Mr. Azad is an experienced Vice President Information Security with a demonstrated history of working in the banking industry. He is a strong information technology professional with a Masters in Institutional Banking and Finance focused in Banking, Corporate Finance, and Securities Law from University of Wollongong; Dubai.

Chuck Brooks is a globally recognized thought leader and evangelist for Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies. LinkedIn named him as one of “The Top 5 Tech Experts to Follow on LinkedIn.” Chuck was named as a 2020 top leader and influencer in “Who’s Who in Cybersecurity” by Onalytica. He was named by Thompson Reuters as a “Top 50 Global Influencer in Risk, Compliance,” and by IFSEC as the “#2 Global Cybersecurity Influencer.” He is a two-time Presidential appointee who was an original member of the Department of Homeland Security. Chuck has been a featured speaker at numerous conferences and events including presenting before the G20 country meeting on energy cybersecurity.

He is also a Cybersecurity Expert for “The Network” at the Washington Post, Visiting Editor at Homeland Security Today, and a Contributor to FORBES. He has also been featured speaker, author on technology and cybersecurity topics by IBM, AT&T, Microsoft, General Dynamics, Xerox, Checkpoint, Blackberry/Cylance, Malawarebytes, and many others.

In academia, Chuck is Adjunct Faculty at Georgetown University’s Applied Intelligence Program and graduate Cybersecurity Programs where he teaches courses on risk management, homeland security, and cybersecurity.  He was an Adjunct Faculty Member at Johns Hopkins University where he taught a graduate course on homeland security for two years.   He has an MA in International relations from the University of Chicago, a BA in Political Science from DePauw University, and a Certificate in International Law from The Hague Academy of International Law. 

In industry, Chuck has served in senior executive roles for General Dynamics as the Principal Market Growth Strategist for Cyber Systems, at Xerox as Vice President & Client Executive for Homeland Security, for Rapiscan and Vice President of R & D, for SRA as Vice President of Government Relations, and for Sutherland as Vice President of Marketing and Government Relations.

Wael Qahoush is the Head of Compliance and BSA Officer at FAB USA.  His primary role is to oversee the Compliance function of the Branch from a regulatory and financial crimes perspective. This includes managing, developing, implementing and administering all aspects of the Bank Secrecy Act Compliance Program.  He also acts in an advisory role on a number of regulatory matters facing the bank and ensures that the branch staff receive the appropriate training and awareness as it relates to regulatory requirements and financial crime.

Wael has over 24 years of banking experience. He spent 9 years in various roles as a Senior Relationship Manager, Vice President – Wholesale Banking in the Internal Audit Division, and most recently as the Head of Compliance for Wholesale Banking and International, with NBAD UAE.   Prior to that, Wael held several positions with GE Capital and Wells Fargo Bank and Fremont Investment and Loan in the Default Management and Risk Management areas.

Wael holds a B.S. degree in Business Administration from California Baptist University and a Masters of Arts degree in International Affairs from California State University, Sacramento, CA.  Wael also holds an International Certificate in Banking Risk & Regulation from the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) and is ACAMS certified.

Ramy Houssaini is the Global Chief Cyber and Technology Risk Officer and Group Data Protection Officer for BNP Paribas. He is a member of the firm’s RISK Executive Board. He is an internationally recognized executive with a unique background in Cyber Security, Data Privacy, Operational Risk Management and Technology. He has extensive global experience in the Financial Services, Consumers Goods, Telecom and Healthcare industries.
Prior to his current role, Ramy served as the Vice President of British Telecom in Europe, the Regional head of the Cyber Practice for Accenture and as the Vice President for Global Risk Management at Visa Inc. He is an active member of several industry boards and forums with a focus on Operational Resilience, Data Privacy and Cyber Security. Ramy is a member of the G7 Cyber Security workgroup and also serves on the Risk and Compliance Committee of the Board of a California based healthcare company and the advisory board of several startups focusing on optimizing operational risks.

Dr. Ozkaya is a technically sophisticated executive leader with solid education and strong business acumen. Over the course of his progressive career, he has developed a keen aptitude for facilitating integration of standard operating procedures that ensure optimal functionality of all technical functions and systems.

As a proactive communicator, trusted partner, and skilled analyst, Erdal has a  highly adept at building dynamic teams that work together to expedite operational goals, priorities, and objectives. As a result, he is poised to conduct reviews and investigations with prompt efficiency and provide thorough and informative reports to both internal and external stakeholders.

Erdal is passionate about reaching communities, creating cyber aware campaigns, leveraging new and innovative approaches and technologies to holistically address the information security and privacy needs for every person and organization in the world.

He has authored many cybersecurity books as well as security certification course-ware and exams for different vendors.

Andrew Beckett is a managing director and EMEA leader for Kroll's Cyber Risk Practice. Andrew began his career at GCHQ where he held a variety of roles including head of the branch responsible for providing cyber security advice to government departments and penetration testing.  He also served in the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). This is an International Civil Service organization operating under the auspices of the UN where Andrew was the first head of the Office of Confidentiality and Security and charged with setting up this team.

Andrew went on to run his own commercial consultancies before joining Airbus Defense and Space in the UK as the head of Cyber Defense, a role he filled for five years before joining Kroll. Andrew is a visiting professor of Cyber Security at the University of South Wales.

Sidhu leads the Information and Cyber Security Services Group at Wells Fargo Enterprise Global Services (WFEGS) reporting in to the Global Chief Information Security Officer.

Sidhu joined Wells Fargo in 2014. He reported to the Chief Compliance Officer for 18 months and helped build and lead the Regulatory Compliance services organization. He holds multiple certifications in IT Risk Management and IT Governance.

Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Sidhu served as “Risk Management Fellow (Banking and Securities)” at Deloitte US. As Regional Leader of the Finance Risk Transformation Services practice of the firm, Sidhu led global M&A projects in the financial services sector.

Sidhu is a regular keynote speaker and panel member on cyber security, innovation and financial services matters in India and abroad. He has been invited by global media organizations like The Economist, Economic Times, Financial Times, Information Security Media Group, Indian agencies like ASSOCHAM, FICCI, and premier educational Institutions like the IIMs and ISB for his expertise in the industry. Sidhu was awarded Editor’s Choice CISO of the year in 2018.

Wael Qahoush is the Head of Compliance and BSA Officer at FAB USA.  His primary role is to oversee the Compliance function of the Branch from a regulatory and financial crimes perspective. This includes managing, developing, implementing and administering all aspects of the Bank Secrecy Act Compliance Program.  He also acts in an advisory role on a number of regulatory matters facing the bank and ensures that the branch staff receive the appropriate training and awareness as it relates to regulatory requirements and financial crime.

Wael has over 24 years of banking experience. He spent 9 years in various roles as a Senior Relationship Manager, Vice President – Wholesale Banking in the Internal Audit Division, and most recently as the Head of Compliance for Wholesale Banking and International, with NBAD UAE.   Prior to that, Wael held several positions with GE Capital and Wells Fargo Bank and Fremont Investment and Loan in the Default Management and Risk Management areas.

Wael holds a B.S. degree in Business Administration from California Baptist University and a Masters of Arts degree in International Affairs from California State University, Sacramento, CA.  Wael also holds an International Certificate in Banking Risk & Regulation from the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) and is ACAMS certified.

Carmen has been practicing law in Hong Kong for over 15 years, during which she has worked in both the private and public sectors, including the government and the Law Society.

Carmen’s skills as a litigator led to a call from the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, and in 2010, she was appointed Legal Counsel with responsibility for providing legal advice on personal data protection issues arising from complaints or compliance checks. She also advised government organisations on data privacy issues, vetted proposed legislations, and handled appeal cases on the Privacy Commissioner’s behalf.

She expanded her legal expertise further in 2012 when she became Investigation Counsel for the Law Society of Hong Kong, leading probes into alleged professional misconduct cases for the Compliance Department. The role also included leading inspection and intervention exercises and assisting prosecutors in running disciplinary proceedings.

After five years as regulatory counsel, in 2017 Carmen returned to private practice as a Senior Associate – then Partner – in both Dispute Resolution and Data Privacy.

Carmen is a CEDR accredited Mediator and a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). She has recently been credited as Certified Information Privacy Professional / Asia (CIPP/A) and Certified Information Privacy Professional / Europe (CIPP/E). On 5 October 2020 she has been appointed as a Practising Solicitor Member of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal Panel.

Silvan Jongerius is the Managing Partner and Founder of TechGDPR and has led numerous data protection and security efforts in his previous roles as CTO and divisional CIO for multinational media educators.

He is a frequent speaker, consultant, and educator in GDPR, blockchain, innovation and technology and has been involved in many (technology) startup projects as founder, advisor, or mentor. In addition he is the founder and president of BerChain e.V., a non-profit promoting Blockchain in Berlin.

Silvan has over 13 years of senior leadership experience as country manager, managing director and CTO/CIO in corporate and startup environments and is a PRINCE2, NLP and ITIL v3 practitioner.

Silvan is the Managing Partner of TechGDPR and as such is consulting on many key projects. He acts as designated DPO for TechGDPR's customers.

Luna is a Partner and Data Protection Officer at KARM Legal Consultants, practicing in the specialised fields of Cyber, Information Security and Threat Intelligence; Policy, Regulation & Governance; Data Protection & Privacy laws of several global jurisdictions; Fintech, Insuretech & Business Development.

Luna previously practiced in South Africa as a Senior Attorney and Co-Director of a law firm. She is a member of the Legal Practice Council of South Africa and retains her Right of Appearance before the Superior Courts of South Africa.

Luna has in depth knowledge in matters relating to Cyber, Information Security and Threat Intelligence; Data Protection and Privacy - actively practising in these fields. As part of Luna’s efforts as a thought leader in advocating and stimulating awareness, boosting education and facilitating the necessary interaction and communications of industry leaders and players in these fields, she is a participant co-host of a Threat Day Workshop - the first of its kind in the MENA region and Luna’s aim is to assist in hosting an event such as this each year, in various global localities.

Luna further practices as a trainer in an array of courses and workshops, together with esteemed colleagues of the KARM Legal Consultants Practice and necessary technical experts - each such course appropriately designed and tailored for various audiences.  

Mr. Pillairkulam is the EVP Group CISO at First Abu Dhabi Bank.

He has 29 years of experience in the Financial sector, and 19 years of experience in information security and security systems auditing.

Mr. Pillairkulam is responsible for aligning information security to the bank’s core business functions.

Mr. Cass is Vice President of Cyber & IT Risk within Supervision for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Supervision Group. Previous roles include CISO & Global Partner of Cloud Security Services at IBM, SVP & CISO for Elsevier, Vice President of Risk Management for JPMorgan Chase, and other senior roles.

David has extensive experience in cyber security, risk management, regulatory compliance, business continuity, disaster recovery, cloud and blockchain transformation for financial services.

David is a member of the editorial board for The Journal of Law & Cyber Warfare and serves as a board,

Faculty member for the Global Cyber Institute and an adjunct Rutgers Law School, and member for the UCLA Extension Silicon Beach Innovation Lab.

He holds MSE from the University of Pennsylvania, and a MBA from MIT.

Paul has over 30 years of experience leading the delivery of some of the most demanding national security programmes in the UK, operating at the very highest levels of government.

 As a result, he is uniquely qualified to understand the evolving threat environment, as well as having an exceptional track record of driving and delivering change in complex organisations. Paul’s contribution to the world of science & technology was recognised by his election as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2013, where he now chairs the SME Leaders’ programme and sits on the Engineering Policy, Enterprise, and Audit Committees.  Paul also sits on the Advisory Board of the Imperial College Institute of Security Science and Technology, and the Advisory Board of the Strathclyde University Security & Resilience Centre. 

In 2020 Paul was appointed as a Non-Executive Director for Morgan Stanley International, where he sits on the Audit, Risk, Nominations, and Remunerations Committees.

Paul is also a member of the Technology Advisory Board for NatWest Bank.

In addition, Paul serves as a Non-Executive Director in the Ministry of Defence, and as a scientific adviser to three small government departments. 

For 6 years Paul was a Partner in KPMG, where he was the Head of the UK Financial Services Cyber Security Practice.   

Before consulting, Paul spent over 25 years in the UK public sector working for the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence, on matters of research and development, defence equipment, nuclear deterrence, chemical and biological defence, information technology and information security.   

Paul has over 30 years of experience leading the delivery of some of the most demanding national security programmes in the UK, operating at the very highest levels of government.

 As a result, he is uniquely qualified to understand the evolving threat environment, as well as having an exceptional track record of driving and delivering change in complex organisations. Paul’s contribution to the world of science & technology was recognised by his election as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2013, where he now chairs the SME Leaders’ programme and sits on the Engineering Policy, Enterprise, and Audit Committees.  Paul also sits on the Advisory Board of the Imperial College Institute of Security Science and Technology, and the Advisory Board of the Strathclyde University Security & Resilience Centre. 

In 2020 Paul was appointed as a Non-Executive Director for Morgan Stanley International, where he sits on the Audit, Risk, Nominations, and Remunerations Committees.

Paul is also a member of the Technology Advisory Board for NatWest Bank.

In addition, Paul serves as a Non-Executive Director in the Ministry of Defence, and as a scientific adviser to three small government departments. 

For 6 years Paul was a Partner in KPMG, where he was the Head of the UK Financial Services Cyber Security Practice.   

Before consulting, Paul spent over 25 years in the UK public sector working for the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence, on matters of research and development, defence equipment, nuclear deterrence, chemical and biological defence, information technology and information security.   

Teresa Walsh is the Global Head of Intelligence for the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC), an international membership organization for regulated financial firms.

Teresa oversees the information sharing operations, including the daily alerting and indicator feed, and the finished intelligence analysis production for FS-ISAC’s 7,000 members.

Prior to working at FS-ISAC, Teresa worked for Citibank and JP Morgan Chase in threat intelligence analysis for over six years collectively, operating mostly in Europe. She began her training in intelligence analysis with the US Department of Defense, working as a civilian in the Navy and then a contractor with the Army.

Adrian Nish is the head of Cyber Technical Services at BAE Systems’ Applied Intelligence business unit. His team investigates and tracks high-end cyber threat activity for corporate and government customers around the world.

Nish is a renowned expert on nation-state threats to the financial system, with firsthand experience investigating cases of complex intrusions and manipulation of payment systems.

He is an associate fellow at the London-based think tank Royal United Services Institute and holds a PhD in physics from the University of Oxford.

Harri Sylvander is Senior Consulting Manager in Mandiant’s Dubai office. His areas of expertise include incident coordination and response, network traffic analysis, digital forensics, and CSIRT operations.

He has vast experience of incident response engagements and forensic investigations across industry verticals, including government, telecommunications, oil and gas, high tech, manufacturing, media, transportation, education, and finance, as well as helping these organizations enhance their response readiness through proactive assessments of their current capabilities. He is also one of Mandiant’s Enterprise Incident Response training instructors and has delivered the training on several occasions to incident responders in the Middle East.

Ben Balthazar is a Fraud Consultant at OneSpan helping financial institutions across Europe, Middle East and Asia defend against financial cybercrime. Ben started his career with OneSpan in 2014 as a Technical Account Manager. Thanks to his technical background he has a comprehensive understanding of fraud and risk management and easily translates this into business purposes.

Chris graduated from the University of Warwick with a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science. He holds certifications in Project Management and Information Security. Chris has 18 years of experience working in multinational companies in IT, compliance and security related areas.

From 2003-2010 Chris worked at a leading multinational Energy company across various areas of IT, Projects and compliance. Since 2010 Chris has worked in Financial Services, firstly in IT Risk and latterly as a Chief Information Security Officer with global responsibilities, based in Zurich, Switzerland.

Chris has worked in several industry and regulatory engagement groups to help support initiatives that make companies, society and their stakeholders, safer and more secure.

Paul has over 30 years of experience leading the delivery of some of the most demanding national security programmes in the UK, operating at the very highest levels of government.

 As a result, he is uniquely qualified to understand the evolving threat environment, as well as having an exceptional track record of driving and delivering change in complex organisations. Paul’s contribution to the world of science & technology was recognised by his election as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2013, where he now chairs the SME Leaders’ programme and sits on the Engineering Policy, Enterprise, and Audit Committees.  Paul also sits on the Advisory Board of the Imperial College Institute of Security Science and Technology, and the Advisory Board of the Strathclyde University Security & Resilience Centre. 

In 2020 Paul was appointed as a Non-Executive Director for Morgan Stanley International, where he sits on the Audit, Risk, Nominations, and Remunerations Committees.

Paul is also a member of the Technology Advisory Board for NatWest Bank.

In addition, Paul serves as a Non-Executive Director in the Ministry of Defence, and as a scientific adviser to three small government departments. 

For 6 years Paul was a Partner in KPMG, where he was the Head of the UK Financial Services Cyber Security Practice.   

Before consulting, Paul spent over 25 years in the UK public sector working for the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence, on matters of research and development, defence equipment, nuclear deterrence, chemical and biological defence, information technology and information security.   

Bahi is the Director of Solution Engineers – META region at Attivo Networks, the leader in the Cyber Deception space working to deceive, detect, and defend enterprises from cyber-attacks.

Mr. Hour comes with more than 15 years of extensive experience is cyber security solutions architecture, design and implementation focusing on Intrusion Detection and Prevention, Vulnerability Management, Internal Threat Detection and Incident Response.

Previously, Mr. Hour worked as the Technical Director for Exclusive Networks covering the Middle East region. For more than 8 years, Mr. Hour had been leading a large team of cyber security consultants across different functions including consultancy, professional services and security certification training. He is also holding a master’s degree of Science in Computer and Information Engineering in addition various cyber security technology certifications.

Roly Stride is the Sales Director EMEA and Vice President of Sales at Darktrace, the world’s leading AI company for cyber defense. Roly advises many companies from a variety of industries on the use of artificial intelligence for their cyber defense strategy, including financial services, manufacturing and retail.

Michael Byrnes is the Director, Solutions Engineer MEIA for BeyondTrust. He has acquired a wealth of cyber security experience in a number of engagements over the last 10 years with a diverse set of enterprise across the Middle East.

Roland Daccache is a cybersecurity expert with over 12 years in the field.

Currently the Sales Engineering Team Leader at CrowdStrike META, Roland is a team builder of cybersecurity experts, and has run multiple large-scale projects including two major Security Operations Centers in the GCC.

Roland is an expert in digital forensics, threat hunting, and incident response, with expertise in solution architecture, EDR, NGFW, NGIPS, SIEM, and threat intelligence.

Roland regularly delivers keynotes and publishes articles in the regional cybersecurity e-outlets.