All posts in Speakers

Alex Kaplunov

Vice President of Engineering Venafi

As a Vice President of Engineering, Alex Kaplunov is responsible for all aspects of product development, research and technology leadership at Venafi. Alex brings over 20 years of experience in technology, static code analysis and application security.

Prior to joining Venafi, Alex held numerous leadership positions with companies such as IBM Rational Software, NVIDIA, Coverity, and most recently was Vice President of Engineering at Hewlett Packard responsible for research and development for Fortify Business Unit. While at HP Fortify, Alex was responsible for delivering multiple products and established numerous strategic partnerships. Under Alex’s leadership, Fortify was recognized as a leader and visionary by Gartner Magic Quadrant for Static Application Security Testing (SAST) and Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST).

Mr. Kaplunov holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Systems from UOP.

Ted Ipsen

Vice President of Security Training Services NCC Group

Ted Ipsen is a Vice President and the Director of Security Training Services in the Americas at the NCC Group. He also started the North American Risk Management and Governance practice for NCC. Mr. Ipsen is an experienced executive manager with over 20 years of experience specializing in high-tech crime investigation, and the delivery and oversight of consulting and advisory services in the areas of information security, secure development, security assessment, information risk management, IT governance, regulatory compliance, business and IT process analysis, business continuity management, and aligning strategic IT and security goals with business objectives.

Eric Stride

Senior Vice President root9B

Chris Bates

Principal Architect SentinelOne

Chris has over 22 years of experience in the Cyber Security and Information Technology field. As the Principle Architect for SentinelOne, he leverages his years of experience in Incident Response, Cyber Security Operations, Security Architecture, and Cyber Security Strategy to continually improve and transform how SentinelOne approaches cyber security in its products and with its customers.

Soren Frederiksen

SME Sales Engineer LogRhythm

Soren Frederiksen has been working in the computer security field for about 16+ years. He has been responsible for the security operations for a number of different companies and is now working as a Sales Engineer for LogRhythm.

Robert Smith

Special Agent, Cyber Crimes Division Dallas FBI

In his most recent assignment, Agent Smith served at FBI Headquarters as Unit Chief in the Cyber Division.   In this role, SA Smith managed one of the FBI’s major private sector outreach programs, coordinated international law enforcement outreach and oversaw key investigative programs targeting malware operators and cyber-criminal transnational enterprises.  SA Smith has played a key role in many significant cyber-crime investigations including the FBI Major Case Cardkeeper enterprise investigation, the RBS Worldpay cash out investigation, the Butterfly/Mariposa Botnet investigation, the FBI undercover Cardshop enterprise investigation, the Game Over Zeus botnet dismantlement and the Darkode Criminal Forum investigation. 

Deborah Johnson

Vice President, Global Insider Threat Jacobs Engineering

Deborah Johnson is a seasoned executive leader with over 30 years of experience and a proven ability to lead and manage diverse, complex organizations. Deborah is the Vice President, Global Insider Threats at Jacobs Engineering where she is leading the Jacobs Insider Risk Management program and providing insider risk solutions to its customers. 

Prior to her current role, Deborah was Vice President, Global Cyber Security, at Jacobs, and was responsible for development, training and communications to improve user awareness of current, emerging, and insider threats; and managing the Information Security team in the planning, design, enforcement and audit of security policies and procedures.

Mike Rochelle

Director – Global IT Strategy, PMO and Change Mgt. of Jacobs President of AITP Dallas

In addition to being the Director of Global IT Change Leadership at Jacobs Engineering and President of the not-for-profit aitp Dallas, a CompTIA family member, Mike is founder and chief people developer at Mike Rochelle and Associates, a Management and Leadership Development consulting firm.  Mike helps clients re-energize their people through individual coaching and group development programs and exercises to create an IT Strategy for People and how work gets done.

Mike is a results-oriented IT leader with demonstrated ability to meet or exceed business goals. He has 23 years of increasing IT operations, sales, marketing and business/customer process lifecycle experience.  His passion is helping people and organizations continually renew their vision and reach their growing potential.

Mike’s Personal Strength Statement – “I am an agile learner who collects interesting things to help others see their purpose.  My core values of belief in people and their potential helps me excite others to use their strengths to improve their joy and results at work and in life.”

Mike uses his signature strengths of Connectedness, Maximizer, Input, Ideation and Belief to make this his reality every day.

Whether as a consultant, manager, employee, co-worker, or volunteer/leader, Mike wants to help.

His specialties include: Facilitation, Organizational Leadership Assessment, Executive Coaching, Organizational Development Design Architecture, Leadership and management training, conflict management, Program Creation, Change Management and Execution. Mike received a B.A., majoring in Theology, from Ambassador University and an M.B.A., with emphasis on Strategy, from Azusa Pacific University.  He is also a 1997 graduate of The Society for Information Management’s Regional Leadership Forum,

Mike has consulted and facilitated management and leadership offerings for SIM and numerous other organizations since 1998 and enjoys with a rich national customer base, DIRECTV, Time Warner Cable and Pearson education, Mary Kay,  RadioShack, Aon, Kraft, Diageo, PepsiCo, International Paper and dozens of others.

Mike founded the SIM SW RLF in Dallas/ Fort Worth in the year 2000 through 2015.  He is an active member of SIM DFW.  He is passionately active in programming AITP’s annual offering of business capability meetings since 2015.  Under his leadership, the aitp Dallas chapter has tripled in size and is now the fastest growing chapter nationally and largest in its region.  www.aitpdallas.org

Mike is an active outdoorsman, mountain biker, and soccer and ballet dad. Mike resides in Highland Village, TX, with his wife, Arlene and sons, Michael Alexander and Paul Anthony and daughter Erika Marie.

Nicole Eagan CEO Darktrace

As Chief Executive Officer of Darktrace, Nicole Eagan has positioned the company as an international leader in cyber defense. Nicole was named ‘Woman of the Year’ at the 2016 Cyber Security Awards for successfully introducing disruptive machine learning technology to the global market. Her extensive career as a technology executive includes over 25 years of commercial and marketing experience. An expert in developing and executing strategies for high-growth businesses, Nicole helped Darktrace secure $65 million in Series C funding from KKR and led the company to 600% year-on-year growth. Under her leadership, Darktrace’s innovative approach to cyber security has won over 50 awards, including World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, CA and Cambridge, England and now has more than 400 employees working across 24 countries.

Karl Gainey

Director of Sales Engineering enSilo

Karl has more than 20 years of experience in cyber-security and IT Operations. Prior to enSilo, Karl was a Security Global Black Belt at Microsoft where he was responsible for technical sales in strategic accounts.  Additionally, Karl has held several leadership roles in technical sales, product, and IT Network operations.