Speakers

Scott Braus is the Director of Cybersecurity Operations at Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).  Scott oversees cyber incident response, vulnerability management, and monitoring & analysis, and is one of the key technical leadership contributors to the CFPB’s Zero Trust Initiative,  He has over 30 years of experience in the Cybersecurity and Defense Intelligence industries, supporting multiple Cabinet-level agencies including the Department of Homeland Security, State Department, US Treasury, and Department of Transportation.  Scott also served 10 years active duty in the US Army Intelligence and Security Command deployed to multiple continents supporting the Asia-Pacific, European, and Middle Eastern theaters. 

Gerald Caron is the Chief Information Officer for the International Trade Administration. In this role, he implements information technology services, solutions, and strategy for an agency of 2,200 employees across 100 U.S. cities and 80 international markets.

Caron has two decades of experience leading global teams in IT operations and cybersecurity. Prior to joining ITA, he was the Chief Information Officer and Assistant Inspector General of Information Technology at the Department of Health and Human Services during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. He also served at the State Department in various technical roles, including as Director of Enterprise Network Management oversaw the Department’s infrastructure and operations (network, perimeter security, active directory and much more) and was extensively involved in mitigating cybersecurity attacks. He began public service in the U.S. Army for seven years. 

Caron is a tri-chair on the interagency U.S. Chief Information Officers Council’s E-Ops Committee for Zero Trust, whose aim is to drive efficiency and effectiveness of government cybersecurity effectiveness. He also chairs the Zero Trust Working Group for the Advanced Technology Academic Research Center (ATARC), a non-profit that bridges the gap between government, industry, and academia on emergent technologies. Previously, he chaired ATARC’s Trusted Internet Connection 3.0 Working Group.

Caron is a recipient of the FedHealthIT 100 2022 and 2023 award. He was named GovCIO’s 2022 and 2023 GovCIO Zero Trust Advocate Flywheel Award, ATARC’s 2022 Government Member of the Year, FedScoop’s Best Bosses in Federal IT 2022, FedTech’s 30 Federal IT Influencers Worth a Follow in 2023 and Public Sector Networks Global Top 50 Government Innovators of 2023. He is a graduate of Northern Virginia Community College and holds certification from Forrester as a Zero Trust Strategist.

Sean Connelly serves as the Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) Program Manager and Senior Cybersecurity Architect, Cybersecurity Division (CSD), Office of the Technical Director (OTD) at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The TIC initiative is the federal government’s strategy to securely protect government networks that connect to the Internet and cloud providers. CISA’s TIC Program Office works with a wide spectrum of partners across government and industry and leads the way at enhancing network security across the federal enterprise horizon.

Additionally Mr. Connelly was a co-author of the Zero Trust Maturity Model (ZTMM) which assists agencies in the development of their zero trust strategies and implementation plans, the Cyber EO (14028) Cloud Security Technical Reference Architecture (CSTRA) designed to guide agencies’ secure migration to the cloud by explaining considerations for shared services, cloud migration, and cloud security posture management;; and finally, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication (SP) 800-207, Zero Trust Architecture, which discusses the core logical components that make up a zero trust architecture.

Mr. Randy Resnick serves as the Director of the newly established Zero Trust Portfolio Management Office within DoD CIO/CS. Mr. Resnick joins us from the National Security Agency (NSA) with over 34 years of experience in offense and defense cybersecurity. In his most recent assignment, Mr. Resnick served as NSA’s Zero Trust Strategic Lead. In that role, Mr. Resnick successfully led and executed numerous ZT activities at the tactical, operational, and strategic levels and also provided NSA leadership during the successful ZT POM 23-27 Issue Paper process. His leadership and technical direction led to the development of the first DoD Zero Trust Reference Architecture, the first NSS Zero Trust Reference Architecture, DoD’s ZT maturity model, DoD’s initial strategy for Zero Trust and the construction of two Zero Trust Innovation testbed labs in collaboration with DISA and USCC. Prior to serving as NSA’s Zero Trust Strategic Lead, Mr. Resnick held positions as their Cybersecurity Innovations Director for the NSA Cybersecurity Directorate, served as Chief of NSA’s Red Team, and served as the Deputy Mission Manager for NC2/NC3/NLCC missions.

As the Zero Trust Portfolio Management Office Director, Mr. Resnick’s focus will be to provide strategic guidance, direct alignment of DoD ZT efforts, and prioritize resources to accelerate Zero Trust adoption across the DoD Enterprise while strengthening coordination and collaboration with key partners and stakeholders across the Department, the IC, Interagency, and Industry.

A native New Yorker, Mr. Resnick holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Fairleigh Dickenson University and a Master’s Degree in Engineering Management from George Washington University. Mr. Resnick has been married for 25 years and has two daughters, ages 22 and 20, who simultaneously adore him as well as drive him crazy.

Selected to the Senior Executive Service in 2016, Mr. Taylor serves as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) where he leads and manages the FDA Cybersecurity, Counterintelligence, and Insider Threat Program. He ensures the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information and protects FDA’s IT infrastructure, sensitive data, 23,000 end users, and 320 systems and applications. Also advises on cybersecurity, counterintelligence, insider threat, and operational matters to ensure situational awareness, compliance, and operational oversight.

Before joining the FDA, Mr. Taylor was an official at the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, under the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). As a cybersecurity leader and veteran cryptologist, he built teams of counterintelligence, security, and cyber subject matter experts thwarting hackers and uncovering vulnerabilities, and risks exploited by foreign intelligence services, trusted insiders, transnational criminal organizations, and other adversarial threats. He also served at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) and at multiple overseas locations and aboard naval ships.

Mr. Taylor served twenty-one years in the United States Navy as a Cryptologic Technician (Communications) Master Chief Petty Officer. He holds a Master of Science, Telecommunications from George Mason University and Bachelor of Science, Information Systems Management from the University of Maryland, University College.

Nicole Willis is the Deputy Chief Information Officer (DCIO) for the National Archives and Records Administration(NARA). She leads NARA Information Technology (IT) programs and projects by being accountable for four IT divisions, delivering infrastructure, security, and application services across the organization. Before joining NARA, Nicole was the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of Inspector General (OIG), and Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO). She leads the Zero Trust Roadmap, Multi-cloud Strategy, IT Portfolio Management, and IT Governance efforts for HHS OIG. Under Nicole’s leadership, she unified the strategic, operational needs, and IT management practices to enable business transformation and enhance product delivery. Her work moves her organizations towards a modernized application portfolio that leverages emerging technology. Nicole was honored to win a Federal 100 award in 2017 for her leadership in Information Technology at the Department of Homeland Security. She holds a Master’s in Information Technology, holds several IT management certifications, and received her Bachelor of Business Administration from Fordham.

Joe Boye has nearly 20 years of experience in IT operations, engineering, sales, and new business capture support in Government contracting and product sales. His time has been mostly within the Department of Defense (DoD), and the Intelligence Community (IC) providing mission-essential services and solutions. Joe holds an MBA and several master degrees in Electrical, Telecommunications and Systems Engineering as well as a bachelors degree in Information Systems & Operations Management and Electrical Engineering. In addition to his degrees, he holds various certifications that include the CISSP, CCSP, CEH, CISA, and PMP to name a few. Joe currently serves as one of the Sales Engineering Managers for Palo Alto Networks' Federal Systems Integrator District.

Mark Mitchell is an Enterprise Security Architect that has worked both in the Public and Private sector. He has built Zero Trust-based architectures since 2014 including a full cloud-based policy enforcement point architecture in 2017 for a Federal agency he worked with at the time. Since joining Netskope, Mark has focused on evangelizing the adoption of SASE architecture within the Federal government and the benefits that it brings; increased security, performance and compliance while reducing complexity especially in multi-cloud environments.

Evan Pelecky is Thales Trusted Cyber Technologies' (TCT) Product Manager for Cryptographic Key Management.  In this role, Evan is responsible for delivering innovative, trusted, and secure hardware security modules and cryptographic key management solutions for use in U.S. federal infrastructures.

Evan has been with Thales TCT (formally SafeNet Assured Technologies) since 2018, most recently filling the role of lead technical support engineer for hardware security modules.  Additionally, he serves as an officer in a cyberspace operations group of the Maryland Air National Guard and is a member of the Maryland State Bar.

With over 25 years of executive federal government and commercial experience at both public and private companies, Mr. Taddeo is Appgate’s Chief Executive Officer and President. He previously served as Appgate’s CISO, directing global security operations, crisis management and business continuity processes, and oversaw Appgate’s federal government business, working closely with sales and technical leadership to define and deliver Zero Trust solutions to meet the needs of Appgate’s public sector customers.

Previously, Mr. Taddeo was the CISO and President of Cyxtera Federal Group. He is the former Special Agent in Charge of the Special Operations/Cyber Division of the FBI’s New York Office. In this role, he directed over 400 special agents and professional support personnel conducting cyber investigations, surveillance operations, information technology support and crisis management. Previous responsibilities focused on FBI international operations, including service as a Section Chief in the International Operations Division, where he managed operations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Mr. Taddeo received a B.S. in Applied Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. After completing his studies, Taddeo served as a tank officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. In 1994 he earned a J.D. from St. John’s University. Upon graduation, he joined the law firm of Mound Cotton Wollan & Greengrass LLP in New York, where he practiced in the field of civil litigation until entering on duty with the FBI. Mr. Taddeo is a member of the New York State Bar and a graduate of the CISO Executive Program at Carnegie Mellon University.

Chris Usserman is the Infoblox Public Sector Chief Technology Officer with expertise in security architecture.  Chris has over 32 years’ experience in the U.S. Intelligence Community to helping clients understand and incorporate cyber business intelligence to improve cyber security programs. With a focus on the U.S. Government and public sector, Chris brings a public/private perspective to enhance the security posture of multiple sectors and communities of interest. Chris regularly speaks at domestic and international conferences on building more effective and mature cyber security programs.

Prior to Infoblox, Chris served in several leadership roles, including Senior Director, Applied Intelligence and Director, Government Programs at iSIGHT Partners (FireEye). Chris was also a Lead Research Scientist (Cyber Ops) at Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Laboratories, and served 14 years in the U.S. Air Force. 

Susan Valverde Senior Manager with Oracle Federal Civilian organization.  She has over 27 years of service at Oracle in a variety of roles including commercial presales, channels, education, and public sector. She has a BS from Washington University in St. Louis and an MBA from the University of Maryland at College Park.