For 7 of its 12 years, the Cyber Security Summit has honored the top cyber leaders across all disciplines in industry, government and academia since 2015. In 2018, our Visionary Leadership Awards program was expanded to include a wider array of visionary cyber leaders to fully represent the expertise needed in this thriving industry. The Cyber Security Summit’s goal is to recognize innovative cyber leaders at all levels who help develop and foster strategies to protect critical systems and data.
Each year the VLA Honorees are recognized at the Visionary Leaders Awards Dinner in conjunction with the Annual Cyber Security Summit. Along with recognition for their accomplishments, award recipients will get a brief opportunity to share their innovative strategies with other visionaries and then sit back and enjoy the show.
Visionary leaders from across the global cyber security community are eligible to receive awards, which are affectionately known as “Morrie Awards.” The awards are named after Robert Tappan Morris, the American computer scientist who notably created the first computer worm on the Internet. He later went on to make significant contributions to computer networking as well as co-found the funding firm Y Combinator and become a tenured professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Congratulations to the
2022 Visionary Leadership Award Honorees
The 12th Annual Cyber Security Summit will celebrate the Cyber Security industry’s Best and Brightest in our 7th Annual Visionary Leadership Awards on October 25, 2022 during the summit in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
This fall the evening will shine brighter as we have added legendary rocker, Domenick Allen (from Foreigner, Broadway and more) to headline an evening that honors the efforts of our industry colleagues who are truly leading the way through their visionary approaches across the discipline of cyber security. And, the show will actually include some local cyber talent getting their groove on, we bet your curious who will join the band!
CHIP LAINGEN
Executive Director, Defense Alliance
Chip Laingen is Executive Director of Defense Alliance, an SBA-funded technology cluster; Corporate VP, LSI, and graduate faculty at the University of Minnesota’s Technological Leadership Institute. He has a masters in Public Affairs from the Humphrey Institute, and was a U.S. Navy Moreau Scholar in the National Security Ph.D. program of the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University. Commander Laingen is a 21-year Navy Veteran as an aviator and speechwriter to the Secretary of the Navy. He finished his career in 2004 as a squadron commander. He is the author of “Laingen on Leadership,” available on Amazon.
TERRY SEIPLE
Senior Enterprise Information Security and Cloud Architect, State of Minnesota
Experienced Information Security and Cloud Architect with a history of working with several large public and private sector employers. Skilled in many compliancy and Framework areas including NIST, ISO 27001 with a solid background in IT Strategy, Data Center, Identity & Access Management (IAM), and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Additional extensive background doing secure design architecture with many cloud-based platforms and technologies.
PRASENJIT SAHA
Executive Vice President and Global Cyber Security Business Head, L&T Infotech (LTI)
Prasenjit Saha is the Executive Vice President and Global Cyber Security Business Head for L&T Infotech (LTI). In his role, Prasenjit is responsible for defining and driving LTI’s global vision and strategy for LTI’s Cyber Defense Resiliency Services. Prasenjit is an industry-recognized and respected leader in the Cybersecurity Services space. In the last 31+ years, he is highly respected for building profitable and fastest-growing global businesses in Cybersecurity, Digital Security, Cloud and Infrastructure Management and E-Commerce offerings. He is also an entrepreneur at heart as is known to establish the business as a founder for Cyber Security services in his last 3 organizations serving clients across all the continents.
WILLIAM RANKIN
Director of Governance and Compliance, ECS
William Rankin is the Director of Governance and Compliance at ECS. In this position, he has helped numerous companies establish information security programs that align with their business and industry needs. This work not only helps ensure industry compliance with applicable regulations and frameworks, but also helps protect the future of information security and cybersecurity on a broader scale.
William has held previous leadership roles at American Technology Services, Symantec Corporation, and Gannett/USA Today. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Decision Sciences and Management Information Systems from George Mason University, as well as numerous cybersecurity and compliance certifications.
NATASCHA SHAWVER
Information Security Architect, University of Minnesota
Natascha Shawver is an Information Technology Security Professional with a demonstrated strong history of working in a variety of industries, most recently as a Security Architect in Higher Education. She has extensive experience in Enterprise Information Risk Management and the development of Information Security Governance, an area she considers not only important because of various compliance requirements, but also because clearly ARTICULATED security requirements empower organizations to let them confidently improve their security posture. She particularly enjoys the educational opportunities that hide within an area of security too commonly viewed as a chore.
NADIA RIZK
Director of Technology Audit & Data Analytics, Target Corporation
Nadia Rizk is the Director of Technology Audit & Data Analytics for Target Corporation. Her responsibilities include leading internal audit and risk coverage of technology across Target and driving digital change through solution delivery that enhances the insights provided by data analytics throughout Internal Audit. Nadia has over 14 years of IT and Engineering experience where she led systems and application development and platform implementation in previous roles. She is also an advocate for equality and equity in the corporate sectors, highlighting the experiences people of diverse backgrounds face that can be improved upon through allyship, inclusion, mutuality and belonging.
ALYSSA MAKI
IT/InfoSec Analyst, Kimley-Horn and Associates
Alyssa Maki started her career as an elementary educator but made the jump to cybersecurity in 2018. She has a bachelor’s degree in Cybersecurity from Metropolitan State University and is an IT/InfoSec analyst at Kimley-Horn and Associates. In this role she wears many hats, including leading the cybersecurity awareness and training program for the company. As an intern, she inherited the program as a blank slate. Through the last two years, she collaborated with leaders and teammates to understand the company, the users, and the risks they face to build a program that was curated for the audience it served.
LAURA JOHNSON
Enterprise Endpoint Manager, Minnesota IT Services
Laura Johnson is an Enterprise Endpoint Manager at Minnesota IT services serving the State of MN Executive branch agencies. She spent the majority of the past 9 years consolidating service to build efficiencies and provide a consistent service delivery to Executive branch customers. She has created consistent software delivery strategies and monthly Microsoft update processes that has drastically improved the landscape and has increased response time to sev1 vulnerabilities in the environment.
BETTY ELLIOTT, CISSP
Senior Vice President, CISO, Freddie Mac
Betty is an accomplished information security leader with 18+ years’ experience and a proven track record of building successful security programs across financial, retail, BPO and consulting services industries. Betty joined Freddie Mac in December 2020 as SVP, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). Previously, Betty was at Mercer where she served as Partner, CISO. She has served as VP, CISO at MoneyGram International, Convergys and Stream Global Sourcing and has led security teams at Ameriprise Financial, Allianz Life and Best Buy. She was recognized as CISOs Connect C100 top 100 CISO’s in its inaugural year.
NAOMI HOSPODARSKY
Security & Compliance Analyst, Minnesota Supercomputing Institute (MSI)
As the Minnesota Supercomputing Institute’s Security and Compliance Analyst, Naomi brings over 20 years of Systems Engineering experience together with Information Security to protect and support a variety of research data. Naomi is a strong advocate of security through teamwork to create secure policies, procedures, and solutions to achieve best outcomes in support of high performance computing and advanced research. As a student at University of Minnesota’s Technological Leadership Institute, Naomi is combining theory with practice and method to enhance her skills as a security leader.
Congratulations to the
2021 Visionary Leadership Award Honorees
Once again, the 11th Annual Cyber Security Summit’s Visionary Leadership Awards occur against the back-drop of COVID 19.
Sadly, the pandemic has perpetuated the need for a virtual celebration of their contribution to cybersecurity. But this does nothing to dampen the impact their work has on moving the needle to better secure our businesses, organizations and nation states. We are excited to celebrate all our Visionary Leadership Awardees on Wednesday morning at the opening session and again in-person in the spring! Along with recognition for their accomplishments, award recipients and VLA All-Access ticket holders are invited to a VIP reception on April 21, 2022.
DR. AMBAREEN SIRAJ
Professor/Director, CEROC; Tennessee Tech & Founder, WiCyS
Dr. Ambareen Siraj is a professor of Computer Science and the founding director of Tennessee Tech’s Cybersecurity Education, Research and Outreach Center (CEROC). She has served as the leader on several NSF and DoD education and workforce development grants. Dr. Siraj’s research focus is on security in cyber-physical systems, Internet of Things, situation assessment in network security, security education and workforce development.
JOHN VALENTE
Security Consultant
John has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Fairfield University in Fairfield, CT. His professional IT career includes Citibank, Pepsi, Dell, Best Buy, and 3M, before retiring in late 2019. John’s career has focused mainly on Information Technology Infrastructure, architecture and management. He serves as a CXO Executive Advisor for Zscaler and on the board of advisors for Pacer Center.
KUMAR DASANI
Director, Cyber Security and IT DevOps, Medtronic
Collaborative leader and trusted advisor to the business on cyber security and privacy risk identification, risk management and risk reporting. Dedicated, and results-oriented leader with proven experience in cyber security and privacy governance, third-party risk management, risk assessments, data privacy and regulatory compliance across multiple industries.
TALYA GEPNER
Director, Target Corporation
Talya Gepner is a Director in the Cybersecurity Risk organization at Target. Talya leads Information Security awareness and training for the Enterprise and high-priority groups. Her projects include compliance training, phishing awareness, National Cyber Security Awareness month campaigns and other risk-focused initiatives.
DEBRA STAFFORD
Security Manager, Minnesota IT Services
Debra leads the state’s enterprise identity and access management team dedicated to building an environment where employees, contractors, partners and citizens manage only one credential to access State resources. Deb is building a framework of processes, policies and technologies to manage digital identities and secure access for all state technology solutions.
ALEX HEPP
Student, Metropolitan State University
Alex Hepp is a graduate student at Metropolitan State University in the Cyber Operations program researching the application of artificial intelligence to honey pots to better detect malicious activity. In his professional career, he currently serves as the Chief Information Officer for the City of Hopkins along with teaching cybersecurity as a community faculty.
JIM NASH
State Representative, Minnesota
House of Representatives
Rep. Jim Nash is a 4th term member of the MN House of Representatives serving the communities of Western Carver County. He also works in the cyber security industry for FRSecure and advocates for cyber security everywhere. When not working at the House or FRSecure he loves to hunt, fish, and cook. Nash lives in Waconia with his wife and 6 children.
JAY JACOBS
Chief Data Scientist, Cyentia
Jay is a Co-founder and Chief Data Scientist at Cyentia Institute, a research firm dedicated to advancing the state of information security knowledge and practice through data-driven research. Jay is also the lead author for the Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS) and is co-chair of the EPSS special interest group at FIRST.
MALCOLM HARKINS
Chief Security & Trust Officer, Epiphany
Malcolm is responsible for enabling client growth with optimal information security infrastructure, systems, policies, and processes. Malcolm was previously the Chief Security and Trust Officer at Cylance as well as Chief Security and Privacy Officer at Intel Corporation. Malcolm received a BS in Economics from UC Irvine and an MBA from UC Davis.
MANDIANT
Kevin Mandia, CEO
Kevin Mandia is the CEO of Mandiant, a global security company that helps organizations develop more effective and efficient cyber security programs, instilling confidence in their readiness to defend against and respond to cyber threats. A security industry pioneer, he led the first company built around cyber incident response. With more than 20 years in information security, Kevin has actively been on the front lines helping organizations respond to breaches.
Congratulations to the
2020 Visionary Leadership Award Honorees
This year’s award winners are very special friends of the Summit. Amid a relentless pandemic, they have demonstrated greatness in securing our global infrastructure and developing future visionary leaders. And without their support, this 10th Anniversary would not have been possible. When so many were saying, “table it for another year,” these cyber warriors kept pushing the Summit forward recognizing that cybercriminals weren’t taking a break and that global thought leadership must never be sidelined.
While next year we will recognize award winners across all categories, this year we threw out the guidelines to honor this distinguished selection of leaders whose contributions to Summit have been immeasurable.
JILL ALLISON
Chair, Board of Directors, WiCyS MN Affiliate; Security Consultant, Shuriken
ANNE BADER
Founder, The International Cybersecurity Dialogue LLC
SEAN COSTIGAN
Professor, George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies; Director and Co-founder, ITL Security
TIM CROTHERS
VP Security Solutions, Target
LOREN DEALY MAHLER
President, Dealy Mahler Strategies
MATTHEW J. HARMON
Cyber Defense Infrastructure Architect, Global Technology, Accenture Security
DAVID LA BELLE
Security Business Systems Analyst, NorSec
DAVID NOTCH
Enterprise Security & Cloud Architecture, Medtronic
CATHARINE TREBNICK
VP Equity Research (Security and UCaaS), Colliers International
Congratulations to the
2019 Visionary Leadership Award Honorees
Christophe Veltsos
Professor, Minnesota State University Mankato
Chris Veltsos is a professor in the Department of Computer Information Science at Minnesota State University, Mankato, where he regularly teaches cybersecurity courses and oversees a master’s program focused on cyber-risk. Chris is passionate about helping the next generation of security professionals articulate and integrate cybersecurity into business to drive better decisions. Beyond the classroom he has co-authored two books, has had over 100 blog articles published in various outlets including IBM’s Security Intelligence blog and the D&O Diary blog. Chris is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and advisor to CISOs and other business executives.
Mike Kijewski
CEO, MedCrypt
Mike Kijewski (MMP’10/WG’12) is the CEO and co-founder of MedCrypt, a technology startup focused on helping medical device manufacturers secure their devices against malicious hacking. He previously was the founder of Gamma Basics, a software company focused on building web-based technologies for use in radiation oncology. Gamma Basics was acquired by Varian Medical Systems in 2013. Mike holds a Bachelor’s degree in physics from the West Chester University of Pennsylvania, a Master’s degree of Medical Physics from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from the Wharton School.
Andrew Borene
Senior Director, Symantec National Security Group; Director Homeland Security Program at George Mason University Law School
Andrew Borene, JD, CISSP, has led high-performing businesses and corporate initiatives for Symantec, IBM, LexisNexis, Booz Allen Hamilton, Wells Fargo and technology startups. He has been a Senior Advisor to the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), and an Associate Deputy General Counsel at the Pentagon. A former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer, he served in the Middle East after 9/11. He completed executive education at Harvard University and is a graduate of Macalester College and the University of Minnesota Law School. He has received the FBI Director’s Award and is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Suzanne Spaulding
Senior Adviser, Homeland Security, International Security Program, CSIS
Suzanne Spaulding is a Senior Adviser for Homeland Security and the Director of the Defending Democratic Institutions Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). She is also a member of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission. Prior to joining CSIS, Ms. Spaulding served as Under Secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security. In this role, she was charged with strengthening cybersecurity and protecting the nation’s critical infrastructure. Before working at DHS, she was general counsel for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and minority staff director for the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Mary Frantz
CEO, Enterprise Knowledge Partners, LLC (EKP)
Mary is a globally recognized expert in cyber security. She is often steps ahead of other cyber security professionals to see potential threats, pitfalls and problems. Often hired by companies to detect cyber security ‘problems’ – from insider threat, to criminal activity, to undetected breaches. Mary does not take shortcuts and puts in the time necessary to solve problems. She has been an expert witness in some of our country’s largest data breaches, but she prefers to help companies prevent or respond to cyber breaches. She is an passionate supporter of STEM education, particularly in computer science and cyber security, at all levels and ages. Mary Frantz is the CEO of Enterprise Knowledge Partners, LLC (EKP). She has performed and led advanced ethical hacking (red teams), security assessments, managed multiple incident investigations for companies. She was the primary technical cyber expert in the Equifax, Yahoo, and Facebook breach matters. Mary holds 4 bachelor degrees and two masters degrees and various active and non-active certifications in systems auditing, ethical hacking, penetration testing, forensics, engineering and architecture. She is a national advocate and mentor of women and minorities in STEM, a Board Officer for the Minnesota Academy of Science, board advisor for the Minneapolis Cyber Summit, and an elected School Board Director for MN District 719.
Jerrod Montoya
Senior Director, Symantec National Security Group; Director Homeland Security Program at George Mason University Law School
Andrew Borene, JD, CISSP, has led high-performing businesses and corporate initiatives for Symantec, IBM, LexisNexis, Booz Allen Hamilton, Wells Fargo and technology startups. He has been a Senior Advisor to the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), and an Associate Deputy General Counsel at the Pentagon. A former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer, he served in the Middle East after 9/11. He completed executive education at Harvard University and is a graduate of Macalester College and the University of Minnesota Law School. He has received the FBI Director’s Award and is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
John Israel
Security Operations Manager – Security Operations Center (SOC), Incident Response, and Forensics, State of Minnesota
John Israel started his career in the days before smartphones ruled the world, crime became virtual, and clouds held data instead of rain. He spent ten years as the forensics lead for Minnesota IT Services building the state’s cyber incident response and forensics practices before taking on a larger leadership role within the state’s enterprise security program. He currently manages the State of Minnesota’s Security Operations Center (SOC) and Enterprise Forensics teams overseeing the state’s efforts to improve cybersecurity monitoring, incident detection, and incident investigations as well and providing cybersecurity analysis for the Minnesota Fusion Center.
Jodie Kautt
Vice President, Cyber Security, Target Corp.
Jodie Kautt is vice president of cyber security at Target. In this role, Jodie leads the Cyber Fusion Center, which integrates threat intelligence, advanced analytics and state-of-the-art technology to detect, deter, investigate and mitigate cyber threats. In addition, she leads product security, data protection and enterprise incident management for Target.
Prior to this role, she was Target’s Senior Director of Information Risk Management. Jodie joined Target in 2005 from KPMG, where she consulted with a variety of companies.
Jodie earned a Bachelor’s degree from Minnesota State University in Accounting, as well as a Master’s Degree from Augsburg University in Business Administration.
For a number of years, the Cyber Security Summit has recognized those who are trail blazers in securing our country’s infrastructure. This year two individuals from the Center for Internet Security, Inc. (CIS) have been nominated for their work: Tony Sager, Senior Vice President and Chief Evangelist and Barbara Ware, Director of Communications. Both candidates have demonstrated amazing innovation in the field of cyber security. Eileen Manning, Summit Founder, felt recognition should also go to the entire agency for the body of work they have accomplished supporting both public and private sectors against cyber threats. “This agency has built tools, shaped best practices and provided critical timely threat alerts, generously contributing their time and voice to build our national defense.” Such support was endorsed by Brigadier General Stefanie Horvath, 2018 Visionary Leadership Award winner, and the 2019 nominating committee chaired by Chris Buse, Deputy Legislative Auditor, State of Minnesota, also winner of the 2016 Visionary Leadership Award. The Founders Award was created to recognize the work of this exceptional non-profit organization, a global group of dedicated IT security practitioners committed to providing technical expertise to all states.
The Center for Internet Security (CIS) is internationally recognized as cybersecurity organization with a mission to identify, develop, validate, promote and sustain best practices for cyber defense and build and lead communities to enable an environment of trust in cyberspace. CIS is: non-profit entity with members from large corporations, government agencies, and academic institutions; a volunteer, global community of IT professionals who continuously refine and verify CIS best practices and cybersecurity tools. home to the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center™ (EI-ISAC®), which supports the U.S. State, Local and Territorial elections offices protection efforts of the electoral process. CIS is a non-profit entity with members from large corporations, government agencies, and academic institutions. CIS communities are a volunteer, global community of IT professionals who continuously refine and verify CIS best practices and cybersecurity tools. To develop and structure its benchmarks, CIS teams collect suggestions, advice, official work and recommendations from participating organizations. The teams analyze their data and information to determine the most vital configuration settings to improve internet system security. Building upon the foundational security controls, CIS members have created secure computer images, automated configuration assessment tools and information services to quickly inform organizations and provide immediate remediation support. CIS is also home to both the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center® (MS-ISAC®), the vital resource for U.S. State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial government entities to receive cyber threat prevention, protection, response, and recovery services, and the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center™ (EI-ISAC®), which supports the U.S. State, Local and Territorial elections offices protection efforts of the electoral process. Both ISACs provide invaluable information services to State, Local, Tribal and Territorial government entities through advisories and Malware reporting.
Congratulations to the
2018 Visionary Leadership Award Honorees
FAISAL KALEEM
Metro State University, Professor, Department of Computer Science and Security, Executive kaDirector, MN Cyber
JENNIFER CZAPLEWSKI
Director, Target Product Intelligence team lead
TODD CARPENTER
Adventium Labs, Chief Engineer
BRADLEY BREKKE
Mayo Clinic, Chief Security Officer (Interim)
COL. STEFANIE HORVATH
Minnesota Army National Guard, Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the MN Department of Military Affairs; Executive Director Enterprise Services, Minnesota IT Services
STEEN FJALSTAD
Midwest Reliability Organization, Security and Mitigation Principal
CHRYSA FREEMAN
Code42, Manager, Security Governance Risk & Compliance Awareness
NEAL DAWSON
State of Minnesota, Minnesota IT Services, Vulnerability Management Director
RICHARD KETELSEN
Metropolitan State University, Student
JIM O’CONNER
Cargill, Chief Information Security Officer
Congratulations to the
2016 Visionary Leadership Award Honorees
In 2016, the Cyber Security Summit presented two Visionary Leader Awards – one for the private sector and one for the public sector. The individuals honored have made lasting contributions to improving our nation’s security.
CHRIS BUSE
Deputy Legislative Auditor, Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor
BRIAN ISLE
Senior Fellow, Adventium Labs; Senior Fellow, University of Minnesota Technological Leadership Institute
Congratulations to the
2015 Visionary Leadership Award Honoree
DR. MASSOUD AMIN
Dr. Massoud Amin, Chairman, IEEE Smart Grid; Chairman, Board of Directors, Texas Reliability Entity; Director, Board of Directors, Midwest Reliability Organization; Director and Professor, Technological Leadership Institute and ECE, University of Minnesota
View Dr. Massoud Amin’s current bio at massoud-amin.umn.edu.