Northeast IT & Security Leaders Forum 2024

As organizations adapt to technological advancements, remote collaboration tools, and changing workforce dynamics, the IT Leader emerges as a key strategist, orchestrating digital transformation initiatives and ensuring seamless integration of technology into the fabric of the modern workplace. This Panel will discuss how IT can drive innovation, enhance cybersecurity measures, and foster a flexible and inclusive work environment to meet the challenges and opportunities presented by the future of work.

Moderator: Stephen Framil, Corporate Global Head of Accessibility, Merck

Panelists:

Paul Williams, CIO, Commonwealth of Virginia

Neil Gomes, CDO, Undisclosed

Rameshwar Balanagu, Chief Enterprise Architect, UNFI

Iqbal Ismail, Vice President, Product Development, Enterprise Risk Management, State Street

Delve into the flaws of the traditional cybersecurity landscape and how a modern SOC should focus on outcome-based services without relying on logs or the cost and complexity of a SIEM

Speaker: Hamlet Khodaverian, VP, Americas, LMNTRIX

Presented by: LMNTRIX

The footprint of sensitive data — such as PII, payment details and health information — is growing rapidly in many enterprises. Security officers contend by spreading their resources thinner, an impractical strategy in an era of scarce security talent and tight budgets. Join this interactive session to discuss the primary driver of sensitive data growth, the drawbacks of the common mitigation strategies, and an architectural paradigm shift that stops the sprawl of sensitive data while accelerating access to data for your most important innovators.

Speaker: Aaron Jensen, Senior Manager Solution Engineering & Devops Advisor, Delphix

Presented by: Delphix

Generative AI is revolutionizing the way we create content, from text and images to music and videos, by learning from vast datasets to produce new, original works. Its impact extends beyond the arts, influencing fields such as healthcare, where it can generate personalized treatment plans, and technology, by driving innovations in automation and user interfaces. However, this rapid advancement also raises ethical and societal concerns, including issues of copyright, privacy, and the potential for misuse in creating deepfakes or spreading misinformation.

Speaker: Tanweer Surve, Executive Director, Cloud Control Management, Wells Fargo

Check back for updates on this session.

Speaker: Neil Gomes, CDO, Undisclosed

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Too often, organizations are just reacting to vulnerabilities. Fortunately, we have tools that help take a proactive stance with solid intel backed by precise real-time data and actions.

In this session, we will discuss the three steps necessary to respond quickly and effectively to critical and high-severity issues.

• Visibility – Continually search and collect data on issues that could expose your environment to attacks and exploits originating at your endpoints.
• Control – Provide effective measures directly to your endpoints, enabling you to take immediate control of emerging issues.
• Remediation – Leverage relevant and actionable insights based on expert threat research team investigations.

When critical, highly exploitable, or zero-day vulnerabilities emerge, every second counts. We help our customers develop, verify, and test the content and actions to keep their environment safe.

Speaker: Nir Yosha, Director, Technical Account Management, Tanium

Presented by: Tanium

Just as application development requires quality assurance and regression testing to deliver usability and function without defects, cybersecurity demands its own quality program to maintain strong defenses. Threats evolve and your attack surface sees continuous change, so security teams face a constant challenge to identify weaknesses, prevent drift, and strengthen overall resilience. Exposure management highlights the need for continuous validation to test controls and response capabilities. This session delves into security posture validation as the driver behind benchmarking cyber resilience.

Speaker: Aris Bega, Enterprise Solutions Engineer, Cymulate

Presented by: Cymulate

This session explores the complexities of building cohesive and effective IT teams in the public and education sectors, highlighting the challenges of attracting and retaining top talent in a competitive landscape dominated by the private sector. It addresses the hurdles posed by budgetary constraints, bureaucratic hiring practices, and the difficulty in offering competitive compensation and benefits, while also emphasizing the critical role of a positive organizational culture and ample professional development opportunities. The discussion further underscores the importance of strategic team-building initiatives in creating an environment that not only draws but also retains high-performing IT professionals, ensuring the long-term success and innovation of public and educational institutions.

Speakers:

Chaim Yudkowsky, CIO, AIPAC

Washington Ricardo Izquierdo, CIO/CISO, Pillar College

Helen Knight, Vice President, Information Technology, Legal Aid Alberta

In this workshop, we will discuss the premise of Patrick Lencioni’s book “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” and the commitments to build a cohesive team. This is a great tool for leaders and managers looking to make their teams more effective. This is the perfect starting place for anyone looking to overcome team dysfunction and realize their potential. Simplicity is the key. Building a healthy team is not complicated, but it takes discipline and focus.

Speaker: Steve Demeritt, Global Head of IT Service & Delivery, Black & Veatch

In an era where technology’s rapid evolution reshapes industries, we present a pivotal workshop designed to address the unique challenges and opportunities at the intersection of innovation, security, and regulation. This workshop comprises three critical segments, each tailored to the primary sectors represented at the forum—financial, SLED (State, Local, and Education), and healthcare—focusing specifically on the U.S. Northeast region.

Speaker: Byron Estrada, Head of Global Cyber Threat Intelligence, Air National Guard

Open seating, Buffet-style lunch. Serving food for all tastes, palates, and preferences. Vegan, vegetarian, halal options available

During this session we will discuss how to bridge the gap between theoretical cybersecurity frameworks and their practical implementation within organizations. It offers insights into effectively translating high-level security strategies into actionable steps that can be understood and executed by IT teams and security professionals. The session emphasizes the importance of aligning cybersecurity measures with business objectives to ensure both are resilient against evolving digital threats.

Moderator: Nish Majmudar, CISO, Mathematica

Panelists:

Jay Nerger, Director, Risk Solutions, The Clearing House

Shai Perez, Global Head of Permitting, CISO, Citi

Diane Huff, Senior VP, Technology, Triangle Services

Bob Gaines, Director, Security, PKF O’Connor Davies

Enterprise software is big, complex, and frankly unique amongst most IT systems. It’s running the business with extensive customizations, third party integrations, open source software/modules, and it’s THE prime target for malicious actors. Join me today to learn two ways that you and your team can make your Risk Management processes more effective, and more efficient.

Speaker: Gabe Dimeglio, GVP & GM, Rimini Protect™, Rimini Street

Presented by: Rimini Street

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In the era of AI, IoT, blockchain, and many other emerging technologies, it’s a daily nightmare encountered by organizations from both the public and private sectors, struggling to react to the aftermath of the constant cybersecurity breaches and ransomware attacks.

The situation can only get worse in the coming years when the global IPv6 adoption rate will reach 100% running in parallel with IPv4, effectively doubling the overall attack vectors. Thus, we must change our cybersecurity strategy dramatically now to efficiently secure and effectively defend the global network infrastructure by securely deploying the single stack of IPv6 and turning off IPv4 before the time runs out. It is high time to adopt and enforce a global IPv6-only policy by disabling IPv4 globally.

Speaker Undisclosed

Let’s dive into each slices of this pie to identify various different controls and build a comprehensive cybersecurity program with multiple layers of defense.

Speaker: Nish Majmudar, CISO, Mathematica

Artificial Intelligence is a pervasive part of our lives today, and cybersecurity teams and adversaries alike have learned to harness the speed and power of machines to strengthen their capabilities. With machine learning becoming one of the most important tools of defense, leaders must balance the overwhelming speed and accuracy advantage of AI with the need for measured and intuitive interactions with a real-world human element.

Join this session to discuss:

• What these trends mean for the hands-on practitioner
• What happens when the velocity of innovation outpaces the capabilities of human intellect
• The evolving role of automation in the effective practice of securing our digital world

Speaker: Michael Leland, Chief Cybersecurity Evangelist, SentinelOne

Presented by: SentinelOne

The hype around generative AI is only the beginning. This game-changing technology is poised to disrupt high-tech industries. But with new AI tools popping up every day, choosing the wrong one can have profound effects on a company’s security, customer satisfaction, and productivity.

As a trusted partner, OpenText is pioneering the era of new possibilities where generative AI complements human creativity to become tomorrow’s solutions across DevOps and ITSM.

In our talk, we will cover how OpenText AI and automation:

• Predicts and anticipates software delivery times.
• Unlocks deep insights into projects and potential risks.
• Addresses skilled staff shortages and optimizes service desk costs.
• Minimizes manual repetitive tasks and resolves issues without ethical compromise.

Speaker: Eric Fisher, Senior Presales Consultant, OpenText

Presented by: OpenText

It is no secret that technology is changing the fabric of business operations and outcomes, and collaboration between IT and the business is more important than ever before. The conversation is no longer about how to align IT with the business, however in many cases technology is still viewed as a commodity rather than an enabler. So what can we do to successfully change this mindset both within our own organizations and across the industry as a whole? During this session, we will discuss the various challenges IT and digital leaders face when undergoing this cultural shift.

Moderator: Karl Forsberg, Senior Director IT, Infrastructure & Operations, North American Partners in Anesthesia

Panelists:

Anthony Almanzar, Vice President & Senior Technical Program Manager, State Street Global Advisors

Deshard Stevens, Senior Director of IT, NAACP LDF

Sholom Ellenberg, CIO, JASA

Tiffany Welsh, Director, Organizational Change Management, Omnicom Media Group

Aggressive attacks on Enterprise computer networks are continuing with increased frequency and threatening economic and national security. Actions like vulnerability reduction and passive defenses on their own simply are not cutting it and there needs to be a functional shift in the way we mitigate this substantial threat. Companies can seek to protect their most sensitive data by implementing an environment of actionable intelligence and detection to bring the fight to the adversaries and ensure a proactive approach to securing data. This session will discuss best practices in managing the constant evolution in the security environment.

Moderator: Kin Wai Chau, Sr. Sales Engineer, Cyera

Panelists:

Montae Brockett, CIO/CISO, DC Department of Health Care Finance

Jeff Ericson, CISO/VP, MedRisk

Bradley Schaufenbuel, CISO, Paychex

Supro Ghose, CISO, EagleBank

User identities, endpoints, applications, and networks have all turned into attack vectors, expanding the attack surface and elevating business risk.

Point security solutions target an area but often fail to integrate well with others. This leads to a false sense of security, leaving security gaps and exposing organizations to cyber risks and costly remediation efforts.

Join us to:

• Discover key considerations when building an AI-powered Zero Trust security architecture
• Learn how best-in-class integrated solutions provide superior security and improve operational efficiencies
• Hear from our customers on how to future-proof your security investments as threats evolve in the face of AI
• Watch integration demos showcasing real-life scenarios that empower security teams on how to build robust end-to-end protection

Speaker: Gaurav Ranjit, Senior Customer Success Manager, Okta

Presented by: Okta

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Technology leaders are now key players in strategic decision-making processes. Their insights are crucial for identifying new business opportunities, assessing risks, and making informed decisions that balance innovation with sustainability. They play a vital role in developing strategies that capitalize on digital transformation, data analytics, and artificial intelligence to drive growth and efficiency.

Speaker: Stephen Framil, Corporate Global Head of Accessibility, Merck

In today’s fast-paced and ever-evolving business landscape, leaders are faced with the daunting task of navigating the complexities of the digital age. As artificial intelligence continues to reshape industries and redefine the nature of work, leaders must embrace a futurist mindset to drive innovation and success. This presentation will empower leaders to embrace the role of futurist leaders and leverage the potential of AI to propel their organizations forward into the future.

Speaker: Dr. Valarian Couch, Director of InfoSec Ops, Planned Parenthood

In social profit, there is often a gap between Leadership vision & the perceived capability of Information Technology to enable mission. Learn from internationally renowned Nonprofit Technology visionary Helen Knight as she presents social service case studies of technology transformations that enabled measurable social improvements.

Key takeaways:

• Learn how to deliver meaningful change even when facing significant technical debt & budget limitations
• Learn how your technical & leadership skills can make a positive difference in the nonprofit sector today

Speaker: Helen Knight, Helen Knight, Vice President, Information Technology, Legal Aid Alberta