Leadership

Chief Executive Officer

Nayaki Nayyar is the CEO of Securonix. Prior to Securonix, she served as the President and Chief Product Officer at Ivanti. She was responsible for Ivanti’s strategy, innovation, and growth in cybersecurity, automation, edge and endpoint device management, and service management. Nayaki was instrumental in Ivanti’s significant growth through acquisitions, the launch of Ivanti’s Neurons Platform, and doubling its total addressable market from $30B to $60B in the last two years.

Nayaki is a seasoned executive with over 25 years of deep industry experience in driving transformation, innovation, and growth in large enterprise software companies. Prior to joining Ivanti, Nayaki was President of the Digital Service and Operations Management Business Unit running at BMC Software, where she led BMC’s evolution into the cognitive era and cloud growth with BMC Helix suite. Nayaki also served as General Manager of SAP’s Internet of Things division and held senior leadership positions in corporate strategy and SAP’s Cloud unit. She was Senior Vice President of SAP’s Cloud for customer experience business unit, where she drove significant growth in the company’s Cloud and mobile business units. Nayaki gained tremendous industry experience during her tenures at Shell and Valero and was instrumental in Valero’s rapid growth into the largest independent refining company in North America.

Nayaki currently serves on the boards of TD Synnex, a leading distributor and solutions aggregator for IT ecosystem; Veritone, Inc., a leading provider of artificial intelligence technology solutions; and Corteva Agriscience, a publicly traded agri-science company. She holds a BE in Mechanical Engineering from Osmania University (India), an MS in Computer Science from the University of Houston, and is a graduate of the Stanford Executive Program.

Chief Customer Officer

Al Arun is the Chief Customer Officer of Securonix, and is responsible for the complete post-sales customer experience, including global professional services, customer success, technical support, and education. His role focuses on engaging with customers and partners on customer value — identifying and demonstrating customer value early, delivering value rapidly, protecting delivered value, and helping deliver additional value to increase stickiness with customers through renewals. Al has been in the software industry for 26+ years in key global leadership roles across multiple functions focused on customer success, professional services, technical support, education and enablement, product management, and product engineering.

Prior to joining Securonix, Al was the Chief Customer Officer of Ivanti, driving customer experience and customer value by growing ARR and retention. Al has also held global leadership positions with Salesforce, SAP, and BMC software. He holds an MS degree in Engineering from Oklahoma State University, and a BS in Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science.

Al lives in Chicago, IL with his wife, two children, and the boss of the house — Jack, their 16-year-old Yorkie Terrier. In his free time, Al likes to run Tough Mudder races (6-time Legionnaire) and enjoys 6am workouts to get his day going.

Chief Product Officer

Haggai is a seasoned Product executive who brings over 25 years of experience building and leading Product Management and cross-functional teams, primarily in the security space

Haggai is extremely passionate about delivering results for both customers and shareholders through world-class products and services that are secure. He most recently served as Chief Product Officer at Skybox Security, a leader in cyber security exposure management, where he was responsible for the product portfolio, successfully helping some of the largest organizations in the world manage their security posture and vulnerability programs. Prior to joining Skybox, Haggai was F5 Networks’ Vice President, Product Management of their Security Business Unit, where his products contributed revenues in excess of $500M. He has also held product leadership roles at Zscaler and Blue Coat Systems. 

Chief Revenue Officer (Interim)

Alan Kerr is the interim Chief Revenue Officer at Securonix, and the Managing Director of Go-To-Market at Vista Equity Partners. Alan is responsible for accelerating revenue and returns, maximizing investor returns, and scaling Securonix’s business.

Prior to joining Securonix, Alan was the Chief Revenue Officer at Diebold Nixdorf and also the Head of Software, where he led the strategy and execution of the company’s software solutions, specifically its emerging leadership in digital banking and connected commerce. Before Diebold Nixdorf, Alan held executive and leadership positions at several enterprise software companies, including Kofax, HPSoftware, Peregrine Systems, Ascential Software, and Informix Software.

Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer

Nitin manages strategy and marketing for Securonix and is responsible for the company’s go-to-market strategy and global marketing program spanning brand, corporate, product, analyst relationship, demand generation, field events, and customer marketing activities across the globe. He manages new product and solution strategy and roadmap to ensure Securonix’s leadership position as a visionary in the security analytics and operations space.

With more than 20 years of experience in cybersecurity, Nitin brings deep expertise in enterprise security strategy, product management, marketing, and operations to grow Securonix’s business, open new markets, and extend the company’s reach around the world.

Chief Financial Officer (Interim)

Doug Owens is the interim Chief Financial Officer at Securonix, and the Managing Director of Business Systems, Finance, and Administration, at Vista Equity Partners. Doug is responsible for the finance, accounting, and risk management aspects of Securonix’s business.

Doug previously served as Senior Vice President of Operations at Vista Equity Partners, and was a member of the private equity flagship team. He has also held roles as CFO at PDI Software, as well as Managing Director and Program Director at Vista Consulting Group. Prior to Vista Consulting Group, Doug was Vice President and Divisional CFO at NCR Corporation, where he oversaw the company’s hospitality industry. He began his career as a Certified Public Accountant at EY. Doug holds an MBA in Finance from American University, and a BS in Accounting from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.

Chief People and Culture Officer

A seasoned human resources executive, Paul brings 30 years of global enterprise workforce leadership experience to Securonix. He most recently served as Chief People and Culture Officer at Mitel, a leader in global telecommunications, where he oversaw all aspects of human resources and led the company’s workforce integration efforts through multiple acquisitions.

Prior to joining Mitel, Paul was the Chief Human Resources Officer at MultiView, a digital media solutions provider, where he helped guide the company through a period of rapid expansion and scaled its team significantly over five years. In addition to leadership roles at Dell and Cisco Systems, Paul spent nearly three years at Marconi Wireless overseeing the global human resources function.

Executive Vice President, Product Engineering

Chris has a proven track record leading global product and R&D organizations delivering market-leading large-scale SaaS enterprise software and security solutions.

Prior to joining Securonix she has held multiple senior product management and engineering positions. This includes serving as the Senior Vice President of Product and Engineering Services at Bitdefender, and Vice President Product at LogRhythm where for  seven years she was responsible for their SIEM product strategy and engineering. Chris holds an MS degree in Information Networking from Carnegie Mellon University and a BS degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana campus.

Vice President, Engineering

Anjan manages the product engineering and sustaining teams at Securonix. Anjan is one of the founders of Securonix and is responsible for the product design and development activities.

Prior to joining Securonix, Anjan worked with Oracle in the advanced solutions group. He previously worked at Sun Microsystems and VAAU where he contributed to the development of their identity management products.

Vice President, Engineering (Interface Design and Usability)

Harsh is one of the founders of Securonix and is responsible for leading the design and development of the user interface. He brings over 12 years of experience in the development of enterprise security solutions. Harsh has deep expertise in architecting and developing security solutions for large enterprises.

Prior to joining Securonix, Harsh worked as a senior developer at Oracle where he focused on identity management products. He also held technical engineering positions at Sun Microsystems and VAAU.

Chief Architect

As the Chief Architect at Securonix, Derrick Harcey is responsible for the enterprise architecture, security hardening, scalability and performance of Securonix solutions. Derrick has 23+ years of experience in information technologies. He is a licensed professional engineer, a certified information systems security professional (CISSP), and a member of Infragard. For the past 18 years, he has been an enterprise security architect and an identity management software specialist. Derrick has extensive expertise in security architecture, identity management, data security, mobile application security, web services security, compliance, federation, SSO and directory services. Derrick has also been an active Java developer since Java’s inception and he is a project founder of the open source Project OpenPTK. Derrick has worked with customers on a global basis across industries.

Prior to joining Securonix, he was the identity, credential, and access management solution lead for North American public sector at Oracle. In this capacity, he was the public sector lead for enterprise security architecture alignment with government standards including the NIST 800 Series, FIPS, and FISMA.

Executive Chairman of the Board

Sachin is the Executive Chairman of the Board of Securonix. He previously served as the CEO of Securonix and has more than 20 years of experience in information security, including executive experience in establishing company vision and driving business strategy, product execution, and go to market strategy. Prior to Securonix, Sachin was the founder and CEO of VAAU where he led the company from conception to acquisition by Sun Microsystems. Following the acquisition by Sun, Sachin served as the Chief Identity Strategist for Sun Microsystems where he led the vision and strategy for the Sun security portfolio. Sachin is a renowned thought leader in areas of risk, regulations, compliance, identity/access, and governance and speaks frequently at professional conferences and seminars.

Chief Technology Officer, Securonix

Tanuj Gulati is a thought leader in security applications of big data analytics. He is co-founder and chief technology officer of Securonix where he leads engineering and product management. Internally, he is known as “chief inventor” of the company’s most innovative solutions.

Tanuj is a sought after security analytics expert who advises Fortune 500 organizations, Federal agencies and think tanks. He sits on the governance boards of information security programs at several large organizations to guide the implementation of identity, access, governance, risk and compliance initiatives. In 2016, the Golden Bridge Awards named Tanuj “executive of the year” and “most innovative executive of the year.”

Previously, Tanuj founded and served at VAAU from its inception to its acquisition by Sun Microsystems. He also held key positions at Oracle and Sun Microsystems where he led the global technology team for the identity governance, compliance, and risk product portfolio.

Senior Managing Director and Co-Head, Flagship Fund, Vista Equity Partners

Michael Fosnaugh joined Vista Equity Partners in 2005. Mr. Fosnaugh is Co-Head of the Flagship Fund and sits on its Investment Committee. Additionally, Mr. Fosnaugh serves as a member of Vista’s Executive Committee, the firm’s governing and decision-making body for matters affecting its overall management and strategic direction, and Vista’s Private Equity Management Committee, the firm’s decision-making body for matters affecting Vista’s overall private equity platform. Mr. Fosnaugh currently sits on the boards of Acquia, Alegeus, Applause, CentralSquare, EAB, Greenway Health, Integral Ad Science (NASDAQ: IAS), Jamf (NASDAQ: JAMF), Ping Identity (NYSE: PING), PlanSource, Securonix, SmartBear, Stats Perform and TripleLift. He was also actively involved in the firm’s investments in Advicent, Forcepoint, Mediaocean, MRI Software, Numerator, SirsiDynix, Sunquest Information Systems, Vertafore, Websense and Zywave. Mr. Fosnaugh is Co-Head of the Chicago office.

Prior to joining Vista, Mr. Fosnaugh worked in the Technology, Media and Telecommunications Group at SG Cowen & Co., where he focused on the software, services and financial technology sectors. While at SG Cowen, Mr. Fosnaugh advised clients on buy-side and sell-side transactions, public and private equity financings, and other strategic advisory initiatives.

Managing Director, Flagship Fund, Vista Equity Partners

Rod Aliabadi joined Vista in 2008 and sits on the Vista Flagship Funds’ Investment Committee. Mr. Aliabadi sits on the boards of Acquia, EAB, Integral Ad Science (NASDAQ: IAS), Ping Identity (NYSE: PING), Quickbase and TripleLift. Mr. Aliabadi was also actively involved in Vista’s investments in Aderant, BigMachines, Forcepoint, Mediaocean, Mitratech, Numerator, Relias Learning, Securonix, SirsiDynix, Stats Perform, SumTotal, TIBCO, and Websense.

Prior to joining Vista, Mr. Aliabadi worked at the Stanford Genome Technology Center focusing on the development of nanotechnology-driven diagnostics. During his time at Stanford, Mr. Aliabadi became involved with the creation and spin-out of NextBio, a provider of SaaS-based products for integrating corporate and public data from sequencing and microarray technologies (acquired by Illumina in 2013).

Vice President, Flagship Fund, Vista Equity Partners

Brooke Nakatsukasa joined Vista Equity Partners in 2016 and is currently a member of the private equity Flagship team. Ms. Nakatsukasa currently sits on the boards of Integral Ad Science (NASDAQ: IAS), iCIMS and Securonix. She works with the firm’s investments in Gainsight and Ping Identity (NYSE: PING). Ms. Nakatsukasa was also actively involved with the firm’s investments in Datto (NYSE: MSP), Lucid, Numerator, Quickbase and Zapproved.
Prior to joining Vista, Ms. Nakatsukasa worked at Deutsche Bank in the Financial Sponsors Group, where she advised private equity clients on mergers, acquisitions and capital raises across a variety of sectors including consumer, industrials, and financial institutions.

Senior Managing Director and Head of Value Creation, Vista Equity Partners

Nadeem Syed joined Vista Equity Partners in 2018 and is currently Head of Value Creation and a member of the private equity Flagship team. Mr. Syed serves as a member of Vista’s Executive Committee, the firm’s governing and decision-making body for matters affecting its overall management and strategic direction, and Vista’s Private Equity Management Committee, the firm’s decision-making body for matters affecting Vista’s overall private equity platform. Mr. Syed currently sits on the boards of Alegeus, Allvue Systems, Apptio, Datto (NYSE: MSP), iCIMS, PlanSource, and Securonix.

Prior to joining Vista, Mr. Syed was CEO of Finastra (formerly Misys), a Vista company and the third- largest financial services software company in the world. Before his time with Finastra, Mr. Syed was COO of SumTotal Systems, a former Vista company, where he led the company’s strategic initiatives overseeing services, support, engineering, product management and cloud operations. Prior to SumTotal Systems, Mr. Syed spent 19 years in multiple senior leadership roles at Oracle.

Operating Senior Vice President, Flagship Fund, Vista Equity Partners

Roxane Divol joined Vista Equity Partners in 2021 and is currently a member of the private equity Flagship team. Ms. Divol currently sits on the board of Drift, Securonix, and TripleLift.

Prior to joining Vista, Ms. Divol served as Group COO at Webhelp, helping drive growth and operational best practices across 40 countries and over 140 sites across the customer experience lifecycle. Before her time with Webhelp, Ms. Divol worked at Symantec as Executive Vice President and General Manager of Website Security. While at Symantec, Ms. Divol started and incubated a startup, CyberCube Analytics, focused on cyber risk analytics for insurers. Prior to Symantec, Ms. Divol was a Partner at McKinsey & Company, focusing on technology companies.

In 2017, Ms. Divol was named one of the Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology by the National Diversity Council and Elite Women in Insurance by Insurance Business America.

Senior Advisor, Vista Equity Partners

Clifford K. Chiu joined Vista Equity Partners in 2015 as a Senior Advisor to the Firm. Mr. Chiu also now serves as a Senior Advisor to Vista’s Executive Committee, the firm’s governing and decision-making body for matters affecting its overall management and strategic direction. Additionally, Mr. Chiu sits on the boards of Acquia, Allvue Systems, Apptio, Finastra, Fusion Risk Management, LogicMonitor, Securonix, and TIBCO.

Outside of Vista, Mr. Chiu is a corporate director and private investment firm senior advisor, as well as a board or committee appointee to government bodies and non-governmental organizations in financial services, enterprise software, data and technology-enabled solutions, healthcare, education, social welfare and the arts located throughout the United States and Hong Kong.

Prior to joining Vista, he was a partner at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) where he founded and led capital raising and investor relations for the Asia Pacific region. Mr. Chiu also serves as a senior advisor to Neuberger Berman Group (and member of NSBH) in Hong Kong, and is a public appointee on the Advisory Panel of Cyberport.hk. Additionally, Mr. Chiu is a member of the National Committee on United States-China Relations. He was appointed to the Policy Research Committee and then the Market Development Committee of the HK Financial Services Development Council (FSDC) from inception in 2013 until its January 2019 incorporation, as well as the Investment Committee of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority from 2013 until his final term expired in December 2020.

With a career spanning four decades, Mr. Chiu previously served as a managing director and head of Asian institutional business at JP Morgan Asset Management, and as managing director and head of Hong Kong investment banking and before then co-head of Japan investment banking at Salomon Smith Barney/Citigroup and its predecessors based in New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo. He is a former director and audit committee member of Hsin Chong Construction Group (Hang Seng: 0404.HK), Cambium Learning Group (Nasdaq: ABCD), where he chaired the special independent committee associated with its December 2018 acquisition, the Regulatory Data Corp. until its sale to Moody’s Corp. in January 2020, Infoblox, Inc. until its investment by Warburg Pincus in December 2020, and Ping Identity Inc. (NYSE: PING). Additionally, Mr. Chiu served as a director of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority’s United Christian Hospital and Tseung Kwan O Hospital for over a decade, and as treasurer of the New York City Mission Society.

Mr. Chiu is a director or trustee of the Seton Fund, Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce, Health Alliance for Austin Musicians (HAAM) and St. James Settlement. A lifelong champion of education and healthcare, Mr. Chiu has served on the global advisory boards of the Weingarten Learning Resources Center at the University of Pennsylvania and of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business where in 2015 he was appointed the first “distinguished executive-in-residence” at its Hong Kong campus. Through the Clinton Global Initiative, Mr. Chiu launched a 2015 commitment to action, “K-12 Learning Through Global Connectivity” in language arts and STEM skills. Mr. Chiu also endowed annual scholarships at his alma maters Chicago Booth and the University of Pennsylvania as well as the Hong Kong University Medical School, Pomona College, and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, for which collectively Mr. Chiu is credited for mentoring hundreds of students and alumni. Additional community partnerships for Mr. Chiu include Dell Seton and Ascension Seton Medical Centers in student mental health and underinsured COVID-19 pandemic patients. In 2020, Mr. Chiu’s first-ever OpEd entitled “We Must Denounce Hate Against Asian-Americans” was published in the Austin American-Statesman, which inspired the City of Austin, Texas’ Proclamation of October 1st as Asian American/Pacific Islander Community Day.

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Apptio

Sunny Gupta is the Co-founder and CEO of Apptio. He co-founded Apptio in 2007 with a customer obsession that led him to uncover significant untapped demand for pioneering a new software category (Technology Business Management or TBM) – an analytics-based business management system for CIOs. Gupta led Apptio to an Initial Public Offering in September 2016 (NASDAQ: APTI) as well as its acquisition by Vista Equity Partners in January 2019 for $1.94B. Since going private with Vista he has led 4 acquisitions, significantly expanded the customer base, expanded into international markets and increased innovation.

Prior to founding Apptio, Sunny was EVP of Products at Opsware, responsible for all product businesses, until Opsware’s acquisition by HP in 2007. He was also the co-founder and CEO of iConclude, which pioneered the IT runbook automation market through its acquisition by Opsware. Previously, Sunny held senior leadership roles in Products, Business Development and Engineering at Mercury Interactive, Rational Software, and IBM. Sunny earned a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of South Carolina (Now Coastal Carolina University), was selected as a “Top 40 CEO Under 40”, and was recognized an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year 2012 for Pacific Northwest. Sunny was named to the prestigious Puget Sound Business Journal Power 100 list for 2020 and 2021.

Sunny joined the Gainsight Board of Directors in May 2021, and also serves as Strategic Advisory Board Member to Foster School of Business at University of Washington.

Managing Partner, Volition Capital

Roger focuses on investments in software and technology-enabled business services and currently serves on the boards of Insite Software, LoanLogics, Messagepoint, and Securonix. He previously served on the boards of G5 Search Marketing (Peak Equity Partners), iPipeline (acquired by Thoma Bravo), RedBrick Health (acquired by Marlin Group), Velocify (acquired by Ellie Mae), VisualIQ (acquired by Nielsen), and Vibes Media. Prior to helping found Volition Capital in 2010, Roger was a partner at Fidelity Ventures where he focused on early growth equity investments including GeoLearning (acquired by SumTotal). Roger was also a partner at Apax Partners, focused primarily on investments in enterprise software and technology-enabled services including Intralinks, Planview, and RealPage.

Before that, he worked for GE Capital and was a Vice President of GE Equity, where he played a key role in developing the technology group’s investment strategy for business-to-business electronic commerce. His investments at GE Equity included Commerce One, OpenSite Technologies, Proxicom, and Multex. Earlier in his career, Roger worked in corporate finance at Chase Manhattan Bank, and spent six years at Arthur Andersen in accounting and corporate finance. Roger is a National Judge for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards. He is a former board member of the Venture Investors Association of New York and currently serves on the Advisory Board of The Quebec City Conference.

Roger received a bachelor of science degree in accounting from Syracuse University in 1987 and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1995.

Former U.S. National Cyber Director; Advisor to the President of the United States, Joe Biden, on Cybersecurity

Chris Inglis served as the first Senate-confirmed U.S. National Cyber Director and Advisor to the President of the United States Joe Biden on cybersecurity. He previously worked as a U.S. Naval Academy Looker Distinguished Visiting Professor for Cyber Studies, as a managing director at Paladin Capital, a member of the boards of several public and private corporations, and as a Commissioner on the U.S. Cyberspace Solarium Commission.  He retired from the Department of Defense in January 2014 after 41 years of federal service, including 28 years at the National Security Agency and seven and a half years as its Deputy Director.  He served as a member of the Department of Defense Science Board and as a National Intelligence University trustee until early 2021.

A 1976 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Inglis holds advanced degrees in engineering and computer science from Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University, and the George Washington University. Inglis’ military career includes 30 years of service in the US Air Force and Air National Guard — from which he retired as a command pilot at the rank of Brigadier General.  He and his wife Anna have three grown children and reside in Annapolis, MD.

Former Executive Vice President, Booz Allen Hamilton

Patrick Gorman serves as Executive Vice President at Booz Allen Hamilton. With 25 years of experience, Gorman has worked in multiple capacities in security, strategy, defense and intelligence practice areas. He recently served as the Chief Security Officer (CSO) for Bridgewater Associates and from 2011 to 2013, Gorman was the Senior Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer for Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, where he had oversight of security policy, technology and operations. He honed his expertise at Booz Allen Hamilton as Senior Executive Advisor of Cybersecurity where he was responsible for strategic planning, business development, capability development, marketing and capture management for the firm’s cyber portfolio. His rich background stems from holding the position as Asst. Director of National Intelligence and Chief Information Officer for the U.S. Intelligence Community and over ten years in the USAF as part of The National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS).

Former Managing Director and Chief Information and Security Officer, Citi; Former Associate Deputy Director, FBI

Mr. Harrington currently serves in a Senior Advisor role for consulting firm McKinsey & Co. working on issues and challenges involving cyber security, fraud prevention, insider threats and crisis management. He also serves on the board of advisors of three dynamic global organizations; Securonix, Cyware and Modern Executive. He is also committed to providing assistance in the role of Senior Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, Auburn University and Mount St. Mary’s University.

Mr. Harrington served as a Managing Director and Chief Information Security Officer for Citi between 2012 and 2018. He was responsible for expanding global cybersecurity initiatives focused on protecting Citi and its 200 million clients and customers. He led a transformation effort to install an intelligence led, threat focused approach to information security at Citi. His effort included the creation of a network of Cyber Security Fusion Centers in New York, Budapest and Singapore built on the principals of a “Team of Teams” approach, with centralized command and control responsibilities. Mr. Harrington expanded the crisis management program to include a global cyber war gaming initiative, complemented by the expansion and operationalization of crisis management playbooks, team preparation and the development of business leaders capable of responding to real world challenges.

Prior to joining Citi, Mr. Harrington served as the Associate Deputy Director of the FBI. At the time he retired from the FBI he had served over 30 years with the US Government. He served in multiple leadership positions at the FBI to include national security, counterterrorism, criminal, cyber, intelligence and field office operations. His leadership was recognized with his receipt of the FBI’s Medal for Meritorious Achievement. He was also recognized with two Presidential Rank Awards; President Bush awarded him the Presidential Rank Award of Distinguished Executive for his counterterrorism efforts and President Obama awarded him the Presidential Rank Award of Meritorious Executive for his work on the FBI’s intelligence and business transformation efforts.

Former U.S. Director, National Intelligence; Former Director, NSA

Mike McConnell is a retired Vice Admiral, USN and former Vice Chairman of Booz Allen Hamilton where he served on the firm’s Leadership Team and led the firm’s intelligence and cyber security business.

With a 50-year career focused on international and foreign intelligence, Mr. McConnell brings a depth of knowledge and experience acquired from service in both the public and private sectors. His 29-year career as a US Navy intelligence officer included significant assignments that impacted national security. During Operation Desert Storm and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Mr. McConnell served as the Intelligence Officer for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Colin Powell, and the Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney.

From 1992 to 1996 he served as the Director of the National Security Agency under Presidents George H.W. Bush and William J. Clinton. As DIRNSA, he led the agency during a critical period as it adapted to the multi-polar threats brought about by the end of the Cold War, providing global intelligence and information security services to the White House, Cabinet officials, Congress, and a broad array of military and civil intelligence agencies.

After retiring from the US Navy in 1996, Mr. McConnell joined Booz Allen Hamilton to lead development of the firm’s Information Assurance and Intelligence business focused on policy, operations, technology, homeland security, intelligence analytics and counterterrorism.

Upon being asked by President George W. Bush in 2007 to become the second US Director of National Intelligence (DNI), he left Booz Allen and served as the DNI, a position of cabinet rank, and a member of the White House National Security Council for two years. During this time, he successfully advocated for a multi-billion-dollar investment to substantially improve cyber security standards for the US – securing support from two U.S. Presidents and the U.S. Congress.

As the DNI, he managed the expansive national Intelligence Community – an organization of over 100,000 people, and an annual budget of over $50 billion – and he had extensive interactions with the White House, the President’s Cabinet, Congress, international leaders, and the US business community.

In 2009, Mr. McConnell returned to Booz Allen as an executive vice president to lead the firm’s Intelligence business and in 2011, he was elevated to the position of Vice Chairman of the firm – serving in that capacity until his retirement in 2014 and has served as a Senior Executive Advisor.

Mr. McConnell’s interest since his service as Director of NSA in 1992-96 has been to improve the cyber security posture of businesses and government agencies around the globe to better protect them from hackers, criminals, terrorists, and nation states focused on economic espionage or destruction of vital data.

He serves on the US-based Board of Directors of Nokia for US-based business operations as well as the boards of numerous start-up companies that are developing technologies and capabilities for improved cybersecurity posture.

Mr. McConnell also served as the Chairman of the Board of Advisors for the Florida Center for Cybersecurity, a statewide center formed by the Florida Legislature in 2014 to help position Florida as a national leader in cybersecurity with a focus on education, workforce development, research and community engagement. He also served as the Executive Director of the Center from 2020 until 2022.

In addition to having been awarded many of the nation’s highest military awards for meritorious service, Mr. McConnell has twice received the nation’s highest award for service in the US Intelligence Community – once from President Clinton and once from President George W. Bush. Mr. McConnell has also served as the Chairman and CEO of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) and he is the 2011 recipient of INSA’s William Oliver Baker Award, which is awarded annually for sustained and excellent service in intelligence and national security.

Mr. McConnell holds an M.P.A. degree from George Washington University, is a graduate of the National Defense University (Global Telecom), the National Defense Intelligence College (Strategic Intelligence), and he holds a B.A. degree in Economics from Furman University. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Mr. McConnell has been awarded four Honorary Doctorate degrees – the most recent from the University of South Florida in 2016.

Former Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Secretary (former), Department of Homeland Security

Kirstjen Nielsen has worked across the globe as a speaker, author and thought leader in addressing critical global security issues, including emerging threats, resilience, and cybersecurity for over two decades.

Ms. Nielsen’s breadth of experience stands uniquely at the crossroads of policy, strategy, and operations, enabling her to steward integrated initiatives in complex enterprise environments, preparing organizations to navigate ever-emerging cybersecurity threats, manage risk, and ensure resiliency. She is currently the founder of her second global advisory services firm, Lighthouse Strategies, and advises investors and technology companies on risk management, government mission requirements, new technology use cases across the public and private security spectrum, and the mitigation of potential threats or vulnerabilities posed by new technologies.

Ms. Nielsen most recently served as the sixth U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, where she oversaw 240,000 law enforcement, civilian and military employees and a $70 billion annual budget. During her tenure, Secretary Nielsen drove major organizational change at DHS to protect the nation against evolving threats and better equip frontline defenders, including increasing consequences for malicious cyber actors, launching sophisticated efforts to block terrorists from infiltrating the US, successfully working with Congress to create the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and crafting new legislative authorities to protect civilians against weaponized drones and chemical/biological weapons. Previously, Ms. Nielsen held various positions in government, including White House Principal Deputy Chief of Staff, Senior Director on the Homeland Security Council and other senior positions in the executive and legislative branches of government.

Internationally recognized as a national security expert, Ms. Nielsen is active on a variety of advisory and policy boards, promoting government, non-profit, and private sector security collaboration. She holds a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Former Advisory Council Member, U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Former Advisory Board Member, NSA

Bob Rose is an internationally recognized cybersecurity expert providing the U.S. government and companies strategic counseling and governance on a full array of cyber-related issues at the nexus of technology, national security, law enforcement and privacy. Bob previously served in various appointed U.S. government advisory positions in the areas of national security, cyber and homeland security. He was a member of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Advisory Council, the National Security Agency’s Cyber Awareness and Response Panel, the National Counterterrorism Center Advisory Board and the Department of States International Security Advisory Board. Current corporate and non-profit advisory service includes The Chertoff Group, 1Kosmos, Securonix, Clarivate, the McCrary Institute for Cyber & Critical Infrastructure Security at Auburn University, the Homeland Security Experts Group Steering Committee and the State of Florida Center for Cybersecurity.