Phil Burnett, EVP – Security Operations/CISO, High Wire Networks

Phil Burnett brings two decades of executive security experience and credentials to the Overwatch by High Wire Networks team. He is currently the Company’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). Most recently, he was CSO and director of IT Security at R1 RCM Inc. and a Security Operations Center (SOC) Manager at Sentinel Technologies.

Also, during his career he spent five years as HIPAA Chief Security Officer and DIACAP Information Assurance Officer for Delta Dental.

Burnett is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and a Certified Information Security Manager (CISM). He also has certifications in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC) and Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC) Security Essentials (GSEC).

Dr. Michael Chahino, CIO, Elgin Community College

Dr. Chahino has served as the Chief Information Officer at Elgin Community College (ECC) since May 2017. He is also an adjunct faculty member of ECC and taught in the areas of computer & information systems, economics, business, and management. Prior to working at ECC, Dr. Chahino worked in different capacities with DeVry University, the National University of Health Sciences, the Universal Technical Institute, and as a Research Economist at the Near East Bureau of the US State Department. 

Dr. Chahino earned a bachelor degree and a master degree in international economics from Illinois State University and has a doctorate degree in educational technology from Northern Illinois University. 

Daniel Charboneau, CISO and Solutions Engineer & Strategist, Anjuna

• 15+ Years in the Information Security
• Built 2 Information Security programs from the ground up. One for a Global Ediscovery Firm (Epiq Systems), one for a large financial organization (NovaStar)
• Handled APT Incidents
• Worked in the Customer, Channel and Vendor sides of the house focused on Information Security

Jay DeWitt, Sr. Director, vArmour

Jay DeWitt is a Sr. Director at vArmour and has worked in the technology and cybersecurity industry, here in the Chicagoland area, for 25 years. He has helped enterprise clients in the financial services, insurance, healthcare, internet and manufacturing industries realize business value by understanding their specific goals and challenges and partnering to introduce and implement technology that delivers that value. Having worked for Andersen Consulting (Accenture), Netscape, Shiva, F5, Websense, Demisto (Palo Alto), Symantec (Broadcom) and others Jay has witnessed the massive evolution of building and delivering always available and secure application infrastructure that runs today’s leading firms. He sees a lot of live music and can play guitar well enough to entertain crowds of 5 or less!

Laszlo Gonc, Founder, Next Era Transformation Group

Laszlo is a recognized senior executive with thirty years of progressive experience in business and information technology. He is responsible for helping organizations – corporate and nonprofit alike – navigate the digital frontier, advising clients on cybersecurity, IT risk mitigation, and building digital technology strategies that drive both performance and business value. He has experience across several industries, consulting for senior executives and boards, developing cybersecurity strategies, evaluating IT risk, and spearheading critical security and transformation projects for senior leadership including, but not limited to, healthcare, manufacturing, mining, legal, insurance, marketing, advertising and banking.

Patrick Kinard, Senior Server Enterprise Operations Manager, Chicago Public Schools

Patrick Kinard is a Senior Server Enterprise Operations Manager at the Chicago Public Schools. He has more than 30 years of information technology management experience in the private and public sectors.

Today, Patrick has a senior role in managing the data service centers for one of the world’s third-largest school districts. He is responsible for all central data center, cloud, and on premise school-based server operations.

Patrick’s previous experience is as an Associate Vice President at J.P Morgan Chase as the leader of the virtualization engineering group, managing technical staff and private cloud environments around the globe for five years. He also served as an engineering manager at HP directing teams that supported brands like General Motors, American Airlines, and BP.

Committed to service and developing others, Patrick has more than 20 years of experience as an information technology instructor supporting underrepresented groups, which is easily one of the highlights of his career. He operates as a mentor and coach to some of Chicago’s most promising information technology students, leaders, and entrepreneurs.

He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Southern Illinois University and has earned multiple information technology management certifications.

James Kleckner, Security Architect, CUMA Mutual Group

James Kleckner is the IT Security Architect for CUNA Mutual Group, a role he has served in since 2016. He brings nearly 20 years of security background to this position, including prior experience with secure application development, infrastructure design, and as a CISO managing government & department of defense (NIST 800-53/DIACAP), healthcare (HIPAA), and PCI (PCI-DSS) compliance initiatives.

At CUNA Mutual Group, James works to continually evolve a wide range of security capabilities spanning identity & access management, infrastructure & data protection, and threat & vulnerability management for on-premise, cloud-native, and hybrid systems. His focus is on enabling the creation of secure enterprise solutions that incorporate modern zero-trust (ZTNA) and secure access server edge (SASE) design principles in which he highlights the importance of identity and data-driven architecture in providing secure infrastructure and solution design.

James holds a bachelors of science degree in computer science from the University of Notre Dame and a masters of business administration degree from Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. He maintains numerous cloud, network, and security professional certifications and is as a member of the SANS Advisory Board.

Kishan Patel, Area Vice President – Central & East, Anjuna

Background in Bio-medical engineering, with a passion for reverse engineering problems. I’ve spent 10+ years in innovative & emerging technologies impacting engineering release cycles, helping DevOps teams drive efficiency, and the latter part of 5 years spent in all things data. Recently my focus has been on the blockchain, web 3.0, and metaverse technologies and their impacts over the next decade.

Annur Sumar, Chief Technology Officer, Cloud Unity

Annur Sumar is a Microsoft Cloud and Datacenter MVP and technology consultant in the areas of Infrastructure Design, Enterprise Content Management, CRM, Microsoft Azure, System Center and Cloud Technologies. Annur is an industry recognized leader and independent speaker around strategic service automation, technology driven process improvements, IT service alignment, engineering best practices and operations management. All of which are targeted in his presentations to helping businesses with complex IT environments lower Total Cost of Ownership and raising Return On Investments.

Prior to joining a Microsoft Partner Consulting firm, Annur served as a Vice President of Technology for Duff & Phelps. One of the world’s leading independent financial advisory firms serving client needs in the areas of valuation, investment banking, transaction advice, and dispute consulting. During his tenure at Duff & Phelps, Annur worked closely with Microsoft product teams and case study managers in providing invaluable feedback around how businesses such as his were able to benefit from cloud technologies that were molded into business solutions. As a Microsoft MVP and industry expert, Annur brings 10 years of experience to work actively with other MVPs and Microsoft Partners to provide industry insight and strategic direction.