About the Speaker
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    Edna Conway
    CEO, EMC ADVISORS; Former Chief Security & Risk Officer, Microsoft Cloud

    Edna Conway is expert in identifying future trends and digital paths for business success. She is known for consistently ensuring that security and resiliency are “built in.”

    Not one to sit still after recently “repurposing” from her operating executive roles, Edna is currently CEO of EMC ADVISORS, advising governments, CEOs, enterprises and capital investment organizations. She has served on more than a dozen Boards of Directors, is currently on four, serves on the NYU Tandon School of Engineering Cyber Fellows Advisory Council, as faculty for the Carnegie Mellon University CISO Program and Institute for Applied Network Security, is a Sr. Non-resident Fellow at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a member of APCO Worldwide’s International Advisory Council, and… in her “spare time,” she supports the U.S. and NATO Defense and Intelligence Communities and our U.S. National Risk Management Center’s work on Supply Chain and is a Growth Partner at Growth Equity company, Long Ridge Equity partners.

    She previously served as Microsoft’s VP, Chief Security & Risk Officer for Cloud Infrastructure, and Cisco’s Chief Security Officer, Global Value Chain. She was a partner in an international private legal practice and served as Assistant Attorney General for the State of New Hampshire. She holds an AB from Columbia University, a law degree from the University of Virginia, and additional credentials from MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, and New York University.

    One of the very few cybersecurity and risk executives with this honor, Edna was inducted into the Fortune Most Powerful Women’s Community years ago, and was just inducted into the Global Cybersecurity Hall of Fame in December 2024.

    Edna's list of other awards and recognition are far too long to share completely, but here are just a few:
    • She was the 2023 Institute for Critical Infrastructure Pinnacle Award winner
    • Named a Supply & Demand Chain Executive Pros to Know multiple times
    • She is one of Mission Critical’s Top 25 Women in Technology
    • An Information Systems Security Association Hall of Fame Inductee
    • Was Named #5 in The Top 50 Women Leaders in SaaS
    • Is a Fed 100 Award Recipient

    But if you ask her what her favorite recognition is, she will admit it is the Machine to Machine & IOT Trailblazer award she received longer ago than she is willing to share, and long before AI/ML was cool.