Guest Speakers

The MS CRS experience is enhanced by the integration of notable figures in the realm of cybersecurity, national security, and information privacy.

Distinguished guest speakers of the program include/have included:

General (Ret) Keith Alexander, former Commander, US Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM); former Director, National Security Agency (NSA)


At IronNet Cybersecurity, as the CEO and President, General (Ret) Keith Alexander provides strategic vision to corporate leaders on cybersecurity issues through development of cutting-edge technology, consulting and education/training. He is reinventing how industries mitigate cybersecurity threats with IronDefense, a patented solution designed to detect and alert on anomalous enterprise network behaviors through fine-tuned analytics. His goal is to bridge communication systems between private and government sectors to create the next level of intelligence sharing and protect the nation against cyber threats on a global stage.
In recognition of cyber’s increasing importance, President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates appointed GEN Alexander as the first commander of USCYBERCOM, a newly created military institution charged with defending the nation’s security in cyberspace against sophisticated cyber threats to businesses and government operations in an increasingly interconnected world.
A leader with vision and a pragmatic approach to tackling the ever-changing cyber threat landscape, GEN Alexander built IronNet to bring this knowledge and experience to the private sector and fill in a critical gap between cyber threats and available security technology.
General Alexander is a four-star general with an impressive 40-year military career, culminating in role of the Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) and Chief of the Central Security Service (CSS) from 2005-2014. He holds the distinction of serving in this role longer than any other director. While serving as the NSA Director, he was appointed by Congress to be the first Commander to lead the U.S. Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM). He held this role from 2010-2014, establishing and defining how our nation is protected against cyber attacks.
As Commander, USCYBERCOM, General Alexander was responsible for planning, coordinating and conducting operations, and defending Department of Defense (DoD) computer networks—as well as the defense of the nation—from cyber threats. As the Director of NSA, he was responsible for national foreign intelligence requirements, military combat support, and the protection of U.S. national security information systems.
Prior to leading USCYBERCOM and the NSA/CSS General Alexander served as the Deputy Chief of Staff, Intelligence, Department of the Army; Commanding General of the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command at Fort Belvoir, VA; and the Director of Intelligence, United States Central Command, MacDill Air Force Base, FL., and the Deputy Director for Requirements, Capabilities, Assessments and Doctrine, J-2, on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Serving as a member of the President’s Council on Enhancing National Cybersecurity, General Alexander developed key recommendations to create a defensible national cyber architecture to protect national security by promoting rapid innovation and close public-private collaboration while preserving privacy and civil liberties.
General Alexander is the recipient of the 2016 United States Military Academy (USMA) Distinguished Graduate Award. He holds a BS from the U.S. Military Academy, as well an MS in Business Administration from Boston University; an MS in Systems Technology and an MS in Physics from the Naval Post Graduate School; and an MS in National Security Strategy from the National Defense University.

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Rush Atkinson, Senior Counsel, Office of the Deputy Attorney General, DOJ

Rush Atkinson was an Assistant Special Counsel of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller’s investigation into foreign interference in the 2016 U.S. election. Previously, he was an attorney on detail from the DOJ’s Criminal Division’s Securities and Financial Fraud Unit, where he worked as a trial attorney. In 2016, Atkinson prosecuted a multimillion-dollar fraud case against the heads of a public charter flight company.

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Preet Bharara, former United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York

On May 15, 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Preet Bharara to become the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Mr. Bharara’s nomination was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on August 7, 2009, and he was sworn in on August 13, 2009.

As U.S. Attorney, Mr. Bharara oversees the investigation and litigation of all criminal and civil cases brought on behalf of the United States in the Southern District of New York, which encompasses New York, Bronx, Westchester, Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, and Sullivan counties. He supervises an office of more than 200 Assistant U.S. Attorneys, who handle a high volume of cases that involve domestic and international terrorism, narcotics and arms trafficking, financial and healthcare fraud, cybercrime, public corruption, gang violence, organized crime, and civil rights violations.

Under Mr. Bharara’s leadership, the office has experienced one of the most productive periods in its history. Early in his tenure, he formed the Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit, which has continued the office’s long history of prosecuting leaders and associates of global and domestic terrorist, narco-terrorist, narcotics, and money-laundering organizations. Its convictions have included major terrorists such as Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law Sulaiman Abu Ghayth, London imam Abu Hamza, and Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, and international criminals such as arms trafficker Viktor Bout and Somali pirate Abduwali Muse.

Since Mr. Bharara’s appointment, the office has continued the tradition of being at the forefront of prosecuting financial misconduct, including securities fraud. The office has secured convictions of numerous insider trading defendants, including Galleon hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam, McKinsey managing director and Goldman Sachs board member Rajat Gupta. The Civil Frauds Unit has brought a number of significant civil actions alleging financial and healthcare fraud and collected hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements, including from Deutsche Bank, CitiMortgage, and Bank of America for fraud relating to faulty lending practices. His office has held to account several of the world’s largest corporations for their misconduct, including JP Morgan Chase for its relationship with Madoff Securities; Toyota for lying to consumers about safety-related issues; BNP Paribas for violating U.S. sanctions against Sudan, Iran, and Cuba; and Anadarko for causing environmental damage at various sites around the country. The Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit has also charged some of the most cutting edge financial fraud cases, in addition to sophisticated tax fraud, bank fraud, and cybercrime cases, including the LIRR pension fraud, Swiss Bank Wegelin & Co., core members of the hacking groups LulzSec and Anonymous and drug trafficking website Silk Road, and digital currency provider Liberty Reserve.

Under Mr. Bharara’s supervision, the office has brought a series of significant and systemically revelatory public corruption cases against members of New York City and State governments. Notable public corruption defendants include New York State Senators Carl Kruger, Vincent Leibell, and Hiram Monseratte; New York State Assemblymen Eric Stevenson and Nelson Castro and Assemblywoman Gabriela Rosa; and New York City Councilmen Larry Seabrook and Daniel Halloran; and Former Majority Leader of the New York State Senate Dean Skelos; and Former Speaker of the New York State Assembly Sheldon Silver. Furthermore, the office has continued its traditional civil rights work by, for example, conducting a multi-year investigation into the treatment of adolescent males at Rikers Island and filing Americans with Disabilities Act cases against leading New York City institutions like Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center, while simultaneously bringing new and innovative cases under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. The office has also prosecuted more than 1,000 violent members and associates of various gangs, including the Bloods, Latin Kings, and Trinitarios, in an effort to make communities in the Southern District safer for their residents. In 2012, Mr. Bharara was featured on the cover of TIME magazine and appeared on its list of the “100 Most Influential People in the World.” He was included in Bloomberg Markets Magazine’s “50 Most Influential” lists in 2014. He was also included in Vanity Fair’s “New Establishment” lists, and Worth magazine’s “The Power 100: The 100 Most Powerful People in Finance” lists in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016. He was named in City & State’s “Power 100-New York City” and “Power 100-Albany” lists in 2013 and 2014; and in New York Observer’s “The City State: Albany’s Top 40” list in 2014 and 2015. He was also included in New York Observer’s “New York City’s Political Power 50” list in 2016. In 2016, City & State named him “Newsmaker of the Decade.” Mr. Bharara has delivered the keynote address at the commencements of Fordham Law School, Columbia Law School, Cardozo School of Law, University of California Berkeley School of Law, Pace University School of Law, New York University School of Law, and in 2014, he spoke at Harvard Law School’s Class Day ceremony.

Prior to becoming the U.S. Attorney, Mr. Bharara served as Chief Counsel and Staff Director of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts. During his tenure, he helped to lead the Senate Judiciary Committee investigation of the firing of United States Attorneys. From 2000 to 2005, Mr. Bharara served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he prosecuted a wide range of cases involving organized crime, racketeering, securities fraud, money laundering, narcotics trafficking, and other crimes. Mr. Bharara was a litigation associate in New York at Swidler Berlin Shereff Friedman from 1996 to 2000 and at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher from 1993 to 1996. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with an AB in Government in 1990, and from Columbia Law School with a JD in 1993, where he was a member of the Columbia Law Review.

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Roland Cloutier, Global CSO, TikTok

As Global Chief Security Officer of ByteDance & TikTok, Roland Cloutier brings an unprecedented understanding and knowledge of global protection and security leadership to one of the world’s largest leading media, social, and online technology companies. With over 25 years of experience in the military, law enforcement, and commercial sector, Roland is one of today’s leading experts in corporate and enterprise security, cyber-defense program development, and business operations protection. Roland has functional and operational responsibility for cyber, information protection, data defense, operational risk, workforce protection, crisis management, and investigative security operations worldwide.

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Luke Dembosky, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General for National Security, U.S. Department of Justice

Luke Dembosky joined the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in March 2016 after serving as deputy assistant attorney general for national security at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), where he oversaw DOJ’s first national security cyber portfolio.

Dembosky was the senior DOJ official on the Target Corporation, Sony Pictures, The Home Depot, Anthem, Inc., and the United States Office of Personnel Management data breaches, among many others, and received the attorney general’s Distinguished Service Award for leading the GameOver Zeus botnet takedown.

Over 14 years with DOJ, he served in various roles, including as deputy chief for litigation in the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section; DOJ representative at the U.S. embassy in Moscow, Russia; and federal cybercrime prosecutor in Pittsburgh. His prosecutions included U.S. v. Max Ray Vision, featured in the books Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-dollar Cybercrime Underground and DarkMarket: How Hackers Became the New Mafia, and on the first episode of American Greed to feature a cyber case.

He participated in the negotiation of a 2013 cyber accord with Russia and the historic five-point agreement signed by President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping of China in 2015. At Debevoise, Dembosky advises companies on managing cyber risks,
responding to cyber incidents, and handling related litigation matters. He has been named by The National Law Journal to its list of “Cyber Security Trailblazers.”

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Jen Easterly, Director, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)

Jen Easterly is the Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Ms. Easterly was nominated by President Biden in April 2021 and unanimously confirmed by the Senate on July 12, 2021. As Director, Ms. Easterly leads CISA’s efforts to understand, manage, and reduce risk to the cyber and physical infrastructure Americans rely on every day.

Before serving in her current role, Ms. Easterly was the head of Firm Resilience at Morgan Stanley, responsible for ensuring preparedness and response to business-disrupting operational incidents and risks to the Firm.

Ms. Easterly has a long tradition of public service, to include two tours at the White House, most recently as Special Assistant to President Obama and Senior Director for Counterterrorism. She also served as the Deputy for Counterterrorism at the National Security Agency.

A two-time recipient of the Bronze Star, Ms. Easterly retired from the U.S. Army after more than twenty years of service in intelligence and cyber operations, including tours of duty in Haiti, the Balkans, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Responsible for standing up the Army’s first cyber battalion, Ms. Easterly was also instrumental in the design and creation of United States Cyber Command.

A distinguished graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Ms. Easterly holds a master’s degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from the University of Oxford, where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar. She is the recipient of the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation American Hostage Freedom Award and the Bradley W. Snyder Changing the Narrative Award.

A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a French-American Foundation Young Leader, Ms. Easterly is the past recipient of numerous fellowships, including the Aspen Finance Leaders Fellowship, the National Security Institute Visiting Fellowship, the New America Foundation Senior International Security Fellowship, the Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship, and the Director, National Security Agency Fellowship.

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Dave Frederick, Executive Director, US Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM)

Mr. David E. Frederick, Jr is the Executive Director, U.S. Cyber Command. The ExDIR position represents the highest-ranking-civilian and third-in-command at USCYBERCOM. Mr. Frederick leads an organization of over 12,000 personnel, to include a headquarters element, six large Service Cyber Components, 133 Cyber Mission Force Teams consisting of over 6000 cyber warriors, and Department of Defense enterprise defense forces. He drives global cyber operations to defend the DOD network, provides cyber options for combatant commanders, and defends U.S. critical infrastructure, while shaping a budget of nearly $700M, and elements of DOD budgets totaling in the billions.

Prior to this role, Dave served as Deputy Director of the newly established Cybersecurity Directorate, charged with preventing and eradicating threats to U.S. National Security Systems and critical infrastructure. He served as Chief of Strategic Counter Cyber Operations in the Cybersecurity Operations Group from 2016 to 2018. He represented National Security Agency at the National Security Council Policy Coordination Committee for cyber matters and oversaw efforts to develop whole-of-community counter-cyber strategies, strategic cybersecurity products, and operations optimization methods.

After serving in the U. S. Army as a signals intelligence analyst and Korean linguist, Mr. Frederick joined NSA as a language analyst in 1996. He held a number of managerial, strategic planning, and technical positions at NSA prior to promotion to the Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service. From 2005 to 2008, he served as the Deputy Chief for Liaison, Special United States Liaison Advisor to a key foreign partner. He then served from 2008 to 2009 as the Director of the Community Electronic Intelligence Management Office, followed by duty as the Associate Deputy Director for Technical SIGINT & Electronic Warfare. From 2010 to 2012, he served as the NSA/CSS Deputy Inspector General, overseeing audits, inspections, and investigations. From 2012 to 2015, Mr. Frederick served as a special U.S. Liaison Advisor at an overseas location. Upon returning to the U.S. in 2015, he became the Chief of Targeting Strategy and Mission Integration for the SIGINT Directorate. In this position, he led efforts to improve NSA/CSS’s SIGINT missions and cyber support by planning, managing, and assessing access, collection, and targeting capabilities.

Mr. Frederick received numerous honors for his work; he was awarded Presidential Rank Awards (Meritorious Executive) in 2012 and 2017; the National Intelligence Superior Service Medal; a key foreign partner’s National Security Service Medal; and the NSA/CSS Meritorious Civilian Service Award, along with other Joint and Army military awards.

EDUCATION:

Mr. Frederick completed the Defense Language Institute Korean Basic Course in 1990. He graduated from the University of Maryland University College in 1994 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History (Honors). He received his Master’s degree in Business Administration (Finance) from Colorado State University in 1998. He is also a 2010 graduate of the Defense Policy Seminar, National Security Studies Program from George Washington University.

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Eric Goldstein, Executive Assistant Director, Cybersecurity for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)

Eric Goldstein serves as the Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) as of February 19, 2021. In this role, Goldstein leads CISA’s mission to protect and strengthen federal civilian agencies and the nation’s critical infrastructure against cyber threats.

Previously, Goldstein was the Head of Cybersecurity Policy, Strategy, and Regulation at Goldman Sachs, where he led a global team to improve and mature the firm’s cybersecurity risk management program. He served at CISA’s precursor agency, the National Protection and Programs Directorate, from 2013 to 2017 in various roles including Policy Advisor for Federal Network Resilience, Branch Chief for Cybersecurity Partnerships and Engagement, Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity, and Senior Counselor to the Under Secretary.

At other points in his career, Goldstein practiced cybersecurity law at an international law firm, led cybersecurity research and analysis projects at a federally-funded research and development center, and served as a Fellow in Advanced Cyber Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, among other roles.

He is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Georgetown University School of Public Policy, and Georgetown University Law Center.

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Shawn Henry, President & CSO, CrowdStrike

Shawn Henry serves as president of CrowdStrike Services, leading a world-class team of cybersecurity professionals in investigating and mitigating targeted attacks on corporate and government networks globally. Under his leadership, CrowdStrike engages in significant proactive and incident response operations across every major commercial sector and critical infrastructure, protecting organizations’ and governments’ sensitive data and networks around the world. Henry’s work includes educating boards of directors and executives of key companies on critical proactive security measures, governance, and corporate readiness in the event of a breach. He also oversees all security aspects of global CrowdStrike facilities, personnel, executive protection, and corporate events.

Henry’s legendary commitment to “One team. One Fight.” resonates throughout the entire organization, unifying CrowdStrike’s rapidly growing and geographically dispersed workforce. He joined CrowdStrike in 2012 after retiring from the FBI, where he oversaw half of the FBI’s investigative operations, including all FBI criminal and cyber investigations worldwide, international operations, and the FBI’s critical incident response to major investigations and disasters. He also oversaw computer crime investigations spanning the globe and received the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Executive for his leadership in enhancing the FBI’s cyber capabilities. Henry lectures at leading universities and is a faculty member at the National Association of Corporate Directors. He serves as a keynote speaker at major cyber security conferences around the world and is regularly interviewed on cyber security issues by major broadcast, cable, online, and print media.

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Tim Howard, Co-Chief, Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York

Timothy Howard is Co-Chief of the Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit at the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where he oversees 19 federal prosecutors conducting white collar fraud and cybercrime investigations. Tim’s notable prosecutions include Ross Ulbricht for his operation of the Silk Road website, ITSEC Team and Mersad for conducting Iran-sponsored cyber attacks against the Financial Sector; the Mabna Institute for conducting Iran-sponsored cyber hacking campaigns against universities around the world, and Behzad Mesri, for hacking into HBO’s computer networks.

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Chris Inglis, Office of the National Cyber Director, Executive Office of the President

Chris Inglis currently serves as the first National Cyber Director and advisor to the President of the United States Joe Biden on cybersecurity. He retired from the Department of Defense in 2014 after over 41 years of federal service, including 28 years at NSA. He served in a number of roles at NSA, and ultimately as its deputy director. A U.S. Air Force Academy graduate, he holds advanced degrees in engineering and computer science from Columbia University and the George Washington University. His military career includes over 30 years in the U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard, retiring as a brigadier general. Most recently, he served as a U.S. Naval Academy Looker Distinguished Visiting Professor for cyber studies and as a commissioner on the U.S. Cyberspace Solarium Commission.

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Chris Krebs, former Director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)

Christopher Krebs is currently a Partner at Krebs Stamos Group, LLC. He served as the first director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Mr. Krebs was originally sworn in on June 15, 2018 as the Under Secretary for the predecessor of CISA, the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD). Mr. Krebs was nominated for that position by President Trump in February 2018.

Before serving as CISA Director, Mr. Krebs was appointed in August 2017 as the Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection. In the absence of a permanent NPPD Under Secretary at the time, Mr. Krebs took on the role of serving as the Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Under Secretary for NPPD until he was subsequently nominated as the Under Secretary and confirmed by the Senate the following year.

Mr. Krebs joined DHS in March 2017, first serving as Senior Counselor to the Secretary, where he advised DHS leadership on a range of cybersecurity, critical infrastructure, and national resilience issues. Prior to coming to DHS, he was a member of Microsoft’s U.S. Government Affairs team as the Director for Cybersecurity Policy, where he led Microsoft’s U.S. policy work on cybersecurity and technology issues.

Before Microsoft, Mr. Krebs advised industry and federal, state, and local government customers on a range of cybersecurity and risk management issues. This is his second tour working at DHS, previously serving as the Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection and playing a formative role in a number of national and international risk management programs.

As Director, Mr. Krebs oversaw CISA’s efforts to defend civilian networks, manage systemic risk to national critical functions, and work with stakeholders to raise the security baseline of the Nation’s cyber and physical infrastructure.

Mr. Krebs holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental sciences from the University of Virginia and a J.D. from the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University.

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Maneesha Mithal, former Associate Director, Privacy & Identity Protection, Federal Trade Commission

Maneesha Mithal is a privacy and cybersecurity partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. She is an internationally recognized expert on privacy and data security, having led the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) Division of Privacy and Identity Protection prior to joining the firm. In this capacity, Maneesha oversaw a team of 40 lawyers responsible for the enforcement of privacy and security laws and the development of policy positions in emerging areas such as artificial intelligence, facial recognition, biometrics, and connected cars, as well as health privacy, children’s privacy, ransomware, and the intersection of privacy and competition. She was also responsible for enforcing the Fair Credit Reporting and Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act Safeguards Rule. She led the negotiation of numerous privacy and data security settlements and managed the first litigated FTC decisions on cybersecurity issues. Maneesha also worked with congressional staff on federal privacy legislation, with state attorney general offices on joint investigations, and with other federal and international agencies on a variety of initiatives.

Earlier in her career, as a manager with the FTC’s International Consumer Protection Division, Maneesha worked on European privacy issues and served as a U.S. delegate to the privacy committees of the OECD and APEC.

Maneesha previously served as Chief of Staff and Senior Counsel in the Bureau of Consumer Protection (BCP), where she reviewed advertising cases and financial consumer protection matters, and held various positions in BCP’s International Division, including as Acting Associate Director. She began her legal career as a litigator at Covington & Burling.

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Lisa Monaco, 39th Deputy Attorney General, United States

Lisa O. Monaco is the 39th Deputy Attorney General of the United States. As the Deputy Attorney General, she is the Department’s second-ranking official and is responsible for the overall supervision of the Department. The Deputy Attorney General serves as the Chief Operating Officer, and the Department’s litigating and policy components, law enforcement agencies, and 93 U.S. Attorneys report to the Deputy. The Deputy Attorney General advises and assists the Attorney General in formulating and implementing the Department’s policies and programs.

Previously, Lisa was a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Reiss Center on Law and Security at NYU School of Law. She served as Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor to President Obama and before that as Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the Department of Justice, the Department’s top national security lawyer. She also worked as Chief of Staff at the FBI under Director Robert Mueller. Lisa was a partner at O’Melveny & Myers and serves as co-chair of the firm’s Data Security and Privacy group. She was also a member of the firm’s White Collar Defense and Corporate Investigations Practice Group.

As the President’s Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor from 2013-2017, she coordinated the federal government’s crisis management and response to a wide array of risks and challenges – from cyber threats and pandemics to terrorist threats – and chaired the Cabinet-level Homeland Security Council Principals Committee and advised the President on homeland security issues and crises. She has extensive experience in policy development and crisis management having operated at the senior-most levels of the Federal government as a lawyer and advisor.

Before her service in the White House, Lisa spent 15 years at the Department of Justice and FBI under the Administrations of President Bill Clinton, President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama. As counsel and then Chief of Staff at the FBI, she helped then- Director Robert S. Mueller, III, transform that organization after 9/11 into a national security organization focused on preventing terrorist attacks on the United States. In 2009, she joined the Justice Department’s senior leadership in the Deputy Attorney General’s office. As the Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General, she was the Deputy Attorney General’s primary advisor on a range of criminal policy, law enforcement, national security and civil litigation matters and she assisted in overall management and supervision of the Department, including the United States Attorney’s Offices. In 2011, she was nominated by the President and confirmed by the United States Senate as Assistant Attorney General for National Security, the first woman to serve in that position. She led the National Security Division’s nearly 400 lawyers and professional staff and oversaw all federal terrorism and national security prosecutions nationwide. During her tenure she made cyber threats a top priority and created the first nationwide network of national security cyber specialists.

Lisa spent six years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia prosecuting a range of cases, from violent crime to fraud and public corruption. Her time as an AUSA includes service on the Enron Task Force, a group of federal prosecutors drawn from around the country to investigate and prosecute the fraud at Enron. She received the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service, the Department’s highest award for her service on the Enron Task Force.

She has received numerous awards in recognition of her public service career including the Department of Justice Edmund J. Randolph Award, the National Intelligence Distinguished Public Service Medal, and the CIA Director’s Award. She has been recognized internationally for her work with key allies and foreign governments; in 2017 the President of the Republic of France named her an Officer of the French Legion of Honor.

Earlier in her career, Lisa served as Counsel to the Attorney General. She began her legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable Jane R. Roth on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Lisa’s experience extends to the board room as a member of the board of Accenture Federal Services; Cognosante LLC; and the non-profit organization, Hostage US.

Lisa is also a nonresident senior fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center on Science and International Affairs. She co-chairs the Aspen Institute’s Cybersecurity Group, a cross-disciplinary group of industry, former government, Capitol Hill, academic and civil society leaders focused on cybersecurity. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. In 2017 Governor Andrew Cuomo named Lisa to a bipartisan Counterterrorism Advisory Panel for the State of New York. Lisa is also a member of the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense. A regular voice in national publications on national security and cybersecurity, she is a Senior National Security Analyst for CNN.

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Nick Oldham, Chief Privacy & Compliance Officer, Equifax

Nick Oldham is Equifax’s Chief Privacy and Compliance Officer, where he is responsible for second-line functions globally including enterprise risk, compliance, data privacy, and data governance. He is an innovative expert who has built risk and compliance programs that implement globally aligned, locally deployed, and organizationally measured operating models to optimize risk management, efficiency, results, and cost effectiveness. He also leads regulatory compliance strategies especially related to complex Federal and State regulatory regimes as well as technology and security consent orders.

A former federal criminal prosecutor, Nick spent more than seven years with the U.S. Department of Justice, where he handled high-profile cyber investigations and prosecutions, and served as the first Counsel for Cyber Investigations for the DOJ’s National Security Division.

While at King & Spalding in Washington, D.C., Nick helped clients build and improve their controls around cybersecurity, data privacy, and data use, and conducted incident response including leading the internal and forensic investigations of the Equifax breach.

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Nicole Perlroth, Advisor, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)

Nicole Perlroth spent a decade as the lead cybersecurity reporter at The New York Times. Her investigations rooted out Russian hacks of nuclear plants, airports, elections, and petrochemical plants; North Korea’s cyberattack against Sony Pictures, Bangladesh banks and crypto exchanges; Iranian attacks on oil companies, banks and dams; and thousands of Chinese cyberattacks against American businesses, including leading the investigation of the months-long Chinese hack of The Times. Her outing of hacking divisions within China’s PLA compelled the first United States hacking charges against the Chinese military and earned her the prestigious “Best in Business Award” from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. She left the Times in 2021 to join the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity Advisory Committee.

She is the author of the New York Times bestselling book “This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends,” about the global cyber arms race, which won the McKinsey and Financial Times’ 2021 “Business Book of the Year Award.” The book was optioned by Tommy Schlamme for FX Networks and several of her Times articles have been optioned for television.

Ms. Perlroth has been widely cited and published, beyond The Times in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Economist, Wired, Forbes, CNN, PBS, NPR, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, NBC’s “Meet The Press,” “The Rachel Maddow Show,” “Dan Rather’s America,” Axios, CBS, CNBC, and Lawfare, as well as The Times’ “The Daily” and “Sway” podcasts, VOX’s “Pivot” podcast, among others.

She has delivered keynotes and speeches for TED, the State Department, the World Bank, the Munich Security Conference, RSA, the Council on Foreign Relations, World Affairs Council, Metropolitan Club, the Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development, How To Academy, In-Q-Tel, Track ii Diplomacy, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation Defense Policy Advisors, Hack the Capitol, the Center for European Policy Analysis and the CIOSExchange, an invite-only gathering of Fortune 50 Chief Information Officers.

She also lectures at Stanford, including the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Princeton University, Columbia, Cornell, Georgetown, Harvard Kennedy School, Hult International Business School, The Fletcher School, Naval War College, Fordham Law, Berkeley, John Hopkins and was selected as the inaugural “Journalist in Residence” for the University of Texas Strauss World Affairs program.

Ms. Perlroth is a graduate of Princeton University (B.A.), Stanford University (M.A.).

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Sudhakar Ramakrishna, President & CEO, SolarWinds

Sudhakar Ramakrishna has served as our President and Chief Executive Officer since January 2021. He is a global technology leader with nearly 25 years of experience across cloud, mobility, networking, security and collaboration markets. He most recently served as the CEO of Pulse Secure®, a leading provider of secure and zero trust access solutions for Hybrid IT environments, where he was responsible for all aspects of business strategy and execution. Prior to Pulse Secure, Mr. Ramakrishna served as the Senior Vice President and General Manager for the Enterprise and Service Provider Division at Citrix®, where he had responsibility for Citrix’s portfolio of virtualization, cloud networking, mobile platforms and cloud services solutions. Mr. Ramakrishna also has held senior leadership roles at Polycom, Inc., Motorola, Inc., 3Com Corporation and U.S. Robotics. Mr. Ramakrishna is an experienced public and private company board member. Mr. Ramakrishna is a partner at Benhamou Global Ventures, a leading venture capital firm investing in emerging startups in the fields of security, analytics and applications. Mr. Ramakrishna earned a master’s degree in computer science from Kansas State University and a master’s of management degree from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

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Terry Rice, Vice President, IT Risk Management and Security & Chief Information Security Officer, Merck

Terry Rice is the Vice President, IT Risk Management and Security, and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). In this role, he is responsible for the IT organization’s risk management and cybersecurity program including IT policy, information security engineering, identity and access management engineering, threat intelligence, security incident response and eDiscovery. He is a member of the IT Leadership Team. Terry also serves on the board of the Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center (H-ISAC) and is a former-chairman of the Healthcare Sector Coordinating Council Cyber Working Group. He recently served as a member of the Healthcare Industry Cybersecurity Task Force.

Terry began his career as a US Army Officer and served with the 101st Airborne Division, US Forces Korea, the National Security Agency and other units. Upon leaving military service, Terry worked in the consulting industry in a variety of information security roles. He then spent four years at Johnson & Johnson as a Director of Global Information Security. Terry joined Merck in 2007.
Terry holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point and Master of Science degree from George Washington University. He is married and has two children.

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Adam Segal, Director, Digital and Cyberspace Policy, Council on Foreign Relations

Adam Segal is the Ira A. Lipman chair in emerging technologies and national security and director of the Digital and Cyberspace Policy program at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). An expert on security issues, technology development, and Chinese domestic and foreign policy, Segal was the project director for the CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force reports Innovation and National Security: Keeping Our Edge and Defending an Open, Global, Secure, and Resilient Internet. His book The Hacked World Order: How Nations Fight, Trade, Maneuver, and Manipulate in the Digital Age (PublicAffairs, 2016) describes the increasingly contentious geopolitics of cyberspace. His work has appeared in the Financial Times, the New York Times, Foreign Policy, the Wall Street Journal, and Foreign Affairs, among others. He currently writes for the blog, “Net Politics.”

Before coming to CFR, Segal was an arms control analyst for the China Project at the Union of Concerned Scientists. There, he wrote about missile defense, nuclear weapons, and Asian security issues. He has been a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for International Studies, the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, and Tsinghua University in Beijing. He has taught at Vassar College and Columbia University. Segal is the author of Advantage: How American Innovation Can Overcome the Asian Challenge (W.W. Norton, 2011) and Digital Dragon: High-Technology Enterprises in China (Cornell University Press, 2003), as well as several articles and book chapters on Chinese technology policy.

Segal has a BA and PhD in government from Cornell University, and an MA in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.

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Rinki Sethi, VP & CISO, Twitter

Rinki Sethi is Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer at Twitter, where she is responsible for leading efforts to protect Twitter’s information and technology assets and advises the company’s continued product innovations in the security space. Prior to Twitter, Rinki was most recently the VP & CISO at Rubrik, Inc. Rinki has been at the forefront of developing cutting edge online security infrastructure at several Fortune 500 companies such as IBM, Palo Alto Networks, Intuit, eBay, Walmart.com, and PG&E.

Rinki holds several recognized security certifications and has a B.S. in Computer Science Engineering from UC Davis and a M.S. in Information Security from Capella University.

Rinki has served on the development team for the ISACA book, “Creating a Culture of Security” by Stephen Ross and was the recipient of the “One to Watch” Award with CSO Magazine & Executive Women’s Forum in 2014 and more recently the Senior Information Security Practitioner Award with ISC2 in 2018. She led an initiative to develop the first set of national cybersecurity badges and curriculum for the Girl Scouts of USA. Rinki serves as a mentor for many students and professionals.

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Alex Stamos, former Chief Security Officer, Facebook

Alex Stamos is a cybersecurity expert, business leader and entrepreneur working to improve the security and safety of the Internet through his teaching and research at Stanford University. Stamos is an Adjunct Professor at Stanford’s Freeman-Spogli Institute and a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution.

Prior to joining Stanford, Alex served as the Chief Security Officer of Facebook. In this role, Stamos led a team of engineers, researchers, investigators and analysts charged with understanding and mitigating information security risks to the company and safety risks to the 2.5 billion people on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. During his time at Facebook, he led the company’s investigation into manipulation of the 2016 US election and helped pioneer several successful protections against these new classes of abuse. As a senior executive, Alex represented Facebook and Silicon Valley to regulators, lawmakers and civil society on six continents, and has served as a bridge between the interests of the Internet policy community and the complicated reality of platforms operating at billion-user scale. In April 2017, he co-authored “Information Operations and Facebook”, a highly cited examination of the influence campaign against the US election, which still stands as the most thorough description of the issue by a major technology company.

Before joining Facebook, Alex was the Chief Information Security Officer at Yahoo, rebuilding a storied security team while dealing with multiple assaults by nation-state actors. While at Yahoo, he led the company’s response to the Snowden disclosures by implementing massive cryptographic improvements in his first months. He also represented the company in an open hearing of the US Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

In 2004, Alex co-founded iSEC Partners, an elite security consultancy known for groundbreaking work in secure software development, embedded and mobile security. As a trusted partner to world’s largest technology firms, Alex coordinated the response to the “Aurora” attacks by the People’s Liberation Army at multiple Silicon Valley firms and led groundbreaking work securing the world’s largest desktop and mobile platforms. During this time, he also served as an expert witness in several notable civil and criminal cases, such as the Google Street View incident and pro bono work for the defendants in Sony vs George Hotz and US vs Aaron Swartz. After the 2010 acquisition of iSEC Partners by NCC Group, Alex formed an experimental R&D division at the combined company, producing five patents.

A noted speaker and writer, he has appeared at the Munich Security Conference, NATO CyCon, Web Summit, DEF CON, CanSecWest and numerous other events. His 2017 keynote at Black Hat was noted for its call for a security industry more representative of the diverse people it serves and the actual risks they face. Throughout his career, Alex has worked toward making security a more representative field and has highlighted the work of diverse technologists as an organizer of the Trustworthy Technology Conference and OURSA.

Alex has been involved with securing the US election system as a contributor to Harvard’s Defending Digital Democracy Project and involved in the academic community as an advisor to Stanford’s Cybersecurity Policy Program and UC Berkeley’s Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity. He is a member of the Aspen Institute’s Cyber Security Task Force, the Bay Area CSO Council and the Council on Foreign Relations. Alex also serves on the advisory board to NATO’s Collective Cybersecurity Center of Excellence in Tallinn, Estonia.

Stamos worked under Prof. David Patterson while earning a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Berkeley.

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Mike Wilkes, CISO, SecurityScorecard

Mike Wilkes is the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at SecurityScorecard. Wilkes is responsible for developing enterprise-wide security programs to protect corporate systems as well as growing and extending the SecurityScorecard platform to customers, executives, and boards of directors.

Wilkes is a technology evangelist with experience reaching back to the earliest days of the internet and the birth of ecommerce (he and his team built, launched, and supported starbucks.com in 1998), Mike has been leading the digital transformation of globally renowned brands such as Sony Playstation, Macy’s, nVidia, KLM, and many others. Before joining SecurityScorecard, he was the VP, Information Security at ASCAP and the Director of Information Security, Enterprise Architecture, and DevOps teams for Marvel Entertainment.

Mike has held leadership roles in financial services with hedge fund AQR Capital as Vice President in the Information Technology Group and prior to that as Manager of the Enterprise Server Platform for the CME Group. Earlier roles performed while living abroad in Europe saw him designing and hardening critical energy sector infrastructure for Nuon and RWE, authoring Rabobank’s first global trading technology vision document, creating the world’s first bank MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) as well as delivering a security audit of the euro printing facilities for Royal Johan Enschedé (founded in Haarlem, Netherlands in 1703) to renew their accreditation with the European Central Bank.

Mike received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin Madison and a Master’s degree from Stanford University. He is the author of Cisco Internet Applications and Solutions (Cisco Press, 2002) and joined NYU as an Adjunct Professor Teaching infosec to graduate students for the Computer Science and Engineering department.

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Nir Zuk, CTO & Founder, Palo Alto Networks

Nir Zuk is the co-founder and chief technology officer of Palo Alto Networks, a leading multinational cybersecurity company.

Zuk founded Palo Alto Networks in 2005 with Rajiv Batra and has served on the board of directors since the company’s inception. Under his leadership, Palo Alto Networks has developed advanced firewalls that serve 70,000 organizations across 150 countries and 85 of the Fortune 100.

Previously, the network security visionary was the third employee and principal engineer at state inspection technology developer, Check Point Software Technologies. Palo Alto and Check Point are considered two global leaders of the cybersecurity industry.

Before founding Palo Alto Networks, Zuk was the CTO at NetScreen Technologies before it was acquired by Juniper Networks in 2004. He was also a co-founder and CTO at intrusion prevention company, OneSecure.

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