CISO Think Tank

Visionary, results and solutions-driven professional with 20+ years of experience in progressively responsible Cyber Security and IT leadership roles in the financial services, insurance, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, consumer goods,and chemical manufacturing industries. Adept in building and leading global Cyber Security, IT technical and support functions. Creative, resourceful problem solver with a track record of success in delivering cost-effective and value-added services to his customers. Additional experience in industrial engineering and process improvement. Specialties: Areas of expertise include: Cyber Security, Network Security,Application Security, Infrastructure Management and Security Incident Management, Disaster Recovery, Forensic Investigations, Operations Management, Financial Management, Project/Portfolio Management, Policy/Procedure Development, Budget Preparation, Strategic Planning, Process Design/Implementation, Risk Mitigation, Enterprise Architecture, IT Governance, Manufacturing/Laboratory Automation, Organizational Design, Vendor Audits, System, Start-Up Operations, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), Talent Development/Mentoring, International Team Management, and Regulatory Compliance

A results-oriented Technology Leader experienced in building inclusive, cross-functional, remote, results-oriented and global teams/systems. Expertise includes IT and Product Strategic Goals/Plan, Technical Vision, Corporate Governance Mapping, Leadership and Coaching, Cloud Computing and more. Seeking a technology leadership opportunity in a fast-paced environment that can benefit from passion, innovation, strategic vision, creative ideas, and original thought.

Matt has been focused on IT Security Architecture at Northwell over 4 years……He also has experience with: vendor negotiations & purchasing, web application design, help desk management, network / database / VPN design & management. Northwell manages over 800 care locations in New York state including 3800 physicians and over 78000 employees.

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.

Leo has a successful track record working within different blue-chip companies and industries ranging from Start-ups/Scale-ups, Banking, FinTech, SaaS and eCommerce, providing insight, consultancy and strategy across global remits covering Information Security, Cyber Security, GRC, Auditing, Cloud and a multitude of compliance remits including PCI DSS, SOX and GDPR. At Flo Health, the number one health and wellbeing app. His team protects the data of 250 million users, equating to 300 billion data points. He is currently an advisor to multiple start-ups from the Palta Group. He has been instrumental in leading security efforts within HealthTech and FemTech. In June 2022, Flo Security delivered the industry’s first ISO 27001 certification. Leo is a multi-award winner. A Snyk influencer. A Keynote speaker worldwide and was added to the CISO Platform Top 100

David Cass is a senior partner at Law & Forensics LLC where he leads the Cryptocurrency and Digital Banking Practice and is a member of the Cyber Security and Forensics Practice. He has extensive experience in financial services regulation, cryptocurrency, digital assets, blockchain, cloud, and digital banking. He most recently served as a lead regulator for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York where he was a member of the Large Institution Supervision Committee (LISCC). Prior to this appointment, David was the CISO & Global Partner of IBM’s Cloud Security Service Unit where he was responsible for its security practices, processes, and policies. He has been an active contributor of the FS-ISAC and the European Banking Federation on Cloud Compliance and Security for financial services firms and has worked closely with US and international regulators. He was part of the team that introduced the first financial services blockchain initiative utilizing public cloud supported by 10 major international banks. Previously, he served as SVP & CISO for Elsevier where he led an organization of experienced legal, risk, and security professionals who provided data protection, privacy, security, and risk management guidance on a global basis. He also served as Elsevier’s HIPAA officer. David has an MSE from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from MIT. He is a frequent speaker at high-profile conferences and served on a public corporation’s Board of Directors. He also is an editorial board member for The Journal of Law & Cyber Warfare and serves as a board member for the UCLA Extension Silicon Beach Innovation Lab. He is a faculty member for the non-profit Global Cyber Institute, and an adjunct faculty member for Harvard and at the Rutgers Law School. He is a member of the New York City Cyber Critical Services & Infrastructure team organized by the NYPD and the office of the NY District Attorney. In his free time, David is a volunteer firefighter & Swiftwater Rescue Technician.

Florindo Gallicchio is a VP of Strategic Solutions at NetSPI and serves as advisor to executives, managing directors, boards of directors, and technology staff. He is a senior risk management and information security practitioner with extensive experience in building and running cyber security programs to securely manage the business while also achieving and maintaining compliance to regulatory and industry requirements. Prior to joining NetSPI, Florindo was the CISO at a global advisory investment firm in New York City. He began his career with the National Security Agency while serving in the U.S. Navy, where in ten years of service he worked in signals and communications intelligence collection and systems exploitation.

Ira is the Executive Director of the Human Security Engineering Consortium, former Chief Security Architect at Walmart and author of You Can Stop Stupid. He is considered one of the world’s most influential security professionals, and has been named a “Modern Day James Bond” by the media. He did this by performing espionage simulations, where he physically and technically “broke into” some of the largest companies in the World and investigated crimes against them, telling them how to cost-effectively protect their information and computer infrastructure. He continues to perform these espionage simulations, as well as assisting organizations in developing cost-effective security programs.

Matthew Andriani is a world-leading expert in the DDoS space with more than 20 years of experience in cybersecurity and has built leading cybersecurity teams. 10 years ago, as the Founder and CEO of MazeBolt, Matthew sought to prevent cyber-attacks with offensive services and technologies. Today MazeBolt is pioneering a new standard in the DDoS market with RADAR™ Testing, a new product that enables complete visibility into the DDoS attack surface for each layer of DDoS protection deployed. His new focus on this patented technology has transformed the way organizations achieve DDoS resilience against complex DDoS threats. Previously, he worked at Radware, CheckPoint, and Corrigon (acquired by Ebay).

Ivan Durbak is CIO at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center. In this role he leads an IT organization that supports the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center community, including two major hospitals, two nursing homes, a large emergency room and a large clinic ambulatory environment that sees nearly one million patients a year

Experienced Chief Revenue Officer with a demonstrated history of working with the most promising tech investors and founders in delivering hyper growth. Passionate about building sales teams that overachieve, but just as passionate about seeing my teams succeed in the rest of their lives too. I’m a sales nerd with a specific interest in identifying how technology can remove friction from the sales process, drive efficiencies and allow sales to thrive whilst delivering highly predictable revenue. Thankful to have worked and learnt from some of the worlds leading authorities in sales. Driven by the fact that you can’t become the next big thing, by doing the same thing as the last big thing. You have to innovate…

Catherine Salemi started in IT Security almost two decades ago. Providing technology and consulting support for the FT 500 and the most recognized private companies and organizations. Focused on providing support and expertise to companies who are on their digital journey. She is an advocate and mentor for the youth who want to explore careers in cyber. In addition to her commitment to cyber education, she supports women in cyber security.

Anand Tiwari is a seasoned Strategic Growth Advisor and Technology Leader with over 16+ years of experience in leading digital transformation for Fortune 50 enterprises across APAC, EU and Americas. As Sr. Sales Director of Digital Transformation at YASH Technologies, Anand has been providing strategic guidance and driving business growth through innovation, strategic management, and operations management. He actively engages with Board Members, CxOs and leads strategic engagements, practice development, and solution development to help customers align their IT infrastructure to support their business goals through technology transformation. Anand is a member of the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council and is an expert in IT infrastructure strategy, market analysis, and dynamics. He has a proven track record of increasing organizational profitability by providing comprehensive and innovative business solutions to enterprises across various verticals such as Banking and Financial Services, manufacturing, healthcare & Life science, Automotive and Aerospace & Defense. Anand's passion for new-age digital transformation and his ability to provide best practice advice and guidance have made him a compassionate and sought-after technology leader. His contact information is tiwari.anand@yash.com and +1-224-829-6599, and he can also be found on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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.--

Ganesh Pai is the Founder & CEO of Uptycs. Ganesh is a Boston-based entrepreneur and technologist who has been awarded multiple U.S. patents. Ganesh is a Featured Speaker at the CXO Think Tank in Boston, MA and will be discussing “Security Controls: Measuring Efficacy for Business Growth” in partnership with

Visionary, results and solutions-driven professional with 20+ years of experience in progressively responsible Cyber Security and IT leadership roles in the financial services, insurance, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, consumer goods,and chemical manufacturing industries. Adept in building and leading global Cyber Security, IT technical and support functions. Creative, resourceful problem solver with a track record of success in delivering cost-effective and value-added services to his customers. Additional experience in industrial engineering and process improvement. Specialties: Areas of expertise include: Cyber Security, Network Security,Application Security, Infrastructure Management and Security Incident Management, Disaster Recovery, Forensic Investigations, Operations Management, Financial Management, Project/Portfolio Management, Policy/Procedure Development, Budget Preparation, Strategic Planning, Process Design/Implementation, Risk Mitigation, Enterprise Architecture, IT Governance, Manufacturing/Laboratory Automation, Organizational Design, Vendor Audits, System, Start-Up Operations, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), Talent Development/Mentoring, International Team Management, and Regulatory Compliance

Leo has a successful track record working within different blue-chip companies and industries ranging from Start-ups/Scale-ups, Banking, FinTech, SaaS and eCommerce, providing insight, consultancy and strategy across global remits covering Information Security, Cyber Security, GRC, Auditing, Cloud and a multitude of compliance remits including PCI DSS, SOX and GDPR. At Flo Health, the number one health and wellbeing app. His team protects the data of 250 million users, equating to 300 billion data points. He is currently an advisor to multiple start-ups from the Palta Group. He has been instrumental in leading security efforts within HealthTech and FemTech. In June 2022, Flo Security delivered the industry’s first ISO 27001 certification. Leo is a multi-award winner. A Snyk influencer. A Keynote speaker worldwide and was added to the CISO Platform Top 100

As an entrepreneur, he landed in the world of technology and software development when he became a partner in the company MediaPost Email Marketing. Despite his degree in Law, he specialized in Digital Marketing, Ecommerce Management, User Experience (UX), Digital Product Leadership & Product Management (PM), Growth Marketing, Data Analytics and, more recently, in Management of Exponential Business (XBA). As the CMO of senhasegura since 2018, he leads the brand's internationalization project in more than 50 countries, focusing on North America (USA), Europe (DACH) and the Middle East. He is also a speaker (Digitalks 2017/18/19; SEBRAE; Gartner IAM - Las Vegas - & Gartner Symposium - Orlando - USA 2022/23; Think Tank NYC and Chicago 2023; Cybersecurity Summit Brazil 2023; and etc) and a teacher (Comschool; Mirago; FATEC; etc.).