Speakers & Panelists

Colin Ahern was appointed by Governor Kathy Hochul in June 2022 as New York’s first chief cyber officer. In this role, he led the development of the state’s first-ever cybersecurity strategy and leads cross-agency efforts to protect New York State from cyber threats. Prior to joining state service, Ahern served as first deputy director of New York City Cyber Command and acting chief information security officer of New York City. He worked in cybersecurity in financial services before joining New York City government.

Ahern began his career in the Army, enlisting in the reserves after 9/11 and later served on active duty as an Army officer, deploying twice to Afghanistan. He was promoted to multiple leadership roles and ended his Army career as a company commander in the Army Cyber Brigade, where he oversaw the creation of a specialized cyberspace operations organization. His military awards and decorations include the Bronze Star, the Meritorious Service Medal, and the Knowlton Award.

Ahern has taught at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, and is a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations. His academic and professional writing has been widely published, including by the Advanced Computing Systems Association and the Association for Computing Machinery. Ahern earned a bachelor's degree from Tulane University and a Master of Business Administration from New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Ahern lives with his wife and two children in Brooklyn.

Lerzan Aksoy is dean, George N. Jean Ph.D. chair and professor of marketing at Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business. From 2015 to 2022 she served as Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies and Strategic Initiatives.

She is the 2022 recipient of the American Marketing Association’s Christopher Lovelock Career Contributions to the Services Discipline Award for teaching, research, and service that has had the greatest long-term impact on the development of the services discipline. This is the highest award presented in the field of service marketing.

She is author of the NY Times bestseller, ”The Wallet Allocation Rule” and author/editor of four other books on customer loyalty. Her research has been published in top tier journals in marketing (e.g., Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Academy of Marketing Science, and Journal of Interactive Marketing), strategy (e.g., Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review) and service research (e.g., Journal of Service Research and Journal of Service Management). Her research has received more than a dozen prestigious awards, including:

• Marketing Science Institute/H. Paul Root Award from the Journal of Marketing for the most significant contribution to the advancement of the practice of marketing.
• Citations of Excellence "Top 50" Award (top 50 management papers of approximately 20,000 papers reviewed that year) from Emerald Management Reviews.
• Robert Johnston Outstanding Paper Award (3 times) from the Journal of Service Management
• Next Gen Disruptive Innovation Award

She currently serves on the Academic Council of the AMA (American Marketing Association) which oversees the academic programming of the association.  She will serve as president of the Academic Council beginning in 2024. Professor Aksoy served as co-chair of AMA SERVSIG (American Marketing Association - Service Special Interest Group) from 2014 - 2018 and worked with Filene Research Institute from 2012 - 2016, and 2021 to present conducting research with US credit unions.

Professor Aksoy is a Fulbright scholar. She received a Ph.D. in marketing from the Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, an M.B.A. from George Mason University, and a B.S. in Business Administration from Hacettepe University (Ankara, Turkey).

Robert (Rob) Bair is CISO in residence at Zscaler. Prior to Zscaler, he served 20 years as an officer in the United States Navy. He served in two Presidential Administrations on the National Security Council.

Lisa Black is the former chief deputy county executive in Suffolk County, NY. For nearly eight years she managed the daily operations of a government that served 1.5 million residents with a $4 billion budget and a workforce of approximately 12,000 county staff. Black has over two decades of public sector experience, serving in both Albany and New York City for two Senate majority leaders and later for two NYC mayors. Black was also a member of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's administration serving as director of intergovernmental affairs and senior advisor for transportation & infrastructure at the NYS Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services.

In 2024, Black launched her public affairs consultancy, Elevate238 LLC, advising organizations on strategic planning and public impact. Black joined Aeon Nexus Corporation earlier this year, consulting for their public sector clients across the U.S. Committed to enhancing justice through innovative government technology solutions, Black works with Aeon’s JusticeNexus product, a legal case management solution that delivers a single, secure, centralized, cloud-based system to public sector entities. 

Geoff Brown is currently the CEO of Silobreaker. Prior to this role, he served as Arete Incident Response’s president and chief operating officer where he spearheaded strategic growth by enhancing interoperability within the broader risk, cybersecurity, technology, services, and government sectors. Prior to Arete, Brown was with Recorded Future and led efforts to deliver the company’s premiere intelligence cloud offering to global governments. 

Between 2016 and 2022, Brown was chief information security officer for the City of New York, a position focused on cybersecurity and aggregate information risk across all 100+ NYC departments and agencies. In July 2017, Mayor de Blasio established New York City Cyber Command, an agency founded and led by Brown, reporting to City Hall, and charged with consolidating and leading the City’s enterprise cybersecurity strategy, inclusive of building NYC Cyber Command itself, and through this new agency setting Citywide cybersecurity policies; directing response to cyber incidents; rationalizing the City’s cybersecurity spend and cyber defense technology footprint, and advising City Hall, agencies and departments on the City’s overall cyber defense. Brown also created the City’s first public-facing cybersecurity initiative, called NYC Secure, wherein the City brought enterprise cybersecurity capabilities to everyday New Yorkers in a privacy respecting way. 

For five years Brown has been a member of the Aspen Institute Cybersecurity Working Group, having co-authored Aspen’s publication on cyber defense assistance for Ukraine. He has been a visiting professor with the Middlebury Institute of International Studies Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies department, an advisor for New York University’s Cybersecurity and Risk Strategy program, and has previous experience in financial services and formative experience in intelligence with the U.S. Federal Government, including with the 9/11 Commission.

Maria Chano is an AI and cybersecurity strategist supporting the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) through her current role as a federal contractor with ICF. A former federal employee with CISA, she brings government and industry experience, focusing on integrating artificial intelligence into national cybersecurity efforts.

A proud Fordham University alumna, Chano earned a Master’s in Cybersecurity and an Advanced Certificate in Data Science for Cybersecurity, along with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning certifications from UT Austin and UC Berkeley.  As an assistant director at Fordham Center for Cybersecurity & AI, she taught AI for Cybersecurity courses to students and faculty at Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) and high school learners, focusing on accessibility and workforce development.

Chano’s work spans AI-powered threat detection, blockchain fraud analysis, secure software development, and ethical hacking using large language models. She is also dedicated to inclusive cybersecurity education, developing learning pathways for underrepresented communities and K–12 students.

Harold Chun is the director of security legal at Google, where he manages a team of attorneys and investigators involved in protecting Google and its users through law.  In this capacity, he provides legal counsel to Google's cybersecurity, user-safety and physical security teams on a broad range of topics such as nation-state cyber threats, infrastructure security, software vulnerability research, child-safety efforts, AI security and preventing real-world imminent harms. Due to the nature of the work, his team interacts regularly with domestic and international law enforcement and national security agencies. Prior to Google, he served as a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice as both an assistant United States attorney in the Southern District of California, focused on transnational organized crime and narcotics cases, and as senior counsel at the DOJ's Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS), where he prosecuted complex cybercrimes, conducted international trainings and advised on domestic and international cybersecurity issues such as encryption, electronic surveillance and cybercrime. He also is an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California, where he teaches a course on cybercrime and cybersecurity.  

Steve Coll was dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where he also served as the Henry R. Luce Professor of Journalism until 2022. A staff writer for The New Yorker, he served as the president and CEO of the New America think tank from 2007 to 2012.

Coll is the recipient of two Pulitzer Prize awards, two Overseas Press Club Awards, a PEN American Center John Kenneth Galbraith Award, an Arthur Ross Book Award, a Livingston Award, a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, a Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award, and the Lionel Gelber Prize.

Louis Crisostomo serves as assistant general counsel, Cyber with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington D.C., covering major cyber criminal investigations, private sector engagement, cybersecurity incident response, innovative technical operations, and commercial data governance. Before joining the FBI, he served for a decade as a federal prosecutor with the United States Department of Justice, both as an assistant U.S. attorney and with the Criminal Division at Main Justice. Crisostomo is a graduate of Notre Dame Law School and the University of Wisconsin.

Sumon Dantiki is a partner in the Special Matters & Government Investigations practice at King & Spalding who focuses on sensitive, multi-dimensional investigations, disputes, and counseling often with cyber or national security implications. A former federal prosecutor and senior cyber/national security counselor, Sumon helps clients prevent and address critical risks to their business interests, including internal investigations, data breaches, insider threats, acquisition and cross-border investment due diligence and compliance, ransomware attacks, whistleblower complaints, and fraud.   

Prior to joining King & Spalding, Dantiki served in several senior roles at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), most recently as senior counselor to the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In this role, he regularly counseled FBI leadership on the most sophisticated nation-state, cyber, insider, and espionage threats facing the country. This included assisting the director of the FBI in his oversight of intelligence and criminal investigations and responses as well as working with the National Security Council, and other intelligence, law enforcement, and security agencies in responding to data breaches, insider threats, economic espionage, foreign investment risks, ransomware attacks, and other major security threats. Dantiki routinely helped oversee responses to congressional committees, the inspector-general's office, and other oversight bodies. He also served as special counsel to the assistant attorney general for National Security at DOJ and as a federal prosecutor within the DOJ Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section.

Dantiki has been named a "leading partner" for National Security by Legal 500 (2025) and one of the 500 Leading Global Cyber Lawyers (multiple years) by Lawdragon. Earlier in his career, he served as adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center (Cyber and National Security Threats) and as a judicial clerk to the Honorable Kenneth M. Karas in the Southern District of New York and the Honorable José A. Cabranes on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Michigan and holds a J.D. from Yale Law School where he won the Potter Stewart Prize.

Eman El-Sheikh, Ph.D. is a global award-winning leader with 30+ years of experience in AI, Machine Learning, and Cybersecurity. El-Sheikh serves as associate vice president and professor at the University of West Florida Center for Cybersecurity. She received over 
$26 million in competitive grants and several awards, including the 2024 GISEC Global Educator of the Year, 2024 Cybersecurity Woman of the World finalist, UWF Million Dollar Research Hall of Fame induction, and 2020 Women Leaders in Cybersecurity by Security Magazine. El-Sheikh leads several national initiatives, including the National Cybersecurity Workforce Development Program, CyberSkills2Work®, and received numerous grants to enhance cybersecurity education and workforce development. She launched the award-winning Cybersecurity for All® Program to enhance competencies and hands-on skills for evolving cybersecurity work roles. 

El-Sheikh has published several books, over 100 peer-reviewed articles, and given over 150 keynote and invited talks and presentations. She serves as a U.S.A. Ambassador on the Global Council for Responsible AI. She was part of the NSF/NSA Cyber-AI Project leadership team that developed AI-Cyber and Secure AI programs and curriculum for use by US universities. She teaches and conducts research related to the development, use, and evaluation of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Cybersecurity. El-Sheikh founded the Florida Women in Cybersecurity Affiliate and serves on its Advisory Board.  She holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science and AI from Michigan State University.

Anthony J. Ferrante is an expert in data security, compliance, privacy, and cybersecurity readiness, prevention, incident response, remediation, recovery, and complex investigation services.

He has more than 25 years of top-level cybersecurity experience, providing incident response and readiness planning to more than 1,000 private sector and government organizations, including more than 350 Fortune 500 companies and 90 Fortune 100 companies. He advises companies within the most regulated industries in the world, including large companies in finance and technology on their toughest cybersecurity challenges, from regulation and legislation enforcement (including DFARS, HIPAA, ITAR, GDPR, CCPA, NYDFS, and PCI DSS) to expert witness litigation.

Ferrante maintains first-hand operational knowledge of more than 60 criminal and national security cyber threat sets, and extensive practical expertise researching, designing, developing, and hacking technical applications and hardware systems, allowing for unparalleled client advisory and support in complex investigations and litigation.

Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Ferrante served as director for cyber incident response at the U.S. National Security Council at the White House, where he coordinated U.S. response to unfolding domestic and international cybersecurity crises and issues. Building on his extensive cybersecurity and incident response experience, he led the development and implementation of Presidential Policy Directive 41 – United States Cyber Incident Coordination, the federal government’s national policy guiding cyber incident response efforts.

Before joining the National Security Council, Ferrante was chief of staff of the FBI’s Cyber Division. He joined the FBI as a special agent in 2005, assigned to the FBI’s New York Field Office. In 2006, he was selected as a member of the FBI’s Cyber Action Team, a fly-team of experts who deploy globally to respond to the most critical cyber incidents on behalf of the U.S. Government.

Ferrante was an adjunct professor of computer science at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, where he served as the founder and co-director of the Master’s of Science in Cybersecurity program. During his time at Fordham University, he served as the co-director of the undergraduate and graduate cybersecurity research program.

Ferrante is a member of the Ethics & Integrity Committee at Cellebrite, and a member of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Centre for Cybersecurity, where he works to strengthen digital trust and promote the responsible development of technology.

He received the 2019 Global Leaders in Consulting award for his Excellence in Execution from Consulting magazine and has been recognized as a Data Expert by Who’s Who Legal (2021-2024), and in the global-wide Cybersecurity Risk, Crisis & Risk Management Chambers & Partners 2021-2023 guides. The Consulting Report named him one of the Top 25 Technology Consultants and Leaders of 2023.

In August 2019, Ferrante summited Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa and the highest single free-standing mountain in the world. In November 2022 and 2023, he ran and completed the TCS New York City Marathon.

Ferrante holds a B.S. and an M.Sc. in Computer Science from Fordham University. In addition, he has earned a Certificate in Cybersecurity: The Intersection of Policy and Technology from Harvard University; and a Certificate in Cybersecurity Strategy from Georgetown University.

Stephenie Gosnell Handler is a partner in Gibson Dunn’s Washington, D.C. office, where she is a member of the International Trade and Privacy, Cybersecurity, and Data Innovation practices. She advises clients on complex legal, regulatory, and compliance issues relating to international trade, cybersecurity, and technology matters. Gosnell Handler’s legal advice is deeply informed by her operational cybersecurity and in-house legal experience at McKinsey & Company, and by her active-duty service in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Gosnell Handler is regularly recognized for her excellence in the field, most recently being named to Financier Worldwide Magazine’s “Power Players: Foreign Investment & National Security 2025 – Distinguished Advisers” report. In 2024, Lawdragon named her to their “500 Leading Global Cyber Lawyers” and “100 Leading AI and Legal Tech Advisors” list. She also was recognized in Foreign Investment Watch’s “Top Advisors” list for 2024 and 2025, which highlights “top advisors who provide advice and counsel concerning foreign investment and national security in the U.S. and abroad.”

Gosnell Handler returned to Gibson Dunn as a partner of the Washington, D.C. office after serving as director of cybersecurity strategy and digital acceleration at McKinsey & Company. In this role, she led development of the firm’s cybersecurity strategy and advised senior leadership on public policy and geopolitical trends relating to cybersecurity, technology, and data. Stephenie managed a team of experienced professionals responsible for the firm’s cybersecurity strategic initiatives, cybersecurity standards and certifications program, lifecycle governance initiatives, data analytics and optimization, and digital acceleration efforts across the cyber domain. She previously led McKinsey’s in-house cybersecurity legal team, where she advised on diverse global cybersecurity and technology matters, including strategic legal issues, data localization, regulatory compliance, risk management, governance, preparedness, and response. She frequently advised at the intersection of cybersecurity, technology, and data and export control and sanctions requirements.

Previously, Gosnell Handler was a senior associate at a leading international law firm, where she focused her practice on international trade matters including CFIUS, export controls, and sanctions, and cybersecurity matters across the cybersecurity risk management and incident lifecycle, including assessments, incident response preparedness, incident response, regulatory compliance, transactional due diligence, and regulatory enforcement actions.

Gosnell Handler began her legal career at Gibson Dunn, where she focused on international trade, cybersecurity, and transactional matters. She earned a J.D. from Stanford University in 2011, an M.A. from Georgetown University, and a B.S. from the U.S. Naval Academy, both in 2001.

Prior to attending law school, Stephenie served as officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, where she focused on logistics and political-military affairs during her seven years of active duty service.

Diba Hadi, Ph.D., serves as the principal director of the Cyber Academic Engagement Office within the Department of Defense (DoD), Office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO). In this leadership role, Hadi directs strategic initiatives to strengthen academic partnerships, expand cybersecurity education, and enhance workforce development across the Department and the broader national security community.

With extensive experience in cybersecurity, information technology, and digital transformation, Hadi has been instrumental in advancing the DoD’s efforts to address emerging threats and leverage new technologies. She is a champion for innovative approaches to cyber education and a key advocate for integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into cybersecurity training and operations.

Hadi’s career spans senior leadership roles within defense, intelligence, and academic sectors, where she has driven initiatives focused on workforce readiness, technological modernization, and cyber resilience. Her work emphasizes building a robust talent pipeline to meet evolving national security needs, particularly at the intersection of AI and cybersecurity.

Hadi holds advanced degrees in engineering and business administration, along with specialized executive education in cybersecurity leadership. Her vision and leadership continue to shape the future of cyber education and workforce innovation across the Department of Defense.

As CEO of STORM, Neil Hare-Brown has specialized in information risk and investigations for over 40 years working in law enforcement, military, and commercial sectors. As founder of the first commercial digital investigations team in the UK in 1996, and architect of the CyberCare Incident Response team, he has led thousands of investigations into a range of cybercrimes, negotiated many ransoms and recovered businesses from significant impact.

An innovator in information risk, Hare-Brown has developed several methodologies to assess cyber risk in a range of sectors with a key aim to support businesses to improve Cyber Risk Management Maturity (CRMM).

Thaier Hayajneh, Ph.D., university professor and founding director of the Fordham Center for Cybersecurity and AI at Fordham University, is a nationally recognized leader in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. With over two decades of experience, he has built a distinguished career at the intersection of research, education, and innovation.

Hayajneh has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications, with more than 5,000 citations, reflecting the broad impact of his work in areas such as IoT security, machine learning for threat detection, secure communications, and adversarial AI. His research has attracted more than $12 million in funding from prestigious agencies including the NSA, DoD, and NSF, supporting national initiatives in cybersecurity education, AI integration, and workforce development. 

Hayajneh earned a Ph.D. and M.S. in Information Sciences from the University of Pittsburgh, and holds a Professional Certificate in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence from UC Berkeley. A sought-after keynote speaker, educator, and mentor, he actively leads national workshops and training programs on AI for Cybersecurity, ethical hacking with large language models, and hands-on lab development. His work bridges theory and practice, helping public and private sector organizations prepare for the evolving cyber threat landscape.

Through his leadership, Hayajneh continues to shape the future of cybersecurity with strategic insight, impactful research, and innovative AI solutions.

Jason Healey is a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs specializing in cyber risk and conflict. He has taught and mentored hundreds of students who have gone onto careers at the White House, the finance sectors, civil society, and everywhere in between. Prior to Columbia, he was the founding director of the Cyber Statecraft Initiative of the Atlantic Council where he created the global “Cyber 9/12” student cyber-policy competition. He is the editor of the first history of conflict in cyberspace, “A Fierce Domain: Cyber Conflict, 1986 to 2012.”
A frequent keynote speaker on these issues, he is rated as a “top-rated” speaker for the RSA Conference and won the inaugural “Best of Briefing Award” at Black Hat.

Healey was a founding member of both the Office of the National Cyber Director at the White House (2022) and the first cyber command in the world, the Joint Task Force for Computer Network Defense in 1998, where he was one of the early pioneers of cyber threat intelligence. During an earlier job in the White House, he was a director for cyber policy, coordinating efforts to secure U.S. cyberspace and critical infrastructure. Heaaley created Goldman Sachs’ first cyber incident response capability and later oversaw the bank’s crisis management and business continuity in Asia. He served as the vice chair of the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC). He is on the review board of the DEF CON and Black Hat hacker conferences, served on the Defense Science Board task force on cyber deterrence, and is past president and founding board member of the Cyber Conflict Studies Association. He started his career as a US Air Force intelligence officer with jobs at the Pentagon and National Security Agency and is a certified board director (NACD.DC) and information systems security professional (CISSP).

Adam Hickey offers clients extensive experience in cybersecurity, sanctions, export controls, the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), criminal law, federal surveillance statutes, and other national security authorities.

Hickey draws on more than 15 years of experience at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) handling high-profile national security matters intersecting with the private sector. Prior to joining Mayer Brown, he was a deputy assistant attorney general (DAAG) of DOJ’s National Security Division (NSD) and an assistant United States attorney in the Southern District of New York (SDNY).

As an independent senior board adviser, Steve Hill leverages his extensive experience in national security and cyber security to help clients navigate complex risks in a globalised world. With over 30 years of experience in the UK government, Hill has tackled serious threats to national and international security such as terrorism, espionage and nuclear proliferation. In the National Security Secretariat of the UK Cabinet Office, he shaped and implemented aspects of UK cybersecurity policy. 

Hill also has corporate experience, having held senior executive roles as a managing director at Credit Suisse and UBS. He was responsible for overseeing and enhancing technology, cyber and third-party Risk management, as well as leading the global operational resilience and group CISO functions. Hill is a recognized thought leader and a senior visiting research fellow at King’s College, London. He is a member of the Dell Technologies Global Security and the Twine Security Advisory Boards, as well as a national security contributor for ABC News. He studied law and philosophy at Jesus College, Cambridge.

Amanda Houle is the chief of the Criminal Division for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Ms. Houle assumed that role in May 2025.

From 2015 to 2023, Houle previously served as an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, from 2020 to 2021 as Chief of the Narcotics Unit, and from 2021 to 2023 as chief of the National Security and International Narcotics Unit. Prior to returning to the Office, she held the position of partner at the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP.  Houle earned a B.A. from Barnard College and a J.D. from Fordham University, and has also served in public service as a law clerk to the Honorable Denny Chin in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and to the Honorable Cathy Seibel in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Frank Hsu is the Clavius Distinguished Professor and a professor of computer and information science at Fordham University. His research interests include interconnection networks, responsible AI, recommender systems, search engine optimization, and combinatorial fusion analysis (CFA), a ML/AI paradigm, with a variety of domain applications including information and cyber security, X-informatics, drug discovery, information retrieval, target tracking, ChIP-seq peak detection, equity ranking, risk management, and cognitive neuroscience.

Hsu received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is a life senior member of IEEE, an ExCom member of IEEE New York Section, and a fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences.

Sean Joyce is a principal in PwC’s Consulting Practice where he serves as the leader of the U.S. Cyber, Risk, and Regulatory business and the Global Cybersecurity and Privacy business.

With more than 26 years of service in the FBI—most recently as its deputy director with daily oversight of its 36,000 employees and its $8 billion budget—Joyce brings strong operational and leadership experience. Furthermore, he spearheaded several strategic initiatives that were an integral part of transforming the FBI into an intelligence-driven organization, including ‘next generation cyber’—a cross-organizational initiative to maintain the FBI’s world leadership in law enforcement and domestic intelligence.

Joyce has met regularly with congressional leaders, senior members of the White House National Security team, and Cabinet officials. Also, on a routine basis, he met with visiting dignitaries from nations throughout the world.

Joyce is a recipient of the Director of National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, the CIA Director’s Award, the DIA’s Director’s Award FBI Meritorious Medal, and the Presidential Rank Award.

A Boston native, he holds degrees from Boston College and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. 

Since 2022, Amit Kachhia-Patel has overseen the largest FBI computer intrusion program encompassing 100 personnel investigating nation state and criminal cyber threats. Kachhia-Patel has over 20 years of experience as an FBI special agent, having worked counterintelligence insider threat and cyber intrusion matters as a front-line investigator, program manager, as well as advisor to two FBI directors. He also has managed some of the largest cyber incidents to include Sony Pictures destructive malware attack, OPM and Anthem hacks. Kachhia-Patel holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Rutgers University. 

Brandon Kappus is an executive at Nisos, a human risk management firm offering OSINT-powered solutions that mitigate risks and stop threats to business and people. Kappus has 20 years of experience in intelligence-led security solutions, client strategy, and consulting. As chief of intelligence & solutions delivery at Nisos, he leads the company’s intelligence services, client success, and solutions engineering teams, ensuring high-impact delivery, client retention, and innovation across a dynamic threat landscape. In a past life, Kappus worked in the Foreign Service, building strategic relationships and capacity overseas. He resides in the greater Washington, D.C. area."

As SAC, Kissane oversees the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Kissane joined the FBI as a special agent in 2003 and has spent the bulk of his career in the New York Field Office. He was first assigned to investigate violent crime as a member of the New York Joint Bank Robbery Task Force. In 2009, he transferred to the New York JTTF and investigated terrorist threats to the United States from East Africa. He was promoted to supervisory special agent in 2014 and oversaw those investigations.

In 2017, Kissane was named the chief of a unit in the Counterterrorism Division at Headquarters that focused on terrorism matters originating in the Arabian Peninsula and Africa.

Kissane returned to New York in 2020 as an assistant special agent in charge, responsible for ensuring the office executed its national security mission to defeat foreign intelligence threats and activities.

Kissane was appointed chief of a China operations section in the Counterintelligence Division at Headquarters that covers intelligence services, technology transfer, and espionage. He also served as acting deputy assistant director of the division’s China Branch.

Kissane received the FBI Director’s Award for Excellence in the human intelligence program for his role on the team that located an operative wanted for his role in the 2000 USS Cole Attack.

Prior to joining the FBI, Kissane served in the U.S. Army and worked in banking and finance. He earned a bachelor’s degree in systems engineering from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a master’s degree in finance from the University of Colorado.

Matt Knight serves as VP security products at OpenAI, where he builds technology that creates asymmetric defensive advantage using AI. He previously served as chief information security officer and head of security for five years, leading OpenAI’s security, privacy, and IT engineering and research programs. He transitioned from his role as CISO back into research and development to drive broader transformation and impact of AI-powered defensive capabilities developed under his leadership of OpenAI's security programs.

Knight directs AI and security research to advance their respective sciences and capture their benefits. His teams at OpenAI are at the forefront of applying AI for cyber defense, leveraging AI to improve software security, enhance security operations, and address emerging threats. Additionally, Knight's program oversees the OpenAI Cyber Grant Program, whose mission is to improve cyber defense by supporting the research community and initiatives at the intersection of AI and cybersecurity.

Before joining OpenAI, Knight co-founded Agitator LLC, a startup focused on cybersecurity and radio frequency research. His expertise across the full spectrum of security informs his approach. He holds an engineering degree from Dartmouth and remains hands-on.

David Lashway is a partner at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C. where he leads the global cybersecurity, privacy, and national security practice. He is widely recognized as a leading adviser for crisis management, cybersecurity, data security incidents, misinformation, trade secret theft, and related investigation and litigation matters. With more than 25 years of experience, Lashway has advised a diverse range of private and public organizations on material cybersecurity incidents across almost every critical infrastructure sector. He has significant experience in addressing election security and misinformation-related issues and was deeply involved in the investigations into the 2016 and 2020 actions targeting various U.S. political parties. He has served as the lead lawyer advising on the legal response to operationally impactful malware for many Fortune 500 entities, and led the incident response, associated investigations and litigations for companies impacted by almost every significant global cybersecurity incident. He has earned numerous acknowledgements, including a Band 1 ranking in Chambers USA and Chambers Global for Privacy & Data Security: Incident Response and “Hall of Fame” recognition in Legal 500 for Cyber Law. Lashway is fluent in several key languages to national security work and is a sought-after speaker on such matters.

Jennifer Lavoie is the global head of public relations for technology at JPMorganChase, a leading global financial services firm. In her role, she leads external communications and public affairs for the firm's global technology organization, which is comprised of 63,000 colleagues and operates with an $18 billion budget.

Through her 15 years at the bank, Lavoie has held various roles, including media relations for corporate functions such as corporate responsibility, human resources, diversity, and legal affairs. She has also served as an anchor for JPMCtv, the firm's weekly news show and co-chaired the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Council for Communications and Events, as well as the Women on the Move Corporate Sector Network, a global business resource group dedicated to empowering women employees in the corporate sector.

Prior to joining JPMorganChase, Jennifer served as the Press Secretary to Nassau County Executive Thomas R. Suozzi and the administration. She has also worked in the marketing consulting and legal industries.

Lavoie holds a bachelor’s degree in literature and rhetoric from Binghamton University and a master’s degree with honors in war studies from King’s College London.

Brett Leatherman is assistant director for Cyber and the director of the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force. Under Presidential Policy Directive 41, the FBI is the lead cyberthreat response agency for the United States Government, and in this role, Leatherman serves as a senior executive managing the FBI’s strategy to impose cost on some of the most sophisticated cyber adversaries targeting U.S. interests. He earned a computer information systems degree from Cornerstone University and a Master's in Cybersecurity Risk Management from Georgetown University. Leatherman holds several widely recognized cyber certifications and speaks domestically and internationally on emerging national security and cyberthreats.

Mike Levine is an investigative reporter for ABC News. He has covered homeland security, law enforcement and intelligence-related matters for more than a decade. His reporting appears across the network’s platforms, from flagship TV programs like “World News Tonight with David Muir” and “Good Morning America” to ABC News Digital and ABC News Radio. Prior to joining ABC News in June 2013, Levine covered the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security for Fox News Channel, where he began his career in 2002.

From 2007 to 2009, Levine was a producer for "The Chris Matthews Show" on NBC. Levine received a bachelor's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in 2002.

In June 2024, Michelle Liu began to work in FBI Newark as the cyber program manager and Supervisor of the Criminal Cyber Program. Prior to this assignment, Liu was the cyber program manager over APT29 during one of the FBI’s most progressive and proactive times against the threat. Prior to working at Cyber Division, she led a counterintelligence squad in Philadelphia Division, where she spent the previous eight years working both CI and Cyber matters. Liu began her special agent career in 2010 in the FBI's El Paso Division where she conducted national security investigations. She also is one of the FBI’s certified crisis negotiators.  

AUSA David Malagold has been with the Department of Justice since 2002 and with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey since 2006.  He has been assigned to the Cybercrime Unit since 2019 and primarily investigates ransomware, network intrusions, and other sophisticated cybercriminal activity.

Tomás Maldonado is the chief information Security officer (CISO) at the National Football League (NFL), where he leads the League’s global information security strategy and operations, working across all 32 clubs and NFL-owned entities. With more than 25 years of experience, he has built and led cybersecurity programs across financial services, manufacturing, sports, and media.

Before joining the NFL, Maldonado was the CISO at International Flavors & Fragrances, where he led cybersecurity and technology risk during a period of major business transformation and multiple mergers and acquisitions. He previously held senior leadership roles at JPMorgan Chase, serving as executive director and CISO for the corporate sector, and at Goldman Sachs, where he was vice president in technology risk and helped establish its data loss prevention program. Earlier in his career, he held positions at Schroders, Ernst & Young, and Bloomberg LP.

Maldonado serves as an independent board director and advisor to several cybersecurity startups, including companies focused on AI security. In these roles, he supports founders with product-market fit, go-to-market strategy, strategic hiring, and risk governance.

Maldonado holds certifications including CISSP, CISM, CDPSE, and CRISC, and earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Fordham University.

Josh Margolin is the chief investigative reporter at ABC News. In 2011, he co-authored “The Jersey Sting,” a bestselling book about one of the biggest political corruption cases in American history. He leads breaking news and crime coverage for all programs and platforms of ABC News and produces investigative and long-form projects. He is the recipient of several prestigious awards which include Six Emmys, two Murrow Awards, as well the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News.

Peter (Pete) Marta is a partner in Goodwin’s Complex Litigation & Dispute Resolution group and Data, Privacy & Cybersecurity practice. He advises global organizations at the C-suite and board level on all aspects of responding to complex cybersecurity incidents, as well as on cyber and data risk management and governance, proactive cyber incident readiness, insider threats, regulatory strategy, and government and internal investigations. Leveraging decades of experience in government and the private sector, Marta helps clients navigate the rapidly evolving cybersecurity threat landscape, respond to a broad range of crises, and find practical solutions to complex problems.

Marta is recognized by the Legal 500 US, where clients praised him for his “calm demeanor” and “ability to communicate risk to senior management.”

Anna Mercado Clark, CIPP/E, CIPP/US, CIPM, FIP, is a partner at Phillips Lytle LLP and has extensive experience at the forefront of law and technology. She serves as the firm’s chief information security officer (CISO) and is a member of the firm’s Governing Committee, its executive governing body. She is co-leader of the firm’s Technology Industry Team, and serves as leader of the Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Team and e-Discovery Team, as well as co-leader of the Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Team. Clark specializes in cybersecurity, data privacy, AI-related compliance, transactions, and litigations, as well as complex e-discovery, digital forensics and complex commercial litigation.  With a wealth of experience, Clark advises and represents a diverse range of clients, including not-for-profits, government entities, law firms and organizations ranging from startups to regional and multinational organizations in the AI, technology, consumer, health care, insurance, education, manufacturing and financial industries. Clark also serves as an adjunct professor at Fordham University School of Law.  

Clark holds several prestigious ANAB-accredited credentials by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), including Certified Information Privacy Professional/Europe (CIPP/E); Certified Information Privacy Professional for the U.S. Private Sector (CIPP/US); and Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM). CIPP/E and CIPP/US are preeminent certifications for advanced concentration in European data protection laws and U.S. private-sector laws, standards and practices, respectively. The CIPM certification recognizes her ability to design, build and operate data privacy management programs that are compliant with privacy laws and regulations. She has also been designated as a Fellow of Information Privacy (FIP). The FIP designation signifies that she has demonstrated her comprehensive knowledge of privacy laws, privacy program management and essential data protection practices with significant data security and privacy experience in these areas. Clark is among a select group of individuals around the world who have received this designation.

In addition to her legal expertise, Clark is the Immediate Past President of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) and has served at various times on a combination of the following American Bar Association’s Science & Technology Section’s committees including: Cloud Computing Committee, Vice Chair; Membership and Diversity Committee, Vice Chair; Privacy and Computer Crime Committee, Co-Chair; Law School and Interdisciplinary Education Outreach Committee, Vice Chair.

Clark has received the Huntington Her Hero Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York City Bar Association and the Fordham University School of Law Moot Court Distinguished Alumni Award. She was also recognized in Crain’s New York Business Notable Women in Law publication. Additionally, she has been named to the AAPI Power Players list by Politics NY and amNY Metro, City & State’s Responsible 100, Above & Beyond Innovators, and Power of Diversity: Asian 100 lists, Lawyers of Color’s inaugural Nation’s Best List, Super Lawyers New York Metro list, and is a recipient of the Hon. Denny Chin ‘78 Alumni Award for Excellence in the Legal Profession from the Fordham University School of Law Asian Pacific American Law Student Association, among other honors. Clark is also a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and was named a Ponemon Institute Distinguished Fellow.

Carsten Meywirth has been the head of the cyber crime department of the Bundeskriminalamt (German Federal Criminal Police Office) since April 1st, 2020. After his police training with the Lower Saxony police force, he joined Bundeskriminalamt in 1987. In his more than 30 years of service, Meywirth has held various managerial positions in the central services and organized and general crime departments. From 2005, he managed numerous projects in the information technology department. In 2008, he took on the role of head of staff for the IT director. In addition, he headed the cyber crime group within the organized and serious crime department for three years and, from 2016, the central logistics tasks group in the central administration department. In October 2019, Meywirth was commissioned to set up the cyber crime department. Under his leadership, Abteilung Cyber Crime (Cybercrime Department) was founded on April 1, 2020 at Bundeskriminalamt.

John J. Miller is the chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst for CNN. Miller joined the network in 2022. He is a veteran award-winning journalist and experienced law enforcement and intelligence executive.

Prior to joining CNN, Miller served as deputy commissioner of intelligence & counterterrorism of the New York Police Department (NYPD). In that role, Commissioner Miller oversaw the Intelligence Bureau, the Counterterrorism Bureau, and the NYPD’s partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF). Miller is the former deputy assistant director of National Intelligence for Analysis overseeing programs to improve analysis across the US government’s 16 intelligence agencies.

Rafael Misoczki is a cryptographer at Meta. His areas of expertise are post-quantum cryptography (PQC), fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), privacy enhancing technologies (PET), conventional cryptography, and the application of these constructions to various use cases. Previously, he was a cryptographer at Google, co-maintainer of Google’s cryptography library, Tink, and the lead for storage encryption projects. He was a member of the PQC workgroup responsible for the migration of Alphabet to post quantum cryptography. Prior to that, he was a research scientist at Intel Labs, where he created Intel’s cryptography library, TinyCrypt, and led the post quantum cryptography migration efforts in the company. He is an active contributor to international standardization efforts on cryptography (NIST, ISO, IETF), and has dozens of scientific papers published and patents filed. Misoczki earned a Ph.D. from Sorbonne Universités, France, in 2013, with a thesis on efficient constructions for post-quantum cryptography.

Koji Nakao received his B.E. in Mathematics from Waseda University, Japan, in 1979. He spent his career at KDDI Laboratories, researching communication protocols and information security before shifting to cybersecurity at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) in 2004 and Yokohama National University in 2015. Since 2000, Nakao has played a pivotal role in several governmental security research projects and actively participated in international security standardization activities. His current research interests include IoT security, 5G security, and supply-chain security. Presently, he serves as a distinguished researcher at NICT, overseeing cybersecurity technology research, and as a visiting professor at Yokohama National University, focusing on IoT security research. From 2017 to 2024, he advised the Japanese Cabinet Secretariat on cybersecurity.

Florian Neukart, Ph.D. is a leading expert in quantum computing and artificial intelligence, currently serving as chief product officer and member of the Board of Management at Terra Quantum AG. In this role, he drives the company’s strategic vision and product development, shaping one of the world’s foremost quantum technology platforms. He also holds a professorship at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS), where he lectures on quantum computing and supervises cutting-edge research in the field.

With over two decades of experience at the intersection of advanced computing and applied science, Neukart has led multidisciplinary teams in both corporate and academic settings. Prior to joining Terra Quantum, he held senior technology leadership positions at Volkswagen Group, including overseeing the IT Strategy for Volkswagen Group, Region Americas, and serving as Director of Advanced Technologies and Chief Technology Officer at the Volkswagen Data:Lab, where he spearheaded initiatives in AI, quantum algorithms, and strategic IT innovation.

Neukart advises government and industry consortia on future technologies, serving on advisory boards including Quantum.Tech, the Quantum Strategy Institute, KI Park Berlin, and the Foundation for AI and Quantum Technologies. He was also a co-author of Germany’s National Roadmap for Quantum Computing and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Quantum Computing.

He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science with specialization in quantum computing and artificial intelligence, complemented by advanced degrees in physics, computer science, and information technology. His scientific contributions span multiple disciplines, from quantum simulation to space technology and policy. He has authored several books—including “Reverse Engineering the Mind and Humankind’s Hunger for Energy”—and most recently co-authored with philosopher Anders Indset the titles “Ex Machina: The God Experiment” and “The Singularity Paradox: Bridging the Gap Between Humanity and AI.” He also holds multiple patents in the field of quantum-enhanced computation. Neukart’s work is characterized by a unique blend of visionary thinking and technical rigor, with a focus on building bridges between fundamental research and real-world impact.

Jena Neuscheler is an associate security counsel at Google, where she advises teams responsible for detecting and defending against cyber-enabled malicious activity impacting Google platforms. Prior to joining Google, she served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Cybercrime & National Security Section of the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado.  In this role, Neuscheler investigated and prosecuted federal computer crimes, including offenses related to hacking and ransomware.

Erica Orden is a legal reporter for POLITICO, where she covers New York courts and law enforcement, with a focus on the federal prosecutors' offices in Manhattan and Brooklyn. She has reported primarily on the major public corruption investigations and prosecutions arising from those offices, and in recent years, she covered all four of Donald Trump's criminal and civil trials. Prior to joining POLITICO in 2023, she was a reporter at The Wall Street Journal and CNN.

Special Agent Thomas Parisi has over 12 years’ of experience working for the FBI.  He currently  is currently assigned to the New York City field office where he is responsible for investigating nation state computer intrusions.  With a background in computer science and cybersecurity, he is well-equipped to take on the challenge of investigating computer intrusions conducted by Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups. Throughout his time at the FBI, SA Parisi has not only investigated cybercrime, but has also assisted in counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal investigations.  Prior to becoming a special agent, SA Parisi worked as a computer scientist for the FBI where he won the Attorney General's Award for Excellence in Law Enforcement in 2016.

Evan Perez is a CNN senior justice correspondent based in the Washington, D.C. Bureau, reporting on legal, crime, and national security issues.

Perez previously principally covered the Russia investigation, helping to lead the team that covered the Department of Justice. Perez, along with CNN colleagues Jake Tapper, Carl Bernstein and Jim Sciutto, was awarded the White House Correspondents’ Association’s Merriman Smith Award in the broadcast category for their January 2017 report on how the intelligence community believed Russia had compromising information on then President-elect Trump.

When prosecutors filed criminal charges against the U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, and the first charges against the leader of the attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, Perez delivered the news first on CNN.

Before joining CNN, Perez led Justice coverage at the The Wall Street Journal, helping to break news on the complaint that sparked the federal investigation of former CIA Director David Petraeus, and the subsequent removal of an FBI agent in the case. In a dozen years at WSJ, he covered business beats on real estate, airlines, cruise lines, as well as Hurricane Katrina.

Perez began his career in Miami working as a reporter for the Associated Press. He was born in Belize City, Belize and studied journalism at the University of South Florida, Tampa.

Barbara M. Porco, Ph.D., has been a member of the accounting faculty at Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business for over 20 years. She currently holds the positions of associate dean of graduate studies and managing director of the Responsible Business Center. Throughout her career, she has received several prestigious awards, including the American Accounting Association’s Ethics in Accounting Excellence Award, the National Teaching Innovation Award from the American Accounting Association, and recognition as one of Poets & Quants’ 50 Best Undergraduate Business Professors

In addition to her doctoral degree, Porco possesses a post-doctoral master’s degree in sustainability and environmental management, along with a corporate sustainability and innovation certification from Harvard University, and the Wharton ESG Executive Certificate for Senior Leaders. She actively serves on the AICPA’s Assurance Services Executive Committee, the Sustainability Assurance and Advisory Task Force, and the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard Technical Working Group.

Prior to her academic positions, Porco was a tax director and audit supervisor in the financial service group at PricewaterhouseCoopers. She also is the author of “KPMG Ethical Compass: Integrity in Business,” a multi-series package of interactive instructional material that enables college professors to present ethics- related topics in their classrooms, including sustainability issues. The Ethical Compass has won multiple awards and has been adopted by faculty over 150 universities nationwide. Additionally, her textbook, “Sustainability Reporting and Disclosures,” is set to be published by McGraw-Hill in late 2025.

In April of 2025, Christopher G. Raia was named the assistant director in charge of the New York Field Office by FBI Director Kash Patel. He most recently served as a deputy assistant director in the Counterterrorism Terrorism Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Raia joined the FBI as a special agent in 2003 and reported to the Texas City Resident Agency, a satellite office of the Houston Field Office. He spent 10 years investigating violent crime, gangs, drugs, and white-collar crime at the resident agency and served as the coordinator of the Safe Streets Task Force.

In 2012, Raia reported to FBI Headquarters as a supervisory special agent to serve as a program manager in the International Terrorism Operations Section of the Counterterrorism Division. He oversaw all international terrorism cases in the Atlanta, Georgia; Dallas, Texas; Jackson, Mississippi; and Mobile, Alabama, field offices.

Raia was promoted in 2014 to senior supervisory resident agent at the Bryan/College Station Resident Agency of the Houston Field Office, where he oversaw all national security and programs. In 2020, he was named the assistant special agent in charge of the Houston Field Office’s Violent Crime Branch and then of its National Security Branch in 2021.

In 2023, Raia was selected to serve as the chief of staff for the executive assistant director of the National Security Branch at FBI Headquarters. Raia managed strategic initiatives, supervised executive staff, and directed communications projects. In addition, he coordinated major projects for external entities, such as Congress and the White House.

Raia was promoted to deputy assistant director in the Counterterrorism Division at Headquarters in 2024 and oversaw all international counterterrorism program-management for the FBI. He graduated from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and served as a Coast Guard officer in Florida before joining the FBI.

Jordan Rae Kelly is a senior managing director and the head of cybersecurity for the Americas at FTI Consulting. She has more than 15 years of experience coordinating incident response and managing cyber policy planning.

At FTI Consulting, Kelly advises clients on a broad range of cybersecurity and data privacy matters involving breaches, insider threats, intellectual property, crisis communications, vendor management, compliance, regulation, risk management, and forensic investigations.

Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Kelly served as the director for cyber incident response on the National Security Council at the White House. During her tenure there, she was responsible for both national incident response coordination, as well as management of the U.S. Government’s process for managing zero-day exploits. She was also a chief author of the National Cyber Strategy, the first of its kind in the United States in 15 years.

Before joining the National Security Council in 2017, Kelly served as chief of staff and chief of strategic initiatives in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Cyber Division, where she managed daily operations and strategic and policy planning for the FBI’s national cyber program. Prior to her 10-year tenure at the FBI, she was a law clerk in the Office of General Counsel at the Y-12 National Security Complex, a Department of Energy facility in Tennessee.

Kelly was named to Consulting magazine’s inaugural Women Leaders in Technology list, recognized in the Leadership category, and Global Investigation Review’s 2020 40 under 40 guide, which honors leading young investigations specialists from across the globe. She is a member of Women in Cybersecurity and Girls Who Code.

Kelly holds a bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest University and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Tennessee College of Law, where she served as an author and editor for Transactions: The Tennessee Journal of Business Law.

Marc Raimondi is the chief of staff to the executive director of the Silverado Policy Accelerator, a bipartisan think tank focused on national security, cybersecurity, ecological security, and trade policy. He also is the founder of LexStrat, LLC, a consulting firm specializing in government relations, communications, and international affairs. From 2014 to 2021, Raimondi served as the senior communications advisor and Department of Justice spokesman for all national security related matters including foreign and domestic terrorist incidents, mass shootings, cyber incidents, CFIUS, FARA, espionage and other critical issues. From 2016 to 2018, he was detailed to the White House as a special advisor and later, director of strategic communications at the National Security Council, supporting counterterrorism, intelligence, homeland security and cybersecurity efforts. Previously, he was director of global government relations at L3Harris and held senior communications roles at the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense. He began his career as a U.S. Army infantryman.

Terence G. Reilly entered on duty as a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2010. From 2010 through 2016, he was assigned to the Miami Field Office, where he investigated white-collar crime matters, specifically healthcare fraud and money laundering.

In 2016, he was promoted to supervisory special agent in the FBI’s Money Laundering Unit at FBI Headquarters in Washington, DC. In this capacity, he served as a program manager for the FBI’s money laundering program, ensuring FBI field offices effectively utilized federal money laundering statutes in investigations to disrupt and dismantle criminal organizations, with a primary emphasis on targeting money laundering facilitators.

In 2017, he was promoted to unit chief in the National Security Branch (NSB)—Executive Staff Section. In this role, he served as a senior member of the NSB executive assistant director's (EAD) staff, advising, supporting, and implementing strategic initiatives. He managed teams working on critical Strategic Information Technology Initiatives and led multiple special assignments directed by the EAD of NSB.

In 2019, he was selected as supervisory special agent of the Complex Financial Crimes squad in the Newark Field Office. In this role, he was responsible for the administration and oversight of resources and investigations for all Complex Financial Crimes in New Jersey.

In 2022, he was appointed assistant special agent in Charge of the Newark Field Office’s Cyber and Counterintelligence Programs, overseeing eight squads and approximately 130 personnel, including special agents, task force officers, analysts, and professional staff. Reilly integrated with the U.S. Intelligence Community, Department of Defense, foreign law enforcement, and private sector partners to lead multiple joint-sequenced operations targeting hostile nation-states and criminal organizations. He also has prioritized engagement with private sector and academic institutions, including hosting symposia at major universities to foster information-sharing and enhance collaboration on emerging cyber and counterintelligence threats.

Reilly holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Scranton and a Master’s of Business Administration from the University of Florida. Prior to joining the FBI, he was an audit manager for Deloitte & Touche LLP. He is a certified public accountant, licensed in the states of New York and New Jersey.

New York City Police Department Deputy Director Andrew Richardson has worked for the NYPD Intelligence Division for more than 12 years in a variety of roles in both a counterterrorism support and crime reduction capacity. He currently oversees analytical teams providing kinetic case assistance and written report production for varying law enforcement problem sets, including monitoring transnational criminal organization (TCO) threats, reducing drivers of long-term gun violence, and interdiction of domestic violent extremist (DVE/REMVE) actors in New York City and the surrounding areas.

Richardson earned a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and a Bachelor’s Degree in International Studies from American University (Washington, DC).

Elizabeth Rossi works on external affairs and governance for Google Quantum AI, facilitating initiatives to connect Google Quantum AI's research with industry leaders, policymakers, and the public. Before Google, Rossi consulted with the Department of Defense on the intersection of quantum computing and security strategy. She also gained her technical expertise as a physics researcher with the U.S. Army and a mathematician for U.S. intelligence. Rossi holds a B.S. in Physics from The George Washington University.

Fred Scalera is the director of program management and The Response Operations Group for the AT&T FirstNet Program. He is responsible for facilitating collaborative innovation with FirstNet users and Public Safety. Scalera has a long history of public safety service and innovation. He retired in 2008 as a deputy chief with the Nutley Fire Department in New Jersey. During his time with the Nutley Fire Department, Scalera was assigned to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office Arson Task Force. He was the first Fire Service Arson Investigator to attend a Police Academy. He served as an instructor at the Essex County Police Academy for over 25 years.  

During Scaler’s career with the Fire Service and Municipal Government he also became a Certified Fire Official. Other responsibilities included radio communications, the Township Information Technology Bureau and the Emergency Management coordinator. Scalera not only served his home township of Nutley, but also within Essex County as a deputy sheriff, the deputy director of the County Office of Emergency Management and the Hazardous Material coordinator. 

Scalera also served in the New Jersey State Legislature. He rose to be the deputy speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly and served as chairman of the Homeland Security Preparedness Committee. He also served as the bureau chief of interoperable communications and was responsible for NJ as one of the FirstNet Early Builder projects. 

Rob Schuett is the director of insider intelligence and investigations (i3) for DTEX Systems, the global leader for insider risk management. He has more than 20 years’ of experience in Cyber National Security as an FBI special agent and supervisory special agent, and in various technical and services roles at large public organizations. To close out his law enforcement career, Schuett was the lead case agent in the cyber espionage case against Su Bin, leading to the arrest and conviction of the Chinese cyber actor and co-conspirator Daniel Duggan. He has built and delivered numerous intelligence services across Mandiant, Google, and now DTEX Systems. Schuett has three children and is an advocate for parents with autistic children.

Michael Sikorski is an industry expert in reverse engineering and published the book “Practical Malware Analysis: The Hands-On Guide to Dissecting Malicious Software,” which has had over 100,000 copies distributed and teaches the tools and techniques used by professional analysts for malware analysis. He has over 20 years of experience working on high-profile incidents and leading research and development teams. He also teaches cybersecurity at Columbia University.

Sikorski works across the Palo Alto Networks product portfolio to fuel intelligence, guide innovation, and increase collaboration. At Unit 42, he leads the engineering and product management teams to drive the future of threat intelligence, security consulting, and managed services.

Prior to working at Unit 42, Sikorski worked at Mandiant as the vice president of Mandiant Advantage Labs and the FLARE team, where he led research and development, provided direction for a company platform, including threat intelligence, malware analysis, and validation products, and served as the technical lead on all external-facing firm releases. He also provided escalation support for incident response, red team engagements, engineering, marketing, and intelligence teams.

Previously, as a senior director, he expanded his team to include full software development capabilities and built a cloud-based scalable and flexible platform for binary analysis.

Sikorski also worked at the National Security Agency as a network vulnerability engineer and managed a team of eight computer scientists in the development of the host-based component of an active network defense system. He led the team of analysts that found the SolarWinds backdoor and briefed the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the U.S. Department of Defense after this discovery. He also contributed to the APT1 report.

Alixandra Smith is the chief of the Criminal Division for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and has held that position since May 2024. She has served as an assistant United States attorney since 2012 and has held a number of different leadership roles in the Office, including as deputy chief of the Criminal Division and as chief of the Business and Securities Fraud Section.  Prior to joining the Office, Smith clerked for the Honorable Julio Fuentes, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and the Honorable Faith Hochberg, United States District Court for the District of New Jersey; she also worked as an associate at two law firms in New York. Smith is an adjunct law professor at New York University School of Law and previously served as an adjunct law professor at Fordham Law School. She is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. 

Morgan Stern, Ph.D., serves as the technical lead for cryptography in the Secure Engineering Solutions Group of NSA’s Cybersecurity Directorate. He has more than 15 years of cybersecurity experience at NSA, with a particular interest in public key cryptography and quantum information science. He earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from University of Maryland, College Park.

Edward Stroz is a member of Consilience 360, LLC, a cyber risk consulting firm. Previously he founded Stroz Friedberg, an international digital forensics and cyber investigations firm, later sold to Aon plc in 2016. 

Stroz was an FBI supervisory special agent, where he specialized in white collar investigations and then formed their Computer Crime Squad in New York. Trained as an auditor, Stroz has extensive experience in investigations of white-collar crime, including financial fraud, and has testified numerous times as an expert witness. Stroz has a special expertise in using behavioral science insights for managing insider risk for institutional clients.  He is a former trustee of Fordham University, sits on the Board of Directors of the Citizens Crime Commission of NYC, and the Board of Directors of The Soufan Center.  He also is a member of the Board of Advisors of DiligentIQ and Clearspeed. He is a senior fellow of the Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement (PCCE) at the NYU School of Law.

Andrew Trombly is chief of the cybercrime unit at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, which he joined as an assistant U.S. attorney in 2019. He previously served as the Office’s National Security cyber specialist. Before joining the Office, Trombly practiced intellectual-property and appellate litigation at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr. He earned an A.B. from Harvard University and a J.D. from Boston College Law School. After law school, he clerked for the Hon. Paul Barbadoro of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire and the Hon. Robert Bacharach of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

Jason is a technologist and entrepreneur with over two decades of experience at the intersection of public safety, cybersecurity, and engineering. As a veteran FBI Cyber Special Agent, he investigated some of the largest national security and criminal cyber intrusion cases, gaining deep insight into the challenges facing modern public safety agencies. Now as the founder of ForceMetrics, Jason leverages his expertise in machine learning, data analytics, and software engineering to deliver scalable, data-driven solutions that empower public safety professionals to make more informed decisions and enhance community outcomes.

Amanda Walker is a senior leader in the field of security, privacy, and safety engineering at Google. She currently holds the position of senior director of engineering for security, privacy, and safety at the company. Walker has extensive experience in building APIs, services, and other components related to privacy infrastructure. As a software engineering manager of privacy infrastructure, she has played a crucial role in shaping Google's approach to user privacy. Her work involves applied research and open source security. Her leadership has been instrumental in Google's efforts to balance innovation with user privacy concerns.

Currently, Walker is leading efforts to integrate and advance Google's security and privacy research initiatives. She also is contributing to discussions and events focused on the intersection of AI, cybersecurity, and privacy.

From August 2019–February 2022, she served as vice president of engineering at Nuna, which builds products to enable value-based healthcare in the US, serving private payers and provider systems, as well as federal and state governments. Prior to her time at Nuna, she worked for more than 13 years in roles of increasing responsibility at Google—from senior software engineer to director of engineering. In this latter role she headed up privacy infrastructure engineering. She is considered one of the early security and privacy pioneers at Google. 

Prior to her first stint at Google, Walker was the principal member technical staff for San Diego Research Center, Inc. and served as the lead systems engineer for the development of an innovative military wireless communications system. Earlier in her career she served as a senior software engineer for IOXperts, Inc.; as a senior systems engineer for Xram /SMI Group, Inc., a senior software engineer for Widevine Technologies, Inc. and InterCon/PSINet/Ascend/Lucent; and a Software Architect for Visix Software, Inc.

Kristina Walter is the chief of the National Security Agency’s Cybersecurity Collaboration Center (CCC). Walter previously served as the lead for NSA’s Future Ready Workforce Initiative, which plays a critical role in ensuring that NSA is a premier workplace that combines a fulfilling mission; engaged leadership; and a positive, healthy, and supportive work environment

Walter is returning to the Cybersecurity Collaboration Center after her integral role in helping to establish the Center in its infancy. Her roles as the strategist for the CCC and chief of Defense Industrial Base (DIB) cybersecurity helped shape the standards and operations of NSA’s DIB Services and overall mission of the CCC.

With more than 15 years of experience, Walter has held numerous positions within the NSA. She led NSA’s program build activities to deliver a validated and justified Consolidated Cryptologic Program (CCP) and Military Intelligence Program (MIP) budget to NSA’s overseers, served as the executive assistant to the director of the Business Management & Integration (BM&I) Directorate, assisting senior leadership in planning, executing, and administering high-level tasks.

With a wealth of experience and knowledge, Walter seeks to continue the work of the CCC with a passion for NSA’s overall mission and a commitment to continue working with partners across the community.

Chad Yarbrough is the operations director for criminal/cyber. He most recently served as the special agent in charge of the Dallas Field Office. Yarbrough also served as a deputy assistant director in the Criminal Investigative Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

A native of the Dallas area, Yarbrough joined the FBI as a special agent in 2006. He was first assigned to the Dothan Resident Agency of the Mobile Field Office in Alabama, where he investigated violent crime and crimes against children. In 2010, Yarbrough transferred to the Chicago Field Office. As a member of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, he investigated domestic terrorism matters.

Yarbrough was promoted to supervisory special agent in 2012 and worked in the Internal Investigations Unit of the Inspection Division at FBI Headquarters. In 2014, he was named supervisory special agent of the Mobile Field Office’s Violent Criminal Threats squad and also supervised Mobile’s Child Exploitation and Safe Streets task forces.

In 2017, Yarbrough was promoted to assistant special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh Field Office, overseeing the criminal, crisis-management, and SWAT programs. Yarbrough led the FBI’s response to—and investigation of—the 2018 attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue. He also had oversight of criminal and counterterrorism matters in the resident agencies in Pennsylvania that fell under the Pittsburgh Field Office.

Yarborough was promoted again in 2020, to section chief of the FBI’s National Threat Operations Section. He led more than 300 FBI employees receiving, analyzing, and processing tips from the public and private sector about allegations of federal criminal violations and threats to national security. In 2021, he was named deputy assistant director in the Criminal Investigative Division at FBI Headquarters, overseeing the Transnational Organized Crime, Violent Crime, and Operational Support sections.

Prior to joining the FBI, Yarbrough worked in the Fort Worth, Texas, area as a special agent for the Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigative Division. He earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Sam Houston State University in Texas.

Andy Yolevich is the business information security officer (BISO) at Yahoo, working within The Paranoids, the company’s dedicated security team. He partners with product leaders to embed security into the heart of innovation across Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Finance, and beyond.

Previously director of threat investigations & intelligence, Yolevich led global teams that protected millions of users and safeguarded critical revenue streams. Today, he brings those frontline insights to the product space—transforming security from a blocker into a business enabler and championing user trust at scale.

Yilu Zhou, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the Gabelli School of Business. Her research interests include business intelligence, web/text/data mining, multilingual knowledge discovery and human-computer interaction. Most specifically, she investigates and explores computational, intelligent and automatic ways to discover interesting and useful patterns in news articles, web sites, forums and other social media.

Before joining Fordham University, Zhou was an assistant professor at George Washington University. She received a Ph.D. in management information systems at the University of Arizona, where she also was a research associate at the Artificial Intelligence Lab. She earned a B.S. in Computer Science from Shanghai Jiaotong University.

Zhou has published work in academic journals including the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, IEEE Intelligent Systems and Decision Support Systems. She has taught numerous courses related to business intelligence, data management and business programming. Currently, she teaches Web Analytics and Text Analytics in the Master's of Business Analytics program at Fordham. She also taught Database and Data Warehousing for M.B.A. students, and Business Programming for graduate and undergraduate students, in the past.