All posts in Speakers

Jeff Kok Chief Information Officer Mill Creek Residential

Jeff Kok serves as the Chief Information Officer for Mill Creek Residential Trust with overall responsibility for Information Technology.  Mr. Kok has three guiding philosophies for leading an IT organization:

• People Matter Most
• Simplicity
• Cloud first

Mill Creek Residential Trust develops, acquires and operates high-quality apartment communities in desirable locations coast-to-coast.  Since 2011, Mill Creek Residential has developed more than 15,000 apartment homes across 50+ communities and acquired more than 2,000 apartment homes in some of the nation’s best apartment markets. In 2015, Mill Creek Residential employed approximately 550 associates and delivered an additional 5,000+ homes to their portfolio.  Mill Creek’s current pipeline and developed rental communities has a total capitalization of over $8 billion. Prior to joining Mill Creek, from 2005 to 2015, Mr. Kok worked for Celanese International Corporation {NYSE: CE}, a global technology and specialty materials company that engineers and manufactures a wide variety of products essential to everyday living.  Based in Dallas, Texas, the company employs approximately 7,500 employees worldwide and had 2014 net sales of $6.8 billion, with approximately 67% generated outside of North America.  Mr. Kok held a variety of positions at Celanese and ascended quickly through the ranks.  His most recent role at Celanese was Head of Information Security with overall responsibilities for SAP Security, the Security Operations Center, Security Architecture, and Process Control. He led remediation efforts and developed the strategy for the company with regards to data classification, data protection, and monitoring. Prior to Mr. Kok’s appointment to Head of Information Security, he established and managed a Vendor Management Office that drove tens of millions of dollars per year in savings to the IT budget through outsourcing and moving the entire SAP enterprise system to the cloud with a Platform as a Service model.  His role within Vendor Management went beyond the borders of IT Procurement into technical architecture and design.  Prior to his Vendor Management role, Mr. Kok served as a Program Manager, Project Manager, and Technical Analyst. Mr. Kok graduated from Baylor University with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Management Information Systems. Mr. Kok’s GALLUP Strengths: Belief | Futuristic | Strategic | Responsibility | Individualization

Paul Schofield 

With over 20 years of experience in the industry, Paul is an Information Security veteran.  Paul brings a wide range of experience in the security industry, including Governance, Risk Management, Mergers and Acquisition due diligence, investigations and services. Previously, Paul was a Security Services Architect at Imperva, deploying security solutions to the Fortune 100. He has also served as a Security Consulting Services manager. Prior to his consultancy days, Paul was a member of the Global Risk Management team at HP/ Agilent Technologies, focusing on due diligence for mergers and divestiture. A co-founder of the Boston Chapter of the High Technology Crime Investigation Association, HTCIA, Paul is an accomplished speaker.

Shawn Wiora CIO Creative Solutions in Healthcare

Micki Boland

Self-proclaimed global cyber security warrior, Micki Boland is a security architect with Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.  She has over 20 years in ICT and security system engineering, design, and architecture with the United States Army, Sprint, Nortel Networks, and Avaya. Micki’s focus is helping enterprise customers, SIs, MSPs and Telcos reduce risk by architecting security, visibility, and resiliency into the software defined data center and cloud environments.  Micki is a CISSP and holds a Master of Science in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MBA with global security concentration from East Carolina University. 

US Secret Service Dallas Division

Since its inception in 1865, the United States Secret Service was created to investigate and prevent counterfeiting.  Today the agency’s investigative mission has evolved from enforcing counterfeiting laws to safeguarding the payment and financial systems of the United States from a wide range of financial and computer-based crimes.  To combat these crimes, the Secret Service has adopted a proactive approach, using advanced technologies and capitalizing on the power of task for partnerships. 

The Secret Service is committed to safeguarding the nation’s critical infrastructure and financial payment systems from cyber criminals.  In 2001, the USA Patriot Act mandated the Secret Service establish a national network of Electronic Crimes Task Forces (ECTFs) to prevent, detect, and investigate various forms of electronic crimes including cybercrime. Today, the Secret Service operates 39 ECTFs, including two based overseas in London, England, and Rome, Italy, as part of this expanding network.

The ECTF model relies on trusted partnerships between the law enforcement community, the private sector, and members of academia to combat cybercrime through information sharing, coordinated investigations, technical expertise, and training.  These ECTFs are a strategic alliance of over 4,000 private sector partners; over 2,500 international, federal, state and local law enforcement partners; and over 350 academic partners.  Since inception, the ECTFs have prevented over $13 Billion in potential losses to victims and arrested approximately 10,000 individuals.  The ECTFs are models for 21^st century law enforcement, incorporating partnerships and information to focus on the challenges of combating cybercrime.

The 2008 Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI) created the foundation for a whole-of-government approach to protecting the nation from cybersecurity threats. As part of the CNCI, the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force (NCIJTF) was established under Presidential Directive as one of the country’s national cybersecurity centers. Located in Washington, D.C. area, the FBI-led NCIJTF serves as the National focal point for coordinating cyber threat investigations.

While national-level coordination is important to securing the nation, teamwork at the local level is also essential. After more than a decade of combating cyber crime through a nationwide network of interagency task forces, the FBI has evolved its Cyber Task Forces (CTFs) in all 56 field offices to focus exclusively on cybersecurity threats. In addition to key law enforcement and homeland security agencies at the state and local level, each CTF partners many of the federal agencies that participate in the NCIJTF at the headquarters level. This promotes effective collaboration and deconfliction of efforts at both the local and national level.  The CTF role within the field office territory includes:

·         Responding to cyber incidents and conducting victim-based investigations

·         Understanding and addressing the threats, vulnerabilities, and collection opportunities that exist

·         Maintaining relationships and information sharing with key companies and institutions