Leadership

Kash Shaikh is the President and CEO of Securonix, a cybersecurity leader in AI-Reinforced Threat Detection, Investigation, and Response. With over 30 years of experience in executive roles across Fortune 50 and small-cap companies, Kash has a distinguished record of driving profitable growth in the software, SaaS, and AI infrastructure markets.

Kash is a dynamic, growth-oriented executive, known for his customer obsession and servant leadership. He has consistently delivered leading-edge technology solutions to enterprise customers, emphasizing innovation and strategic market expansion.

Before joining Securonix, Kash was the President and CEO at Virtana, an observability software company, where he successfully transformed the company to achieve sustained profitability and expanded into new segments such as FinOps and AIOps. He adeptly scaled the go-to-market strategy through channel-reselling and Managed Service Provider models, raised significant debt and equity investments, and spearheaded acquisitions and integrations to accelerate the product roadmap and increase the customer base.

Kash’s notable tenure at Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) as the Enterprise Solutions Business General Manager saw him driving significant operational efficiencies, expanding margins, and achieving a 28% CAGR over three years. His strategic initiatives, including scaling the go-to-market strategy through partnerships and expanding the customer base internationally, grew the business to approximately $2 billion profitably. In addition to his roles at Virtana and Dell, Kash has held leadership and executive positions at Ruckus Wireless (NASDAQ: RKUS), Hewlett Packard (NYSE: HP), Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), and Nortel Networks (NASDAQ: NRTL).

His leadership excellence has been recognized with several awards, including the “Authentic Leader Award” from the National Diversity Council in 2021, the “Executive of the Year” Stevie Gold Award in 2022, and multiple recognitions from Comparably for leadership and company culture, such as “Best CEO” and “Best CEO for Women & Diversity” in 2022 and 2023.

Kash holds a Master of Science degree from Wichita State University and an MBA in General Management from Boise State University. 

With more than 30 years of client-focused leadership experience at global enterprise software companies, Scott Sampson has a proven track record of driving profitable growth. Scott most recently served as the Chief Revenue and Commercial Officer at DailyPay, Inc., a leading on-demand pay solution provider, where he helped the company double its revenue to $250 million in his first year. Prior to joining DailyPay, Scott was the Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales at 8×8, leading unified communications as a service (UCaaS) and contact center as a service (CCaaS) provider. Scott was responsible for 8×8’s global mid-market and enterprise sales, led its field organization and sales operations, and grew organic revenue from $250 million to more than $500 million during his tenure. In addition to serving as Chief Revenue Officer of NewVoiceMedia through its acquisition by Vonage, Scott spent 10 years at IBM in North American and global enterprise sales leadership positions.

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.

Venkat Kotla is a seasoned and dynamic technology executive who brings over 25 years of experience driving the engineering functions in world class organizations to Securonix.

Venkat is a strategic thinker with a passion for building world class products and highly productive teams. He most recently served as VP/Head of Engineering for the economy business at Atlassian, a leader in workplace tools like Jira and Trello that help teams across the world become more nimble, creative, and aligned.

Prior to joining Atlassian, Venkat spent over 14 years in increasingly senior engineering leadership roles at Google, most recently as the Head of Engineering for the Google Looker BU.

A seasoned marketing executive, Biju brings over 15 years of global experience in marketing leading-edge technology products to Securonix. She is recognized for her leadership skills aligning product, sales, and marketing teams to achieve overall revenue growth.

She most recently served as Chief Marketing Officer at Onapsis, the leader in SAP and Oracle applications cybersecurity, where she oversaw all aspects of marketing globally. Prior to joining Onapsis, Biju was Vice President, Global Demand Generation & Field Marketing at Brightcove, a provider of cloud-based solutions for publishing and distributing professional media, where she helped drive breakout growth across the globe. She has also held global marketing leadership roles at Carbonite and Dassault Systèmes.

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.

Haggai Polak 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’s 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.

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.

A strategic thinker with a passion for helping companies to grow and expand while ensuring legal prudence and compliance, Eunice brings over 20 years of experience providing corporate legal, governance and compliance support to Securonix. She most recently served as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Access TeleCare, the leading national provider of acute telemedicine technology and solutions.

Prior to joining Access TeleCare, Eunice was Vice President, Legal & Assistant Corporate Secretary at Symantec, a global leader in enterprise and consumer cybersecurity.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.