Mick Baccio is a globally recognized security strategist with a career spanning offensive operations, threat intelligence, and national-level incident response. He currently advises organizations around the world through his role at Splunk. helping security leaders improve operations through data-informed approaches. Mick was the first Chief Information Security Officer for a U.S. presidential campaign (2020) and previously served in the Obama White House as the Chief of the Threat Intelligence Branch. Mick's work blends deep technical knowledge with a strong belief in team culture and institutional learning - bringing a unique perspective to the intersection of human and machine decision-making in security operations.
In his spare time, Mick is the THRUNT®️ Corp President, IANS Faculty, and a KC7 Foundation board member.

Chris Pymm is the Deputy for Portfolio Acquisition Executive (PAE) Cyber Directorate at the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) at Fort Meade, MD. In this role, he oversees the PAE Cyber's mission to provide, operate, and assure Cyber Defense, Zero Trust, information sharing capabilities, and a globally accessible enterprise information infrastructure in direct support of joint warfighters, National level leaders, and other mission and coalition partners across the full spectrum of operations.
Prior to this position, Chris served as the Portfolio Manager (PM) for the Zero Trust Program, including DISA's implementation of Zero Trust Network Access, Thunderdome. He simultaneously held the position of Division Chief (DC) for ID7 within the PEO Cyber Directorate. As the Thunderdome Portfolio Manager, he managed the budgetary, programmatic, and capability decisions for this critical portfolio, driving Zero Trust initiatives across the Department of Defense (DOD).
Chris joined the Cyber Directorate in January 2023 as PM/DC, managing the portfolio of Zero Trust enabling technologies, including Thunderdome. This included personnel management, budgetary oversight, strategic roadmap development, and DOD-wide integration efforts. Zero Trust represents a premier service offering designed to protect critical mission systems across the globe. His previous leadership roles include providing executive-level support to both the Deputy Director for the Enterprise Integration and Innovation Center (EIIC) and the Deputy Director of Emerging Technology, where he gained extensive experience in personnel management, finance, programmatic decision-making, and innovation at both the DISA and DOD levels. Prior to those roles, Chris managed multiple divisions within DISA's Cyber Directorate.
Recognized for his leadership potential, Chris was competitively selected by DISA to attend the Eisenhower School, National Defense University (NDU), completing the program in June 2018. His earlier DISA assignments involved managing multiple branches over six years, encompassing the agency's full scope of operations, including Cyber Situational Awareness, Service Delivery, Operations, and UNIX system Administration.
Before joining DISA in 2010, Chris served as the program manager for a $75 million+ Information Technology (IT) support contract at Tinker AFB, Oklahoma, providing comprehensive IT services to 25,000 personnel, covering desktop, server, application, and Information Security support.
From 1993 to 2003, Chris honorably served in the United States Air Force (USAF), supporting critical weapon systems such as the Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) computer system and providing cryptographic support for the early warning radar system in Iceland.
Chris possesses over 30 years of Information Technology management experience in emerging technologies, including Big Data, Analytics, and Identity Management. He earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Maryland University College in 2004 and a Master of Science in National Resource Strategy from NDU in 2018.

Aaron Heffron has nearly 30 years of experience in research and analysis in various industries and sectors, including the federal government, trade associations, technology, television and radio, and telecommunications. As President for Insights and Research for the GovExec Media Group, Aaron brings together various research and information sources across the organization including international aerospace and defense trends with Forecast International and Military Periscope and branding, marketing and sales strategy insights from Market Connections and the Government Business Council to help clients get the information they need to make good business decisions.

Prior to its acquisition by GovExec, Aaron was President of Market Connections, a market research company providing qualitative and quantitative research services and strategy advice to the government contracting community. He is a regular speaker on topics of federal, state and local government business trends as well as marketing and communication strategies and prides himself in working collaboratively to develop product, marketing and program plans based on sound information.

Prior to joining Market Connections, Aaron worked with The NPD Group, Inc. (now Circana) integrating syndicated consumer data with federal, state and local government agencies. He founded some of the first public/private partnerships with the U.S. Department of Commerce and Bureau of Labor Statistics to improve economic indicators and data gathering practices. As Senior Vice President of Public Affairs Research for Harris Interactive he facilitated a multi-continent strategic planning process for the US Department of State, ran product trials for the Open Mobile Video Coalition and facilitated focus groups with first Americans in Alaska and South Dakota.

He has his masters degree in public policy (MPP) from Georgetown University and a BA in leadership studies and economics from the University of Richmond in Virginia.