CISO & CIO Think Tank

Dr. Michael Owens is an innovative, collaborative, and distinguished leader with over 25 years of experience in startup, corporate, government, and military organizations. A transformation leader and sought-after speaker, Michael frequently keynotes on topics related to cybersecurity, cyberwarfare, and national security matters. As a cybersecurity executive, he has been at the vanguard of some of the most complex issues dealing with breach mitigation/recovery, threat intelligence sharing, and diversity within the tech and cyber industry. Michael is the president and CEO of the U.S. Global Center of Cyber Policy, where he leads the organization in providing federal, state, and local governments with non-partisan thought leadership and expert information and analysis on cybersecurity, cybercrime, and cyberwarfare trends, strategies, and policies from a domestic and international perspective. Prior to this, Michael led the Global Cybersecurity, Cybercrime, and Critical Infrastructure Program for EY within the Forensics, Investigations & Dispute division. In that role, he was responsible for the global strategic direction and standardization of threat intelligence, cybersecurity assessments, audits, and incident response services. Before this, Michael worked at Cisco Systems leading the Advanced Services, Public Sector service delivery team. During this time, he led cybersecurity, wired and wireless networks, and IT strategy engagements for government agencies in the U.S. southeast across and New York. Michael has extensive international and geopolitical experience with projects completed in over 100 countries. As an entrepreneur, Michael pioneered the practice of SMB MSP and fractional CIO/CISO services. Michael is an eight-year veteran of the United States Marine Corps and a current member of the US Marine Corps Cyber Auxiliary. He is a member of the World Affairs Council of Atlanta, a Political Partner with the Truman National Security Project, and serves on the State Advisory Committee for the US Global Leadership Coalition, the Evanta/Gartner Atlanta CISO Governing Body, and the Leadership Board of the Cybersecurity Collaboration Forum. Michael's educational background includes a bachelor’s from North Carolina A&T State University, a master’s degree from Georgia Institute of Technology, a doctorate from California Intercontinental University, and advanced certificates and executive programs from the U.S. Army War College and Harvard University. He resides in Mableton, Georgia with his two children.

Ben Halpert is a man on a mission: to educate and empower today’s digital citizens. By day, he is the CSO at Castle Black providing individuals cybersecurity, online privacy, and digital hygiene services with 24/7 human support. By night, he champions cyber safety and ethics education throughout society via the 501(c)3 nonprofit Savvy Cyber Kids he founded. Ben has presented at the World Economic Forum, NACD directorship training, RSA Conference, TEDxSaintThomas, TEDxKids@Vilnius, GISEC Global, InfoSec World, SecureWorld, IEEE, ACM, CSO50, CIO/CISO Summits, and many other events. In addition to his numerous publications, Ben has been featured in the New York Times, Wired, Bloomberg, BBC, Kiplinger, Good Morning America, Good Day Atlanta, CNN HLN, Fox News, RogersTV, among others.--

Cybersecurity visionary and leader who has built a highly effective and respected information security program within a healthcare enterprise. Leverages several years of leadership in the design, implementation and maintenance of enterprise-wide IT and Cybersecurity systems to foster a culture of continual improvement and learning. Expert technical manager specializing in security and software quality assurance methodologies. Adept at driving business and technology solutions through strategic planning, design, and implementation while ensuring compliance with regulatory and security requirements. Strong background in Data Center, data protection, project management, business continuity and disaster recovery, incident response, risk mitigation, process improvement, training development and delivery, and policy management. Manages the security operations center, governance, risk, & compliance, security education, incident response, and enterprise information security advisory services.

Adolph Barclift serves as the Chief Information Security Officer for Five Star Bank based in Rochester New York. He leads their information security and compliance functions. His responsibility includes data security operations, vulnerability management, fraud detection and regulatory compliance across heterogeneous operational environments. He has more than 20 years experience in information systems solution delivery, information security and data visualization.

Highly qualified IT Security Analyst & Adjunct Professor with 15+ years experience specializing in business continuity, disaster recover, IT security, and knowledge transfer. Applies methods for assessing and mitigating risk, analyzing impacts, and managing incidents. IT security experience including security auditing, governance risk and compliance, ITGRC implementation and business continuity planning.Highly qualified IT Security Analyst & Adjunct Professor with 15+ years experience specializing in business continuity, disaster recover, IT security, and knowledge transfer. Applies methods for assessing and mitigating risk, analyzing impacts, and managing incidents. IT security experience including security auditing, governance risk and compliance, ITGRC implementation and business continuity planning.

Emily leads the security research team at Censys, where she and her team study security threats and other interesting Internet phenomena. Previously, she was a security engineer focused on threat hunting, detection, and incident response. She is interested in the application of data science and analytics techniques to problems in security, and in the past has worked on projects related to anti-abuse, fraud, and malicious web app traffic detection.

Adolph Barclift serves as the Chief Information Security Officer for Five Star Bank based in Rochester New York. He leads their information security and compliance functions. His responsibility includes data security operations, vulnerability management, fraud detection and regulatory compliance across heterogeneous operational environments. He has more than 20 years experience in information systems solution delivery, information security and data visualization.