2012 Speaker Bios
Opening General Session Keynote:
Jennifer Nowell, Director, Government Solutions Group
Jennifer Nowell is the director of the Government Solutions Group for Symantec Public Sector.
In this role, Ms. Nowell leads strategic functions associated with Symantec’s Public Sector business – working with US Federal, State, and Local governments as well as education institutions to improve their ability to protect and manage critical information. She brings comprehensive and long-term security solutions to the US Public Sector in cooperation with government organizations, integrators, and other leading security vendors.
Ms. Nowell has served in a variety of roles during an 11-year tenure at Symantec, most recently serving as the senior account executive for the Department of Homeland Security. She joined Symantec in 1998 via the acquisition of Axent Technologies as a Federal Senior System Engineer.
Prior to her time with Symantec, Ms. Nowell worked for J.G. Van Dyke & Associates as a security consultant to the US Government for testing and deployment of public key infrastructures, single sign-on solutions, and encryption. She maintains active membership with the National Defense Industry Association – Women in Defense, the public sector Industry Advisory Council (IAC), and the Executive Women’s Forum (EWF). Ms. Nowell holds a BA from Radford University.
Track 1; Session 1
Mobile Management
Evan Quinn, Symantec
Bio coming soon.
Track 2; Session 1
User Authentication for Government
Nick Piazzola, Symantec
Nicholas Piazzola is Sr. Director of Government Authentication Solutions in the VeriSign Authentication business unit acquired by Symantec in August 2010. Mr. Piazzola joined VeriSign in December 1996 and started VeriSign's Federal government business unit. He subsequently established VeriSign as a leading provider of managed PKI services for Federal departments and agencies. Prior to joining VeriSign, Mr. Piazzola was with the National Security Agency for over 28 years. He held a variety of positions in research and development of information security products and services including Chief of the Network Security Group and Chief of the INFOSEC Research and Technology Group. He also led NSA's highly successful STU-III secure telephone initiative.
Mr. Piazzola is a graduate of Villanova University and has a Master's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland. He is also a graduate of the Senior Seminar at the State Department Foreign Service Institute. Mr. Piazzola is a recipient of the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, the Presidential Meritorious Executive Award, the Presidential Federal Design Achievement Award, and the AFCEA Gold Medal for Engineering.
Track 3; Mobile Demo
Endpoint Virtualization
Chris D'Aguanno, Symantec
2011 - Current: Sr Regional Product manager Symantec
2008 - 2011: Sr Systems Engineer SEV - Symantec
2001 - 2008: Sr Systems Administrator (Asset Management and Software delivery) Newsday
Track 1; Session 2
Risk Management and Remediation
Kurt Van Etten, Symantec
Kurt Van Etten is the Director of Product Management at Symantec, responsible for the Control Compliance Suite line of business. Kurt and his team set the vision and direction for this core family of Risk, Policy and Compliance products, and work closely with engineering, marketing and other organisations to deliver on this vision.
Kurt joined Symantec in June 2011. Prior to joining Symantec, Kurt was the Director of Risk Product Management at PayPal. At PayPal, Kurt was responsible for developing solutions for Identity Risk, Merchant Risk, Resolutions and Protections. Kurt's team was instrumental in significantly driving down PayPal financial loss and improving customer experience.
Previously, Kurt served as Director of Information Security Programs at eBay with responsibility for the Network Security and Risk & Compliance teams. Kurt spearheaded the rapid maturation of the Risk & Compliance process and tools that led to successfully completion of all eBay Inc's compliance requirements. Kurt also worked inside eBay's technology teams in Process Engineering and Site Operations roles. Additionally, Kurt has held positions at Motorola and as an officer in the United States Marine Corps.
Kurt holds a MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University, a Masters in Engineering Management from Northwestern University, and a BS from the United States Naval Academy.
Stephen Brown, Arellia
Stephen manages sales, marketing, support, and business operations for Arellia. Previous to Arellia, Stephen held product management and engineering management positions at Symantec, Altiris, and Axent. At Symantec, Stephen championed key initiatives for Altiris product and business integration after Altiris was acquired in 2007. He also led many strategic areas including Symantec’s mobile device management, security integrations, and IT analytics products. Stephen has a MBA from the University of Utah, a BS in Civil Engineering from Brigham Young University, and is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional.
Dan McManus, Arellia
Dan joined Arellia as the Director of Americas Sales in the summer of 2011. Prior to joining Arellia, Dan was the Manager of Sales Engineering for Symantec's Endpoint Management & Mobility (Altiris) Public Sector. Dan joined Symantec as part of the acquisition of Altiris in 2007. Dan joined Altiris in late 2002 and was instrumental in the creation of the Altiris Federal Government vertical. Dan has over 12 years of experience in the software industry specializing in Federal and SLED sales. Prior to working in the software industry, Dan spent 12 years working in the intelligence community. A native of the Washington DC area, Dan now resides in Wilmington NC.
Track 2; Session 2
Endpoint Security & Encryption
Brian Tillett, Symantec
Brian J. Tillett is the Chief Security Strategist for Symantec Public Sector. As a security practitioner with 18 years in the IT and Voice Security industries, Brian is a frequent contributor at Public Sector focused conferences, symposiums, and forums as a speaker/presenter on relevant real world IT security topics. He collaborates regularly with Department of Defense, Intelligence Community, Federal Civilian, State and Local Government; Public Education, and Systems Integrator, Executives, Directors, and Key Personnel to focus on understanding and meeting real-world IT security challenges specific to the Public Sector enterprise. Being aligned with the Symantec Security Business Practice and CTO office, he drives this feedback directly to Symantec business unit leaders in order to strengthen the connections between Symantec's solutions and Public Sector enterprise security and management needs.
Prior to Symantec, Brian was with Vericept Corporation; becoming well versed in the Public Sector DLP space. He spent 5 years with SecureLogix Corporation as Federal Technical Director covering TDM Voice and VoIP security technologies. Brian spent two years with Fujitsu supporting TDM Voice, VoIP, Messaging, IVR and CTI technologies; as well several years as a contractor to the US Department of Defense and Intelligence Community designing and deploying secure communications and computing centers. Brian's career began with the United States Air Force, assigned to the Air Force Pentagon Communications Agency; ultimately managing the Pentagon Secure Crypto Telecom Facility.
Throughout his career, Brian has directly supported organizations including but not limited to: USAF, USN, USMC, USA, Departments of Homeland Security, Energy, Transportation, Veterans Affairs, Treasury and State, Defense Information Systems Agency, US Postal Service, White House Communications Agency, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Executive Office of the President, US Senate, US House of Representatives, Missile Defense Agency, United Nations, Office of the Secretary of Defense, various intelligence organizations, Lockheed Martin Corporation, French and British Ministries of Defence.
Lunch Keynote:
Joel Brenner
Joel Brenner is a former senior counsel at the National Security Agency, where he advised on legal and policy issues relating to network security. Previously, he served as the national counterintelligence executive in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and as NSA's inspector general. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison (B.A.), The London School of Economics (Ph.D.), and Harvard Law School (J.D.). Brenner currently practices law in Washington, D.C., specializing in cyber-security and related issues.
About the Book - A former top-level National Security Agency insider goes behind the headlines to explore America's next great battleground: digital security. An urgent wake-up call that identifies our foes; unveils their methods; and charts the dire consequences for government, business, and individuals.
Shortly after 9/11, Joel Brenner entered the inner sanctum of American espionage, first as the inspector general of the National Security Agency, then as the head of counterintelligence for the director of national intelligence. He saw at close range the battleground on which our adversaries are now attacking us-cyberspace. We are at the mercy of a new generation of spies who operate remotely from China, the Middle East, Russia, even France, among many other places. These operatives have already shown their ability to penetrate our power plants, steal our latest submarine technology, rob our banks, and invade the Pentagon's secret communications systems.
Incidents like the WikiLeaks posting of secret U.S. State Department cables hint at the urgency of this problem, but they hardly reveal its extent or its danger. Our government and corporations are a "glass house," all but transparent to our adversaries. Counterfeit computer chips have found their way into our fighter aircraft; the Chinese stole a new radar system that the navy spent billions to develop; our own soldiers used intentionally corrupted thumb drives to download classified intel from laptops in Iraq. And much more.
Dispatches from the corporate world are just as dire. In 2008, hackers lifted customer files from the Royal Bank of Scotland and used them to withdraw $9 million in half an hour from ATMs in the United States, Britain, and Canada. If that was a traditional heist, it would be counted as one of the largest in history. Worldwide, corporations lose on average $5 million worth of intellectual property apiece annually, and big companies lose many times that.
The structure and culture of the Internet favor spies over governments and corporations, and hackers over privacy, and we've done little to alter that balance. Brenner draws on his extraordinary background to show how to right this imbalance and bring to cyberspace the freedom, accountability, and security we expect elsewhere in our lives.
In America the Vulnerable, Brenner offers a chilling and revelatory appraisal of the new faces of war and espionage-virtual battles with dangerous implications for government, business, and all of us.
Track 1; Session 3
Symantec Solutions Working Together
Stephen Holcomb, Altrinsic
Stephen Holcomb has over seventeen years of IT industry background including extensive experience as a Systems Management Platform integrator and OS deployment expert. Stephen and his staff have assisted hundreds of organizations with customized, automated OS deployment solutions. Customers include numerous Fortune-class organizations such as Wal-Mart, Boeing, Disney, Cisco, AT&T, multiple US military branches, commercial and other organizations representing virtually every vertical market and major geography. Stephen's vast experience in implementing customized, standardized image deployment solutions, has helped him to identify a market-wide need for fundamentally better processes and technology to automate Windows OS deployment and other key IT initiatives. With this mission, Altrinsic Solutions was founded in 2005, offering the first of several innovative products including Hardware Independent Imaging Solution (HIIS). The features and automation offered in HIIS have been continually extended, refined and advanced and are found in the next generation of OS deployment automation technologies - DeployExpert for SMP/DS71.
Chris Gray, Symantec
Christopher Gray is a National Solution Architect (US & Canada) with Symantec's Endpoint Management & Mobility (EMM) organization. In this role, Mr. Gray leads the team of EMM Solution Architects, delivering strategic and tactical guidance surrounding the management of Physical, Virtual, and Mobile IT devices, along with the corresponding Asset, Incident, and Change Management needs of customer organizations large and small.
During the past year, Mr. Gray has delivered over 75 two-day workshops, focused on leveraging the full breadth of solutions within the IT Management Suite, while also ensuring a successful and on-target migration to the latest version of the software. Mr. Gray's direct experience in all aspects of IT service delivery has earned him the reputation of a proven Information Technology leader with significant Enterprise and Public Sector expertise in IT Enterprise Architecture and Project Management. He has extensive experience facilitating the establishment of stable, efficient, and dependable IT Systems and Asset Management environments with an emphasis on ITIL processes, best practices, and compliance.
Mr. Gray demonstrates his passion and dedication to the Information Technology profession by maintaining over twenty-five professional certifications from a wide spectrum of industry-leading Software, Hardware, and Foundational vendors.
Renault Ross, Symantec
US Programs Security & Privacy Architect
Symantec Corporation
Duties include:
Presenting to SLED IT leaders regarding the Security & Privacy risk with programs and ensuring external governance drivers are addressed.
Collaborate closely with System Integrators to understand the value of our Security portfolio and where it aligns with controls to address large programmatic risk.
Speaking engagements both internally and externally on Enterprise Security Management practices to address operational risk and drive up efficiency.
Credentials\Certifications:
CISSP - Certified Information System Security Professional
CHSS - Certified HIPAA Security Specialist
MCSE - Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer
CCNA - Cisco Certified Network Administrator
CCUE - Cisco Certified Unity Engineer
SCS - Symantec Certified Specialist
CCSK - Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge
Track 2; Session 3
Data Center Virtualization
Skip Farmer, Symantec
Skip Farmer is a Distinguished Systems Engineer who joined the Symantec Public Sector Organization through the VERITAS Acquisition. One of Mr. Farmer's roles is to design data protection and COOP solutions to handle short term and long term interruptions.
Mr. Farmer's core competency is developing projects from infancy, integrating baseline requirement surveys, scenario reviews and current capabilities assessments to offer a complete solution for an agency. During his 15 years serving public sector organizations, Mr. Farmer has worked on key projects that include data protection design and implementation for large Federal, State and Local agencies. Mr. Farmer has spoken about storage solutions for continuity of operations and business optimization at CIO Engagements, Symantec Government Vision, and numerous other engagements including user group sessions. Mr. Farmer is also the co-author of the book: Digital Data Integrity: The Evolution from Passive Protection to Active Management.
Track 3; Mobile Management
Adam Licata, ITS
Adam Licata is a practice principal and team lead of Mobile Management at ITS Partners. He has been using and consulting on Altiris for 6 years and has extensive experience with Symantec Mobile Management. Before coming to ITS, he was the lead desktop and mobile engineer at Miami University in Ohio. Adam is an Authorized Symantec Consultant and lives in Cincinnati. Adam specializes in process automation and enterprise integration of systems management tools.
Track 1; Session 4
The Endpoint Evolution
Kawika Takayama, Symantec
Kawika Takayama is the Symantec Endpoint Management and Mobile Systems Engineering Manager for Public Sector. His team represents the largest DoD, Federal System Integrators, and Federal Civilian accounts globally. He team is also responsible for the support of State and Local government agencies and Educational Institutions throughout the United States. Primarily focusing on the core of Endpoint Management, the growth of Mobile and Virtualization into the Public sector has become a paramount driver for many government initiatives. As such, Kawika's Systems Engineering team have lead the way for client discussions around industry trending and analysis and educating customers on new trends and technologies.
Kawika has been with Symantec for 6 years and has led the Competitive Intelligence Organization working with organizations such as Tolly Group, AV-Tests, and Passmark. He also supported the Global Strategic Partner Sales Organization which includes HP, Dell, IBM, Accenture, and CSC. Prior to joining Symantec, Kawika was the lead Information Assurance and National Security Officer for various government agencies and networks to include DISA, Dept of Navy, Dept of Army, and the NMCI project. Kawika is on the panel of several Cloud Computing committees; carries over 50 industry certifications to include ISC2, ISACA, Ec-Council, and NSA level certs; and is a Certified Ethical Hacker.
Track 2; Session 4
Electronic Data Discovery for Government
Bret Bailine, Clearwell
Bret Bailine, Sr. Manager Systems Engineering for the Clearwell Federal team, has twelve years of e-discovery experience. Bret spent 7 years consulting and providing best practices predominantly in the Fortune 500 financial and health care verticals on email archiving, records management and enterprise search. Bret has spent almost 5 years with Clearwell, consulting and providing best practices to the Federal Government on all EDRM phases of e-discovery.
Tom Kennedy, Clearwell
Tom Kennedy runs the Public Sector team for Clearwell Systems, now a part of Symantec. Clearwell transforms the way government agencies perform e-discovery in response to litigation, regulatory inquiries, and internal investigations. Consistently ranked as a leader in independent e-discovery industry surveys and reports, Clearwell is an active participant in the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) Project, the International Law Technology Association (ILTA), The Sedona Conference, and the Text Retrieval Conference (TREC).
Tom holds a master's degree from George Mason University and a bachelor's degree from the Pennsylvania State University. Additionally, he is a graduate of The Executive Program at the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia.
An active member of the Industry Advisory Council (IAC), he is a 2003 Graduate of IAC's prestigious Partners program. Mr. Kennedy is also active in GEIA, AFCEA and AFFIRM, three organizations that bring government and industry IT leaders together.
