SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Dishant Bulsara, Cloud Security Architect, (Financial Services Company)

Dishant Bulsara is a skilled Cloud Security Architect based in Chicago, Illinois and has earned a Bachelor’s degree in Operations Management & Information Systems from Northern Illinois University. His expertise encompasses incident response, security operations and security engineering, bolstered by previous roles in IT support and sales. Dedicated to advancing cloud security measures, Dishant’s diverse skill set and commitment to excellence mark his contributions to the field.

Mitch Christian, CISO, Synergy Global Housing

I was born and raised on a small farm in Wisconsin. I owned my own business at the age of 19. In the early 90’s I went to work for Kimberly Clark as an Electrical Engineering Tech building out Diaper Machines and switched profession into IT starting out as a PC maintenance tech at Kimberly Clark working my way to overseeing the NOC for the corporation. I moved to a position with Grant Thornton starting out as a local IT manager and worked my way to National Director of IT.

In 2008 I started my own company doing Cyber Security Consulting for small businesses and landed John Deere and Jimmy Johns as major clients doing compliance work and hardening systems. In 2016 I started for American Hotel Register as Global IT Security Lead and built out a global security program from scratch. In 2019 I went to work for Kivu Consulting as Director of Cyber Investigations leading more than 100 investigations and remediations of Ransomware incidents and litigation cases.

Currently I am Global IT Security Director for Synergy Global Housing and CISO for Alpha Recon (a startup company making an app for Risk Management). I have a degree in Automated Manufacturing and one in Business Technical Management. I currently hold a CISSP and CISM. My family and I reside in Wisconsin and I am an active member of Infragard.

Cordell Crane, Director, NPO USA

Cordell Crane has been in the Chicago area for the last 25 years. He background went from Finance to IT very quickly and has stayed close to the business value of IT throughout his career. He is Enterprise Architecture trained with Accenture. His varied background includes customer service, systems engineering, sales and management consulting. He has worked for AT&T, Unisys, Microsoft, Accenture/Avanade, Dell and IBM. He lives with his family of 9 in the NW Suburbs of Chicago. 

Dan Hanson, Security Architect, RedMane Technology

Dan is a cyber security expert with 23 years experience designing, architecting, and implementing security solutions for organizations large and small. He has broad and deep expertise in all control areas, with over 10 years specifically in Identity and Access Management, and most recently deep experience in cloud security. Dan is a graduate of Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois.

Chris Peluso, Head of Libraesva, Americas

Chris Peluso has been a leader in email security and networking for over 20 years, leading sales and sales engineering teams around the globe. He has been instrumental in launching Libraesva in the United States, overseeing all aspects of operations, sales and marketing. Prior to Libraesva, Peluso held Director roles at Kerio Technologies in the United States and the UK, as well as GFI and Flowmon while living in Germany. Since returning to the US in 2022, he’s built a loyal partner channel and customer base of mid-sized enterprises across the manufacturing, finance, retail, biotech, government and education sectors.

John Pollack, Technical Consultant, Gigamon

John Pollack is a seasoned IT professional with over 40 year’s experience in networking, security and cloud operations. He has spent the last 12 years with Gigamon designing customer visibility solutions for on-premises, virtual, and hybrid cloud environments.

Mike Shishman, VP Alliances and Partners, Xalient

Mike is Vice President of the Americas responsible for delivering solutions to Xalient’s existing clients, adding new clients, and building out a team to support the company’s expansion efforts in the Americas to meet the growing regional demand.

Mike has more than 20 years of global business management experience gained in senior technology roles at Avaya, Tierpoint, Eltek and NaviSite.

Brian Smith, CTO & Co-Founder, Spyderbat

Brian Smith is a 20-year veteran and entrepreneur in cyber security. He cofounded TippingPoint Technologies, inventors of the first IPS, (acquired by 3Com) and Click Security (acquired by Alert Logic). Prior to TippingPoint, Brian received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley, and was the Xerox Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University. He holds 12 patents and is a fellow of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.