2024 RSAC #1

Hed Kovetz is a cybersecurity expert and entrepreneur, best known as the CEO and co-founder of Silverfort, the leading Identity Protection Platform. With a background deeply rooted in cybersecurity, Hed brings a wealth of experience from both military and civilian sectors to the forefront of his work.

Before his venture into the entrepreneurial world, Hed served in the Israeli 8200 unit, renowned for its expertise in cybersecurity and intelligence. While in the unit, he honed his skills in offensive and defensive security strategies. After his tenure in the military, Hed transitioned to the civilian sphere as a product manager for government contracts, including notable collaborations with Raytheon, where he played a pivotal role in architecting cybersecurity programs for various countries. His work on a massive scale involved building cyber infrastructures from the ground up, yet he found the existing solutions lacking innovation and efficacy.

Guided by a relentless drive to solve complex problems and a profound understanding of the evolving threat landscape, Hed Kovetz recognized the pivotal role of identity in cyberattacks. This led him to co-found Silverfort with Yaron Kassner & Matan Fatal. Dedicated to revolutionizing identity protection, Hed and his team designed a platform that stops identity threats without disrupting daily operations. As the cybersecurity landscape continues to shift, Hed Kovetz remains a driving force, shaping the future of identity protection.

Todd Fitzgerald has built information Fortune 500/large company security programs for 20 years. Todd serves as VP, Cybersecurity Strategy and Chairman of the Cybersecurity Collaborative Executive Committee, was named 2016–17 Chicago CISO of the Year, ranked Top 50 Information Security Executive, authored 4 books including #1 Best Selling and 2020 CANON Hall of Fame Winner CISO COMPASS: Navigating Cybersecurity Leadership Challenges with Insights from Pioneers (2019), ground-breaking CISO Leadership: Essential Principles for Success, as well as contributions to a dozen others. Todd held senior leadership positions at Northern Trust, Grant Thornton International, Ltd, ManpowerGroup, WellPoint (Anthem) Blue Cross Blue Shield/ National Government Services, Zeneca/Syngenta, IMS Health and American Airlines.

Michael Fey is Island’s co-founder and CEO. Fey was President and COO at Symantec. Prior to Symantec, he was President and COO of Blue Coat. Prior to that, Mike was EVP & GM for enterprise products at McAfee and CTO of Intel Security playing a pivotal role in Intel’s acquisition of McAfee for $7.7 billion in 2010.
Fey holds a degree in Engineering Physics and Mathematics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and was co-author of Security Battleground: An Executive Field Manual, providing a playbook for security obligated executives coping with the new realities of cyber security responsibilities to the board.

Alexandre (or Alex) Sieira is a successful information security entrepreneur in the information security field with a global footprint since 2003. He began his security career as a Co-Founder and CTO of CIPHER, an international security consulting and MSSP headquartered in Brazil which was later acquired by Prosegur. In 2015, he became Co-Founder and CTO of Niddel, a bootstrapped security analytics SaaS startup running entirely on the cloud, which was awarded a Gartner Cool Vendor award in 2016. After the acquisition of Niddel by Verizon in January 2018, he became the Senior manager and global leader of Managed Security Services products under the Detect & Respond portfolio tower at Verizon. Currently is the CTO and Co-Founder of Tenchi Security, a company disrupting the Third Party Cyber Risk Management market.

Camellia Chan is Flexxon’s Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). She oversees the company’s business development and growth, research and development, industry partnerships, and expansion to regional and global markets.

Since its inception in 2007, Ms Chan has grown Flexxon into an international business with a presence in over 50 cities. Headquartered in Singapore, Camellia has led Flexxon to global heights in recent years. This includes an invite to present at the White House’s Counter Ransomware Initiative in 2022, as well as a win at the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s Global Awards in Geneva, and an invitation from the Maryland Chamber of Commerce to set up its US office in 2023. Flexxon’s US base of operations was officially established in September 2023.

A leading tech and entrepreneurial figure, Ms Chan holds over 40 patents in her name and has received multiple accolades for her contributions to the tech landscape. This includes being named as Singapore’s Top 100 Women in Tech in 2023, as well as clinching two projects under the Cybersecurity Agency of Singapore’s Call for Innovation awards.

Highly passionate about the industry and mentoring the next generation of tech talent, Ms Chan is an active contributor and speaker at technology and entrepreneurship events. In recent years, she was a speaker at Singapore’s SheLeadsTech 2022 forum as well as a guest speaker at the Singapore Management University’s Cybersecurity Leadership Programme.

Chris Hatter serves as the COO/CISO of Qwiet.AI, an AI-powered AppSec platform. Additionally, Chris is an Operating Partner at NumberOneAI where he provides technical leadership to portfolio companies within the incubator.
He has over a decade of experience in cybersecurity strategies, managing threats and vulnerabilities, risk assessment, cyber resilience, legal and compliance issues, and crisis management. Prior to his current roles at Qwiet and N1AI, Chris served as the Global CISO for Nielsen, at the time, a global technology and data company that operated in over 150 countries with 80,000+ employees.
Chris holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Management Information Systems from the University of South Florida and sits on the university’s advisory board of cybersecurity for executives.

Paul Valente is the CEO & Co-Founder of VISO TRUST. He is also a former CISO and built successful security teams and programs at several companies including LendingClub, Restoration Hardware, and ASAPP. Paul’s security and risk programs have been vetted by hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies and his leadership and expertise has transformed the TPRM programs of forward-thinking companies around the world.

Idan is a serial entrepreneur and product strategist, bringing nearly 20 years of experience in cybersecurity to Apiiro. Previously, Idan was Director of Engineering at Microsoft following the acquisition of Aorato where he served as the founder and CEO. Prior to founding Aorato, Idan was the co-founder and CEO at Foreity – an MS security subcontractor acquired by Aman Group in 2012.

Jay Mar-Tang is AVP, Field CISO at Automated Security Validation leader Pentera. Jay has been in the IT industry over 15 years, with over 10 years of cyber security experience. He earned his CISSP in 2014. During his career he has worked in 3 different geographies which include Mid Atlantic, New York City and the West coast of the United States. He has spent years engineering different solutions for clients of all verticals, such as MFA, DLP, SIEM, network forensics, EDR and Privilege Account management. Most recently after spending numerous years with blue team defensive technologies, Jay has joined Pentera, now advising and engineering red teaming strategies for clients in the west coast, and managing the team of engineers in North America.

Zaira Pirzada is the VP of Product Marketing at Hive Pro. Prior to joining Hive Pro, she was a Security Analyst with Gartner, Inc., covering the DLP, File Analysis, and Data Masking markets. Zaira was also featured on CBS as a main actress in the prime-time television show “Hunted”, Wired for her technical acumen, and is currently a popular-selling poet and performer.

Adrian is an outspoken researcher that doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable truths. He loves to write about the security industry, tell stories, and still sees the glass as half full.

Akira Brand has worked in the security space for the past four years, first for two years as a Developer Relations Engineer, and then two years as an Application Security Engineer. Passionate about education and Infosec, she has become a distinguished public speaker, an engaging cybersecurity podcaster with AppSec weekly, and a knowledgeable trainer. Deeply familiar with securing all stages of the SDLC, she owns and operates Akira Brand Consulting, where she works with companies to augment their AppSec engineering staff, troubleshoot existing security programs, or help companies build security from the ground up. Akira is not only a skilled technician, she is also a professional artist, gracing the stage as a classical singer with local opera companies in the Rocky Mountain Region.

Oliver Tavakoli is chief technology officer at Vectra AI. He sets the technical strategy for the company. Oliver has overseen the adoption of technology in cybersecurity for over 25 years, the last ten of which have been at Vectra AI. Prior to Vectra, Oliver was the CTO for the security business of Juniper Networks. He joined Juniper as a result of its acquisition of Funk Software, where Oliver was the CTO. Earlier in his career, Oliver worked at IBM, Fluent Machines, and Novell Inc and founded Trilogy Inc, which was acquired by Funk Software.

Lynn Marks is a skilled product manager with more than 10+ years of experience in R&D and B2B product management. Previously, she was product manager at Model N and Distil Networks (acquired by Imperva) where she oversaw the product roadmap and innovation. At Imperva she manages Imperva Advanced Bot Protection, Imperva Client Side Protection, and works closely with customers to solve complex business challenges. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from UC Santa Barbara.

Included in the ‘Top 100 Women in Cybersecurity in Europe’, Dr. Valerie Lyons is an accomplished Cybersecurity and Privacy leadership expert. She is co-author of the best-selling book The Privacy Leader Compass. Dr. Lyons is Director and Chief Operations Officer in BH Consulting. She has previously worked for several global organizations, such as IBM, KPMG, and ABB, and served as Head of Information Security Risk in KBC Bank for almost 15 years. She has an in-depth knowledge of European data protection law and practices, and frequently presents at renowned international security and privacy conferences. In 2022, Dr Lyons was awarded a PhD in Information Privacy for her research into Privacy as a CSR. She also holds a Masters in Leadership. She is a certified CISSP for almost 25 years, a CDPSE for three years, and is a member of the Institute of Directors in Ireland.