KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
SPEAKERS
Jamil Jaffer
Founder & Executive DirectorNational Security Institute, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
BIO
Adam S. Lee
Vice President, Chief Security OfficerDominion Energy
Adam S. Lee is Dominion Energy’s vice president and chief security officer.
He directs the development and implementation of corporate security strategy and policies which protect the company’s physical and cyber assets, valued at over $100 billion and spanning 20 states. He is Dominion Energy’s security and intelligence liaison with the U.S. government and federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. Lee joined the company in this role in 2018.
Before joining Dominion Energy, Lee served as Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Richmond Division. In 2018, he retired from the FBI after a career spanning 22 years in counter-terrorism, counter-intelligence, and cyber investigations and operations, in addition to specializing in cases involving political and governmental corruption, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and antitrust violations. Lee previously served as the FBI’s executive over its national Public Corruption Program, overseeing the FBI’s most sensitive criminal investigations involving elected and appointed officials across the spectrum of government.
Lee serves as a member of the Boards of Advisors for Hampden-Sydney College’s Wilson Center and University of Richmond’s Continuing Education Program. Additionally, he is a member of the FBI’s Domestic Security Alliance Council, the Department of Homeland Security’s Classified Intelligence Forum, the Central Virginia Law Enforcement Executives Association, and the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association.
Lee is a passionate supporter of our nation’s veterans. He serves as Dominion Energy’s executive leader over its Veteran Resource Group, and, in 2019, he was appointed to the Board of Directors for the Richmond Fisher House, now serving as vice chair, which supports families of veterans seeking medical care at the Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center.
Lee is an attorney licensed in the State of California. Prior to his career in national and corporate security, he served as a Fellow in the California State Senate and Counsel to the California State Allocation Board. He is married to Melinda, and father of Finn, Abigail, and Virginia.
Jen Easterly
DirectorCybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
Jen Easterly is the Director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Ms. Easterly was nominated by President Biden in April 2021 and unanimously confirmed by the Senate on July 12, 2021.
As Director, Ms. Easterly leads CISA’s efforts to protect and defend civilian government networks, manage systemic risk to national critical functions, and collaborate with State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial partners as well as with the private sector to ensure the security and resilience of the Nation’s cyber and physical infrastructure.
Before serving in her current role, Ms. Easterly was the head of Firm Resilience and the Fusion Resilience Center at Morgan Stanley, responsible for ensuring preparedness and response to business-disrupting operational incidents and risks. Ms. Easterly joined the Firm in 2017 to build and lead its Cybersecurity Fusion Center, the operational cornerstone of its cyber defense strategy.
Ms. Easterly has a long tradition of public service, to include two tours at the White House, most recently as Special Assistant to President Obama and Senior Director for Counterterrorism, and earlier as Executive Assistant to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice in the George W. Bush Administration. A former member of the Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service, she also served as the Deputy for Counterterrorism at the National Security Agency.
A two-time recipient of the Bronze Star, Ms. Easterly retired from the U.S. Army after more than twenty years of service in intelligence and cyber operations, including tours of duty in Haiti, the Balkans, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Responsible for standing up the Army’s first cyber battalion, Ms. Easterly was also instrumental in the design and creation of United States Cyber Command.
A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a French-American Foundation Young Leader, Ms. Easterly is the past recipient of numerous fellowships, including the Aspen Finance Leaders Fellowship, the National Security Institute Visiting Fellowship, the New America Foundation Senior International Security Fellowship, the Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship, and the Director, National Security Agency Fellowship.
A distinguished graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Ms. Easterly holds a master’s degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from the University of Oxford, where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar. She is the recipient of the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation American Hostage Freedom Award and the Bradley W. Snyder Changing the Narrative Award.
Dr. Barbara George
Executive Director, Advisory ServicesFortalice Solutions
Dr. Barbara George is a veteran cybersecurity professional well-versed in addressing cyber challenges related to security, policy, technology, analysis, and training. A skilled facilitator, she has coordinated government, industry and academia partner discussions in the cybersecurity community and brought her expertise to bear on significant management and operational issues that impact national security.
Dr. George is a retired military officer trained in human factors with 20+ years of consulting experience. She spent 14 years working in communications and cybersecurity within the Department of Homeland Security and two years collaborating with the Department of Defense Deputy CIO for Cybersecurity on strategy and policy.
As Executive Director of Advisory Services for Fortalice Solutions, Dr. George serves as a key resource working closely and confidentially with the Management Executive Committee (MEC), the company management team, government officials, and officials of select commercial clients. She serves as a billable executive sponsor who cultivates key relationships with high-level government agencies and select VIP commercial officials. Her duties include developing strategic business plans to promote new government business paramount to catapulting solid delivery solutions; expanding government client services; and executing the Fortalice culture of exemplary degree of overall client satisfaction.
Serving as an Advisor to several boards, Dr. George is the Executive Director of the 501(c)(6) non-profit Washington Cyber Roundtable, an industry liaison group dedicated to enhancing the vitality and security of cyberspace.
Nate Lesser
Chief Information Security OfficerChildren’s National Hospital
Nate Lesser has spent the last 20 years driving innovation at the nexus of technology and security. He has held technical and executive positions in government, non-profits, and the private sector. As the Children’s National Hospital (CNH) Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Lesser is responsible for leading the cybersecurity function and protecting CNH patients, families, and staff.
Prior to joining Children’s National, Lesser served as the Managing Director of Cypient, where he advised clients on enterprise cybersecurity capabilities, conducted standards-based assessments, and designed solutions to reduce clients’ cyber risk. Before founding Cypient, Lesser served as the Deputy Director of the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE), at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where he ran the national lab dedicated to solving cybersecurity challenges, including medical device security.
Earlier in his career, Lesser spent several years in Booz Allen Hamilton’s cybersecurity practice, leading a team of cybersecurity engineers providing support to several federal agencies including the Departments of Homeland Security, Defense, State, Health and Transportation. Lesser has also worked at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as a policy analyst and Presidential Management Fellow. Lesser has a Masters and Bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University in New York City. He is a frequent public speaker with over 30 publications and presentations on various topics in cybersecurity.
Cameron Burks
Vice President of Global Safety and SecurityAdobe
Cameron Burks is Adobe’s Vice President of Global Safety & Security, and Geopolitical Strategy & Risk. Mr. Burks is the senior leader directing all corporate security & safety policies, operations, and personnel worldwide. In this capacity, Mr. Burks advises corporation executives on the strategic & operational direction of the organization, intending to enable life & asset safety and business objectives.
Mr. Burks leads a global, cross-functional team responsible for the corporation’s security technology and systems; geopolitical strategy and risk; Enterprise Risk Management programs; corporate crisis management and business resilience; investigations and nation-state threat analysis; aviation operations and executive protection; HSE employee workplace health and safety programs, to include all COVID-19 pandemic management policies and programs; 24/7 Global Security Operations Centers, and more.
Before joining Adobe, Mr. Burks was the Deputy Chief Security Officer for Chevron Corporation. Mr. Burks led multiple teams and programs responsible for geopolitical risk analysis (to include business market capture modeling, security threat data analytics, and nation-state cybersecurity threat intelligence), Enterprise Risk Management oversight, corporate crisis management, and more.
Mr. Burks transitioned to executive corporate security leadership positions from the U.S. Department of State. He was a career member of the Foreign Service and a Special Agent with the Diplomatic Security Service.
While serving overseas at multiple U.S. embassies and consulates as the Regional Security Officer (RSO), Mr. Burks was responsible for leading the protection of diplomatic personnel; the U.S. Government’s counterintelligence, cybersecurity and counterterrorism programs; bilateral law enforcement and security service liaison programs; the U.S. Marine Security Guard detachment, and more. He was appointed as RSO in Bangladesh, Moldova, and at diplomatic posts in Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.
Mr. Burks served in Washington, DC, as the Chief of Staff to the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and Director of the Diplomatic Security Service and as the State Department’s international security liaison to the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Early in his career, he served on the U.S. Secretary of State’s protective detail and led federal criminal investigations in the U.S. and abroad.
Mr. Burks is a Visiting Fellow at the National Security Institute of George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School. He currently maintains a government security clearance and regularly engages across the U.S. intelligence community.
Derek Weeks
SVP and Chief Marketing OfficerThe Linux Foundation
Raised in the heart of Silicon Valley, Derek Weeks has a deep-rooted passion for software development and innovation. His 25 year career in software includes publicly-traded, multi-billion dollar businesses, and venture-backed businesses that he helped lead from early-stage growth to unicorn status to successful acquisitions. At the Linux Foundation, Weeks serves as a Senior Vice President supporting technology segments including DevOps, security, containers, networking, virtualization, cloud, blockchain, IoT, big data and analytics, storage, and embedded devices.
Prior to the Linux Foundation, Weeks helped create new market categories in open source software development and security as a Vice President at Sonatype, while he also built a massive online developer education community as a co-founder of All Day DevOps. While at Sonatype, Weeks created and championed research of The State of the Software Supply Chain Report and DevSecOps Community Survey, six years running. Prior to Sonatype, Weeks held global software leadership positions for software portfolios in private and public companies, including: Global 360 (acquired by OpenText), Systar (acquired by Axway), Hyperformix (acquired by CA, Inc.) and Hewlett-Packard – based in the US and Germany.
Weeks has received wide recognition for his achievements in the industry where he is a regular keynote speaker, has been named to the DevOps 100 by TechBeacon, distinguished as the DevOps Evangelist of the Year by DevOps.com, and received the Industry Executive of the Year from Advanced Technology Academic Research Center (ATARC). He holds a B.S. in international business from San Jose State University.
Chris Simkins
CEO and Co-FounderCorsha
Chris Simkins is an entrepreneur and a lawyer. He has deep commercial and government experience protecting information and technology against security risks. He is currently the CEO and Co-Founder of Corsha, which has built an API security platform that provides Zero Trust for APIs and machine-to-machine communications. Prior to founding Corsha, Simkins was the CEO and Co-Founder of Chain Security, a professional services company focused on identifying and mitigating product development and supply chain security vulnerabilities. He served in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), first in the Counterespionage Section and then as Senior Counsel to the Assistants Attorney General for the Criminal Division and the National Security Division. He was DOJ’s representative on CFIUS, which conducts national security reviews of foreign acquisitions of U.S. companies. He was a senior lawyer with two Washington, DC law firms, where he counseled companies on CFIUS reviews and national security-related matters.
Alicia Lynch
Senior Vice President & Chief Security Officer (CSO)Cognizant
Alicia Lynch joined the Cognizant team in July of 2021 as the Senior Vice President, Chief Security Officer (CSO) bringing over 30 years of intelligence, security, and cyber experience with the Department of Defense, the Defense Contracting community and the private sector. Lynch retired as a Colonel from the US Army in 2012 where she served as both an Intelligence and Cyber Officer. Lynch earned respect as a dynamic leader of soldiers in combat as well as garrison environments in assignments around the world. As both a qualified intelligence professional and cyber specialist, she served in every echelon from Company to National while leading units from team-sized to commanding a Brigade. Since 2012 she has leveraged her technical experience in commercial executive level positions focused on cyber and security. She has recently held titles including the Chief Information Security Officer at SAIC, Deputy Chief Information Security Officer at Accenture Federal Services, and VP of Enterprise Solutions at a Cyber startup.
Lynch is an active member and supporter of many organizations such as Washington Exec CISO Council where she served as the founding Chairwoman and is on their Women’s Leadership Council, as well as the Northern Virginia Technology Council where she is on the Cybersecurity & Privacy Committee, and Zooms CISO Council. Lynch is also a Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in the Women’s Global Leadership Program. She has been named numerous times to the Top CISOs to watch in Washington, DC.
Lynch holds an MBA from the University of Maryland, Robert H Smith School of Business and a CIO Program Certificate from the College of Information and Cyberspace, National Defense University. She also maintains an Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification.
Mike Makowka
Managing DirectorCISO
With over 20 years of professional experience, Mike Makowka has held almost every role in IT and Security – from Java Developer to Fortune 500 CISO and everything in between. Makowka specializes in Greenfield and post-breach environments using his skills to bridge the gaps between IT and the Business, taking organizations from reactive security postures and transforms them into proactive security programs.
Ryan LaSalle
Senior Managing Director & North America LeadAccenture Security
Ryan LaSalle leads the North America practice for Accenture Security. He is responsible for nurturing the talented teams that bring transformative solutions to better defend and protect our clients. He is also accountable for delivering on our commitment to clients for high-quality, innovative delivery to address their most critical issues.
During more than 22 years with Accenture, LaSalle has led client engagements across commercial, non-profit and the public sector by integrating emerging technologies into advanced solutions to drive agility and meet business needs. His recent engagements with Media, Energy and Banking clients help leverage new models and practices across the unique business challenges of each industry. He consults with customers on focused solutions that bring together analytics, knowledge discovery, and cybersecurity to improve threat assessment and response methodologies.
A widely recognized thought leader, LaSalle is a Ponemon Institute Fellow, active with the Greater Washington Board of Trade and sits on security innovation advisory councils for clients across multiple industries. He holds patents in human resource management, knowledge discovery and establishing trust between entities online. LaSalle is a frequent speaker at international security conferences and has authored numerous articles on cybersecurity. LaSalle holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University and resides in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife Melissa and two children.
Jamil Jaffer
Founder & Executive DirectorNational Security Institute, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Jamil currently serves as Founder and Executive Director of the National Security Institute and as an Assistant Professor of Law and Director of the National Security Law & Policy Program at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, where he teaches classes on counterterrorism, intelligence, surveillance, cybersecurity, and other national security matters, as well as a summer course in Padua, Italy with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch. Jamil is also affiliated with Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation and previously served as a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution from 2016 – 2019.
Jamil N. Jaffer also currently serves as Senior Vice President for Strategy, Partnerships & Corporate Development at IronNet Cybersecurity, a startup technology firm founded by former NSA Director Gen. (ret.) Keith B. Alexander. Jamil also serves on the Board of Directors for the Greater Washington Board of Trade, is a member of the Board’s Smart Region Movement Strategic Advisory Counsel, and is a co-chair of the SRM’s Cyber, Data Management, and Privacy Solution Group. Jamil is also an advisor to Beacon Global Strategies, a strategic advisory firm specializing in international policy, defense, cyber, intelligence, and homeland security; 4iQ, a technology startup focused on deep and dark web intelligence and identity theft protection; Duco, a technology platform startup that connects corporations with geopolitical and international business experts; and Amber, a digital authentication and verification startup.
In addition to these positions, Jamil currently serves on the Strategic Advisory Committee for the Global Cyber Alliance, the Advisory Board of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies’ Center on Cyber and Tech Innovation, and is a member of the Center for a New American Security’s Task Force on Artificial Intelligence and National Security and the CNAS Digital Freedom Forum. Jamil is also a Fellow at the Academy for Judaic, Christian, and Islamic Studies, and is a member of the Board of Directors for the Center for Intelligence Policy, the Board of Directors of Speech First, and the Executive Committee of the International Law and National Security Practice Group of the Federalist Society, and is an advisor to the Concordia Summit.
During a brief break in his current positions, Jamil served as a law clerk to Justice Neil M. Gorsuch of the United States Supreme Court. Prior to his current positions, Jamil served on the leadership team of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as Chief Counsel and Senior Advisor under Chairman Bob Corker (R-TN), where he worked on key national security and foreign policy issues, including leading the drafting of the proposed Authorization for the Use of Military Force against ISIS in 2014 and 2015, the AUMF against Syria in 2013, and revisions to the 9/11 AUMF against al Qaeda. Jamil was also the lead architect of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act and two sanctions laws against Russia for its intervention in Ukraine.
Prior to joining SFRC, Jamil served as Senior Counsel to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence under Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI) where he led the committee’s oversight of NSA surveillance, NRO intelligence issues, and NGA analytic and collection matters, as well as intelligence community-wide counterterrorism issues. Jamil was also the lead architect of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, the initial version of the cybersecurity legislation that was signed into law in 2015.
In the Bush Administration, Jamil served in the White House as an Associate Counsel to the President, handling Defense Department, State Department, and intelligence community matters, and serving as one of the White House Counsel’s primary representatives to the National Security Council Deputies Committee.
Prior to the White House, Jamil served on the leadership team of the Justice Department’s National Security Division as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for National Security, where he focused on counterterrorism and intelligence matters. At NSD, Jamil was one of the primary brief writers on In re: Directives, the first ever two-party litigated matter in the FISA Court and only the second case before the FISA Court of Review in its 30-year history. Jamil also led NSD’s efforts on the President’s Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative, including the drafting of NSPD-54/HSPD-23, and related classified matters. For his work on these matters, Jamil was awarded the Assistant Attorney General’s Award for Special Initiative and was among the group of lawyers awarded the Director of National Intelligence’s 2008 Legal Award (Team of the Year – Cyber Legal).
Jamil also served in other positions in the Justice Department, including in the Office of Legal Policy, where he worked on the confirmations of Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. to the United States Supreme Court.
Jamil has also served as a lawyer in private practice at Kellogg Huber, a Washington, DC-based litigation boutique, as a policy advisor to Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), and as a staff member or senior advisor on a number of political campaigns, including two presidential campaigns and a presidential transition team. While in law school, Jamil was a member of the University of Chicago Law Review, managing editor of the Chicago Journal of International Law, and National Symposium Editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. Following law school, Jamil served as a law clerk to Judge Edith H. Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and, later in his career, as a law clerk to then-Judge Neil M. Gorsuch when he first joined the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Jamil has published multiple op-eds and academic articles on foreign policy, counterterrorism, cybersecurity, encryption, and intelligence matters, and is the co-author of a book chapter with former CIA Director Gen. Mike Hayden on ISIS, al Qaeda, and other international terrorist groups in CHOOSING TO LEAD: AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY FOR A DISORDERED WORLD (2015). Jamil has also written a book chapter on surveillance in the ABA’s LAW OF COUNTERTERRORISM (2011), and a number of op-eds and policy papers on national security, foreign policy, counterterrorism, and cybersecurity matters with former Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, former NSA Director Gen. Keith B. Alexander, and former National Counterterrorism Center Director Matt Olsen.
Jamil has previously taught graduate-level courses in intelligence law and policy at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs and the National Intelligence University, and has testified before committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on counterterrorism, cybersecurity, and other national security matters. Jamil has recently appeared on a range of national television and radio outlets including CNN, Fox News, Fox Business, MSNBC, Bloomberg, Voice of America, and National Public Radio, and in various print and online publications, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post on a range of national security matters including counterterrorism, surveillance, encryption, cybersecurity, and foreign policy issues.
Jamil holds degrees from UCLA (BA, cum laude), the University of Chicago Law School (JD, with honors), and the United States Naval War College (MA, with distinction).
Amit Yoran
Chairman and Chief Executive OfficerTenable
Amit Yoran, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO), leads Tenable in its vision to empower organizations to understand and reduce their cybersecurity risk. Yoran brings a unique blend of leadership in the private and public sectors to Tenable. He previously served as RSA’s president, spearheading its transformation into one of the most successful global security companies. Yoran joined RSA through its acquisition of NetWitness, the network forensics company he founded and led as CEO. Prior to NetWitness, Yoran served as founding director of the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) program in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He was also founder and CEO of Riptech, one of the first managed security service providers (MSSP), which Symantec acquired in 2002. Yoran is a board member and advisor to several security startups. He is also recognized as a security industry thought-leader and influencer, and is often sought out for industry events and in the media to provide expert commentary on his vision for cybersecurity’s future.
Jody Westby, Esq.
CEOGlobal Cyber Risk LLC (GCR)
Drawing upon a unique combination of more than twenty years of technical, legal, policy, and business experience, Jody Westby founded Global Cyber Risk LLC (GCR) in 2000. GCR provides first-tier advisory and technical services to organizations in the areas of privacy, cybersecurity, cyber governance, incident response, and digital asset inventories and data mapping. Her team has deep expertise in assessing industrial control and SCADA systems used in manufacturing, utility grids, and critical infrastructure sectors. Ms. Westby also serves as Adjunct Professor to the Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Computer Science. She is a professional blogger for Forbes and writes a regular column for Leader’s Edge magazine on cybersecurity issues.
Ms. Westby is a member of the bars of the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, and Colorado. She serves as chair of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Privacy and Computer Crime Committee (Science & Technology Law Section) and co-chair of the Cybercrime Committee (Criminal Justice Section) and has served four terms on the ABA President’s Cybersecurity Task Force. She co- chaired the World Federation of Scientists’ (WFS) Permanent Monitoring Panel on Information Security and served on the ITU Secretary-General’s High Level Experts Group on Cybersecurity.
Ms. Westby led the development of the International Toolkit on Cybercrime Legislation and is an editor and co-author of the 2010 WFS-ITU publication, The Quest for Cyber Peace. Ms. Westby is co-author and editor of four books on privacy, security, cybercrime, and enterprise security programs and author of two books on legal issues associated with cybersecurity research. Her most recent book, D&O Guide to Cyber Governance: Fiduciary Duties in the Digital Age, was published in July 2021. All books were published by the ABA.
Previously, she launched In-Q-Tel for the CIA, was senior managing director at PricewaterhouseCoopers, was senior fellow and director of IT Studies for the Progress and Freedom Foundation, and was director of domestic policy for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Ms. Westby practiced law at Shearman & Sterling and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.
She earned a B.A., summa cum laude, University of Tulsa and J.D., magna cum laude, Georgetown University Law Center and was named to the Order of the Coif. Ms. Westby was elected a member of the American Bar Foundation and the Cosmos Club.
Grant Elliott
CEO and ChairmanOstendio
Grant Elliott is the CEO and co-founder of Ostendio. Ostendio works with hundreds of companies and thousands of users to build security programs that are audit-ready for complex audits such as SOC 2, HITRUST, and FedRAMP. The Ostendio MyVCM platform is an industry-leading, collaborative Integrated Risk Management SaaS platform which supports about 100,000 security activities each month including publishing security policies, delivering security training, tracking assets, completing security assessments, and managing vendors. Ostendio recently closed its Series A funding to continue the expansion of Ostendio’s network of audit partners (Auditor Connect) and its vendor risk management solution (Vendor Connect), making the MyVCM Trust Network the default security and risk management ecosystem in North America.
Elliott is recognized as a thought leader in enterprise cybersecurity and speaks regularly about how organizations can implement effective cybersecurity and risk management programs. Ostendio was recently listed at #14 in the security industry on the Inc.5000, a list of America’s fastest-growing private companies. Other awards include NVTC Tech 100, Timmy Award for Best Tech Startup, SaaS award finalist, and multiple Cybersecurity Excellence Awards.
Elliott is a firm believer in building a strong company culture, with Ostendio core values clearly displayed on the walls of the Arlington, VA office. Elliott supported Ostendio’s participation in Pledge 1%, a global movement that encourages and empowers companies of all sizes and stages to donate 1% of their staff time, product, profit, and/or equity to any charity of their choosing. Recently, Ostendio has also become a Mission Corps company and now offers all employees 6 days of paid time off to volunteer in their community.
Elliott is the former COO and CISO of Voxiva (acquired by WellTok), an integrated messaging and patient engagement platform, and former business executive at AT&T. He has over 20 years of experience developing and managing cybersecurity programs and supporting regulatory audits.
Elliott is an Adjunct Professor at the Pratt Institute, New York, where he enjoys teaching management theory and leadership. He resides in Virginia with his wife and three sons.
Tom Knox
PartnerKing & Spalding
Tom Knox is a partner in King & Spalding’s Corporate, Finance and Investments practice. He advises clients on corporate, M&A, financing, technology transactions and outsourcing matters, serving as a strategic advisor to public, private and emerging companies in the software, technology, life sciences, transportation, manufacturing and government services sectors, and to investors in such companies.
He provides advice on a wide range of corporate and securities transactions, including domestic and international mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings, venture capital and private equity investments and divestitures, joint ventures and other corporate finance and governance matters.
He also structures and negotiates enterprise outsourcing, realignment and optimization transactions, including traditional and vested sourcing deals, strategic alliances, performance partnerships, preferred supplier arrangements and other complex transactions. He advises on the sourcing and procurement of facilities management, logistics and supply chain systems and other business processes.
Since 2008 Knox has been listed as a Band 1 Leading Individual by the independent international rating firm Chambers & Partners. Knox is rated AV (Preeminent) by Martindale Hubbell, was named by the Washington Business Journal as Washington’s Top Corporate Finance Lawyer and is consistently named to the Virginia Super Lawyers, Washington DC Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers and Legal 500 US lists.
He is a frequent speaker on corporate, sourcing and technology transaction topics. He has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University and as a guest lecturer at Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland, the University of Michigan Law School and Middlebury College. He has served as a member of the Board of Trustees of Middlebury College and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Business Council for International Understanding.
Matt Howard
EVP and Chief Marketing OfficerSonatype
A proven executive and entrepreneur with over 20 years experience developing high-growth software companies, Matt Howard serves as Sonatype’s CMO and leads the company’s efforts to identify and execute partnerships within the DevSecOps ecosystem. Prior to Sonatype, Howard co-founded, developed and successfully sold two software companies.
Earlier in his career Howard led sales and marketing at USinternetworking (acquired by AT&T) and Groove Networks (acquired by Microsoft) where his teams distributed workgroup collaboration products to enterprise customers. Howard holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from The George Washington University and a Master of Arts from George Mason University.
Emily Frye
Director for Cyber IntegrationMITRE
Ms. Emily Frye is Director for Cyber Integration in the Center for Securing the Homeland at The MITRE Corporation.
Ms. Frye launched the Election Integrity program at MITRE, known for pioneering the nationwide SQUINT program for countering misinformation and building the National Election Security Lab for states, vendors, and the federal government.
Ms. Frye has practiced law, moved a startup through three rounds of venture funding, served as the Director of Research for a think tank focused on Critical Infrastructure Protection, and consulted extensively across technical and policy issues in both the public and private sectors. Her particular expertise brings together technical, legal, and business perspectives to inform homeland security risk and resilience management, cybersecurity policy and critical infrastructure protection. She serves as a Senior Fellow at the McCrary Institute, a visiting advisor to the National Governors Association committee on state contributions to national security, and as a Technical Advisor to the Aspen Commission on Information Disorder.
Charles O. Onstott III
Vice President, Chief Technology Officer (CTO)CALIBRE Systems, Inc.
Charles Onstott is CALIBRE’s Vice President, Chief Technology Officer (CTO). In this role, Charles fosters innovation and grows the company through the development and application of new and existing enterprise IT solutions. He works closely with CALIBRE’s Growth Team and Operations Divisions to identify opportunities and mitigate risks for delivering the company’s IT services, including identification of competitive services, opportunities for innovation, and assessment of marketplace trends, obstacles, and technical hurdles to the success of the employee-owned business. Additionally, he serves as a key leader in CALIBRE’s Corporate and Executive Leadership Teams.
Prior to CALIBRE, Charles spent 27 years at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), where he served in several capacities. He built and led IT service organizations in IT managed services, cybersecurity, cloud computing, data science, and IT business transformation for major public and private sector clients. In so doing, he has enabled numerous customers to modernize their IT and leverage emerging technologies to achieve outstanding business and mission outcomes. As CTO, he led SAIC’s long-term technology strategy which emphasized fostering a culture of innovation, developing and enhancing innovation capabilities, partnerships, and research and development. Charles is well-recognized in industry, as evident in his WashingtonExec Public Company CTO of the Year award in 2020.
Charles Onstott is a graduate of the University of Chicago and Oklahoma State University. He completed executive education at The Wharton School in strategic alliances.