SecureWorld Government Virtual Conference 2022

Cedric Leighton is a CNN Military Analyst and a retired United States Air Force Colonel. On CNN, he has provided incisive commentaries on the Israel-Hamas War, the War in Ukraine, the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and numerous other conflicts around the world. His analysis has been seen by millions of viewers around the world and provided much needed context to some of the most pressing national security issues of our time. As a U.S. Air Force officer, Colonel Leighton served at U.S. Special Operations Command, the Joint Staff, and the National Security Agency, where he helped train the nation's cyber warriors. A Middle East combat veteran, he is the recipient of numerous military awards, including the Defense Superior Service Medal and the Bronze Star. After serving 26 years as a U.S. Air Force Intelligence Officer, Col. Leighton founded a strategic risk consultancy and became the co-founder of CYFORIX, where he advises multinational businesses on developing better cyber strategies designed to reduce risk and unpredictability.

FBI Special Agent Cerena Coughlin is the Employment Recruiter and Applicant Coordinator for the Philadelphia Field Office and local Private Sector Coordinator overseeing InfraGard, a public/private partnership between the FBI and representatives of critical infrastructure. She was a member of the Los Angeles Innocent Images SAFE Team, where she participated in investigations of child exploitation, and was assigned to Counterterrorism squads in Los Angeles and Baltimore and Cyber in Philadelphia. Prior to joining the FBI in March 2001, Coughlin served as Director of Operations for an LA-based non-profit supporting students and educational institutions across the United States.

Creating value-add business outcomes through security and privacy design is the core of my professional mission. I prioritize understanding my clients’ organizational goals and culture to ensure their infrastructure and processes reflect their ethos. As an IT-to-business translator with extensive technical and business advisory experience, I have successfully led audits testing controls from standards such as NIST CSF, ISO 27001, GDPR, and PCI-DSS. My contributions to the security community include publications in ISSA Journal and CSOonline, and presentations at RSA Conference, Blackhat Executive Summit, and DefCon. As a member of the SecureWorld Expo Advisory Committee, I remain actively engaged in advancing the field of cybersecurity.

Brian is a seasoned litigation attorney representing clients of all sizes - from sole proprietorships to Fortune 500 companies - in complex litigation matters. He has guided clients through all stages of the litigation process, including trials and arbitrations in both state and federal courts and before multiple administrative agencies throughout the country. Brian has focused experience in cases involving professional liability and breach of contract claims in the design and construction industries and has represented clients in class action proceedings under BIPA, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, TCPA, and Fair Housing Act.

David Ortega been a cybersecurity professional for more than 20 years with deep expertise in digital innovation utilizing modern cloud, data, and security solutions. David has had the pleasure of working with various industry leaders in finance, healthcare, government, higher education, and manufacturing services. His highly sought-after expertise is in security advisory services, architecture and solutions engineering, and digital transformation data-centric solutions that drives business value and manages risks.

Stephen Dougherty has over a decade of investigative experience. His career as a Financial Fraud Investigator in support of the federal government has played a pivotal role in criminal investigations, surrounding cyber-enabled financial crime, money laundering, human trafficking, identity theft, healthcare fraud, embezzlement, tax/government program fraud, dark web crimes, among others. Stephen’s main area of expertise is combatting money laundering in all its forms. Aside from this, Stephen has been proactive in identifying new and future trends in the world of financial crime. Such trends include the cyber security nexus of financial crimes and its ever-growing relationship in major financial crimes such as Business Email Compromise and the rise of the dark web and the use of virtual currency as a vehicle for facilitation of financial crimes. Stephen has been a leader and a mentor to other investigators teaching them how to uncover fraud internally and externally. Stephen is currently an investigator contracted to the U.S. Secret Service’s Global Investigative Operations Center (GIOC) in Washington D.C.

Sajed Naseem ("Saj") is the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) of New Jersey Courts. He has over 20 years of experience with information security and IT across many industries. As the CISO of the New Jersey Courts, he has focused on Cybersecurity Readiness & Performance, Information Governance, and Network Security. Sajed holds Masters degrees from St. John's University and Columbia University. He routinely speaks at cybersecurity conferences nationally, in Europe, and with the New Jersey Bar Association. Sajed is also an Adjunct Professor at St. John's University in Information Security since 2010 and a native of New York City.

Stanton Gatewood is the US Department of Homeland Security /CISA - Region 4 Cyber Security Coordinator/Advisor - State of Georgia. Gatewood is the former Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for the State of Georgia, Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia and the University of Georgia.

He has more than 35 years of cyber security/e-privacy experience in cyber security program management and strategic planning, executive leadership, including the U.S. federal, state, local, territorial, tribal governments, higher education, and several top-10 global corporations.

Gatewood is also a USAF veteran and has also served as the Vice President for Information Technology and the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Albany State University.

Stanton has built 2 centers of excellence, (1) cryptography and (2) cyber awareness & training.

Joe leads America's Sales Strategy at Rubrik, working with enterprise customers and federal agencies on leveraging the Rubrik Data Security platform to drive cyber resiliency. Joe is an accomplished technology executive with 20 years’ experience. Previously, he served in sales and leadership positions at NetApp, Splunk, and EMC. Joe resides in McLean, VA.