The 11th Annual Cyber Security Summit is fast approaching!  This year’s theme, The Power and Peril of Connection, will feature more than 100 speakers discussing the critical cybersecurity topics that link us all together, for better or worse. 

Our program committee has been hard at work for months creating a program that will give you valuable insights and thought-providing ideas that you can take back to your organization.  As you have recently read, the entire Summit will be held virtually this year to ensure the safety of our speakers and attendees.  To ensure a robust and scalable event, the Cyber Security Summit has formed partnerships with vFairs online platform and the Zoom Event Services team to make this year’s Summit truly fantastic.

As in years past, the first day of the Summit, October 25th, will feature many technical sessions, as well as the half-day “Women in Cyber” event.  We are also very excited to announce that on day one we will be hosting our first full day Public Sector Workshop to addresses the many unique challenges that face our public officials as they work to secure all of us.  The sessions on Monday are offered FREE OF CHARGE courtesy of the organizations sponsoring the Summit.

Tuesday October 26th will showcase Director of CISA, Jen Easterly, as our opening keynote with additional topics throughout the day including ransomware, application security and closing with a discussion from author Ira Winkler about the human side of cybersecurity.  On Wednesday October 27th, we’ll discuss the power of ISACs, cyber supply chain, and how to keep ahead of the ever-changing threat landscape. 

We’re also excited to celebrate and recognize the winners of the Visionary Leadership Awards for this year:

Visionary Academic Leader:
Dr. Ambareen Siraj, Prof. / Dir.: CEROC, Tennessee Tech & Founder: WiCyS

Visionary Security Program and Oversight Leader:
John Valente, Security Consultant

Visionary Governance, Risk and Compliance Leader:
Kumar Dasani, Director, Cyber Security and IT DevOps, Medtronic

Visionary Security Awareness Program Leader:
Talya Gepner, Director, Target Corporation

Visionary Security Operations Leader:
Debra Stafford, Security Manager, Minnesota IT Services

Visionary Student:
Alex Hepp, Student, Metropolitan State University

Visionary Governance Champion:
Jim Nash, State Representative, Minnesota House of Representatives

Visionary Applications Security Leader:
Jay Jacobs, Chief Data Scientist, Cyentia

Visionary Global Leader:
Malcolm Harkins, Chief Security & Trust Officer, Epiphany

Founders Award:
Kevin Mandia, Mandiant

As your co-chairs for this year’s Summit, we’re looking forward to learning from industry leaders and experiencing the Power of Connection, even through a virtual event.  We want to thank the Summit sponsors and hope you’ll join us for the 11th Annual Cyber Security Summit!

Jennifer Czaplewski, Senior Director, Target Corporation

Wade Van Guilder, Senior Manager, WWT


Jennifer Czaplewski

Jennifer Czaplewski is an innovative cyber security leader known for building and delivering critical security functions. She is an industry leader in DevSecOps and frequently shares insights at thought leadership forums like RSA, the Cyber Security Summit, DevOps.com and All Day DevOps. She is a patent holder and her work has been featured in SC Magazine and Dark Reading. Jennifer is currently a Senior Director in Target’s Cyber Security team, leading Product Security, Vulnerability Management and Endpoint Protection. She is the 2021 co-chair of the Cyber Security Summit.

Wade Van Guilder

Wade Van Guilder is a seasoned technical leader with over 25 years of experience in the industry. As a Principal Advisor at World Wide Technology (WWT) for State & Local Government and Education (SLED), Mr. Van Guilder is responsible for WWT’s Cyber Security strategy for SLED. In this role he spends much of his time consulting with Sr. Technical and Business Leaders in the SLED Market to help identify and deliver cyber solutions that serve the needs of these customers. Full bio.