Big Names in Information Security Named Finalists for EC-Council Foundation’s InfoSec Tech & Exec Awards Gala
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
ATLANTA, GA— September 06, 2016 — The finalists named by EC-Council Foundation for the Certified CISO (CCISO) of the Year, CISO of the Year, Innovative Security Project of the Year, Most Improved Security Program of the Year, Ethical Hacker of the Year, Penetration Tester of the Year, and Forensics Analyst of the year span many industries and specialties, but they all represent the best in their field. EC-Council Foundation is proud to support their mission of raising awareness of cyber safety issues for the global community while unifying global cyber defense by recognizing those individuals at the forefront of information security innovation and best practices. EC-Council Foundation is proud to announce the following professionals as finalists.
First, the CCISO of the Year Finalists include Richard Ryan II Hernandez, Information Security Officer at LafargeHolcim; Paul Horn, CISO at HD Vest Financial Services; Hung-Pin Hsieh, Senior Manager at Acer Inc.; Luis O. Noguerol, President & CEO at Advanced Division of Informatics & Technology, Inc.; and Niran Seriki, Senior Cyber Security Consultant for EU Institutions. These high level professionals all carry the EC-Council designation of Certified CISO and were partly chosen for their contribution to the CCISO community, as well as to the information security professional at large.
The next category of finalists is the CISO of the Year. Finalists include Syed Azher, CISO at Impact Group; Medha Bhalodkar, CISO at Columbia University; Pavankumar Bolisetty, Global Head – Information Security at Wave Crest Holdings Ltd.; Jared Carstensen, Chief Information Security Officer at CRH plc.; Kok Kee Chaiw, Vice President, IT Security & Assurance IT Security & Assurance at MEASAT Broadcast Network Systems Sdn Bhd (ASTRO TV Malaysia); Bobby Dominguez, Chief Strategy & Security Officer at Lynx Technology Partners, Inc.; Youssef Elmalty, Head of Cyber Security at IBM; Aizuddin Mohd Ghazali, Group IT, Head, Risk & Security Management at Sime Darby Holdings Bhd; Amit Ghodekar, Vice President, CISO at Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd; Marvin Marin, Cyber Security Program Manager & Technical Advisor at NetCentrics; Michael Molinaro, CISO & VP at BioReference Laboratories, Inc., JR Reagon, former Global CISO at Deloitte; and Eric Svetcov, AVP, Information Security & CSO at MedeAnalytics. Nominations for these accomplished professionals highlighted their leadership and innovation as they worked to secure their organizations’ amid a constantly changing landscape of threats.
Next are the finalists for the Innovative Security Project of the Year. This award is intended to recognize a project that showed a high level of difficulty while using innovative methods or solutions to support the business goals of its organization. The finalists include Chen Heffer, Cyber Security Officer and his team at the Douglas County Government; Dan Nagle, Senior Software Engineer at Harman Professional Solutions; and Niran Seriki, Senior Cyber Security Consultant at EU Institutions.
The Most Improved Security Program of the Year is an exciting category because it specifically awards the difference strong leadership can make in securing an organization when proper frameworks, policies, and governance are put in place. The finalists for this award are Chad Cottle, Chief Information Security Officer and his team at City of Lexington, KY; Juan Gomez-Sanchez, Chief Security Officer at Lennar Corporation; Brenda McAnderson, Chief System Sustainment at System Sustainment, National Cybersecurity Protection System (NCPS), Network Security Deployment (NSD), Office of Cybersecurity and Communications (CS&C), U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS); Paul Medici, Director at Fidelity; and Preston Werntz, Chief, Technology Services Division at U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Cybersecurity and Communications.
Next are the technical awards finalists. This is the first year EC-Council Foundation is awarding these categories. First, the Ethical Hacker of the Year, resonates with EC-Council Foundation’s mission of global cyber security by highlighting the role that ethical hackers have in finding and addressing the weaknesses in the world’s cyber infrastructure. The finalists are Marc Rogers Information Security & IT Expert at CloudFlare, Ankur Chandrakant, Cyber Security & Forensics Expert at Cyber Radix Academy for Future Technology; Zechariah Akinpelu, Team Lead, Application and Database Security Control at Fidelity Bank PLC; Christopher Chavez, Cyber Security Consultant at Avyara Information Systems; and Ali Tabish, Sr. Information Security Analyst at Moon International Pak Pvt Ltd.
The Penetration Tester of the Year recognizes the penetration tester professional who best embodies the principles of penetration testing by contributing to the industry and the positive view of information security professionals. The finalists are Bassem Helmy, Senior Security Consultant at Deloitte Middle East; Bastien Treptel, Director at Ctrl IT Pty Ltd; Srinivasan Subramaniam Muthukondapuram of Consulting Private Limited, Jonathan Paz Gamer & Black Box Pen Tester at RootByte; and Shitesh Sachan, Sr. Lead Application Security at hCentive.
The Forensics Analyst of the Year recognizes the professional who has shown exemplary work in forensics through innovation and meticulous performance of his or her duties. The finalists are Andrew Case, Director of Research at Volexity; Ahmed Fawzy, Information Security Manager at Raya Contact Center; Muhammad Nuh Al-Azhar, Superintendent Police – Chief of Computer Forensic Lab. at Indonesian Police Forensic Laboratory Centre; Manish Aggarwal, Netowrk Security Analyst at Total IT Solutions Education Organization; and Yamikani Gogo Wilfred Hauya, Systems Support Officer at Malawi Revenue Authority.
The InfoSec Tech & Exec Gala precedes both Hacker Halted, EC-Council Foundation’s largest annual cybersecurity conference, and the Global CISO Forum, the Foundation’s premier executive-level event. Tickets are still available for both events.
About EC-Council Foundation
EC-Council Foundation is a charitable and educational organization dedicated to educating and training individuals in security skills. Established in 2012 by EC-Council, the foundation seeks to raise awareness, build capacity across nations and ultimately promote global peace. EC-Council Foundation’s mission is to foster collaboration and participation by global digital citizens to become advocates for safe, secure online activities and to foster online child protection through education. For more information, visit foundation.eccouncil.org.
About the National Technology Security Coalition (NTSC)
The National Technology Security Coalition (NTSC) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that will drive the national dialogue on technology security in the United States. The mission of NTSC is to effectively forge a coalition of information security stakeholders to help reverse the accelerating pace of disruption to our nation’s information systems.