolio Analytics division.

Amit joined AIG in 2007 as Regional Program Manager in their Travel Guard division and has played a variety of IT and Operations roles in Multinational, Data Solutions and CTO organizations. Prior to joining AIG, Amit was with Infosys Technologies for close to 9 years where he was leading software services engagement for telecom clients.

Amit earned a B.Tech. from Bihar Institute of Technology (India) and M.S. in Business Analytics from NYU Stern School of Business.

Tess Martillano - Head, International Technology & Operational Risk & Compliance, Wells Fargo

Tess Martillano is the Head of International Technology and Operational Risk Oversight and Compliance for Wells Fargo. As a member of the International Risk Oversight (IRO), Tess provides independent risk management enterprise leadership for material technology and operational risk issues arising within the international risk environment. As a member of the Technology Risk Management Oversight (TRMO), she also provides risk advocacy and guidance to strengthen the technology risk management processes and best practices to front-line units and local jurisdictions around the world.

Tess has more than 20 years of global experience in operations, technology, and information security. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Tess was the Managing Director and Global Head of IT Risk Management for BNY Mellon where she designed solutions based on industry frameworks and regulations and set the technology risk management multi-year strategy and the prioritization of several cybersecurity programs and projects. Prior to this, she also served as the Chief Information Risk Officer (CIRO) for Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean for BNY Mellon.

Tess earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration from University of the East in Manila, Philippines and her certification in Information Technology Management from New York University in New York. Tess is a charter member of ISACA and is certified in risk and information systems and controls (CRISC).

Tess and her husband have a grown son and a daughter-in law. Tess and her family reside in New York City, NY.

Yan Volfman - SVP Senior Collaboration Architect, Bank of America

Born and raised in the formal USSR. Came to the US at the age of 21 and has had a successful career as a Unified Communications Specialist. I have been working as a freelancer for 20 years of my carrier providing services to financial institutions.

Recognized at high profile financial corporations such as Bank of America, JPM Chase, Credit Suisse, Gain Capital (FOREX), Zurich Insurance, Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, CITI Group, Merrill Lynch and Reuters America as a self-motivated senior systems architect.

Moshe Naimi – Head Data & Analytics, RBC Capital Markets

Moshe is a seasoned business and technology professional with over 30 years of experience in business process consulting, design and implementation of business application software for diverse industries including Capital Markets, Wealth Management, Insurance and Supply Chain Management.
Moshe started his career at Bell Laboratories developing machine learning and AI algorithms for voice and video conferencing followed with positions in high tech and management consulting industries formulating and implementing global enterprise solutions. For the past 20 years he has been involved as the solutions architect for managing and implementing innovative technologies for Business Intelligence, data-warehousing, CRM, Cloud computing, Big Data Analytics and advance optimization/AI solutions for diverse industries including Capital Markets.
Moshe holds a master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering and MBA in finance.

Joel Caminer - Global Head of Technology Risk Management and Information Security, TD Bank

Joel is currently the Global Head of Technology Risk Management and Information Security @ TD Securities. He’s a proven leader with 20+ years of experience in Financial Services, Information Technology, and consulting. He’s led strategic initiatives in Information Risk Management (IRM), Information Security, Business Resilience, IT Governance / Risk / Compliance (GRC), Program and Project Management, Client Services, Business Integration, Operations Management, and Architecture & Application Development.

Prior to joining TD, Joel was a Vice President of Information Risk Management at Goldman Sachs (CISO/BISO), a Management Consultant at Accenture (Andersen Consulting) and Satori Consulting, and a “Deputy CIO” and Technology Client Relations Manager at the J. Paul Getty Trust. He has a Master of Science (MS) degree in Cyber Security from New York University (NYU) and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) from the University of Michigan.

Cesar Cheng - VP, Infrastructure (CTO Americas), L'Oréal

Strategic-minded, executive with 15+ years progressive leadership success overseeing technical infrastructure support services and leading cross-functional IT teams. Instrumental in devising best-of-breed strategies to achieve business objectives for major organizations across retail and financial industries. Adept at cutting costs through diligent contract negotiations and systems enhancements. Dedicated to cultivating high-performance teams and boosting morale to maintain positive work environments and deliver exemplary end-user experience. Expert knowledge of technical, network, and security infrastructures.

Edilson Santos - Vice President Information Technology, Unimin Corporation

I am a Senior IT Manager with more than 20 years of experience; my career was developed in both Business Application and IT Infrastructure, as well Project Management, always working in large international companies in the pharmaceutical, chemical, automotive and mining industries. +8 years of international experience by living and working in four different countries (Switzerland, Spain, USA and Mexico).
SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES
• Extensive knowledge and experience of all key IT disciplines.
• Global and regional projects, aligning the IT function with business objectives and combining added valued services.
• Development of different business applications such as B2B, CRM, e-commerce, Finance, Taxation, Manufacturing execution, LIMS, etc.
• Project coordination of ERP systems such as SAP/R3, IFS and TOTVS (DATASUL and PROTHEUS).
• Management of IT infrastructure (IT digital infrastructure based on virtualization, telecommunications, voice & video systems, connectivity).
• Design, structuring and implementation of project management office (PMO), project portfolio, business cases, key performance indicators, post-investment reviews etc.
• IT governance and IT services management based on SLA’s.
• Implementation of ITSM processes following market best practices (ITIL / HDI), services catalog, standardized procedures, KPIs, etc.
• Design and implementation of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plans, application of concepts such as BIA (business impact analysis) and risk assessment, testing etc.

Joel Rosenblatt - Director of Computer and Network Security, Columbia University

Joel Rosenblatt is the Director of Computer and Network Security at Columbia University. In that position, he oversees the computer security for all systems connected to the Columbia Network. He is the chairperson of the Security Metrics subcommittee of the Security Effective Practices committee of Educause. He Graduated from Columbia Engineering in 1977 and went to work for what was then called CUCCA (Columbia University Center for Computing Activities) running the IBM Mainframe systems. His current responsibilities include oversight of the security of over 150,000 network nodes, DMCA, PCI and DLP for Columbia University. He writes for the online security magazine SecurityCurrent and is a member of Infragard and the NYECTF. He is also active in other security organizations that he can neither confirm or deny the existence of.

Doug Woolridge - Chief Architect, Cognizant

Doug Woolridge is Chief Architect at Cognizant (NASDAQ-100: CTSH) is one of the world’s leading professional services companies, transforming clients’ business, operating and technology models for the digital era.

As Chief Architect, Doug is responsible for the development and delivery of strategic technology and operation solutions that fit the business’ requirements and deliver a quantifiable return on investment. Doug is a technology business leader, with over 30 years of international experience, combining technology insight, operational acumen and entrepreneurial leadership. Doug’s career spans companies and business units at various stages of growth, including start-up, mid-sized and global leaders, with a focus on digital technologies, banking, financial services and insurance.

Alain Biem - Head of Data Science – S&P Global Market Intelligence

Alain Biem is the Head of Data Science at S&P Global Market Intelligence, where his team support S&P businesses and functions using machine learning solutions.

Alain was previously at Wayfair, where as Director of Data Science, he was in charge of the techniques for personalization and computer vision. Before that, as VP of Analytics at Opera Solutions, a Big Data consulting company, Alain was responsible for developing advanced solutions for customers in Retail, Banking, and Entertainment.

Alain spent many years at IBM Research as senior researcher and project Lead in machine learning and cognitive (AI) computing contributing to IBM Watson Analytics. He was also the chief architect of Time Series Analytics that shipped with the IBM Streaming Big Data Platform and the technical lead in various customers engagements and high-profile International Big Data research projects.

Alain received his PhD in Computer Science/Machine Learning with Summa Cum Laude honors from the University of Paris 6 and was a postdoctoral researcher at the Advanced Telecommunication Research (ATR), an NTT-affiliated research center in Japan, where he was involved in speech recognition and worked on techniques used today in systems like Siri or the Amazon Echo. He has published numerous papers and books chapters in machine learning and AI and is actively involved in academia as Doctoral Thesis advisor and adjunct professor.

Ramsay Cole - VP Big Data, ADP

Operator tasked with the execution of long-term strategies and business plans that enhance ADP’s offering
Responsible for product development. Identifies, researches and develops new partnerships, alliances and acquisition opportunities that extend our value proposition. Leads negotiations on terms and final agreements with new partners and other critical business relationships; including pricing, business terms and rules of engagement.

Karthic Bala - Chief Data Officer, Condé Nast

Karthic Bala is the Chief Data Officer at Condé Nast. In his role, he is responsible for ensuring that at Condé Nast has a data driven culture, the products built enhance the company’s data asset, the customers get the best analytics in the industry to justify their investment and the users get the most relevant content. Karthic has created and supported the build of the most advanced team that uses the latest techniques to capture data, collect and aggregate all available data sets and build tools to access and visualize the insights generated by the team. The team is also responsible for using statistical modeling techniques to predict audience needs and to provide them with the most relevant products. Karthic has launched Condé Nast Spire, a game changing data platform that optimizes campaigns to improve outcomes using off-line transactions.

Prior to Condé Nast Karthic was the President at Everyday Health heading the Precision Health Data Institute. This division enabled the company’s biggest assets, people and data, work together to gain a competitive advantage and provide customers with the most effective solutions. At Everyday Health Karthic has built the most advanced ROI measurement technology in the pharma industry. The models find the right audience target, both consumers and HCP’s (Health Care Professionals), to build and execute an integrated solution that matches the content consumption to actual prescriptions and using personalization it enabled the company to grow it’s revenue by 12x. Karthic was a part of the team that built these solutions that took the company public in 2014.

Prior to joining Everyday Health, Karthic was leading the BI team at Viacom for ten years, supporting 27 television stations, 250 websites and a movie studio generating over 5 billion dollars in revenue.

His 20 years experience in handling data and creating data assets, with a focus on ensuring that corporations use data is that is actionable and provides insights that provide a competitive advantage. Karthic is a member of various academic advisory boards and corporate boards helping organizations leverage data to drive better outcomes.

Paul Tepper - Head of the Cognitive Innovation Group (CIG) AI Lab and Product Manager for AI & Machine Learning, Nuance Communications

Paul Tepper is the Head of the Cognitive Innovation Group (CIG) AI Lab and Product Manager for AI & Machine Learning in Nuance’s Enterprise Division. CIG is focused on applying the latest advancements in machine learning and artificial intelligence to automate and improve the customer experience across channels. Paul works on setting Nuance Enterprise’s AI Strategy and leading product development efforts in collaboration with Nuance’s most innovative customers and Nuance Research. Currently Paul is focused on ML advancements in natural language understanding, dialogue, analytics and predictive modeling. Paul has over a decade of experience in software development and AI research. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Communication Studies from Northwestern University, an MSc in AI & NLP from the University of Edinburgh and a BA in Computer Science, Linguistics and Cognitive Science from Rutgers University.

Vanessa Fernandes da Silva - CTO - Emerging Technologies, Itaú Unibanco

CTO on Emerging Technologies with international expertise in originating/launching and managing successful global business IT strategies. Including distributed ledger (blockchain), enterprise cloud, AI and disruptive Fintech products and services.

Sid Nair - Industry General Manager & VP Technology, Media & Entertainment, Telecom Sectors, DXC Technology

Sid Nair is Industry General Manager & VP for the $1.3 Billion Technology, Media & Entertainment, and Telecom Sectors P&L. He leads an integrated team of sales, account management, operations, solutions, offering and delivery team members responsible for these industry sectors. He is responsible for all strategic decisions relating to sales, revenue, operations & profit growth in the U.S., Canada and Latin America.

Sid joined HPE Enterprise Services in May 2016, as the Chief Revenue & Sales Officer for Americas, and continued in the same role at DXC Technology till March 2018. He was responsible to profitably grow the $10 billion business across the Americas, with a focus on revenue and sales.

Previously Sid was with Dell for five years and was the SVP and Global GM for the $1.5 billion Healthcare & Life Sciences P&L focused on hospitals, physicians, health plans and life sciences customers. He led an integrated team of 16,000+ people in account management, sales and pre-sales, delivery and solutions, consulting and domain specialists. Under Sid’s leadership, the business grew 30% in revenue and more than doubled its gross margin. He also led the teams to deliver almost $2 billion in services sales every year.

Prior to joining Dell, Sid worked with Wipro for more than 16 years in different capacities and across geographies, growing varied businesses multifold during his tenure. He started in 1995 with the software business unit out of India. In 1999 he led the business strategy team for Wipro’s entry into the Asia Pacific market. The following year, Sid moved to the U.S. and became general manager of the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) industry vertical, which he quickly grew from zero to $400 million. In his next stint as vice president and general manager for the Retail, CPG, Transportation and Government vertical in the U.S, Sid grew the business by 300% to $600 million in a little over three years.

In 2010, Sid was part of Wipro’s Executive Management Team and ran a $3 billion services P&L across the Americas as Chief Sales and Operations Officer responsible for all vertical business units, all service lines and all functions for the U.S. geography. He led the team to deliver more than $4 billion in sales in his first year.

Sid holds an MBA degree in Marketing and Finance. He lives in Dallas, TX.

Vitalii Doban - Sr Director, Head of Data and Analytics, Pfizer

Mr. Vitalii Doban is a Senior Director, Real World Data and Analytics Group Lead at Pfizer, where he leads the team responsible for enabling the Real World Data and Analytics capability at Pfizer by conceptualizing and implementing new analytic approaches and products to enable broader use of Real World Data across all stages of product lifecycle and across the enterprise.

Vitalii joined Pfizer in 2006 and prior to his current role, Vitalii led regional and global teams responsible for delivering data and analytic solutions for Pfizer’s Sales and Marketing organization, including Commercial Data Warehouse, Master Data Management, Field Force management and reporting solutions, HQ and field-based business intelligence solutions. Vitalii also led Pfizer-Wyeth data and analytics integration efforts.
Prior to Pfizer, Vitalii worked at InfoTech Solutions for Business where he led the software engineering team responsible for launching software products and services for the Financial and Marketing industries.

Vitalii received his B.S. in Computer Science from Polytechnic University of Bucharest and his MBA in Strategy & Business Analytics from New York University, Stern School of Business. He also served as the teaching assistant for MBA-classes on Digital Strategies, Emerging Technologies and Business Innovation at the New York University, Stern School of Business.

Andre Bromes - CIO/CISO, Goodwill Industries

Mr. Bromes is a sought- after C-level Executive, Board Advisor, Thought Leader, Speaker & Subject Matter Expert in emotional intelligence for I.T., with 18+ years’ experience in information technology. His passion for I.T. governance and extensive engineering, security and project management backgrounds, has earned him numerous career accolades.
In his seven years as CIO/CISO, functioning as a technologist and servant-leader, he is a whole-hearted believer in transformative IT. He has successfully led cross-functional team initiatives to implement the principles behind ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) and the COBIT (Control Objectives for IT) framework. Mr. Bromes has managed numerous technology projects that have measurably improved the infrastructure of a 100 million+, multi-unit business. He strongly emphasizes the immense benefits of longevity, solvency and availability to a security-aware business that applies the principle of defense-in-depth. He promotes the necessity of businesses to operate strategically, operationally and tactically while following asset-based risk assessments and proper information classification to achieve those benefits.
As CIO, Mr. Bromes provides IT leadership to the greater Goodwill enterprise as well as to IT leaders outside of Goodwill. His award- winning team of IT professionals provide value-added technical solutions across multiple disciplines within a multi-tiered program management structure.
Core areas of focus include but not limited to:

✓ Infrastructure Development
✓ ROI
✓ Develop business solutions with technology
✓ Process and project management
✓ Security Management
✓ Governance

Lauren Dana Rosenblatt - Executive Director and Interim/Deputy Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), The Estée Lauder Companies.

Lauren Dana Rosenblatt is the Executive Director and Interim/Deputy Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for The Estée Lauder Companies. Lauren was elected to the Retail Cyber Intelligence Sharing Center (R-CISC) Board, Evanta (Gartner) Fortune 1000 CISO Community Governing Body, National Retail Federation (NRF) IT Security Council Executive Committee (Board), and Global Resilience Federation (GRF) Cross-Sector Leadership Forum.

Previously, Lauren was the Global Head of Cyber Threat Management at The Estée Lauder Companies, where she led the Security Operation Center (SOC), including security analysis, threat intelligence, incident response, vulnerability management, pen testing, mobile security, and cybersecurity metrics.

Most recently, Lauren was the Global Head of Insider Threat and Vendor Risk Management at The Blackstone Group. In addition to leading these two programs, Lauren updated cybersecurity policies, advised cybersecurity startups, and guided 70+ CISOs of Blackstone Portfolio Companies. She ran a summit for these CISOs, featuring cybersecurity C-Level and senior government speakers, and information sharing workshops.

Previously, as a Vice President in Technology Risk at Goldman Sachs, she launched a Firmwide Insider Threat Program, led the Internal/External Cybersecurity Exercise Program for Managing Directors/Partners, ran multiple cybersecurity senior steering groups, and led a cybersecurity and threat intelligence technology integration team.

For the past few years, she has been mentoring SUNY/CUNY graduate students on insider threat, and been active in the Financial Sector Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) Summit Content Committee, FS-ISAC Insider Threat Working Group, Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council (FSSCC), SIFMA Insider Threat Roundtables, CERT Open Source Insider Threat Sharing Group (OSIT), Cyber Security Workforce Alliance (CWA), National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), FBI Infragard, and the Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force (ECTF).

Prior to joining the Financial Sector, she spent about 10 years leading multi-million dollar international operations and technology developments for the Department of Defense. She also was the Head Teaching Assistant for a Disaster Preparedness Graduate course at The Wharton School, her Cohort’s Leadership Representative, a member of the Wharton Leadership Lecture Committee (a CEO Speaker Series), Follies Producer, and Consultant for Team Rubicon, FDNY, and National Cristina Foundation. She expanded her leadership skills through ventures with FDNY, Marine leadership at Quantico, and a trek in Antarctica. She can program in 13 different languages, and regularly attends and speaks at cybersecurity conferences.

She has an MBA from Wharton in Finance, Strategic Management, and Operational Efficiency, an MSE in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University (JHU), and a BS in Computer Science and Applied Math, with an Entrepreneurship minor, from JHU. Her 16+ year career started with Teaching Assistant and Lab Instructor positions for 10 Graduate and Undergraduate courses at JHU and performing research for the NASA Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and JHU Earth Sciences Department. She is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), and Certified National Cryptologic School Instructor.

Anna Aparina - Project Manager- Credit Risk Technology, Vice President, JPMorgan Chase

Project Manager- JPMorgan Chase- 2015- Present
Project Manager- Citigroup 2007-2015
Business Analyst- S&P 2007

Rachel Zhang - Head of Fixed Income Front Office Technology, Jefferies

Rachel Zhang is a seasoned and innovative technology executive with 14 years of experience in financial sector. She brings a wealth of expertise with particular strengths in leading global initiatives across the Capital Markets spectrum including eTrading, pricing, trade STP, research, sales, client intelligence, and CRM domain.

Rachel joined Jefferies in 2017, responsible for Fixed Income Technology globally from front office perspective. Prior to Jefferies, Rachel served as Global Head of Sale & CRM Technology at RBC Capital Markets. Rachel has also worked for Barclays Capital, Nomura Securities, and Lehman Brothers delivered business aligned technology outcomes.

Rachel received a master’s degree in Computer Science from University of Chicago.

Tom Atkins - AVP, Attivo Networks

Tom Atkins is a veteran Information Security professional with over 25 years of experience. Tom specializes in guiding young technology companies successfully into new markets. He works closely with leading companies to identify and resolve their core security challenges. At FireEye, he was the first customer-facing employee for the East Coast and at OpenDNS held a similar role building the Enterprise sales organization and strategy and managing the transition through the acquisition by Cisco in 2015. Tom is currently leading the East sales team for Attivo Networks, the leading deception company in the market.

Tony Cole - CTO, Attivo Networks

Tony Cole is the Chief Technology Officer at Attivo Networks and is a cybersecurity expert with more than 30 years’ experience, a bachelor’s degree in computer networking and is a CISSP. Prior to joining Attivo Networks, Mr. Cole served in a number of executive roles at FireEye, McAfee, and Symantec. He’s retired from the U.S. Army and was an early advisor to Wall Street on the Cyber Security market. Mr. Cole is on the Board of Silent Circle, serves on the NASA Advisory Council, and on the (ISC)² Board of Directors. He’s also a former president of ISSA-DC.

Sriram Padmanabhan - Chief Auditor, Technology, Citi

Sriram Padmanabhan was appointed Chief Auditor – Technology in April 2017 and is responsible for Internal Audit’s delivery of assurance on governance, risk management, and control across the Technology function globally. He joined Citi Internal Audit in 2014 as Chief Auditor for Middle East and North Africa and was later appointed Chief Auditor, ICG Technology and Operations in 2016.

Sriram has over 28 years of experience in the financial services industry. Before joining Citi, Sriram worked at Standard Chartered Bank (‘SCB’), where he started his career in 1988. Sriram held a number of senior leadership roles at SCB across the EMEA and APAC regions, spanning Audit, Operations & Technology, Consumer Banking, Finance, Compliance and Operational Risk. In addition to directing and overseeing Operations & Technology (O&T) teams across multiple geographies to deliver IT infrastructure and services, Sriram has led teams to develop, test and implement new systems as well as establish Centralized Processing and Data Centers. He was also a member of the Board at Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria Ltd. and the chair of the Audit Committee.

Sriram is a Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and an MBA from Henley Management College in the UK. He is also a Chartered Member of the Institute of Internal Auditors in the UK (CMIIA), a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) and is Qualified in Internal Audit Leadership (QIAL). Sriram volunteered as a member of the Board of Governors (from 2008 to 2016) at the oldest not-for-profit English speaking school (Dubai English Speaking School) in Dubai. He is married and has two children.

Ian Amit - Chief Security Officer, Cimpress

Ian is the Chief Security Officer at Cimpress, and has over a decade of experience in hands-on and strategic roles, working across a diversity of security fields: business, industry, marketing, technical and research. Ian held senior leadership positions at Amazon, ZeroFOX, IOActive, Security-Art, Aladdin, Finjan and Datavantage. He is a sought-after subject matter and speaker at conferences such as Black Hat, DEF CON and InfoSecurity. He founded the Tel-Aviv DefCon chapter (DC9723) and also was a founding member of the Penetration Testing Execution Standard (PTES).

Paul Wilner - VP of IT/CIO, Pall Corporation

With over 25 years in IT, Paul Wilner heads Pall Corporation’s overall Information Technology and operational IT management strategy. A strategic thought leader and cross functional enabler, Wilner’s charter includes enabling growth, optimizing cost, and delivering business transformation and best practices in process improvement throughout the entire business cycle.

Prior to Pall Corporation, Wilner became an authority in merging technology integrations and global SAP and Oracle ERP implementations in notable organizations such as General Electric, WR Grace and Kulicke & Soffa where he held leadership positions from Divisional CIO to Vice President and Six Sigma Lead. Specifically, Wilner has demonstrated proven technology and integration diversity with global acquisitions that drove SAP supply chain integration in Asia, consolidation in Mexico, and equipment operational efficiencies in the United States.

Wilner has increased credibility in developing and driving high performance global IT teams.

Wilner holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics from the University of New Haven and a Masters of Business Administration from Penn State University Smeal Business School.

Ken Oxler - VP Enterprise Systems Development, American Cancer Society

Ken Oxler is a technology executive focused on nurturing high performance teams that deliver on business goals through innovative technology solutions. With over 20 years of IT experience in a variety of industries Ken seeks to lead the discussions on relevant topics facing technology professionals today and discover solutions for tomorrow. Currently Ken is the VP of Enterprise Systems Development at the American Cancer Society. Working from their headquarters in Atlanta, GA Ken is responsible for technology architecture, development, and data analytics in the fight for a world without cancer.

Omar Syed - HSBC, Head of Asset Management IT Americas

Post Graduate Degree from the University of Cambridge in Computer Science. 20 years experience in Investment Banking Technology, on the sell side and the Buy side.

Alex Willis - CIO, WSP USA

After an 8 year tour serving in the US Army, in 1992 Alex bought into his first company selling medical devices and equipment. After a successful acquisition of an equally sized competitor and doubling the companys annual revenue, he sold off his shares to enter into a joint venture developing a national DME supplier group. With over 300 companies worldwide in it’s network, Alex found a growing interest in the Internet and sought new opportunities. Through a series of trials and failures in the dot com realm, he found himself attracted to new and emerging technologies and found new opportunities in Information Technology with Hunter Douglas creating their first online customer interactive experience. Later he turned to selling and implementing ERP solutions for mid- to large organizations. Solutions included custom three dimensional modeled manufacturing MRP and ERP, to mainstream systems such as SAP, Oracle and Microsoft. Today Alex works as the CIO US Region for WSP, a global leader in Architecture and Engineering services with over 450 offices and 43,000 employees globally.

Felicia Hedgebeth - CISO, Georgia Department of Banking & Finance

I have over 26 years of experience in Information Technology in many facets, including 10 years in information security. With a focus on incident response, security and awareness training, and business continuity. I work with business units to bridge the gap between security and the bottom-line. I have been with the Department of Banking and Finance since 2006. I am focused on maturing the Department’s security program. I have a Bachelor’s in Computer Information Systems, as well as a Masters in Network and Communications Management. My certifications include Security+ and CISM.

Nate Arnold - VP & CIO, Global Operations Power Services, GE Power

Nate Arnold is the CIO of Global Operations for the GE Power Services business within the company’s Digital Technology function. In this role he is responsible for deploying tools that increase data visibility and enable data science capability to optimize field service and power plant operations for customers. Nate and his team are driving business transformation for GE Power as it becomes a premier Digital Industrial Company.

Most recently, Nate was the VP of Manufacturing Digital Technology driving software innovation and adoption of a suite of factory optimization products across all of GE manufacturing. He has also previously held Supply Chain, Engineering and Security CIO positions in the Company.

Nate began his career with GE in 2002 on the Information Management Leadership Program. After graduating the program he completed his Six Sigma Black Belt Certification and Lean Leader qualification. He has worked within the Information Technology function supporting the GE Aviation, Power, Transportation and Digital businesses.

Nate has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Systems Analysis from Miami University of Ohio. He and his wife Gretchen, and their 5 kids, live in Atlanta, GA.

Vinay Raina - Senior Client Executive, DXC Technology

Vinay is a seasoned Information Technology services sales professional with significant expertise in strategic outsourcing, consultative selling, M&A, C-suite relationship management, and has a successful track record of opening and growing enterprise level accounts. In his role as Applications Sales Specialist at DXC, Vinay is responsible for helping clients and prospects navigate through the digital disruption happening in the market, with a focus on applications services tied to digital transformation.

With over 24 years of selling and sales management experience, Vinay brings a wealth of knowledge of the IT services industry to DXC’s customers. Vinay has consistently exceeded his sales targets, and was awarded consecutive Winners Summit awards for sales excellence. Vinay has worked with Fortune 500 clients in the CPG, Retail, Media/Entertainment, Insurance, Banking and Aerospace domains.

Recently, Vinay led DXC’s sales effort in the M&A area for P&G’s divestitures of Duracell and Galleria (Beauty) brands. As part of this initiative, Vinay sold more than $100M worth of contracts for full range IT services over a period of two years, beating competition from Tier 1 and Pure Play companies.

Natalie Duncan - SVP, Citi

Natalie has over 10 years experience as a Project Manager in Ratings industry (with S&P on both Equity and Credit sides) as well as in banking. She holds a Ph.D. in Social Economics from Volgograd State University (Russia). Natalie attended NYU SCPS and obtained professional certificates in Investor Relations and Project Management. She was an Adjunct Professor at ASA College. Currently she is with the Citibank advancing her career and expertise working on Compliance and Operational Risk projects.

Kenneth Corriveau - CIO, Omnicom Media Group

Kenneth Corriveau offers decades of extraordinary success in a series of high level roles at top tier companies that include Omnicom Media Group, DDB, The Big Idea, Bergeron Creative Group, and Donovan Group.

Ken’s invaluable expertise and broad business range have powered a history of developing successful process improvements that drive productivity, reliability, and client satisfaction. Such traits have consistently enabled Ken to achieve an impressive command of the skills needed to manage ongoing business planning processes while developing strategies to meet future challenges.

Upon being named as Chief Information Officer for Omnicom Media Group, Ken leads all vision, strategy, and execution for all facets of information technology at Omnicom Media Group, the parent organization to a diverse portfolio of media companies that includes OMD, PHD, Hearts & Science, M2M, Annalect, and Fuse, to name a few. Mr. Corriveau has dedicated himself and his vision as a leader who engages in projects with an “All-In” attitude.

With a forte for successfully building strong teams and holding a key role leading all facets of business and strategy, Mr. Corriveau has successfully positioned Omnicom Media Group as a leading expert in its field with respect to the application of best business and finance practices contributing to the following successes:

● Consolidation of commodity technologies globally to ensure consistency and cost effectiveness of applications in order to focus on value added solutions to drive business success.
● Promoted the early adoption of shared and private cloud technologies, and led migrations to cloud services, garnering lower expenses while positioning the organization for future growth.
● Recognized for launching a regional data center designed to support internal and external client-facing projects, skyrocketing coverage to include 750 clients and boosting availability to 99.99% uptime.

Bryan Turner - V.P. Information Technology, Chart Industries

Bryan Turner is the Vice President, Information Technology, at Chart Industries, INC. Bryan has a track record of building world-class IT departments by setting a CSV (Clear Simple Vision) with a future roadmap for Security, Infrastructure, Applications. With his leadership, and ability to partner with the business globally, he has received many IT industry accolades. In his 20+ years of experience in IT, Bryan has led many successful IT Security/Infrastructure Projects and ERP Implementations in the Food and Beverage, Agriculture, CPG, and Manufacturing Industries. He is a husband, avid cyclist/runner, world traveler, country music fan, and promoter of living healthy active lifestyles.

Mamta Rodrigues - Senior Vice President, Synchrony Financial

Mamta Rodrigues is Senior Vice President at Synchrony. In this role, she heads up the network relationships and key payments strategic partnerships. Mamta is also a leader in Synchrony’s innovation initiatives, partnering with the marketing and technology teams to deliver innovative solutions for our clients and partners in the rapidly evolving payments landscape/environment. Mamta is a co-hub leader for the Stamford Women’s Network and also co-leads Stamford’s Engagement & Inclusion efforts.Prior to joining Synchrony, Mamta had two roles at Visa Inc. Most recently, she was part of the Innovations & Strategic Partnerships team and was a key member in growing Visa’s innovation agenda globally. Prior to that, Mamta was Head of Solutions and Partnerships at Visa and was responsible for managing Visa’s digital payments solutions in emerging markets.

This included leading the company’s efforts in extending mobile financial and prepaid services to unbanked consumers, identifying innovative solutions and needs in the emerging markets, and managing partnerships with key stakeholders in the multilateral, government and NGO community. Her goals drove financial inclusion by largely creating payment solutions for the unbanked consumer. In her efforts, Mamta worked to develop the full payment ecosystem (acceptance, savings, usage) which ultimately creates use-cases for electronic payments, empowers the consumer and gains their trust to switch from cash to digital solutions.

Prior to Visa, Mamta worked at MasterCard Worldwide in a similar role where she drove government payments from check and cash to Prepaid and also led the financial inclusion efforts for the company. Before joining MasterCard, Mamta worked for several years in various roles at American Express.

Prior to American Express, Mamta worked at NYU Stern and founded Stern Consulting Corps, the Mentorship program, and several other Strategic Initiatives at the Stern School which now are a pillar at the school under the Center for Strategic Initiatives. Mamta started her career as a financial analyst in the Financial Development Program at Digital Equipment Corporation. Mamta has lived and worked in several countries.

Mamta has an undergraduate degree in Economics and Mathematics from Boston University and an MBA from Stern, New York University. She is a guest lecturer at NYU Stern School of Business, a familiar speaker at the US Treasury and at events such as Obama’s African Summit, CARTES, and Columbia Business School Digital Financial Services & Emerging Payments Summit, amongst others. Mamta also is a Member of the International Advisory Group for Government Payments (part of the World Bank); a body of 20+ Government Treasury departments and private sector institutions globally developing recommendations for governments on electronic payments (distributed to all Central Banks in 2012) and helping consumers enter financial services.

Vladimir Svidesskis - Information Security Director, Georgia Lottery Corporation

Early career began with 10 years of active duty in the U.S. Marines in the communication and intelligence fields teaching encrypted communication systems operations, repair and maintenance. Intelligence field expertise included managing classified information and classified equipment. 15 years in the engineering industry included work in document handling, computer technician, server administration, and IT Management. Currently working in the lottery industry since 2014 in areas as server administration and IT Security Engineering, before being appointed as the Georgia Lottery’s Information Security Director in 2015. Certifications include CISSP, CISM, CRISC, and GIAC GSLC.

Dean Mallis - CISO, Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority

Dean has over 11 years of progressive cybersecurity experience in detecting and mitigating threats to enterprise network systems. He is a results-driven leader with a track record of identifying, investigating, and mitigating IT incidents in the private sector. Dean has assisted in the development and implemented of information security programs in mid-to-large size major corporations as well as completing several consulting projects. Currently, he is the CISO of MARTA and is building and maturing their Information Security program. His career has been progressive and competitive in the IT cybersecurity arena. Dean is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional as well as a Certified Computer Examiner.

Sumit Ralli - Vice President and Managing Director, Americas Sales - Application Services, DXC Technology

Sumit joins us with 22+ years of experience with top tier service providers like Cognizant and Wipro. For the past decade, Sumit has been entrusted with heading sales teams across Americas for various industry sectors, including Retail, CPG, Travel Transportation and Logistics. He has also been the Americas General Manager for the Retail industry in the past.

He has a lot of experience in working closely with third party advisors to craft large deals. He has collaborated well with the partner ecosystem as well for digital transformation initiatives. He was personally instrumental in securing several large strategic clients contracts that quickly became strategic accounts.

Sumit holds a Master’s degree in Management and also in MIS. He has been a Dallas resident for almost 2 decades and lives with his family in Frisco, TX. In his free time, he enjoys playing golf and spending time with his family.

Scott Stawski - Vice President & Managing Director, Global Sales, DXC Technology

Scott is the author of Inflection Point: How the Convergence of Cloud, Mobility, Apps, and Data Will Shape the Future of Business. In his role as Vice President and Managing Director, Global Sales, Scott is responsible for managing the sales and revenue generation activities for DXC’s Applications Services offering globally.

Over the preceding five years, Scott and his team have sold more than $3 billion in IT services and his sales teams have consistently outperformed their sales targets receiving numerous awards for thier success. Scott brings a wealth of experience in business outcome-based technology service delivery to his sales management ability. Previous to sales management, he led numerous multi-million dollar business intelligence and technology solutions engagements for Global 500 companies within the Health and Life Science; Manufacturing and Hi-tech; Retail; Communication, Media and Entertainment and Consumer Packaged Goods sectors.

A contributing writer for leading publications including TheStreet.com and SeekingAlpha.com, Scott is a speaker and facilitator at many of the leading industry shows and conferences and is frequently interviewed and quoted by leading media outlets. He is a sought after speaker for his expertise in technology trends to support business outcomes.

Michael Klaus - Senior Vice President and General Manager, Application Services, DXC Technology

Michael Klaus serves as DXC Technology’s (NYSE: DXC) senior vice president and general manager, Application Services, focused on the development and growth of DXC application offerings in transformation, modernization, development, management and testing services.

Previously, Mr. Klaus served as vice president and general manager of the Global Applications Services and Program Excellence Practice at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. In that role, he was responsible for the growth and execution of the application business globally and led the strategy and execution of market-leading solutions by SAP, Oracle, Microsoft and Workday.

Prior to his Portfolio leadership role, Mr. Klaus led HP’s Consumer, Retail and Transportation Industries business unit and was responsible for the multibillion-dollar P&L, driving strategy, growth and client experience. He has deep expertise in value chain innovation with a proven track record in leveraging technology to enable profitable business growth for clients. As leader of the Global Consumer and Retail Industry and Manufacturing teams within the Business Transformation, Consulting and Outsourcing organization, he was responsible for driving consulting engagements with key clients globally to leverage and position the company’s technology capabilities.

Mr. Klaus also held senior partnership positions at Capgemini Ernst & Young and CSC. Before beginning his consulting career, he held operating management positions at Pepsi, FTD, Hormel and Federal Mogul. Mr. Klaus holds a degree in supply chain management and marketing from Michigan State University and serves as a board member of the university’s Broad Business School. He also has certifications from Harvard University in management of professional services firms and change management.

Wayne Webb - Director & Head of Finance IT, Dow Jones

Wayne Webb is a global technology leader who works with startups to large corporations to build and focus teams to deliver technology solutions. Wayne has a talent for solving significant challenges across multiple platforms, diverse stakeholder groups, and geographies. Highly adept at building and motivating strong engineering and product focused teams while establishing effective governance over complex initiatives.

Wayne has conceived, developed and deployed solutions in media and financial services: payments, banking, lending, insurance, risk, CRM, B2B, B2C, decision processing, fraud, encryption, and finance are a handful of examples. As a change leader, Wayne possesses deep experience in program management, systems integration, and architecture and full lifecycle development.

Hailing from Australia, Wayne has lived and worked in Asia, Europe, and North America. Working for many years at HSBC, Wayne had the opportunity to manage and lead a number of technology efforts involving mergers and acquisitions, multi-country rollouts and development of platforms supporting over 80 countries that the bank does business in. Now based in New York City, he leads the Finance Technology team at Dow Jones, looking to revamp their enterprise technology in support of critical business functions. Wayne also sits on the advisory board for the Customer Experience program at Rutgers University.

In his personal time, Wayne is an avid music and concert enthusiast, accomplished photographer, relentless traveler, and self-professed gadgeteer.

Irina Shor - Director Vulnerability Management, App Security and EndPoint Protection, Wolters Kluwer

An experienced Technology and Cyber and InfoSec Executive in Security and Platform Engineering, Vulnerability Management, Application Security, Threat Intel , IT and Cyber Risk and Compliance, Cyber Auditing. During my career I have held various roles from Engineer to Executive. Experience includes Cyber Security (e.g. network security, database security, application security, containers security, cyber intelligence, malware, incident management), IT Infrastructure (e.g., Networks, Data Centers and End User Technology), and Architecture (e.g., traditional legacy, mobile, Private and Public Cloud). In past roles, I led information security compliance as the Business Information Security Officer for multiple lines of business, managed Cyber Risk and Vulnerability program, which contributed to overall risk reduction and minimized threat surface, brought and implemented CASB solutions (e.g. Shadow IT), promoted and led technology and business modernization for Private cloud and Legacy environments. I also successfully led File Integrity Monitoring initiative to satisfy regulatory requirements .

Pradip Tripathy - Vice President for Technology Governance, Time Inc.

Pradip Tripathy is the Vice President for Technology Governance at Time Inc.. In this role, amongst other things, he works closely with various business as well as technology stakeholders across the globe, instilling best practices, ensuring adherence to IT audit & compliance requirements, and driving transformations, to cater to the ever changing customer preferences. He works closely with senior management and helps drive strategic business changes, with technology serving as the enabler.

Pradip is a Commerce Graduate from Delhi University (India), with an MBA from The Metropolitan College of New York. He is ITIL v3 Certified and holds a Diploma in Software Development from National Institute of Information Technology (India). Additionally he has certificates from Harvard Business School (Delivering Information Services) and Anderson School of Management, UCLA (Executive Leadership Development Program). He has over 25 years of global experience, and has worked with the likes of Olivetti S.p.A. (Italy), Xerox (UK), Telstra (Australia), Boart Longyear (South Africa), Dow Jones, Viacom Inc., Morgan Stanley & Time Inc.

Claus Torp Jensen - CTO, Aetna

Claus is Aetna’s Chief Technology Officer and Head of Architecture, leading the Architecture Planning, Architecture Delivery, Architecture Forensics, Technology Innovation and M&A teams in the CTO organization plus providing technology and architecture guidance for Aetna as a whole.

Claus is a transformational change agent. He and his team have been instrumental in critical initiatives such as defining and executing the Next Gen Platform strategy, creating a 3 year business platform transformation roadmap, launching the Digital Transformation program and optimizing the quality of Provider Directories.

Claus has been with Aetna since February 2015. His background prior to Aetna spans 20 years of transformational leadership roles at Danske Bank and IBM. During his time at IBM he was a trusted advisor on business and IT transformation journeys for many of the Fortune 100 companies.

Claus has a PhD in Computer Science from Aarhus University, Denmark. He is a thought leader in business and IT integration, holds 14 patents, and is a published author of five books and numerous articles.

Mark Bell - Strategic Account Leader, GitLab

Throughout his life Mark has been passionate about technology and software. This started when he was 12 years old and his father brought home a Timex computer. Later he would bring home one of the original IBM PCs. That was a major upgrade. All these years later he is still interested in software and joined GitLab to help others improve the way they make software. What a great way to make a living.

Ashish Kuthiala - Director of Product Marketing, GitLab

Prior to this role, Ashish was Director of Global Strategy and Marketing for the Enterprise DevOps and Agile portfolio offerings at HP Software and led the launch of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise’s DevOps market strategy across its four major business units (Software, Cloud, Enterprise Group, and Enterprise Services).

Ashish has led teams across diverse functions including Marketing, Product Management, Business Development, Program management, R&D for building out and rolling enterprise grade software solutions for portfolio management and planning, application lifecycle management, testing, delivery, and IT Operations. Ashish has a diverse international background having grown up in 7 countries and is fluent in multiple languages.

John May - Strategic Account Leader, GitLab

John lives in Colorado “Where the mountains touch the sky and rivers bend” as sung by the a Colorado band called The Samples. John has worked with top-tier companies for agile transformation and DevOps. In his spare time, John can be found on an ice rink either playing or coaching his son and daughter who play competitive hockey.

Joshua Lambert - Senior Product Manager, Monitoring & Distribution, GitLab

Josh’s passion with computers started in elementary school when his parents brought an IBM PCjr home along with a book on BASIC. In his teenage years he spent time working on a variety of coding projects and assembling his own computers. He developed a love for product management 6 years ago, while working on a solution in the mobile productivity space. When not spending time with his family or working on technology, he tries to get out skiing and playing tennis.

Ningyu Chen - Vice President, Data as a Services, Macy's

Ningyu has 20+ years of technology and leadership experience with proven track record in delivering internet-scale data-driven transformations. His experience covers a wide range of IT disciplines (business-IT alignment, strategies & roadmap, data management, platform development, application implementation, and product management,). He is a technologist and builder at heart, and has held several top technical positions in such Fortune 500 companies as Delta Air Lines and Macy’s.
He has been with Macy’s since 2008, and is now its vice president, Data as a Services, leading a bi-coastal team to realize the vision of data-driven enterprise. Prior to that, he is director of Enterprise Platforms & Services, leading a team of highly seasoned solution architects and engineers to drive technology transformations across the enterprise and implement strategic IT initiatives for Macy’s Omnichannel business vision.

Before joining Macy’s, Ningyu is a principal at Delta Air Lines, where his work ranges from strategic planning for senior management to implementation of several $30-50 million transformational reservation components. He was involved in the design and implementation of several first-ever reservation-related systems in Airline industry, including award winning Delta nervous system, real-time pricing optimization system, and near real-time flight revenue recognition system. He was also part of international advisory board to advise China railway ministry and its solution partner in pragmatically developing a brand new central reservation system for China’s high-speed railway network that is projected to carry over 1 billion passengers in 2013.

Ningyu’s career-long passion has been helping companies obtain competitive advantages through innovative design and game-changing technology.

Richard Timbol - ISSM/CISO, Davis Polk & Wardwell

Richard Timbol is a well-respected Cyber Security & IT professional with over 27 years of experience.

He holds multiple certifications across the entire range of IT and InfoSec fields, has shared his passion as a visionary speaker, authored several forward thinking technical and strategic articles and has been profiled in various security publications for his cyber-security evangelist viewpoints.

He spent the early part of his career as an Enterprise Network Engineer in the pharma, financial, healthcare and retail industries. He later went on to lead teams and head departments in the diverse IT disciplines of InfoSec, Compliance, Network Engineering, Messaging, Deployment and End Point Support and is currently the Global Head of Information Security & IT Compliance for one of the world’s leading law firms.

He also currently serves as the Chairman of The Threat Intelligence Committee for the LS-ISAO and has served on the New York State eHealth Information Privacy and Security Collaborative as well as on several industry security advisory boards.

Tomas Maldonado - CISO, IFF

Tomás Maldonado is the CISO at International Flavors and Fragrances. He is globally responsible for establishing and leading the information security program. Maldonado has more than 19 years of experience in this area, having led global information security teams and programs at several large organizations.

Prior to Joining IFF, Maldonado was an executive director and CISO for the corporate sector of JPMorgan Chase, where he established and shaped the future direction of the security program and focus for the line of business. He was also a VP of technology risk management at Goldman Sachs where he worked on a number of key initiatives namely creating and leading the data loss protection program. He had additional opportunities at Schroders where he was the network security officer, Ernst & Young and Bloomberg LP.

Maldonado holds several industry recognizable certifications: he is a CISSP, a CISM and a CRISC, while holding a bachelor’s of science in computer science from Fordham University

Harry Banks - Director Technology Services, Southern Company

Harry Banks is a seasoned technology executive with over 35 years’ experience across different industries. Over the course of his career Mr. Banks has planned and executed transformational programs to enhance capabilities, optimize costs, reduce risks, and improve service quality. Key accomplishments include planning, building and relocation of multiple data centers, leading teams responsible for optimizing multi-million dollar networks, overseeing 24 x 7 data center operations, digital transformation, enhancing workplace mobility, numerous multi-million-dollar contract optimizations, and retooling disaster recovery capabilities.

Mr. Banks initially entered the IT profession working for a national retailer for 16 years, starting out as a programmer, then eventually managing multiple infrastructure teams. For the next five years, Banks was with a Food Wholesaler with annual sales of $4B, managing all aspects of IT except for application delivery. In 2001 Mr. Banks took a position with SunTrust Bank, and for the following 14 years had a multitude of roles managing data centers, networking, IT governance & finance, engineering, end user, and project management teams.

In September 2015, Mr. Banks joined Southern Company as the End User Technology Manager, responsible for Desktop Engineering, End User Asset Management, Mobility, End User Education and Print. In November of 2016 Mr. Banks moved into his present role as Director of Technology Services. Technology Services is responsible for all aspects of End User Computing, Data Management / Big Data, Business Intelligence, and Enterprise Content Management (Documentum) Services, Application Development Strategies & Standards, and development support for common applications such as Cool Compliance, Security Webware, and APART. End User Computing includes desktop engineering, asset management, field support, and help desk support. End User technologies include PC’s, Laptops, Rugged Devices, Virtual Desktops, Mobility, Printers, and Productivity / Collaboration Tools (Email, Office, SharePoint, Skype Audio, Web & Video Conferencing).

Over Mr. Banks has a proven track record of providing excellent service through business alignment and utilization of industry best practices. He thrives on challenges, develops and delivers long term strategies, and is a detailed master planner.

Personally, he is a native of Virginia, having grown up in the Tidewater area. After graduating from Old Dominion University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration / MIS, he moved to Richmond where he resided until moving to Atlanta in 2003. Mr. Banks is married with two grown daughters and three grandchildren. In his spare time, he enjoys home building projects.

Saurabh Maheshwari - Director, Estée Lauder

Global Enterprise Architecture Lead for Fortune 500 company, I am a technologist at core. My passion for technology drives me to be a change agent for the Enterprise.

Tamika Bass - CISO, Georgia Department of Public Health

Tamika Bass is an Information Security professional with extensive experience in information security. Her expertise includes assessing and mitigating risk, analyzing impacts, business continuity and disaster recovery planning. Tamika focuses on building cohesive relationships with all levels of staff, management, and suppliers. She holds a Master in Business Administration and a Master in Information Systems Management. She is an adjunct professor and is a Certified Information Security Auditor (CISA). Tamika is also certified in Risk and Information Security Controls (CRISC) and a Certified Business Continuity Planner (CBCP).

Mark Ramsey - CISO, ASSA ABLOY

Mark has over 30+ years of diverse experience in IT Compliance, and Information Security. His experiences includes: directing all aspects of information security for 3 Fortune 500 Companies; managing and implementing compliance-driven IT controls such as SOX, PCI, and HIPPA for Pitney Bowes, GE Treasury, and Stanley Black & Decker. Additionally, he is starting his 31st year as a Professor in the Software Engineering department at Fairfield University. Mark is currently the CISO for ASSA ABLOY – Americas Division where he is responsible for all areas of Information Security for North, Central, and South America. Mark is on the Board of Directors for the Connecticut Chapter of Infragard where he has been President for the past 4 years. Mark is also a proud of veteran of the US Army where he earned the Army Commendation for Outstanding Service. Mark is frequently asked to present at leading Security conferences.

Prashant Joshi - Global Head, Technology and Product Management, INTL FCStone

Prashant joined INTL FCStone in 2012 as a Global Head of Payments Technology and now has responsibility to run Technology, Product Management and Client Services for the Payments business. He is also responsible for IT development relationships the company has in India. He has 25+ years of experience in developing payment systems and has worked in Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany and India before moving to New York in 2003. His expertise is in architecting solutions for new business flows in corporate banking, blockchain technology, machine learning/AI, innovation and people development. Before joining INTL, he worked for Deutsche Bank and Citibank and managed their global payments platforms, low value payment systems and billing systems. He is a Wharton MBA (Finance) and holds MS in Electrical Engineering from IIT Mumbai.

Brian Benn - Senior Director, IT Business Solutions, Atlanta Housing Authority

Brian W. Benn is the Director of the IT Business Solutions Team at the Atlanta Housing Authority. His responsibilities include, but are not limited to, ensuring the successful development/enhancement, testing, and deployment of items on the Consolidated Progress Report (CPR) card within a Scrum/Agile framework. This is in addition to the several other operational and day to day responsibilities.

Brian possesses full software development lifecycle (SDLC) experience and is proficient at every level of the software engineering paradigm. He has played an integral role on several NASA and Department of Defense projects and initiatives. Brian has led IT teams of up to 75 people including as many as 25 offshore resources on one engagement. Brian has managed all aspects of IT inclusive of budgetary responsibility, while consistently providing firm leadership.

Brian is the former Vice President of Technology at G4 Enterprises where he defined IT operations, standards, processes, and procedures. While at G4 Enterprises, Brian successfully spearheaded the development, testing, and implementation of F.O.G. Mobile, a proprietary Java Web start-based Swing application for the DeKalb County Water and Sewer Department in DeKalb County, Georgia. This application allows the F.O.G. inspectors to remotely record inspections offsite, automates the existing process, and increases productivity by over 1000%.

Brian studied Computer Science and Mathematics at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and completed a Master of Business Administration at Belhaven University. Brian serves on the board of directors of the Technology Association of Georgia’s Southeastern Software Association. Brian strives to be a servant leader – mentoring individuals, promoting development/ growth, and empowering them to maximize their potential, individually and collectively.

Richard Arenaro - Chief Information Security Officer, Horizon Media

Richard Arenaro is a Senior Technology Executive with a progressive career spanning 25+ years across a broad range of technology, security and business disciplines. Known as a trusted advisor to business leaders, his core belief is that it’s not enough to merely partner with the key stakeholders, but rather today’s technology leaders must become an intricate part of the growth strategy; proactively offering solutions which both enable execution of the business strategy and lift revenues.

With a focus on attracting, mentoring and nurturing great talent and building award winning teams, Richard has been able to successfully lead numerous transformative technology initiatives, build world class operations centers and create commercial platforms that have been prominently featured in Forbes, the New York Times and Gartner Research.

Preetam Sirur - Senior Director Information Security, S&P Global

Preetam Sirur is Senior Director Information Security with S&P Global Inc.. In his current role, Preetam has global responsibility for all aspects of application security. Areas of focus are application security, cloud security, threat and vulnerability management, identity and access management, regulatory compliance, establishing security best-practices, and securing the infrastructure from internal and external threats. Before joining S&P Global Inc., Preetamheld positions with NYSE Euronext in New York, Cotmac Pvt. Ltd. in India, and the Indian Army.
In addition to his work in S&P Global Inc., Preetam is a member of ISACA, OWASP, and the NJ chapter of the Society for Information

George Rettas - Managing Director, Information Security, Citigroup

George Rettas joined Citigroup in December of 2014 where he currently serves as the Managing Director and Global Head of IS Strategic Programs for the Global Information Security (GIS) Department. Before running Strategic Programs Mr. Rettas was the Chief of Staff to the Global Head of Information Security. In this capacity, Mr. Rettas also serves as the Chief Administrative Officer and Global Head of Strategy, Planning, and Governance for GIS.

Before joining Citigroup, Mr. Rettas worked at JP Morgan Chase Bank for nine years where he was a Managing Director with the firm’s Cyber Security Team. In this capacity, Mr. Rettas oversaw the Cyber Intelligence, Cyber Investigations, Incident Response, Vulnerability Management, and Hunting teams for the firm. While with JPMC, Mr. Rettas built a Cyber Intelligence program that was responsible for detecting some of the most prolific breaches in recent history, including the Target breach and the JPMorgan Chase breach. Mr. Rettas also served as the Chief Information Security Officer for the Global Security and Investigations Department, and the Deputy Director of the Cyber Security Division for the bank.

Mr. Rettas is a former Special Agent with the United States Secret Service, Newark Field Office, where he was the supervisor and original co-founder of the Newark Field Office’s Electronic Crimes Task Force. He is the author and affiant of the first Title III Wire Tap on an internet-facing computer network in United States history and he worked what is considered the most prolific criminal investigation in the history of the Secret Service in “Operation Firewall.”

Mr. Rettas holds a CISO certification from Carnegie Mellon University, an Advanced Computer Security certification from Stanford University, and a Security Leadership certification from Wharton Business School. Mr. Rettas has served as a guest lecturer for Harvard and MIT University’s first Cyber Security courses.

Todd Gordon - Director of Information Security, EisnerAmper LLP

Todd Gordon is the Director of Information Security at EisnerAmper LLP, a national accounting and advisory firm. With 17 years of IT experience, his background covers financial, retail, and online services industries. He is responsible for information security programs, regulatory compliance initiatives, employee security training, and business continuity management. He also provides advisory services to firm clients and vendors.

Prior to joining EisnerAmper, Todd was Director of Information Security for a publicly traded retail organization with over 30,000 employees and $400 million in annual revenue. He also has experience in network engineering and information security consulting for Fortune 100 companies.

Nicholas Valese - Director, Information Security Company, Equinox

Nicholas Valese is the Director of Information Security for Equinox, the integrated luxury fitness chain with lifestyle offerings centered around our philosophies of Movement, Nutrition, and Regeneration. In his current role, Nicholas heads up the CyberSecurity Program in order to protect the company’s information assets and technology services. Mr. Valese has 15 years of experience working in technical roles, with over 13 years focused on information security. He has held various management roles in Security, Infrastructure, Support, and Technical Operations, throughout his career.

Elizabeth Vasquez - Executive Director & Head of Cloud Security, HSBC

Elizabeth Vasquez is the Head of Cloud Security for HSBC, leading the security engineering of global cybersecurity controls and solutions, charged with protecting all of the bank’s cloud services.

Elizabeth is an experienced leader and security evangelist responsible for developing and directing threat prevention and risk mitigation strategies for Enterprise Cloud applications and solutions for HSBC, and previously for JP Morgan. She is a leader with a deeply technical background as a Development Lead, Technical Architect, Application Security Analyst and Software Engineer who solutioned, engineered and delivered PCI compliant enterprise payment solutions at AT&T for 15 years.

Melissa Koehler - VP of Technology, CNN Digital, Turner

Melissa Koehler is a technology leader who’s been delivering world-class products in media for nearly 20 years. She is currently the Vice President of Technology Delivery for CNN Digital and co-founded the Ladies in Tech @ Turner (LiTT) community at Turner. Melissa is a board member of the Atlanta chapter of AnitaB.org where she shares her passion for the growth and development of women in tech.

Barry Sears - Managing Director, IT Audit Global Functions/Data

Barry is a Managing Director and Chief Auditor with Citi Internal Audit, based in New York City, and has nineteen years of experience across all industries including financial services. In this role, Barry leads a global team of IT auditors which assess key technology and data risks areas to the organization and impacting the 100 countries where Citi does business. Prior to joining Citi, Barry was a Senior Manager at EY and led IT engagements (internal and external audit) for Fortune 100 companies with locations around the world.

Marc Saffer - SVP, IT Global Brands Group

Marc Saffer joined GBG in June 2016 as SVP, IT.

Before joining GBG, Marc was CIO at J.Crew from May 2010 until April 2016, arriving from Duane Reade, a NYC drug chain purchased by Walgreens in April 2010 where he was CIO from October 2007. Prior to that, he ran The Langdon Technology Group, a small software services company. Earlier in his career he was CIO at Columbia House until it was acquired by Bertelsmann, AG. He was also CIO at Footstar, a footwear retailer, and head of IT at the Macy’s East division of Federated Department Stores. Marc began his career at NA Philips, a manufacturer of electronic components before moving to the Esteē Lauder Cosmetics Companies.

Mike Luzzi – Director of Global IT Innovation

As a 22+ year veteran of PepsiCo, Mike has spent his entire career in the IT organization. Throughout his career, Mike has focused on managing the development of numerous applications and Business Intelligence reporting solutions within the Beverages division.
Currently, Mike is the Director of the Global IT Innovation Team, focusing on IoT, Wearables and Mobility. In this role, he is responsible for researching, analyzing and coordinating proof-of-concepts to bring emerging technology into PepsiCo.
Mike is passionate about PepsiCo, our products and most importantly, our people. Since starting at PepsiCo, he has been involved with the Intern program in which, for the past 8+ years he has lead the IT Intern Program for the New York area. Mike is extremely dedicated in assisting young professionals to kick starting and advancing their careers at Pepsico.

Ramesh Sethi - IT Director at TUMI

Ramesh Sethi is IT Director at TUMI (https://www.tumi.com) where he is responsible for all aspects of IT service delivery and plans and directs key strategic initiatives. At Tumi, Ramesh manages IT applications for all of retail and wholesale business operations. Earlier in his career, Ramesh worked at The Children’s Place, ANN INC. (Ann Taylor, LOFT brands) and at Infosys Technologies Limited where he was consulting for Ralph Lauren. Ramesh held the role of IT Director at Children’s Place and ANN INC. and managed large portfolio of enterprise IT applications.

During his career, Ramesh has gained extensive experience in a variety of ERP (SAP) and other enterprise applications supporting large corporate business functions. He is an accomplished, results-driven IT executive with proven abilities in facilitating corporate success through effective business relationship management. Successfully driving IT implementations along with process improvement initiatives has led Ramesh to be an effective leader.

Ramesh has an expertise in ERP (such as SAP) and Corporate systems, “right-sourcing”, business relations and enterprise applications management. He is adept at leading large teams in different geographies and managing large portfolio of IT applications. He has managed multi-million dollar projects/programs that have been delivered on time and on budget. Ramesh’s core competencies include IT enabled business transformation; budget management and cost control; strategic technology and business planning; talent management and talent development; internationalization and international start-ups; and vendor management.

Ramesh holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Panjab University, India and an M.B.A., with distinction (Beta Gama Sigma honor) from University of Connecticut. While pursuing his M.B.A. Ramesh majored in Finance and Management. He has completed a diploma in computer sciences and has undertaken technical certifications from IBM and Oracle Corporation. He also holds active PMP certification.

Ramesh is a member of the Society of Information Management (SIM) and Project Management Institute (PMI).

Milos Topic - Vice President & CIO, Saint Peters University

I believe that everything begins and ends with leadership. Leaders have the greatest responsibility for the impact and influence over the people they lead and the outcomes of their organizations as a whole. Furthermore, I am passionate about IT being a trusted strategic partner and an advisor (a service broker) to the entire organization as technology must drive innovation across organizations and provide both strategic and operational business solutions.

I have 20 years of experience in leadership, innovation strategies, technology implementation & business development while my formal education is a blend of science, technology and business. My journey in the Information Technology (IT) profession started in 1997 and over the past 20+ years I have worked on nearly all aspects of IT. I got underway with networking/cabling installs; tech support to programming in C++, C#, Java; web development; system/network security/administration to my most recent positions of leading teams of amazing people providing technology solutions and services while supporting a multitude of organizational needs.

Finally, it is essential to always focus on people first, as they matter the most in everything we do.

Sundeep Kumar- Executive Director, Global Technology, JP Morgan Chase

Sundeep is a seasoned technologist and a strategic and delivery focused Development manager with immense experience in Financial Risk Management, Pricing, Analytics, Bond Valuations, Credit Products Risk Management, Credit Underwriting, Commercial Bank Operations, Basel II and Basel III reporting, Exotics and OTC Products as well as in designing, developing and implementing Trading systems for diverse financial products and services ranging from equities, equity derivatives, futures, Fixed Income, Algorithmic and Basket Trading and FX. Sundeep has in depth business knowledge of Market protocols, Trading Rules, Credit Processes, Regulatory Requirements, Monte Carlo Simulation, pricing and analytics of financial products and has an MBA in Finance and International Business from NYU Stern School of Business, and is a CFA Charterholder.

Sundeep is a hands-on manager, having designed Pricing , Trading and Risk and Market Data Systems as well as Credit Risk Management Systems for companies like JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, CitiGroup, Bloomberg, RBC, Credit Suisse, DLJ, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Symbol Technologies etc. Sundeep is well versed in designing systems across several platforms. Sundeep is involved in the day-to-day support, design, Modeling of Credit Products, architecture and coding of the Trading and Risk systems and at the same time is responsible for scheduling project and tasks, managing a diverse team over several continents and time zones, liaison with the Traders and the Quantitative Analysts, doing code review, reporting progress to senior managers and being a mentor to his group as well as his peers. Sundeep has expertise in designing Low Latency High Frequency and Algorithmic Trading systems and expertise in Machine Learning, Big Data Analytics and application security.

Sundeep has strong experience in handling multiple complex global projects, handling large teams (300+ resources) spread globally in North America, EMEA/CEEMEA, APAC and LATAM. Sundeep is responsible for financial governance, resource management, operational risk, and ongoing strategic partnership with the senior leadership team, providing relevant information to the business and leadership team to make decisions that align with the objectives of the broader organization. He is also an experienced leading computer forensics and troubleshooting expert.

Steve Cavanaugh - Director Information Technology, Printpack

Director of Information Technology since: 1999

Bachelors Degree in Computer Science from Hood College Master of Science Degree in Management of Technology from The Georgia Institute of Technology.

Current Responsibilities: Global responsibility for IT Budget & Strategy, IT Project Office, Telecom, Systems Support, Help Desk, Applications Development, ERP Deployment, eBusiness, IT Administration, Plant Support, Offshore Development, IT Vendor Relations

Business involvement: Served on Printpack’s Innovation, ERP, M&A Committees, China, Poland, Medical Implementation Teams, Printpack Poland Implementation Team, Marshall Acquisition Team, India development center.

Prior recent business experience: Mr. Cavanaugh was employed from 1987 to 1996 in a variety of IT management roles with Alumax Primary Aluminum and relocated to Atlanta as their Technology Administrator in 1996. He worked for Alcoa Aluminum as Information Technology Manager in the Kawneer Division from 1998 until December of 1999.

Other professional associations: Mr. Cavanaugh has been a member of the Corporate Executive Board, CIO Leadership Network, and served on the Curriculum Advisory Boards for the Executive Masters Program at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the School of Computing and Software Engineering at Southern Polytechnic State University. He also has served as a part-time professor at Kennesaw State University.
He is currently a member of the Customer Advisory Board of Omicron Atlanta, and is a member of MESA International.
He is an active member of the Oracle JD Edwards Strategy Council, the Oracle OMCS Advisory Board, the Google Customer Board, and leads the QUEST JD Edwards Strategy Community.

Printpack’s IT Department is the charter partner of Year Up Atlanta.

Wes Knight - CISO, Georgia Department of Revenue

Wes has been involved in IT for over 35 years starting out with IBM in Atlanta. After leaving IBM in 1996, Wes started a company doing Network and Network Security consulting and training. This eventually evolved to focus on Security including Assessments and Forensics. Wes remains a certified instructor in Ethical Hacking and Forensic Investigation.

Wes has held several positions in IT and Information Security since joining the DOR eleven years ago. He is currently the Chief Information Security Officer and manages the DOR Office of Information Security. The OIS is responsible for maintaining the security of taxpayer and motor vehicle information and approximately $25 billion in annual taxes received; ensuring that DOR complies with applicable State and Federal regulations, and conducting the forensics needed for criminal investigations.

Wes serves on several Executive Advisory Committees and was awarded the 2018 Information Security Executive Southeast People Choice Award. This award was voted on by his peers and recognizes the ISE® Executive Nominee who exemplifies the attributes of a leader in the information security industry

Wes and his wife Elizabeth have been married for 45 years and have 5 children and 9 grandchildren.

Wayne Proctor - VP Information Security, WestRock

Wayne Proctor joined WestRock in mid-2016 as the Vice President of Information Security, were he accountability for the global information security program.

Wayne has led corporate information security programs, since 1999, for a variety of companies including: FleetCor, UPS, Bank of the West, First Data USA, Certegy and BellSouth International.

Prior to moving into information security, he worked for ten years as a project leader responsible for starting IT departments for international cellular phone startups in countries including: Australia, New Zealand, Germany, India, India, Israel, Holland, Brazil and Guatemala.

Wayne is a nationally-recognized information security professional. He is an active member of several information security organizations including: ISACA, ISSA, ISC2, InfraGard. He is currently a member of the ISSA CISO Executive Advisory Board and has been named a Distinguished Fellow of the ISSA, the world’s largest Information Security industry group. He has earned certifications as a security, risk management and auditing professional. He received a BS in Computer Science in 1988 and his MBA in 2008.

David Zimmer - VP IT Operations and Engineering, Lendmark Financial Services

IT Professional with over 30 years of experience in leadership and technology delivery in the financial, pharmaceutical, aerospace, and government sectors. Currently providing services to Lendmark Financial Services, LLC as V.P. of IT Engineering and Operations. Previous services to Community and Southern Bank, SunTrust, National City Corporation, AG Edwards (Consultant through PTI), Nationwide Insurance (Consultant through PTI), State of Alabama (Consultant through PTI), Glaxo Wellcome Pharmaceuticals, TRW Aerospace, and USAF.

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