2015 Award Winners

CCISO of the Year
Neil Gaudreau

Neil Gaudreau 1 - Awards Atlanta 2015

CISO of the Year
Ben Halpert

BenHalpert - Awards Atlanta 2015

Innovative Project of the Year
Paul Medici

PaulMedici - Awards Atlanta 2015

Most Improved Information Security Program of the Year
Bobby Malek

BobbyMalecki - Awards Atlanta 2015

Award Categories

CCISO of the Year

This award, available only to EC-Council Certified CISOs (C|CISOs), recognizes an individual’s outstanding work in information security. We will be honoring one C|CISO who has contributed to the information security industry, shown tremendous professional growth and achievement, and has promoted strong, innovative security practices. When submitting your nomination package for this award, please be sure to include a summary of your work and career advancement over the last year, how you have positively impacted the information security industry. Your entry will be evaluated by a panel of highly qualified information security executives, so make sure that what you present will impress your audience.

CISO of the Year

This award, available only to Information Security Executives (VP, CISO, etc.), recognizes an individual’s outstanding work in information security. We will be honoring one executive who has contributed to the information security industry, shown tremendous professional growth and achievement, and has promoted strong, innovative security practices. When submitting your nomination package for this award, please be sure to include a summary of your work and career advancement over the last year and how you have positively impacted the information security industry. Your entry will be evaluated by a panel of highly qualified information security executives, so make sure that what you present will impress your audience.

Innovative Security Project of the Year

This award is intended to recognize the most innovative security project of the year. The nomination must include the following details:

  • Brief description of the project and its goals
  • How the project supported the business/organization by being:
    • Cost effective
    • Impactful to the business or security operations
    • Creative in its use or creation of new models
    • Groundbreaking
    • Measurable – please include statistics on how the project impacted budget, time, or other measurable indicators.

Most Improved Information Security Program of the Year

This award is intended to recognize improvements in information security programs that have made use of innovative strategies to bring value quickly to a security program and the overall business/organization’s goals. The nomination must include the following:

  • A baseline of the security program before improvements including measurable indicators
  • The methods used to improve the program
  • Challenges encountered and the solutions implemented to overcome them A thorough analysis of the program after improvements were implemented including measurable indicators

2015 Finalists

Categories:

CCISO of the YearCISO of the YearInnovative Project of the YearMost Improved Information Security Program of the Year

CCISO of the Year

Niran - Awards Atlanta 2015Niran Seriki

Senior Cyber Security Consultant


BIO

Niran Seriki is an experienced Senior Cyber Security Consultant and a Certified Chief Information Security Officer (C|CISO) with expertise in Cyber Security as well as dealing with Senior Board Level Management on Enterprise Security Strategy & Programmes.

He has over 25 years’ international, technical and management experience, planning and running global security projects, with specific passionate interests in Global Threat Intelligence Management, Vulnerability Management, Compliance and Risk Management.

He is quite passionate about Cyber Security and making Security work without jeopardising Business progress and achievement in organisations. He currently consults for the European Institutions.


Jorge - Awards Atlanta 2015Jorge Antonio Baeza Guerra

CISO of Santiago Stock Exchange

BIO

Jorge Antonio Baeza Guerra , more than 15 years of experience in Information Security (ISO 27001 ) Continuity Management Society (ISO 22301) and Risk Management (ISO 31000) , an expert in the implementation of management systems and Technology Consulting currently working on the Santiago Stock Exchange , where it handles Security and Business Continuity , he has also worked in other companies in the financial sector in Chile , private companies , consultants safety and multinational security, implementing and developing projects both technologically and advisory projects in Chile and in Latin America level.



rakeesh - Awards Atlanta 2015Rakesh Radhakrishnan

National Practice Lead –IAM

OpenSky Corporation


BIO

Rakesh Radhakrishnan is a Principal (IT Security) Architect at Amgen. He has a total of 25 years of experience in IT and 15+ years in Information Security covering all 5 domains of the CISO program. Rakesh is extremely passionate about “Aligning Aspired (Target ESA) with Applied Architecture” and he believes in the critical nature of the partnership and teamwork between the Chief Security Architect office of an Organization and the CSO office. All the Architecture Assessments, Target ESA definitions/designs, innovation, solution design, integration models, problem solving (predicting future issues/problems as well), design patterns and reusable code/artifacts produced by Security Architects can ONLY be put to good use if it is aligned with the CSO programs associated with governance, empowerment, program management, policy & standards, compliant SW acquisition, organizational structuring and so on. Hence he truly enjoys the ISACA COBIT 5 model for Information security that addresses the governance challenges of IS along with SEI’s Architecture Led Program Management for Architecture led governance and acquisition management.


paulhorn1 - Awards Atlanta 2015Paul Horn

CISO,

HD Vest Financial Services


BIO

Paul is the CISO at HD Vest Financial Services. He is a security professional with over 14 years of various security experiences that includes time spent as a Special Agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, lead a global information security program for a major defense contractor supporting logistics and air operations for various government contracts as well as led the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Aviation Division vulnerability management program and has been a finalist in 2013 and 2014 for Certified CISO of the Year through EC-Council. In his free time Paul serves on Advisor Boards for information security related topics and has a deep dedication to the information security community by mentoring other security professionals to become future CISOs and participated in the National Institutes of Standards and Technologies (NIST) request for information regarding the framework for improving critical infrastructure.



FernandoG - Awards Atlanta 2015Fernando Guerrero

CISO at CELEC EP


BIO

Fernando is a Systems and Computing Engineer (Ecuador), with a Master in Science of Computational Engineering (Germany) and a Master in Arts of Innovation and Strategy Management (Spain). He has more than 11 years of experience in the Information Security field, specially in the Power Transmission and Generation Industry, and he is also the first Ec-Council Certified CISO of Ecuador.

Nowadays, he is implementing the market’s best practices of information security in the energy industry in his country touching the entire value chain: power generation, transmission, distribution and control.


NeilG - Awards Atlanta 2015Neil Gaudreau

Chief Information Security Operations at US Department of Homeland Security


BIO

Neil F. Gaudreau is the Chief Information Security Operations for the Network Security Deployment Division, Office of Cybersecurity and Communications (CS&C) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  Network Security Deployment Division designs, develops, deploys, and sustains the National Cybersecurity Protection System, which provides intrusion detection, advanced analytics, information sharing, and intrusion prevention capabilities that combat and mitigate cyber threats to the Federal Executive Branch information and networks.  In his position Neil provides direction and oversight to the Enterprise Change Management, Account Management, Security Event & Information Management Tools, Security Operations Center, and the Threat & Vulnerability Management teams.

 

Prior to his assignment with DHS he held numerous leadership positions in both the federal government and commercial sector.  In his last assignment, he served as the Head of Cybersecurity Architecture & Engineering for Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, Command, Control, Communications, and Computers (C4).   Was VP of Information Security for the Royal Bank of Scotland – Citizens Bank, Director of System Integration & Testing for General Dynamics, Director Service Delivery for UNICOM, Enterprise IT Architect for Boston Scientific and Lead Network Engineer for Sprint.

He is a retired Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant with 25 years of Information Technology and Information Security Management experience.

Honors and Awards

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  • Certified CISO, ITIL, CCNA, MCSE
  • 2011 Federal Computer Week Top 100
  • 2010 Department of Defense CIO’s Information Assurance Excellence Award
  • 2015 Department of Homeland Team Work Award
  • Member AFCEA Pensacola

[/list]

JaredCarstensen - Awards Atlanta 2015Jared Carstensen

CISO at CRH plc


BIO

Jared Carstensen is the CISO for CRH plc, with responsibility for the strategy and delivery of global information security activities across 37 countries of FTSE 100 company, with over 90,000 employees. Jared is currently the youngest CISO across any of FTSE 100 & Fortune 500 companies. Over the past 14 years, Jared has delivered a number of ground-breaking and ‘world-first’ security programmes across various industries and sectors including numerous large and complex security change programmes across the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific regions. Jared holds the C|CISO, CISSP, GCIH, CRISC, SSCP, CCSK credentials (among others), lectures on MSc in Cloud Computing at the National College of Ireland, is a member of the IT Governance Expert Panel, and has spoken at over 100+ events globally on the topic of information security. Jared authored ‘Cloud Computing: Assessing the Risks’ in 2014, which listed as a Top 50 technology seller onAmazon.com, listing endorsements from Kaspersky, Deloitte, McAfee & others. Jared is currently authoring his next book, focusing on cyber security for business leaders, which is due for release in Q4 2015. Jared is President of a local Irish Security chapter (with over 300+ certified members), and along with chapter volunteers trained over 2,400 Irish school children on internet safety in 2014 as part of the ‘Safe & Secure’ initiative.


CISO of the Year

BenH - Awards Atlanta 2015Ben Halpert


BIO

Ben Halpert is a man on a mission: to keep all kids safe online. By day, he is the VP, Risk and Corporate Security at Ionic Security Inc. By night, he is a champion for the protection of children in cyberspace.

Ben is honored to be invited to speak and keynote at conferences worldwide. His most recent were at TEDxKids@Vilnius (Raising Savvy Cyber Kids: https://youtu.be/uFhFaWMdsSQ) and TEDxSaintThomas (Technology addiction and what you can do about it:https://youtu.be/0adeZP6aDQw).

Ben is an award-winning author of several books for wildly divergent audiences. The Savvy Cyber Kids at Home: The Family Gets A Computer is a picture book which teaches the concepts online safety and privacy to preschool age children. The Savvy Cyber Kids At Home: The Defeat of the Cyber Bully teaches our children how to appropriately respond to a cyber bully before they start playing in the virtual world. The Savvy Cyber Kids at Home: Adventures Beyond the Screen helps kids discover meaningful ways to have fun without technology. For those in the business field, Ben has published Auditing Cloud Computing: A Security and Privacy Guide through John Wiley & Sons.

Seeing a void in the conversation about online safety and cyber ethics for our youngest children, Ben created a nonprofit to foster appropriate decision making by the world’s children as they grow up with technology. Savvy Cyber Kids, Inc. was founded in 2007 and continues to expand educational offerings.

Ben was a contributing author to Readings and Cases in the Management of Information Security & the Encyclopedia of Information Ethics & Security. Ben wrote the security column for Mobile Enterprise Magazine and has contributed to seven NIST special publications and Ben is on the advisory board of numerous colleges and universities. He has keynoted and presented sessions at numerous conferences, including the RSA Security Conference, InfoSec World, IEEE, and ACM conferences.

Thanks,

 

Ben Halpert, C|CISO, CISSP

Security executive by day, Cyber hero by night


Innovative Project of the Year

bobbymaleck - Awards Atlanta 2015Bobby Malek

Senior IT CyberSecurity Consultant IT Project Manager


BIO

Insightful, results-driven IT professional with over 22 years of experience in defining IT / Cyber-security best practices, project management, and a broad range of corporate IT security and IT infrastructure initiatives. Strong track record of planning, analysis, and implementation of those solutions to meet business objectives. Skilled at leading comprehensive secure network design, systems analysis, and full life cycle project management. Outstanding project and program leader; with a proven ability to coordinate and direct all phases of project-based efforts while managing, motivating, and guiding teams. Effective communicator (German and English) with a talent for cultivating a shared vision in diverse work environments.

Cyber Security: Expert at identifying Cyber and network vulnerability and infrastructure Security gaps and designing solutions. Deep knowledge of Information Security frameworks and how security strengthens an organization’s security posture. Specialization in Cyber Security and security analytics technologies and experience in deployments of CyberSecurity best practices. Subject matter expert assisting with security-related warnings, trends and updates from the federal government (FBI, DOD, DHS, NSA) and Cyber Security Council. Proud member of InfraGard (Federal Bureau of Investigation), passed FBI’s background and security check.


PaulMedici - Awards Atlanta 2015Paul Medici

Director at Fidelity Investments


BIO

Paul Medici has been involved with Information Security for almost twenty years. During that time at State Street Bank and Fidelity Investments he has been involved for all aspects of Information Security, Business Contingency Planning, Disaster Recovery, Server support, Database and Desktop Support.

The past fifteen years Paul has been focused on the Information Security world. Leading a team, most recently he developed a Security Consulting Practice at Fidelity in which the team oversees the implementation of over 500+ projects a year to assure that all of those projects comply with Fidelity’s Policies and Procedures around Information Security.



Most Improved Information Security Program of the Year

bobbymaleck - Awards Atlanta 2015Bobby Malek

Senior IT CyberSecurity Consultant IT Project Manager


BIO

Insightful, results-driven IT professional with over 22 years of experience in defining IT / Cyber-security best practices, project management, and a broad range of corporate IT security and IT infrastructure initiatives. Strong track record of planning, analysis, and implementation of those solutions to meet business objectives. Skilled at leading comprehensive secure network design, systems analysis, and full life cycle project management. Outstanding project and program leader; with a proven ability to coordinate and direct all phases of project-based efforts while managing, motivating, and guiding teams. Effective communicator (German and English) with a talent for cultivating a shared vision in diverse work environments.

Cyber Security: Expert at identifying Cyber and network vulnerability and infrastructure Security gaps and designing solutions. Deep knowledge of Information Security frameworks and how security strengthens an organization’s security posture. Specialization in Cyber Security and security analytics technologies and experience in deployments of CyberSecurity best practices. Subject matter expert assisting with security-related warnings, trends and updates from the federal government (FBI, DOD, DHS, NSA) and Cyber Security Council. Proud member of InfraGard (Federal Bureau of Investigation), passed FBI’s background and security check.



2014 Award Winners

CCISO of the Year
Paul Medici

ecATL 1373 300x199 - Awards Atlanta 2015

CIO of the Year
Vanessa Lapins

ecATL 1345 300x199 - Awards Atlanta 2015

CISO of the Year
Mark Leary

ecATL 1360 300x199 - Awards Atlanta 2015