By bringing together the top 80 Executives in the region, we will discuss the most pressing Technology and Leadership challenges we face in an ever-evolving corporate landscape.
Over the next two and a half days, we will nurture meaningful relationships and tackle the challenges inherent to IT in a smaller, more dynamic setting. You will learn from your peers through various workshops, panels, roundtables and presentations. Our closed-door policy fosters an environment where all discussions are confined within the Forum walls, enabling more genuine and engaged conversations.
Learn about the latest and most innovative technologies that can bridge some of your organizational gaps through qualified one-on-one engagements, scheduled strategically throughout the Forum and selected by you, based on your most pressing needs.
Build new relationships and nurture existing ones, share in your successes and commiserate in the challenges that we all face as IT Leaders.
Join us for the West IT & Security Leaders Forum and leave ready to inspire action within your Organization!
The Phoenician, a Luxury Collection Resort, Scottsdale
Capture the moment as well as your imagination. Immerse yourself in contemporary elegance of The Phoenician, a Luxury Collection Resort, Scottsdale. A distinctive lifestyle experience, The Phoenician invites you to soak in the splendor of unparalleled resort amenities, from a three-level pool complex to athletic club and golf course. Your palate will thank you when you savor the cuisine found in any one of eight dining venues, including the classic J&G Steakhouse and laid-back Mowry & Cotton. Relax in style at The Phoenician, the premier luxury hotel in Scottsdale, AZ.
Forum Agenda
Agenda may be subject to change. Check back regularly for Updates.
2:00 PM - 5:00 PM MST
FORUM REGISTRATION & APP DEMONSTRATION
Get familiar with SINC Staff and the event layout. Secure your complimentary Swag Bag and learn how to use the Onsite Application for Peer Engagement and win great prizes!
5:30 PM - 7:00 PM MST
SINC WELCOME NETWORKING RECEPTION
Engage your Peers over canapes and cocktails
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM MST
SINC NETWORKING & ENGAGEMENT DINNER
7:00 AM - 7:55 AM MST
SINC IT LEADERS NETWORKING BREAKFAST
Full breakfast and lots of coffee available!
8:00 AM - 8:05 AM MST
SINC OPENING REMARKS
A Thank You from SINC – setting the tone for a great day!
8:05 AM - 8:45 AM MST
KEYNOTE PRESENTATION - Exposing Adversarial Conversations
The latest snapshot of your network traffic logs may look innocent enough, but hidden within your common ports and protocols are the movements of a cybercriminal who has secretly breached your systems and is now trying to expand its foothold within your virtual walls in multi-cloud environments.
It’s this east-west infiltration that turns what could be just a relatively minor breach into a damaging data exfiltration incident or a full-scale ransomware attack. That’s why reducing attacker dwell time, curbing lateral movement and detecting advanced threats are essential components to any network security strategy, whether you operate largely on premises, in private clouds or multi-cloud architectures.
Gain key insights and strategies related to the defense against post-breach lateral movement:
- Research, statistical analysis and threat reports that underscore the threat that lateral movement represents
- Key metrics, strategies and solutions for detecting post-exploitation east-west movement, including behavioral analysis and identifying threat signatures
- A Guide To Detecting & Restricting Lateral Movement
Presented by: VMware
8:55 AM - 9:35 AM MST
CISO PANEL - The Ongoing Shift in Protecting our Networks
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.
9:35 - 9:55 AM MST
SINC NETWORKING & REFRESHMENT BREAK
Circle back with your Peers on the content so far while grabbing a coffee and a snack
9:55 - 10:25 AM MST
WORKSHOP 1 - Top 3 Cloud Security Efforts to Focus on in 2023
As cloud data volumes grow, so does cloud complexity. Traditional security infrastructure is no match for the constant changes, updates, and shifts that come with the cloud – let alone the rapid rise of sophisticated, malicious threats. That’s a lot to get your teams’ arms around! We’ve got three things you can focus on this year to ease that complexity and keep your business safe in the cloud.
Join this session to discuss how:
- Shifting left will be essential
- Supply chain risk will be a major concern
- Securing your cloud will be impossible without comprehensive visibility
Presented by: Lacework
9:55 - 10:25 AM MST
WORKSHOP 2 - Challenges with Digital Currency: Enabling the Institution for the Digital Economy
The world now depends on the digital economy. IT is central to the organization’s successful response and there are four pillars of strength required: re-coding the institutional DNA, treating security as survival, responding to the new relationship with work, and reducing the bureaucratic burden.
Presented by: Vijay Mohnish, CTO, Ria Financial
10:35 AM - 11:05 AM MST
WORKSHOP 1 - Continuous Security Validation and You: A Tale as Old as Epoch Time
With Incident Response as the new normal, ensuring that our systems and processes support that effort and threat hunting are working as expected. We will discuss why and how to establish a Continuous Security Validation (CSV) program within your organization. Specifically, how such a program evolves beyond Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) and provides teams a continuous feedback loop to understand their posture and identify gaps as they arise.
Presented by: AttackIQ
10:35 AM - 11:05 AM MST
WORKSHOP 2 - Building The 'True' Software-Defined Data Centers
The software-defined data center (SDDC) is a concept in which all data center infrastructure is virtualized and delivered as a service. Control is fully automated through software, allowing hardware configuration to be maintained through automated policies. SDDC advances virtualization and cloud computing by supporting both legacy enterprise applications and new cloud computing services. It thus provides a solid base for using public, private, and hybrid clouds. By abstracting applications from hardware, SDDC allows apps to run anywhere and even move from place to place. It also allows for greater automation within a data center and faster, simple orchestration across centers.
11:10 - 12:10 PM MST
ROUNDTABLE & PANEL - Driving The Business Through Technology
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.
12:10 - 1:00 PM MST
SINC NETWORKING LUNCH
Open seating, Buffet-style lunch. Serving food for all tastes, pallets, and preferences. Vegan, vegetarian, and halal options available
1:10 - 1:40 PM MST
WORKSHOP 1 - Improve Your Security Strategy: Master the 3 Levels of Decision-making
Your security team manages risks that affect business units and functions across your entire organization. Security is threaded through every aspect of your business, and your decisions have never mattered more. On a daily basis, you make decisions that affect day-to-day operations, data and system security, executive-level strategy and direction and quite possibly, the future success of your organization. Security leaders straddle the lines of executive, strategic, and tactical decision making, and must be experts at navigating all three of these levels. We’re wearing many hats, often switching between them from meeting to meeting, and it’s imperative that we can effectively communicate and drive decisions that improve and mature our security efforts across the board.
This session will explore ways to enhance engagement with technical teams, business units and executives alike, while still maturing your security program to be more efficient and effective at managing and mitigating risk. Concepts and topics covered will include:
- The 3 levels of decision making you must navigate on a daily basis and how they impact the rest of the organization
- Applying meaningful metrics to demonstrate value to executives and mature program operations for optimal effectiveness
- Finding program gaps where remediation efforts or SLA compliance is lagging, and taking steps to help affected teams improve and succeed
- How Tenable helps to improve operational efficiency, address threats and vulnerabilities faster, and demonstrate tangible business value at all levels of the organization
Presented by: Tenable
1:10 - 1:40 PM MST
WORKSHOP 2 - In The Know: Coping with Recession Concerns on IT Spending
Concerns of a Recession looms whether there results in one or not. With a war raging across the ocean, a potential European energy crisis this winter, and inflation numbers in the US refusing to subside, the macroeconomic environment has caused enterprise IT leaders to rethink their strategies. Learn how your peers are changing their plans to deal with the recession.
Presented by: Rimini Street
1:50 - 2:20 PM MST
WORKSHOP 1 - Ransomware Trends & Cybersecurity Defense Strategies
Check back for updates on this session.
Presented by: Dr. Cheryl Cooper, BISO, T-Mobile
1:50 - 2:20 PM MST
WORKSHOP 2 - AI in the Enterprise- Identifying Winning Business Cases
Enterprises have hordes of data and many opportunities to integrate other data sources. But readying data for AI experimentation is expensive and requires an iterative approach.
This session will focus on finding the best opportunities to experiment with AI and on applying agile practices in machine learning initiatives.
2:30 - 3:10 PM MST
PRESENTATION - Learn Value Stream Management the Easy Way
Value Stream Management may be the next big thing but seems like a lot to swallow. Even organizations with mature Agile and DevOps processes are unsure how to capitalize on this proven method of process improvement. To front-load success and reduce risk, you’ll need to see value quickly and then build on that success. Properly implemented, VSM can boost time-to-market and a company’s ability to compete and win in the marketplace by maximizing ROI and unifying your organization’s business and technology objectives.
In this session, you’ll learn how OpenText simplifies Value Stream Management by helping organizations track, analyze, and predict resourcing, reduce risk, and identify waste to help you increase value as a product flows from “strategy to delivery” to achieve superior business outcomes:
- Maximize Business Value and Effectiveness: Discover, visualize and manage flow of value from “strategy to delivery” powered by AI and analytics that is easy to deploy
- Accelerate Delivery and Efficiency: Integrates with your existing toolchains to improve productivity and remove friction in the value stream with smart automation
- Gain Competitive Advantage: Differentiate customer experience with high quality value stream insights to manage risk and streamline delivery. Empower continuous feedback, learning and improvement.
Join OpenText for this discussion, including why the time for VSM is now and how to capitalize on it the easy way.
Presented by: OpenText
3:10 - 3:25 PM MST
SINC NETWORKING & REFRESHMENT BREAK
Circle back with your Peers on the content so far while grabbing a coffee and a snack
3:25 - 4:05 PM MST
PRESENTATION - Systems of Experience: The CIO's Role in the Future of Work
The definition of work-life balance has changed, and the nature of work has changed. Life, family, and work are all integrated, we need software solutions that allow us the flexibility to live our lives and attract a diverse talent. Solutions that improve experience locally while allowing us to operate globally removing the friction, increasing productivity improving employee experience and in turn positively impacting the customer experience. Focused on retention and customer satisfaction.
Presented by: RingCentral
4:15 - 5:05 PM MST
ROUNDTABLE & PANEL - Diving into Talent Acquisition, Diversity and Retention
In most markets, there is an abundance of open IT jobs with fewer people able to fill them – and the positions are getting more expensive. Working remotely is the norm, but not optimal (usually). There is less off-shoring and more resources are focused locally or within the same hemisphere.
Additionally, we are still not recruiting enough women and minorities into the rank and file, especially senior IT roles, and we’re losing talent to major tech hubs.
Join us at the roundtable with your peers as we dive into solutions to tackle the following challenges:
- How do you scale staff/team without losing them to major tech hubs?
- How do you create more diversity – not only among race and gender – but diversity of thought Old vs New Thinking?
- How do we mentor universities to implement actionable steps for supplying more IT talent?
Panelist: Dr. Cheryl Cooper, BISO, T-Mobile
5:30 - 7:00 PM MST
SINC NETWORKING RECEPTION
Engage your Peers over canapés and cocktails
7:00 - 9:00 PM MST
SINC NETWORKING & ENGAGEMENT DINNER
8:00 AM - 8:55 AM MST
SINC IT LEADERS NETWORKING BREAKFAST
Full Breakfast and lots of coffee available!
9:00 AM - 9:40 AM MST
PRESENTATION - Low Hanging Fruit – Improving AD Security for the Easy Win
Threat actors, Red-Teams, and Ransomware have been abusing Active Directory for years. In fact, attackers have compromised or leveraged AD in 100% of the successful ransomware attacks over the last 3 years.
This discussion will discuss new technologies to help you visualize the risk in your AD and add a layer of security around this very important part of enterprise infrastructure.
9:50 - 10:20 AM MST
WORKSHOP 1 - Accelerating Software Delivery and Ensuring Compliance through Value Stream Management
In the fast-paced world of IT and Security, optimizing software delivery and ensuring compliance are essential for organizations looking to remain competitive and meet ever-evolving customer demands. This presentation will explore the role of Value Stream Management (VSM) in accelerating software delivery, enhancing digital transformation efforts, and ensuring compliance within the IT & Security industry. Attendees will learn how VSM can drive innovation, efficiency, and compliance within their organizations by providing a comprehensive overview of VSM, discussing challenges and opportunities in the global context, and sharing best practices for successful implementation.
Presented by: CloudBees
9:50 - 10:20 AM MST
WORKSHOP 2 - Proactive Threat Hunting for SOC & Incident Responders
10:20 - 10:35 AM MST
SINC NETWORKING & REFRESHMENT BREAK
Circle back with your Peers on the content so far while grabbing a coffee and a snack
10:40 - 11:10 MST
WORKSHOP
11:15 - 12:00 PM MST
FIRESIDE CHAT - 90-DAY PLAN IN YOUR NEW ROLE
You’ve just stepped into your new IT leadership role. Your first 90 days in a new IT leadership role should be focused on learning. Investing this time will help you understand the current state, appreciate the culture and inform your strategy. Prioritize these steps to kickstart improvement:
- Understand your job. Learn the organization and industry you are in
- Define and revise measurements for success
- Articulate your vision and strategy
- Organize people for success
- Build culture
- Revise processes for success & delivery, and suitable for the environment and the times
- Upgrade technologies
12:00 - 1:00 PM MST
SINC NETWORKING LUNCH
West Executive Advisory Council

Nadeem Iftikhar
CISO
NextNav

Roger Franke
Vice President of IT
Aramark

Elena Seiple
VP, CISO
Zillow

Niel Nickolaisen
CIO
Sorenson Communications

Paul Duchouquette
CIO
FDH Aero

Chris Stoneley
CISO
Cathay Bank

Robert Martin
CTO
Bridgepay Network Solutions

Vijay Mohnish
CTO
Ria Financial

Marcel Spitalnik
Director of Business Transformation
Danone

Adip Dsouza
VP of Technology
Merchants Mortgage & Trust Corporation

Sylvia Jessen
Director of IT
University of Utah School of Medicine

Tanweer Surve
Technology CTO
Wells Fargo
Interested in sponsoring? Please submit a request.
Submit RequestForum Sponsors
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- silver Sponsor

diamond
VMware
VMware is a leading provider of multi-cloud services for all apps, enabling digital innovation with enterprise control.
As the trusted foundation to accelerate innovation, VMware meets customers where they are. Instead of tradeoffs and compromise, VMware’s software offers businesses the flexibility and choice they need to build the future.
Learn More
VMware is a leading provider of multi-cloud services for all apps, enabling digital innovation with enterprise control.
As the trusted foundation to accelerate innovation, VMware meets customers where they are. Instead of tradeoffs and compromise, VMware’s software offers businesses the flexibility and choice they need to build the future.

platinum
RingCentral
RingCentral, Inc. (NYSE: RNG) is a leading provider of business cloud communications and contact center solutions based on its powerful Message Video Phone (MVP ) global platform. More flexible and cost-effective than legacy on-premises PBX and video conferencing systems that it replaces, RingCentral empowers modern mobile and distributed workforces to communicate, collaborate, and connect via any mode, any device, and any location.
RingCentral offers three key products in its portfolio including RingCentral MVP , a Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) platform including team messaging, video meetings, and cloud phone system; RingCentral Video , the company’s video meetings solution with team messaging that enables Smart Video Meetings; and RingCentral Cloud Contact Center solutions. RingCentral’s open platform integrates with leading third-party business applications and enables customers to easily customize business workflows. RingCentral is headquartered in Belmont, California, and has offices around the world.

platinum
OpenText
OpenText is a world leader in Information Management, helping companies securely capture, govern and exchange information on a global scale. OpenText solves digital business challenges for customers, ranging from small and mid-sized businesses to the largest and most complex organizations in the world. For more information about OpenText (NASDAQ/TSX: OTEX), visit www.opentext.com
Learn More
gold
AttackIQ
AttackIQ, the leading independent vendor of breach and attack simulation solutions, built the industry’s first Security Optimization Platform for continuous security control validation and improving security program effectiveness and efficiency. AttackIQ is trusted by leading organizations worldwide to plan security improvements and verify that cyberdefenses work as expected, aligned with the MITRE ATT&CK framework. The Company is committed to giving back to the cybersecurity community through its free AttackIQ Academy, open Preactive Security Exchange, and partnership with the MITRE Engenuity.
Learn More
gold
Tenable
Tenable®, Inc. is the Cyber Exposure company. Over 30,000 organizations around the globe rely on Tenable to understand and reduce cyber risk. As the creator of Nessus®, Tenable extended its expertise in vulnerabilities to deliver the world’s first platform to see and secure any digital asset on any computing platform. Tenable customers include more than 50 percent of the Fortune 500, more than 30 percent of the Global 2000 and large government agencies.
Learn More
gold
Lacework
Lacework is the data-driven security platform for the cloud. The Lacework Polygraph Data Platform automates cloud security at scale so our customers can innovate with speed and safety. Only Lacework can collect, analyze, and accurately correlate data across an organization’s AWS, Azure, GCP, and Kubernetes environments, and narrow it down to the handful of security events that matter. Customers all over the globe depend on Lacework to drive revenue, bring products to market faster and safer and consolidate point security solutions into a single platform.
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gold
CloudBees
Every business is a software business, and is under pressure to innovate constantly. This increased velocity introduces new business risks. CloudBees is building the world’s first end-to-end automated software delivery system, enabling companies to balance governance and developer freedom.
Learn More
gold
Binalyze
Binalyze is the world’s fastest and most comprehensive DFIR solution. Our software remotely, securely, and automatically collects more than 280 digital forensics artifacts in under 10 minutes.
With evidence collected, our Timeline, Triage and Drone features help you to collaborate and complete incident response investigations quickly and dramatically reduces dwell time.
Binalyze saves you time, reduces cybersecurity operational costs and helps you prevent the financial and reputational losses associated with cyber attacks.
Learn More
gold
ThreatLocker
ThreatLocker is leading the cybersecurity market towards a more secure approach to blocking unknown application vulnerabilities. The ThreatLocker Control Suite combines Application Whitelisting, Ringfencing™, Storage Control, and Elevation Control solutions in ways that make security simple.
ThreatLocker’s powerful suite of security tools is designed so that everyone from businesses to government agencies to academic institutions can directly control exactly what applications run on their networks.
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gold
Rimini Street
More than 4,900 Fortune 500, Fortune Global 100, midmarket, public sector and other organizations from a broad range of industries have relied on Rimini Street as their trusted application enterprise software products and services provider. To learn more, please visit www.riministreet.com.
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silver
Recorded Future
Recorded Future is the world’s largest provider of intelligence for enterprise security. By combining persistent and pervasive automated data collection and analytics with human analysis, Recorded Future delivers intelligence that is timely, accurate, and actionable. In a world of ever-increasing chaos and uncertainty, Recorded Future empowers organizations with the visibility they need to identify and detect threats faster; take proactive action to disrupt adversaries; and protect their people, systems, and assets, so businesses can be conducted with confidence. Recorded Future is trusted by hundreds of businesses and government organizations around the world. Learn more at www.recordedfuture.com
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silver
Rubrik
Rubrik, the Zero Trust Data Security Company™, delivers data security and operational resilience for enterprises. Rubrik’s big idea is to provide data security and data protection on a single platform, including: Zero Trust Data Protection, ransomware investigation, incident containment, sensitive data discovery, and orchestrated application recovery. This means data is ready at all times so you can recover the data you need, and avoid paying a ransom. Because when you secure your data, you secure your applications, and you secure your business.
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silver
Cyera
Cyera is the data security company that gives businesses context and control over their most valuable asset: data. As a pioneer in Data Security Posture Management, Cyera instantly provides companies visibility over their sensitive data, context over the risk it represents and their security exposure, and automated remediation to reduce the attack surface and ensure operational resilience. We are redefining the way companies secure their data.
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