Speakers

Densmore Bartly serves as the Chief Information Security Officer for the U.S. House of Representatives. In this role, Mr. Bartly leads the House Office of Cybersecurity, directing all strategic and operational efforts to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of House information systems and data.

Mr. Bartly has decades of experience in cybersecurity leadership, serving in both the public and private sectors, including the U.S. Army, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Northrop Grumman. 

Mark Canter is the Chief Information Security Officer at GAO. In his capacity, he oversees the compliance, governance, and security operations. Previously he severed as Assistant Director in the Information Technology and Cybersecurity (ITC) team at the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

His portfolio at GAO includes a diverse list of engagements on such topics of financial and information systems internal control auditing, cybersecurity, emerging technologies such as blockchains, AI, and safeguarding/privacy of information. In addition, he has authored several compliance tools and published several common vulnerabilities and exploits.

Mr. Benjamin Gilbert serves as a Supervisory Cybersecurity Advisor (SCSA) for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), in CISA Region 3. As an SCSA, Mr. Gilbert oversees a team of Cybersecurity Advisors and Cybersecurity State Coordinators across the District of Columbia and Commonwealth of Virginia in support of CISA’s mission to reduce cybersecurity risks to US critical infrastructure.

Additionally, Mr. Gilbert serves in this role as a regional cybersecurity point of contact to CISA, a subject matter expert and a trusted advisor to public and private critical infrastructure partners across the region.

Prior to his appointment as a CSA and an SCSA, Mr. Gilbert served as a senior analyst with the CSA program’s former headquarters in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) where he led the development of various tools used by CSAs to measure and strengthen critical infrastructure cybersecurity and risk management capabilities, and prior to this, Mr. Gilbert previously served with the Virginia Army National Guard, and active duty in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division.

Mr. Gilbert has been with CISA, and DHS for over 15 years and has over 20 years of experience in cybersecurity spanning the commercial, federal civilian, and DoD communities.

Manuel "Manny" Medrano has over 20 years of experience, 13 years with Department of State. He has contributed to many technology modernization efforts in the Secretary of State’s office. He now leads State’s Office of Cyber Monitoring and Operations. Manny has served in this role since 2022, defending State’s networks and systems against advanced and persistent cyber threats. His duties include overseeing cyber monitoring, incident response, penetration testing, vulnerability assessment, and designing, engineering, and operating State's cybersecurity defense systems.

Previously, as Deputy Division Chief for Cyber Threat Intelligence, Manny was integral to the pursuit

Cherilyn Pascoe is the Director of the NIST National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE). She provides strategic direction and technical leadership for the NCCoE, aligns the NCCoE's work with the industry, government, and NIST priorities, and builds relationships with key stakeholders. 

Prior to her role as Director of the NCCoE she served as the Senior Technology Policy Advisor, advising NIST leadership on technology policy and strategy, including cybersecurity, privacy, and artificial intelligence. She also led the NIST Cybersecurity Framework program and was a team member of the NIST AI Risk Management Framework.

Prior to joining NIST in 2021, she served more than a decade in staff leadership roles on the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Most recently, she served as Deputy Policy Director managing the Committee’s Space and Science Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over science, technology, standards, and civil space policy.

Ms. Victoria Yan Pillitteri is a supervisory computer scientist in the Computer Security Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Ms. Pillitteri is the Manager of the Security Engineering and Risk Management Group and leads the Risk Management Framework team/Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) Implementation Project. In that role, she develops the suite of risk management guidance used for managing cybersecurity risk in the federal government and coordinates the associated stakeholder outreach and public-private sector collaboration efforts. Ms. Pillitteri leads the Joint Task Force working group, a partnership with the Department of Defense, the Intelligence Community, and Civilian Agencies to develop a unified security framework to protect the U.S. Government from cyber-attacks, and is co-chair of the Federal Cybersecurity and Privacy Professionals Forum hosted by NIST. 

Ms. Pillitteri previously led programs in smart grid and cyber-physical systems cybersecurity, worked on the Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity, the Privacy Framework, and served as a program analyst in the NIST Office of the Director.

Ms. Pillitteri holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland and an M.S. in Computer Science with a concentration in Information Assurance from The George Washington University. She has completed the Key Executive Leadership Program at American University and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program, receiving an SES certification by the OPM Qualifications Review Board. Ms. Pillitteri is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).

Josh Linkner— a New York Times bestselling author — is a rare blend of business, art, and science.

On the business front, he’s been the founder and CEO of five tech companies, which created over 10,000 jobs and sold for a combined value of over $200 million. He’s the co-founder and Managing Partner of Muditā (moo-DEE-tah) Venture Partners - an early-stage venture capital firm investing in groundbreaking technologies. Over the last 30 years, he’s helped over 100 startups launch and scale, creating over $1 billion in investor returns. He’s twice been named the EY Entrepreneur of The Year and is the recipient of the United States Presidential Champion of Change Award.

While proud of his business success, his roots are in the dangerous world of jazz music. He’s been playing guitar in smoky jazz clubs for 40 years, studied at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, and has performed over 1000 concerts around the world.

His experiences in both business and music led him to become one of the world’s foremost experts on innovation. Josh is the co-founder and Chairman of Platypus Labs, a global research, training, and consulting firm. Today, he’s on a mission to help leaders Find A WayTM through creative problem-solving, inventive thinking, and ingenuity.

Randy began his career as a Communications & Computer Systems Officer in the US Air Force. After transitioning to the civilian world, Randy worked for a consulting organization specializing in global Internet and data center infrastructure. Eventually, he made his way to Cisco, where he spent over 26 years as an instructor, collaboration specialist, and IoT Solution Architect supporting US Federal Customers. In his current role at Claroty, Randy is an OT Security Solution Engineer supporting the US Federal sales team. Randy enjoys volunteering as an industry mentor for high school & college students competing in cyber competitions, including Cyber Patriot and National Cyber League. Randy holds a Bachelor of Science in Math & Computer Science from Bloomsburg University and a Master of Business Administration from Old Dominion University.

Mark Bentkower is a data protection and cybersecurity expert with over two decades of experience, currently serving as Principal Technologist, Americas, at Veeam Software. He helps organizations enhance data resiliency, security, and compliance in an evolving threat landscape.

With international experience, including time with Veeam in Singapore, Mark has a broad perspective on IT challenges. He has played a key role in modernizing data protection strategies across Asia-Pacific and brings deep expertise in cloud and hybrid environments to help organizations implement resilient, scalable, and secure data solutions.

As an active thought leader, Mark frequently speaks at industry conferences and roundtables. He recently participated in a discussion on ransomware resilience, addressing challenges like service-level agreements and recovery objectives in multi-vendor environments.

A Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Mark is committed to advancing cybersecurity and data resiliency best practices. He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and enjoys traveling, live music, and theater.

Josh Brunvoll is a Senior Solutions Engineer at Cribl, leveraging seven years of experience in big data and over three years as a Cribl customer in the federal contracting space. Before joining Cribl in October, he led initiatives that integrated complex data tools to enhance decision-making and operational efficiency. With a deep understanding of data challenges from both the customer and engineering perspectives, Josh now helps organizations optimize their observability pipelines and maximize the value of their data with Cribl’s innovative solutions.

Nick Curcuru is a seasoned cybersecurity professional dedicated to empowering organizations to articulate and quantify the impact of their identity and access management (IAM) strategies. With a mission to protect people and their data, Nick excels in collaborating with CISOs and security teams, transforming complex security initiatives into clear, data-driven narratives that resonate with executives and stakeholders.

Nick's approach involves creating structured value stories that highlight the direct impact of IAM programs on business risk reduction, compliance, and return on investment. By distilling complex security data into clear, quantifiable outcomes, he not only enables security leaders to protect the people and organizations they serve but also helps them secure necessary resources and drive strategic investments.

His commitment to translating technical success into executive-level insights has made him a trusted advisor in the cybersecurity community. For instance, he has successfully helped organizations navigate the evolving landscape of digital threats with confidence and clarity, resulting in Enterprise 360 naming him a data futurist to watch.

Mike Damiano is a Solutions Engineer at Zimperium specializing in delivering tailored cybersecurity solutions for federal customers. With a deep understanding of government requirements, he works closely with agencies to address technical challenges and ensure successful system deployments that meet security, functionality, and budgetary needs. Mike is committed to providing exceptional support, building trusted relationships, and leveraging his experience as a former federal civilian employee to drive impactful, mission-critical outcomes.

Rahul Dubey has joined as VP/GM, Global Public Sector Solutions in the Solution group. He will be heading the solutions offerings for CyberArk across the Global Public Sector. This includes growing global footprint, collaborating across Sales, Products, Engineering, Platform, Legal, Gov Affairs and Compliance teams to plan the expansion of our Public Sector market segments like Federal Civilian, State, Local, DoD, Intel community etc., planning Global Certifications, Accreditations and other initiatives related to Data Protection, Privacy, Data Residency, and Sovereign Cloud. He is based in DC/Maryland area.

He recently joined us from Cisco where he was Director, Product Mgmt. - Global Market Access. He was responsible for the Market Access portfolio for Cisco Collaboration offering (Webex) that included growing global footprint and leading Public Sector and Regulated Market initiatives like Webex for Government (FedRAMP), Air-gapped, Privacy, Data Residency, and Sovereign Cloud.

Rahul has been in the Product Mgmt., Security and Compliance field for over a decade while working at Fortune 500 companies ranging from Cisco, VMware to midsize companies like UiPath, Splunk, Axway. His experience includes significant time building Cloud Products with Regulated Market lens and expanding them into Enterprise, Global Public Sector and Worldwide Regulated Markets. In his career, he has led the build, launch and getting regulations of the Cloud SaaS offerings in Global Public Sector and Regulated Markets. He also has expertise in guiding cloud products achieve and maintain various Industry Specific Public Sector, and international certifications and authorizations like FedRAMP, DOD IL5, CNSSI, IRAP, ISO, SOC, HIPAA, GDPR.

He holds an MBA (MIS, Management & Risk Management) from Concordia University, WI. His passion is in spreading the word of Diversity & Inclusion. Rahul enjoys spending time with family (his wife and toddler boy), trying different foods, watching American Football (Go Packers), traveling and getting acquainted with various international cultures & traditions.

Rick Friend, a CISSP-certified cybersecurity professional at Merlin Cyber, draws on over two decades of federal cybersecurity experience, including service in the U.S. Army with multiple combat tours. Holding a Top-Secret SCI clearance, he focuses on implementing Zero-Trust architectures to proactively shield organizations from evolving threats. Rick has shared his insights on vulnerability and risk management at numerous cybersecurity panels, leveraging real-world expertise in high-stakes government environments. With a special interest in preventing adversaries and mitigating ransomware, he consults with organizations to defend their most critical assets.

Neil is a proud husband, father, and Senior Systems Engineer at Veeam Federal with over 10 years of IT experience. Specializing in data center operations, business continuity, and disaster recovery, he has worked with a wide variety of government offices and programs to aid in defining data protection and resilience strategies to ensure operational excellence.

Outside of work, Neil dives into emerging tech like XR/VR innovations and 3D printing, and enjoys spending time with family, friends, and a round of golf.

James Johnson is a Public Sector Solutions Engineer at CyberArk, focused on identity security solutions for the Federal Government. Previously, he served as a Federal Customer Success Manager and Lead Support Engineer at CyberArk, where he focused on rapidly resolving technical outages and driving successful outcomes for federal clients. 

With extensive experience in customer relationships and complex technical solutions, James is committed to leveraging his experience and expertise to help agencies secure all identities while achieving maturity on the Identity Pillar of Zero Trust.

Alex Kreilein is vice president, Product Security at Qualys. He leads efforts to deliver secure, resilient, and trustworthy products by focusing on vulnerability management, automation, and developer enablement. He leads the company’s Security by Design, DevSecOps, FedRAMP programs as well as the Product Security Incident Response Team.

Previously, Alex led security and resiliency programs for mission-critical workloads at Microsoft Azure. He has been a cloud-native critical infrastructure company CISO, a leader at the Department of Homeland Security, and a Research Fellow at NIST. Alex co-founded the nation’s first cybersecurity bootcamp and has been a General Partner at a cybersecurity-focused venture fund. He holds graduate degrees from CU Boulder and the US Naval War College.

Max Lewis leads the Federal Civilian Solution Architect organization at Armis, where he is dedicated to addressing foundational challenges that pave the way for secure and sustainable innovation. Critical infrastructure remains a key focus of his work, as he has spent over a decade helping Federal, State, Local, and Education entities strengthen their cyber resilience. Max’s strategic approach ensures that organizations can navigate the evolving cybersecurity landscape with confidence and stability.

I have over 30 years of expertise across IT systems. I developed a deep
understanding of networking while working for a large ISP. I was an early
adopter of virtualization and assisted numerous DoD agencies on their
journey. Building on my network background I began to focus on network
optimization and visibility. This has led me into my current focus of tackling
complex Zero Trust and Cyber Security projects with our team of experts at
MerlinCyber.

Jeremy Newberry is a cybersecurity strategist and architect with a mission to operationalize cybersecurity—turning strategy into action to protect organizations against evolving threats. With over two decades of experience advising federal agencies, enterprises, and technology leaders, Jeremy specializes in Zero Trust architectures, AI-driven security operations, and advanced threat intelligence.

As a Cyber Security Strategist and Architect at Merlin Cyber, he helps government entities implement real-world, scalable security solutions. His expertise extends to briefing congressional committees, evaluating emerging technologies for venture investment, and designing cybersecurity architectures tailored to federal, state, and local agencies.

Jeremy’s career has spanned leading security firms, including Symantec, BlueCoat Systems, and CA Technologies, where he drove innovation in network security, malware analysis, and incident response. He has played a key role in developing FedRAMP PAAS solutions like ConstellationGovCloud and shaping AI-driven security strategies, post-quantum cryptography, and OT/IoT security frameworks.

Beyond his technical expertise, Jeremy is a trusted thought leader and educator. He frequently speaks at top industry events such as AFCEA, IMPACT, and FedGov. He also develops white papers, training programs, and strategic content to bridge the gap between policy and execution in cybersecurity.

With years of experience and multiple industry certifications, Jeremy continues to lead efforts in translating cybersecurity strategies into operational success, ensuring organizations are not just secure in theory but resilient in practice.

Christopher is a seasoned cybersecurity professional with over seven years of experience as a CyberArk engineer. As a Certified CyberArk PAM CDE, Christopher has deep expertise in designing, implementing, and optimizing Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions for federal agencies and enterprises.

Currently serving as the PAM Subject Matter Expert (SME) for Merlin Cyber, Christopher plays a critical role in helping organizations enhance their security posture by integrating and maximizing CyberArk’s capabilities. With a strong background in privileged access security, compliance, and identity protection, Christopher works closely with customers to develop tailored strategies that mitigate risk and strengthen defenses against cyber threats.

Seth Spergel is Managing Partner of Merlin Ventures, where he combines his technical operator background with over a decade of venture capital experience to drive the fund’s investment strategy. Seth came to Merlin from In-Q-Tel, the strategic investment firm of the US Intelligence Community. At In-Q-Tel Seth worked with the CIA, NSA and other government agencies to invest in commercial startups that helped address the intelligence community’s most difficult challenges. Prior to In-Q-Tel, Seth was VP of Engineering at ThinkGeek, a publicly-traded online retailer, and spent over a decade at IBM in roles ranging from software developer to sales manager. Seth is a graduate of Brandeis University, where he majored in Computer Science and Economics.

Tom is the President and Founder of the Advanced Technology Academic Research Center (ATARC), an organization that provides a collaborative forum for government, academia and industry to resolve emerging technology challenges. ATARC also introduces innovative technology from academic research labs to the Federal government and private industry. In June of 2023 the industry association assets of ATARC were sold to the GovExec Media Group.

He also is the CEO and founder of Alethia Labs, a 501(c)(3) non- profit dedicated to accelerate the adoption of technology by helping the government collaborate within itself, and other constituencies such as Academia and Industry. 

Tom is a two-time recipient of the Federal 100 Awards, a prestigious honor that recognizes government and industry leaders who played pivotal roles in Federal IT.

Troy Stark is a seasoned sales leader with a proven track record of delivering technology solutions to large enterprises and government organizations. With over 17 years of leadership experience in cybersecurity, cloud and on-premise solutions, Troy brings deep expertise in addressing the complex security needs of enterprise customers, including many Fortune 1000 companies. At InfoSec Global, Troy collaborates with leading organizations to implement solutions that identify cryptographic risks, manage change and prepare for the challenges posed by Cryptographically Relevant Quantum Computers (CRQCs).

As the leader of North America's Solutions Architects at CyberArk, Matt plays a pivotal role in helping organizations— including U.S. Federal agencies— strengthen their security posture against evolving threats. At CyberArk, the leader in Identity Security and intelligent privilege controls, he leverages nearly 20 years of Systems and Sales Engineering experience to drive mission-critical security outcomes.

Matt excels at translating complex security challenges into actionable strategies, helping agencies and enterprises implement Zero Trust and least privilege with confidence. He understands the unique challenges of securing high-value assets in highly regulated environments, ensuring organizations align with federal mandates and cybersecurity frameworks. He holds a BS in Information Science, further strengthening his expertise in the field.

When he's not advising on security strategies, you can find him offshore, fishing for giant bluefin tuna along the Massachusetts coast.

Imran Umar is a Vice President at Booz Allen and spearheads their Zero Trust initiatives across the firm in support of DoD, Federal Civilian and Intelligence clients.

In this role, Imran drives technical solution that enable organizations move towards a resilient Zero Trust architecture by applying unique tradecraft to determine their current Zero Trust maturity status, identifying key gaps in their architecture and developing tailored solutions to transition them towards a data centric security model the enforces least privileged access. Imran works to advance the adoption and fusion of concepts such as zero trust, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to improve cyber resiliency at an enterprise scale.

Heather Kuldell-Ware is a freelance editor and writer who has covered government technology and cybersecurity for the last 15 years. Her work has appeared in Nextgov, C4ISRNET, Federal Times, GCN and other government-focused publications. When she’s not thinking about cloud computing or AI advancements, she is playing with consumer gadgets for Popular Science and AP Buyline.