Speakers

Jim is a high energy leader focused on embedding risk management, security, and compliance into the business fabric to efficiently manage risks. He's a retired partner from EY where he spent 27 years helping clients through financial audits and building and sustaining security, risk and controls. He also served as global leader of Information Risk and Resiliency for the Treasury and Security Services division of JP Morgan, Chief Security Officer (CISO) and Chief Technology Risk Officer for Kaiser Permanente, and Chief Technology Risk Officer and CISO for AIG. Subsequently, he helped start up Panaseer in building the first continuous controls monitoring platform (remain as Board Advisor) and is presently CISO at Semperis. 

As a first-generation college student and a woman in STEM, Dr. Elizabeth Rasnick is driven to recruit and retain underrepresented populations into the cybersecurity talent pipeline. Her goal for students is that they understand cybersecurity is ever-evolving and they need to continuously update their skills. Dr. Rasnick’s research includes investigating recruitment and retention of underrepresented populations in cybersecurity, cybersecurity education, disaster recovery, and cybersecurity issues in supply chains. She has presented research and run workshops at regional, national, and international conferences. Dr. Rasnick often speaks to community groups about cyber essentials. She is currently serving as the senior vice president for the Florida affiliate of Women in Cyber Security. Dr. Rasnick holds a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science, an M.B.A., and a Ph.D. in Information Technology.

Paul Martini holds over 230 patents in cloud cybersecurity and is a trusted expert on Zero Trust, a modern cybersecurity architecture designed to prevent ransomware, breaches and data loss by making all applications private. Paul has been recognized for his leadership and innovation, receiving the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award and being named one of Goldman Sachs' 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs. Paul has also been published in many scientific journals, including the Journal of Foundations in Computer Science and the Journal of Analytical Biochemistry. Paul is co-founder, CEO and Co-Chair of iboss, a leading Zero Trust cloud security company which protects organizations globally from breaches and data loss. 

Kevin leads the internal practice of security for LogRhythm. His teams includes: Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC), Application Security (AppSec), Security Operations Center (SOC) and physical security. This concentration in security practice, tools and operations enables the team to ensure that they provide a safe foundation to build the security platforms of the future while protecting their employees, systems and, ultimately, clients who use their products.

Ken leads technical advisory engagements in the Americas for Cyberint. Leveraging nearly 20 years of experience supporting technical initiatives across public and private sectors. Starting his career as a U.S. Marine, gaining experience in information systems while specializing in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) collections and targeting. His expertise and primary focus areas are modernizing cyber security architecture, threat data analytics, adversarial threat profiling and machine learning. 

Derek Loomis is a Senior Product Manager at Ordr driving the OrdrAI CAASM+ solution (Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management).  He has 16 years' experience in cybersecurity with expertise in security operations, asset management, compliance, network security & vulnerability management.  Before Ordr, he worked at Axonius & Qualys.  In a previous career,  Derek won an Emmy Award as an Associate Producer for ESPN SportsCenter in 2004. 

Carlos Bacquet is a Principal Solutions Architect at Lacework where he solves Cloud Security problems for enterprise customers in the Toronto region. Before joining Lacework Carlos spent the last 15 years working on network management and security applications in the Telecommunications, Cable and Streaming Media industries. Carlos holds a Bachelor of Computer Science and a Master in Computer Science with focus on machine Learning applied to Security applications. His areas of expertise include Kubernetes security and machine learning security applications applied to cloud infrastructure.

Lawrence is a cybersecurity strategist with 25 years of experience across private, public, and academic sectors, currently managing Miami-Dade County’s Security Architecture, Risk and Compliance, and Incident Response teams. He specializes in aligning Critical Infrastructure Security and implementing prescriptive security controls for projects such as nuclear plant control systems, elections security, and Smart City initiatives. Lawrence is also skilled in leading risk assessments and holds multiple cybersecurity certifications and co-founded an AI and cybersecurity advisory practice in 2017. He is committed to giving back to the South Florida community.

IBM Senior Cyber Security Advisor, Certified Information Systems Security Professional, Founder/Moderator for “SecRT”, regional CISO/Security Leader Round Table groups across the US (1,300+ Security Executive Members).   Author, frequent National public speaker and moderator, FBI InfraGard committeeman, NASCIO committee member, and recognized subject matter expert in Security and Threat Intelligence, Identity Access Governance, and Authorization. Past Consulting roles include: Lead architect for many of the world’s largest authentication and authorization infrastructures, including two of the 1st Billion user authentication infrastructures. Champion of regularly scheduled cybersecurity threat simulation exercises, training and education.

Captain Larry Kraus has been in law enforcement for over 20 years and is currently serving as the Director of Intelligence-Led Policing for the Pasco Sheriff’s Office. Inspector Kraus began his law enforcement career with the Florida Highway Patrol where he served in multiple roles to include being assigned to a joint taskforce at the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC). Inspector Kraus served as a Senior Counterterrorism Analyst in NCTC’s Operational Intelligence Branch (OIB), responsible for maintaining 24/7 global terrorism situational awareness by independently researching and analyzing raw intelligence reporting, while maintaining awareness of current threats. Prior to being assigned to the NCTC Operations Center, Inspector Kraus served as a Task Force Officer and Senior Counterterrorism Analyst for the Interagency Threat Assessment and Coordination Group (ITACG) and the Joint Counterterrorism Awareness Team (JCAT). 

Colonel J. Carlos Vega, a retired US Army officer, Executive, and Board Member, brings an exceptional synthesis of strategic leadership, governance, risk, and compliance (GRC), cybersecurity expertise, and an unparalleled ability to drive collaboration. His significant public and private sector roles mark a career as a strategic leader, advisor, innovator, and team builder in national and cyber security. Colonel Vega serves as the Chief Evangelist for the Military Cyber Professionals Association, a non-profit dedicated to serving those who serve our nation.

With substantial experience as a CISO, CIO, CxO, and CTO, Colonel Vega possesses a profound breadth of executive leadership and cybersecurity knowledge. His operational expertise and visionary outlook have been vital in shaping robust cybersecurity policies and fostering an organizational culture of compliance and diligent risk management across diverse regulatory landscapes.

Chris has 20+ years of experience in Information Technology. He draws from a diverse experience, from System Administration managing diverse server environments for a multi-billion dollar oil refinery to Data Protection designing solutions incorporating storage, virtualization and cloud-based infrastructure to provide a complete data protection & availability strategy. 

Chris works side by side with organizations, helping them create and execute a strategic and visionary plan to Modernize, Automate and Transform IT, as well as the people and policies within the business. In this way Chris helps organizations to be successful in this rapid-fire and fast-paced digital/IoT era. 

Randy Pestana is responsible for managing the institutes cyber-related partnerships to include U.S. Departments of Commerce, Defense, Homeland Security, Labor, State, and Veterans Affairs, the Organization of American States (OAS), and numerous industry partners across the cybersecurity community. His technical specialization is in International Relations with focuses on U.S. foreign policy, security studies, and cybersecurity. Most of his work has been linked to cybersecurity education, training, and workforce development, as well as international security threats facing the United States and its partners and allies. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor for the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs and Honors College. Prior to joining FIU, Mr. Pestana attended the Platoon Leader’s Course in Quantico, Virginia for the United States Marine Corps where he received a favorable evaluation and top five ranking by his peers as a Candidate Platoon Sgt. and most recently served as a recruiting assistant where he helped train recruits prior to their departure to basic training.