HollyFrontier Corporation Nellson Burns moved to Dallas in 2007 from Houston to become Holly Corporation’s Vice President of Information Technology. Having since merged with Frontier Oil Corporation, HollyFrontier is an independent petroleum refiner and marketer producing high-value products such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel as well as specialty lubricants, oil and waxes. HollyFrontier has major refinery operations New Mexico, Wyoming, Kansas, Utah and Oklahoma that drive revenues over 20 billion dollars per year. Nellson helped complete the successful implementation of a comprehensive SAP software suite in 2007. When Holly acquired two significant refineries within six months in 2009 and doubled its refining capacity, Nellson successfully spearheaded the rapid business and technology integration efforts, including integrating the new refineries into SAP with a 4 week period. He has recently integrated the IT systems of Holly and Frontier, where the merger team was able to integrate the Frontier business into Holly’s SAP system on Day 1. Prior to joining Holly, Nellson was with Ernst & Young’s, then CapGemini’s, Oil & Gas SAP practice for nine years, were he “refined” his IT leadership skills. Nellson serves as a member of the SIM DFW Chapter Board, and is the former chairman of the global advisory council for SAP’s for Oil & Gas sector. He is also on the advisory board for the Terry Foundation, the state’s largest private source of full academic scholarships. Nellson and his wife Melissa are proud Texas A&M Aggies, and Nellson serves as a Director of the Texas Alliance Foundation, to support opportunities for student leadership at Texas A&M.
Connecting Sr. Executives with Leading Cyber Solution Providers
Upcoming Summits
2016-08-25
Brian Kenyon Senior Vice President & Chief Strategy Officer Blue Coat Systems
Jamey Cummings Senior Client Partner, Co-Leader Cybersecurity, Korn Ferry
Jeff Hudson CEO Venafi
Norris Brazier 
Alan Davis Special Agent, Electronic Crimes Task Force U.S. Secret Service, Atlanta Field Office Alan Davis began with the U.S. Secret Service in 1999 as a Special Agent in the Dallas Field Ofice. During the past 16+ years with the U.S.S.S. Special Agent Davis has held positions as an instructor at the Federal Law Enforce- ment Center Training Center Criminal Investigator Training Program, Spe- cial Operations Section Counter Assault Team, and the Presidential Protec- tion Division. Currently, Special Agent Davis is assigned to the Atlanta Field Ofice in the Electronic Crimes Task Force (ECTF) Forensic Computer Lab, where he conducts E-Device and Network Intrusion Forensic Exams.
Christopher Smoak Research Scientist and Division Chief – Emerging Threats and Countermeasures Division Georgia Tech Research Institute Mr. Christopher Smoak is a Research Scientist and Chief of the Emerging Threats and Countermeasures Division at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. He has over thirteen years of security-related experience ranging from building defensible systems to advanced malware and exploitation research. Mr. Smoak directs research efforts geared towards threat intelligence analysis, software assurance, vulnerability discovery, and threat analytics. For the past six years, he has worked to facilitate and empower organizations to derive and share threat intelligence on emerging threats through his leadership of applied research teams in the development of automated systems for information collection, analysis, and reporting. Mr. Smoak is a recognized expert in the field of information security and has been consulted as a subject matter expert for both televised and print media in the US and Europe. Mr. Smoak earned a B.S. in Computer Science and an M.S. in Information Security from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He holds the CISSP certification. 
Fred Wright, Ph.D. Associate Lab Director and Principal Researcher
Cyber Technology and Information Security Lab Georgia Tech Research Institute Dr. Fred Wright has over thirty years of experience in research and development at the Georgia Tech Research Institute in defense and cyber security technologies and concepts. Dr. Wright serves as the Associate Laboratory Director of the Cyber Technology and Information Security Laboratory (CTISL). Dr. Wright’s current research focus is on novel security architectures, risk assessments, and cyber/electronic warfare convergence. As an Adjunct Professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Computer Science, he works with students and professors to identify new applied research and technology integration opportunities. Dr. Wright has a broad experience base in a variety of technical areas, including cyber security, electronic warfare, communications systems, signal processing, signals intelligence, and radar. Dr. Wright is a recognized expert in cyber security in both the public and private sector. He has authored dozens of technical papers, developed and taught a variety of cyber defense related short courses, and delivered invited papers on cyber security topics at numerous professional conferences and symposiums globally. For the past 10 years, he has focused on security issues that reside in the “innovation gap”, the vulnerability region that exists between commercially available defensive technologies and emerging cyber threats. As a result, his research is focused on the most challenging problems in protecting enterprises. One example is critical data protection for large enterprises where robust, complex systems engineering approaches are needed to address architecture, defensive solutions, security operations, and policy. Dr. Wright earned his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Memphis State University and, both his Masters and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.
Marc Feghali Founder, VP Product Management Attivo Networks
