Keynote Speakers
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Nth Generation
Dwayne Gilliam | EVP Sales
Dwayne joined Nth Generation in early 2015 as the Senior Vice President of Sales. Dwayne oversees the Sales and Business Development teams at Nth and is part of the Executive Management Team, where he is responsible for helping to drive the overall strategy and focus for our customers via our Sales Organization.
Dwayne received his Bachelor's from USC and his Masters from Biola University. He started his career working at Xerox, where he worked for 8 years. He worked at EMC for 7 years before moving to FusionStorm. Dwayne has had ample experience working with Integrators. He most recently worked for HP as the Director of Emerging Growth Markets for the U.S.
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Nth Generation
Dan Molina | Co-President, Chief Technology Officer
Dan has worked in the IT industry since 1989, and has been with Nth Generation since 2000. He is responsible for Nth’s Research and Development initiatives, as well as helping to identify, research, evaluate, and incorporate leading-edge IT technologies into Nth’s solutions and services portfolio.
Dan completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science at UCSD in 1992 and a Master of Science Degree in Executive Leadership at USD in 2009. As part of his Master’s Program, Dan completed multiple research papers and presentations on the emerging Cloud Computing megatrend starting in 2008. He was a business owner for over 5 years, and developed widely adopted ASIC‐testing software while working as a Software Engineer at Hughes Aircraft.
Dan brings extensive design and consulting experience in the areas of Converged and Virtual Infrastructure, Data Protection, Business Continuity, Software Defined Data Center, Mobility, Security, Big Data Analytics, Hybrid Clouds, and other related Enterprise IT solutions. Dan is a multi-year finalist for the San Diego Tech Executive of the Year Award.
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Intel
Tim Wood | Director, US Mid-Market
Tim is passionate about the crossroads between technology and usability. Fueling this passion for nearly 23 years, Tim has worked at Intel in multiple sales and marketing functions, spanning both consumer and enterprise engagement. Prior to his current role, Tim was the Chief of Staff to the VP and GM of Sales and Marketing for the Americas. Presently, Tim leads a sales team focusing on end user influence and technology adoption. Tim resides in Oregon with his wife and two children and is a lover of outside adventures, homebrewed beer, and playing golf.
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Mac Avancena Jr. | VP, GreenLake Worldwide Solutions
Mac Avancena is the Vice President of HPE GreenLake Solutions within the worldwide go-to-market organization. In this role, Mac’s experience and leadership with sales and product management develops and aligns customer and industry solutions to HPE GreenLake offerings. Mac and his team work to identify and deliver reference architectures and drive customer requirements into the HPE GreenLake solutions. This includes developing a series of solution playbooks across Cloud, Data, and Edge.
Mac is an experienced leader with strong industry knowledge and a proven track record of driving strong business results in various industries for the last 30 years. He is a previous HPE customer joining from Kern County, the third-largest county in California, where he led digital transformation initiatives as the Chief Information Technology Officer. Prior to that, he spent 16 years with NBCUniversal overseeing global data and analytics, application rationalization, infrastructure, and program office efforts.
Mac holds an MBA from Northeastern University; a Bachelor's in Business Management from Fresno Pacific University; and a Certificate in Project Management from the California Institute of Technology. Mac is also a certified PMP, CTBME, Six Sigma, ITIL, and CSAC Credentialed Technology Executive.
Robert Christiansen | VP, Office of the CTO
Robert Christiansen leads technology evangelism for HPE, helping clients and partners clearly understand HPE’s value and helping HPE truly understand client problems. Robert joined HPE through the acquisition of Cloud Technology Partners (CTP), where he led their Global Consulting Practice responsible for 700+ public cloud engagements. Robert is a key member of the Office of the CTO for Hybrid IT and a contributing author to multiple technology publications, including CIO magazine and The Doppler. Robert is a popular international speaker and regularly hosts workshops and seminars dedicated to executive alignment and strategy.
Prior to joining HPE, Robert co-founded Cloud Nation, the first Citrix DaaS platform on AWS, and established many of the reproducible architectures for DaaS on AWS. Robert is a prolific author, contributing a large number of cloud and IT transformation articles to The Doppler Quarterly publications, distributed to 8,000+ IT professionals and business leaders. He has also recorded podcasts and videos focusing on cloud-related best practices and has contributed to mentoring, coaching, and leadership publications.
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Veeam
Rick Vanover | Sr. Director, Product Strategy
Rick Vanover is an expert in intelligent data management. In his role at Veeam, Rick sits at the crossroads of many types of storage. Whether it is storage systems, critical application data, data in the cloud or data anywhere in between; Rick has experience in the data management practice as IT practices change with new technologies. Follow Rick on Twitter @RickVanover.
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Nth Generation
Jim Russ | VP, Enterprise Technology
Jim Russ has over 30 years of experience working in IT. Jim has been with Nth for the past 25 years playing key roles, including Integration and Installation Engineer, Solutions Architect, Technical Presenter, and Nth University Class Instructor.
Prior to Nth, Jim worked as a Circuit Board Design Engineer, Systems Design Engineer, Field Service Engineer, Technical Support Specialist, Trainer, and Professional Services Manager. Jim has a degree in Electronics Technology from DeVry University and Micro-Computer Design from UCSD. He is a certified HPE Master ASE - SAN Architect, OpenVMS System Administrator, and Superdome Solutions Professional. Jim is also certified for Hewlett Packard Enterprise EVA Design, HPE XP Storage Solutions, HPE Storage Essentials, HPE Integrated Archive Platform, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Backup Solutions, and HPE Procurve Network Solutions.
Jim also has technical certifications from VMware, CommVault, Emulex, Equallogic, and LeftHand Networks. He also has extensive architecture experience in Storage Solution Design, Enterprise Backup Solutions, Disaster Recovery Planning, High Availability Computing platforms, Server Consolidation and Virtualization, and Network design.
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Nth Generation
Jeromie Jackson | Director Security & Analytics
Since 1994, Jeromie Jackson has demonstrated accomplished executive leadership, in tandem with security and risk management consulting. He is a trusted advisor to senior executives with a focus on strategy development, IT optimization, governance, and risk management. Mr. Jackson engages executives with a consultative approach to enable businesses with innovative opportunities to mitigate and reduce information technology (IT) risks. Mr. Jackson’s deep technical knowledge coupled with a passion for leading-edge security architecture gives his clientele the ability to move quickly from concept into executive decisioning and delivery. Mr. Jackson executes with precision and focus on enabling businesses by wielding the Control Objectives from frameworks, such as Center for Internet Security’s (CIS) Critical Security Controls (CSC), the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, Balanced
Scorecards (BSC) implementations, and Strategy Maps.
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Nth Generation
Joseph Smith | Sr. Information Security Consultant
Joseph Smith is a Senior Information Security professional with over 20 years of experience in IT. He has a diverse background working with verticals in the private sector, banking, medical, financial, the U.S. Department of Defense, and Federal Government. Mr. Smith is a Security Advocate, guiding management to security development through the education and training of risk management, tailoring solutions to fit each company’s unique landscape. His personable approach to training and testing have produced significant improvements to
those he has helped across multiple industries, bringing compelling IT solutions to the table.
Joseph is well-regarded with his experience in the the creation and deployment of security solutions protecting networks, systems, and information assets for diverse companies and organizations. He works in partnership with clients to implement security controls in pragmatic ways that deliver investment value and support business operations. Joseph also presents and provides security trainings at Nth Generation and has conducted numerous Security Training presentations for internal use at various companies.
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Nth Generation
Cameron Matthews | Sr. Security Consultant
Cameron Matthews is an accomplished technology and cybersecurity leader with over 32 years of experience. He specializes in the areas of threat intelligence exchange, rapid vulnerability notification, and situational security awareness across verticals including the U.S. Department of Defense, healthcare, e-commerce, telecommunications, transportation, education, and cybersecurity.
Cameron has proven business acumen gained from key positions in organizations ranging from ground floor Internet startups to multi-billion dollar organizations. Mr. Matthews’ vast knowledge of corporate security strategy, risk and threat management, corporate security culture, secure software, systems engineering, and systems integration empower him to be a key advisor for Nth Generation. His tenured portfolio of cutting-edge architected and managed security systems provide a competitive edge for clients.
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CISA
Joseph Oregón | Chief of Cybersecurity for CISA (Region 9)
Mr. Joseph Oregón is the Chief of Cybersecurity for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Region 9 which incorporates the states of CA, NV, AZ, HI, and the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, Saipan (CNMI). Mr. Oregón supports the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) mission of strengthening the security and resilience of the nation's critical infrastructure. His program coordinates cyber preparedness, risk mitigation, and incident response; and provides cyber security resources – including assessments and training – to the nation’s sixteen critical infrastructure sectors; state, local, tribal, and territorial government entities; and private sector stakeholders.
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FBI
Todd Munoz | FBI Special Agent
Special Agent Todd Munoz is assigned to the Los Angeles Cyber Division of the FBI, where he has investigated a variety of cyber crimes including computer intrusions, phishing, identity theft, violations of intellect property rights, and Internet fraud. Special Agent Munoz has worked on several successful international cyber investigations, including a six-month assignment working at Europol’s European Cyber Crime Center to address global cyber threats.
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Nth Generation
Todd Cope | IT Security Engineer
Todd Cope has an extensive background in IT architectures, operating systems, and networking, which gives him a huge advantage as a penetration tester. With a Master of Science in Cybersecurity Engineering, he brings a significant academic perspective to ethical hacking.
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Arctic Wolf
Christopher Fielder | Field CTO
Christopher Fielder has been in the cybersecurity world for over 22 years with experience from a range of military, government, and corporate environments. Christopher holds 18 industry certifications including the CISSP, GPEN, GISP, GCFE, GSEC, GCIH, CEH, and more; along with a Master’s Degree in Information Security. Today he is the Field CTO for Arctic Wolf where he enjoys researching emerging security trends and highlighting the expertise of the Arctic Wolf team.
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Fortinet
Pete Lujan | Director of Systems Engineering
Pete has been in the field of cybersecurity for over 25 years. He has held multiple positions, including: Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst, RED TEAM Operator, Defensive Cyber Operations Chief, and Information System Security Manager. For the past 7 years, he has worked with Fortinet as a Senior Security Systems Engineer holding specializations in various Threat Landscapes, and also serves as a mentor for the Fortinet Veterans Program. He is currently the Director of Systems Engineers for Southern California and Hawaii.
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Darktrace
Brianna Leddy | Director of Analysis
Based in San Francisco, Brianna is Director of Analysis at Darktrace. She joined the analyst team in 2016 and has since advised a wide range of enterprise customers on advanced threat hunting and leveraging Self-Learning AI for detection and response. Brianna works closely with the Darktrace SOC team to proactively alert customers to emerging threats and investigate unusual behavior in enterprise environments. Brianna holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.