SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Dmitriy Ayrapetov, VP, Product Management

Prior to Delinea, Dmitriy held product leadership and engineering roles at SonicWall, focusing on the latest threats in networks, email, and remote access. As a cybersecurity expert, he is a regular presenter at industry conferences and events as well as at security channel events. Dmitriy holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkeley and a BA in Cognitive Science at U.C. Berkeley.

Zach Bastarache, Vice President of Business Development – Technology, inSpring

Experienced business development professional with a passion for value and creating lasting partnerships. In my current endeavor with inSpring I’ve found my ‘why’. Today I have one goal in mind, and that is to help as many international US educated graduates find US employment before their education visa expires(60 days post graduation date). My family like many in the US were immigrants and had to work their way up the social, academic, and corporate ladder. Crazy thing is, immigration policy has only made it harder in the past 50 years to come and STAY in the US post higher education. We’re here to change that. Skilled in Negotiation, Sales, Software Industry, and Management. Strong IT professional with a Bachelor’s Degree focused in Business from Babson College. 

Ben Burkholder, Sr. Sales Engineer, Exabeam

Ben Burkholder is a senior sales engineer at Exabeam, hailing from Cleveland, OH. Ben is focused helping customers improve their detection and response capabilities and providing thought leadership on interesting security challenges. When time allows Ben enjoys time on two wheels or overclocking computers with custom water-cooling loops for gaming. Ben holds a Masters in IT Management with a minor in Information Security and Digital Forensics and served ten years with the Army, where he once went rafting on the Nile River.

Christopher Clai, Director, Information Security, Green Thumb Industries

Christopher is the Director of Information Security for Green Thumb Industries, and a Board Member of the Cannabis ISAO from Chicago, IL. Chris has more than 20 years of experience in Information Technology spanning Management, Security Engineering, Systems Administration, and Development. They currently hold a Masters’ in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance from Western Governors University, along with 30 various IT-related certifications. Chris got their start in IT at the age of 13 in internet radio and website development. From there, they worked in various industries including MSPs, healthcare, finance, legal, and retail. Beyond their professional career, Christopher works to mentor and support the growth of others in Information Technology, speaks at conferences, and writes blogs about Information Security and DE&I.

Michael Corvo, Regional Sales Director- Midwest, Pentera

Michael, native to Chicago with his wife and two children, has been in technology sales for 10+ years. As a member of Pentera, Michael partners with organizations to validate and enhance their security programs through continuous and automated pentesting. 800+ global organizations partner with Pentera to validate their current investments and drive efficiency and efficacy of their security tools.

Stella Danso, Global Sr. Director, Security Governance, Risk, Compliance and Privacy, Expedia Group

Stella is a versatile high performing Cybersecurity and Technology leader with recognition as a transformational change agent, talent, and coalition builder, who performs well in strategic environments with a high volume of change.

Stella is skilled in designing and executing enterprise-scale information security, technology, and business transformation initiatives in the CPG, QSR, Retail, Sales and Marketing, Telecommunications, Insurance, Finance, and Investments industries.

She has proven leadership managing delivery teams within the areas of people, project, process management, client relations, vendor management, and C level engagement. She has an innate ability to partner with a diverse set of stakeholders to enable businesses to reach new heights on their path to digital distinction and innovation.

Specialties include: People Leadership (direct and matrix), Stakeholder Relationship Management, Information Security Management & Governance, Enterprise Risk Management, Policy and Standards Development, Vendor Risk Management and Contract Negotiations, Technology Risk Management, Training and Awareness, Regulatory Compliance and Data Privacy Enablement, IT Controls and SOX Testing, Auditing, and Compliance, Application Security, NIST CSF, ISO 27001/2 Frameworks, Global, Federal, and state regulations – GDPR/CCPA/HIPAA/SOX/PCI DSS/SOC I & II, Data Discovery and Data Protection – BigId, Email Security – Proofpoint, Security Ratings – Security Scorecard, GRC Platforms (RSA Archer, ServiceNow, OneTrust), Information Technology, Cloud Security, Risk Committees, Strategy, Planning and Program Execution, Enterprise Portfolio Management, Program and Project Delivery, Mergers/Acquisition Transition and Transformations, Global PMO Development and Management, Global Operations Leadership, Organizational Change Management, Budgeting and SAP Financial Management

Jeffrey Deakins, CISO, Marmon Holdings, Inc.

As the first CISO for Marmon (28,000+ employees), I have designed, built, and implemented a new strategic cybersecurity program in partnership with our executive team, internal audit, and IT Teams. As a highly skilled and experienced CISO, I have a proven track record of success in implementing and managing security strategies to protect organizations from cyber threats. I deeply understand industry best practices, regulatory compliance, and the latest security technologies. I am a strategic thinker with strong leadership skills, able to inspire and guide teams to achieve common goals. My ability to communicate complex security concepts to non-technical stakeholders has helped me to build strong relationships across the organization. I am excited to connect with other security professionals and continue to learn and grow in my field.

I hold two master’s degrees in Information Technology and a CISM and CISSP certification.

Technical Products: SentinelOne (EDR), Azure (Cloud), ProofPoint (Email Filtering), Cisco Umbrella (URL Filtering), Workday, Salesforce (CRM), Okta (IAM/MFA), BitSight, Power Automate (RPA), Nessus, KnowBe4 (Phishing), Wombat (Phishing), ServiceNow, Active Directory, Microsoft Security Products (Security E5), Python, SQL Server, NIST CSF, CIS 8.0, and much more.

Chris Gruel, Senior Solutions Architect, Akeyless

Chris Gruel is an enterprise technology veteran with over 20 years of experience. The majority of his career was as a software engineer for the largest home improvement retailer in the US. During his tenure, he contributed towards their digital transformation and was integral in the company’s move towards containerization. Now at Akeyless, his mission is to empower organizations to keep their secrets secure.

Victor Hsiang, CISO, GATX

Victor Hsiang is an accomplished Information Security, Risk and IT Professional with over 19 years of experience working within the Financial Services and Healthcare sectors. He has an established track record of delivering successful IT and Information Security solutions that manages risk while supporting business requirements. His experience includes implementation of technology, security audits, risk assessments, information records management, privacy concerns, compliance and legal issues related to security, forensics, security practices and policy development. He currently leads the Information Security program at GATX Corporation.

Kyle Joerger, Information Security Risk Manager, ABN AMRO Clearing USA LLC

Kyle Joerger is an information security professional with 10 years of experience in risk management, IT audit, vulnerability management, and security consulting. He has worked in several industries, including healthcare, life sciences, financial services, insurance, and municipalities. Kyle has extensive experience in gap and risk assessments for various IT controls such as access control, identity and access management, application controls, and physical and operational security measures. He has also managed a global manufacturing cybersecurity program and developed security training for Fortune 500 clients on situational awareness, workplace violence mitigation, legislation, and business continuity.

Kyle currently serves as an Information Security Risk Manager at ABN AMRO Clearing USA LLC on the Information & Operational Risk Management team, where he specializes in information security and supporting operational risk activities. Kyle is responsible for ensuring successful implementation and oversight of the firm’s information security key risks and controls and enhancing the risk culture. He has also supervised cross-functional teams and collaborated with executive leadership to advance enterprise-wide cybersecurity programs. Kyle is well-versed in cybersecurity trends and identifying and promoting cross-collaboration across enterprise teams.

Michael Kaunitz, Sr. SASE Solutions Specialist, Cloudflare

Michael is a veteran networking professional who started his career as a network engineer and took his technical background as a customer and applied it to many different vendor roles in the Internet space. In 2015 he became enamored with the concepts of Zero Trust and has spent the past 7 years evangelizing these concepts and helping customers on their Zero Trust journeys.

MJ McSheehy, Director of Information Security/CISO, Addison Group

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECURITY leader skilled in MENTORING STAFF and TRANSFORMING INFORMATION SECURITY AND SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY for organizations in highly regulated sectors. Deeply skilled, adaptable, and creative in meeting risk and compliance objectives in INFORMATION SECURITY, INFORMATION SECURITY OPERATIONS, CYBERSECURITY AND SYSTEMS ARCHITECTURE/ENGINEERING, INFORMATION SECURITY POLICIES/PROCEDURES, COMPLIANCE, and more.

Strengths Assessment Results: IDEATION – STRATEGIC – RESTORATIVE – ADAPTABILITY – INPUT – DELIBERATIVE – RELATOR – CONNECTEDNESS – DEVELOPER – BELIEF

Education: MBA, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Certification: Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP); Information Technology Infrastructure Library V3 Foundations (ITIL V3).

Derek Milroy, Information Security, U.S. Cellular

Derek has been implementing security in corporate environments, as both an internal employee and a consultant, for five years. Although he has implemented firewalls, IDSs, and VPNs for various employers and clients he focuses heavily on securing Microsoft hosts and Domain structures. He has hardened hundreds of hosts in environments ranging from less than a dozen servers to enterprise environments with over 1000 servers and thousands of users. In conjunction with hardening he has also crafted and implemented standards, policies, and procedures to maintain the security of his employer’s / client’s environments.

Liz Ogunti, Chief Information Security Officer, JBT Corp. 

Senior Manager of IT Security and Compliance, molded by 20 plus years of IT/Information security experience I have become a thought leader with the ability to translate technical jargon to a variety of audiences. This is a major benefit in building relationships with clients and stakeholders. Reliance on my experiences, successes as well as lessons learned, to overcome challenges and to bring knowledge, improvement, and success to my career and organizations. 

Christina Payton, Vice President Information Technology & Security, Huse Culinary, Inc.

Christina has over 25 years of experience in Information Technology ranging from help desk support to project management.

In her current role Christina is responsible for all the technology systems and devices that it takes to run the business. This includes account management, physical and data security, point-of-sale, computers, phone systems, cameras, access systems, data storage, and project management across the company.

Cristina is a 1989 graduate of Madison-Grant High School in Fairmount Indiana. She moved to Indianapolis in 1991, where she met and married her husband and raised their two children. When not working at one of Huse’s 6 locations, she enjoys spending time watching her daughter play softball or enjoying time at the lake with her husband and children. 

Tim Poffenbarger, Director of Solutions Architecture, GitLab

Tim is passionate about identifying ways to shift IT culture to be more focused on automation, metrics-gathering, and sharing measurements and processes in the hopes to accelerate the rate at which business partners realize value from the solutions developed.

Tim is a senior-level software engineer, currently serving as manager of a pre-sales engineering team that spans 4 continents. His career has spanned across the Infrastructure, System Administration, Software Development, and Data Analytics worlds.

Most recently, Tim is operating as a pre-sales leader of people in the commercial segment of GitLab’s business and helping customers and prospects articulate their business initiatives and current pain points while aligning the GitLab product offering to help achieve those initiatives and remediate the source of their pains.

Nicholas Opas, VP, Information Security Officer, Peoples Bank

Nick Opas has been an Information Security Officer in the community banking industry for 6 years. His experience in the financial industry includes managing and implementing Information Security Programs, overseeing IT Operations, and Risk Management programs. He also manages Business Continuity and Vendor Management Programs and has experience managing Physical Security.

Nick recently passed the Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) exam and has received confirmation of the certification. 

Trent Ridgway, Head of Cloud Infrastructure & Security / Senior IT Project Manager, Anning-Johnson Company

Senior Cloud Security Engineer with delivering corporate Business & IT solutions. My role encompasses the entire project management cycle and the execution of key tasks. My role assists direct support of business revenue objectives and cost-saving measures. I have successfully eliminated 100% of on-premise server infrastructure for business and operate 100% in the cloud and SASE partners. Had zero impact on business productivity and downtime when moving to a work-from-home model overnight for the pandemic.

Raum Sandoval, CISO, Entara 

Raum Sandoval is an experienced professional and CISO with a passion for technology and a strong interest in maintaining human interaction/touch in a digital world. As CISO of Entara, a security-first eXtended Service Provider, Raum Sandoval is responsible for continually advancing Entara’s security posture. He supports the firm as it evolves as an XSP and supports the integration of various security products and services, as well as governance, risk, and compliance platforms, for both Entara and customers alike.

With over 15 years of experience managing and supporting IT for hundreds of companies globally, Raum has worked across multiple sectors with small and medium-sized businesses as well as Fortune 500 companies. Through his work, he puts businesses in the position to scale and grow, while keeping security at the forefront. Raum’s background includes a diverse expertise in Systems, Network, and Cloud Architecture, which gives him an edge in being able to set forth real-world policies as well as effective adherence and compliance to those policies.