TEC Summit

TEC Summit: Technology & Society after the Pandemic

The 3rd Annual CNBC Technology Executive Council Summit will be held on Wednesday, November 17, 2021 in New York, NY. The TEC Summit is CNBC’s flagship technology conference, and as our annual year-end member convening, an opportunity for top CIOs, CISOs, and CTOs to come together to hear from and dialogue with marquee speakers and industry experts, meet CNBC journalists, and spend quality time with fellow TEC member executives. Programming and discussions are designed to be thought-provoking, timely, and interactive, covering critical issues including digital transformation, developing tech talent pipelines, cybersecurity, and more. The half-day summit will begin with lunch at noon, followed by an afternoon of programming with ample networking time, then cocktails and dinner.

Health and safety is our top priority. CNBC, in collaboration with the NBCUniversal Environmental Health and Safety teams, has developed a robust plan to ensure this event is informative, engaging, comfortable and safe. This plan is currently available to all TEC members.

Spaces are limited, so we ask that members RSVP as soon as possible to reserve their space. To learn more and apply for the TEC, visit www.cnbccouncils.com/tec.

MORE ABOUT TEC

TEC is the premiere council of technology executives assembled exclusively by CNBC. Now in its third year, this CNBC editorial initiative presents an ongoing discussion focused on how companies employ breakthrough technologies to solve problems and power growth, designed to capture the collaborative spirit of successful organizations and surface best practices of transformative organizations. From corporations — public and private — to nonprofits and government entities, the CNBC Technology Executive Council comprises top tech executives who are transforming organizations by leveraging innovation and disruption.

Summit audience includes TEC members – CIOs, CTOs, CISOs, Chief Product Officers, Chief Digital Officers, and other senior technology executives – across a wide range of industries and companies. The membership also consists of technology stakeholders in the government and nonprofit sectors, academics, business leaders, and technology influencers.

The TEC Summit is an exclusive event for members; learn more about the TEC and apply for membership at www.cnbccouncils.com/tec.

Read more from our TEC special report on cnbc.com.

Speakers

Gerald Chertavian

Gerald Chertavian is dedicated to closing the Opportunity Divide that exists in our nation. Determined to make this vision a reality, Gerald combined his entrepreneurial skills and his passion for working with young adults to found Year Up in 2000. With its annual operating budget in excess of $170M, Year Up is one of the fastest growing non-profits in the nation. It has been recognized by Fast Company and The Monitor Group as one of the top 25 organizations using business excellence to engineer social change. Year Up has also been recognized consistently as one of the nation's top 50 non-profits to work for by the Non-Profit Times.

Gerald has been committed to working with under-served young adults for more than three decades. He has actively participated in the Big Brother mentoring program since 1985 and was recognized as one of New York's outstanding Big Brothers in 1989. In 2006, Gerald was elected as a Fellow with the Ashoka Global Fellowship of social entrepreneurs, and in 2008, he was appointed by then-Governor of Massachusetts Deval Patrick to serve on the Massachusetts State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. In 2013, he was appointed by Governor Patrick to serve as Chairman of the Roxbury Community College Board of Trustees and reappointed to that role by Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker in 2016.

Gerald began his career on Wall Street as an officer of the Chemical Banking Corporation. Following graduate school, he co-founded Conduit Communications and fostered its growth to more than $20M in annual revenues. From 1993 to 1998, Conduit ranked as one of the United Kingdom's fastest growing companies. Following the sale of Conduit to i-Cube in 1999, Gerald turned his full attention to creating opportunities for others.

Gerald earned a B.A. in Economics, Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude, from Bowdoin College and in 2017 he was awarded the Bowdoin Common Good Award. He received his M.B.A., with honors, from Harvard Business School and in 2014 received the Distinguished Alumni Award. He has received honorary doctorates from the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology and Mount Ida College. He serves on the Board of Advisors for the Harvard Business School's Social Enterprise Initiative and is a former member of the World Economic Forum's Youth Unemployment Council. Gerald is also an Emeritus Trustee of Bowdoin College and the Boston Foundation. His 2012 book, A Year Up, is a New York Times best seller.

Gerald is an avid writer and often shares his personal reflections on current events on his website. Read his latest pieces and get in contact at GeraldChertavian.com.

Anil Dash

Anil Dash is the CEO of Glitch, a friendly developer community where coders have collaborated to create and share millions of web apps. He is recognized as a leading advocate for more humane, inclusive and ethical technology through his work as an entrepreneur, activist and writer.

He serves as a board member for organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the leading nonprofit defending digital privacy and expression, Data & Society Research Institute, which researches the cutting edge of tech’s impact on society, and the Lower East Side Girls Club, which serves girls and families in need in New York City. Dash was an advisor to the Obama White House’s Office of Digital Strategy, served for a decade on the board of Stack Overflow, the world’s largest community for coders, and today advises key startups and nonprofits including Medium, The Human Utility, DonorsChoose and Project Include.

As a writer and artist, Dash has been a contributing editor and monthly columnist for Wired, written for publications like The Atlantic and Businessweek, co-created one of the first implementations of the blockchain technology now known as NFTs, had his works exhibited in the New Museum of Contemporary Art, and collaborated with Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda on one of the most popular Spotify playlists of 2018. Described by the New Yorker as a “blogging pioneer”, his Webby-recognized personal website has been cited in sources ranging from the New York Times to the BBC to TMZ, and in hundreds of academic papers. Dash has also been a keynote speaker and guest in a broad range of media ranging from the Obama Foundation Summit to SXSW to Desus and Mero’s late-night show.

Cherif Gamra

Cherif Gamra is COO of TechNext Inc. After completing his Bachelor of Science at the University of California Berkeley, he worked as an Analyst, Associate and Vice President in Investment Banking in Paris, London and New York with Montety & Feral, Citigroup and Macquarie Capital. Cherif worked on sell-side and buy-side transactions, debt and equity raises and IPOs for a variety of companies. Before joining TechNext, Cherif worked in Private Equity in Shanghai on restructurings and mergers before transitioning to a SaaS Company in New York as Director of Strategy & Financial Planning directly reporting to the Board of Directors and the CEO.

Jared Isaacman

Jared Isaacman is the founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, the leader in integrated payment processing solutions. He is an accomplished pilot rated to fly commercial and military aircraft and is commanding Inspiration4, the world’s first all-civilian mission to space, scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2021. Named Inspiration4 in recognition of the four-person crew’s mission to inspire support for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® and send a humanitarian message of possibility, the journey represents a new era for human spaceflight and exploration. Information on the mission and how to participate can be found on the mission website at inspiration4.com. Shift4 provides technology solutions for more than 200,000 businesses and has over a dozen offices across the U.S. and Europe and more than 7,000 partners, securely processing over $200 billion in annual payments volume. Isaacman startedthecompanyin1999 from the basement of his family’s house when he was 16 years old and has built it into an industry-leading payments technology company with over1,500employees. Over the past few years, Isaacman has orchestrated several billion dollars’ worth of strategic transactions, including the acquisition of 3dcart in late 2020 and its relaunch as Shift4Shop, resulting in the dramatic growth of the organization. In 2020, Shift4 Payments became a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock ticker symbol FOUR. In 2011, Isaacman co-founded Draken International, which provides tactical aviation services for all branches of the U.S.Military, Department of Defense and global allied militaries. With a fleet of 150 tactical fighter aircraft, Draken owns and operates the world’s largest commercial fleet of ex-military aircraft to support military training objectives around the globe. Isaacman sold the company in 2019 to The Blackstone Group and remained CEO until early 2020.Isaacman holds several world records, including a Speed-Around-The-World flight to raise money and awareness for the Make-a-Wish Foundation. He has flown in over 100 airshows as part of the Black Diamond Jet Team, dedicating every performance to charitable causes. He and his companies are dedicated to supporting a range of charities. As part of Inspiration4’s public outreach, Isaacman made a personal $100 million commitment to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® in order to raise upward of $200 million to support the non-profit.

Christopher L. Magee

Co-founder and CEO, TechNext Inc. Christopher L. Magee is Professor, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Co-Director, International Design Centre, Singapore University of Technology & Design. He has more than 35 years of experience at Ford Motor Company beginning in the Scientific Research Laboratory and progressing through a series of management positions to Executive Director of Programs and Advanced Engineering. Prof. Magee is currently engaged in research on technological progress with emphasis on quantification and prediction. His interests in engineering education have focused on creativity, design and socio-technical systems; he has co-published two books and about 100 publications. Prof. Magee is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of ASM and SAE and a participant on major National Research Council Studies. Prof. Magee received his B.S. and PhD from Carnegie-Mellon University in that city. He later received an MBA from Michigan State University.

Kevin Mandia

Kevin Mandia is CEO of Mandiant, Inc.

Leon E. Panetta

Leon Edward Panetta served as the 23rd Secretary of Defense from July 2011 to February 2013.

Before joining the Department of Defense, Mr. Panetta served as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from February 2009 to June 2011. Mr. Panetta led the agency and managed human intelligence and open source collection programs on behalf of the intelligence community.

Secretary Panetta has dedicated much of his life to public service. Before joining CIA, he spent 10 years co-directing with his wife, Sylvia, the Leon & Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy, based at California State University, Monterey Bay. The Institute is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit center that seeks to instill in young men and women the virtues and values of public service. In March 2006, he was chosen as a member of the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan committee established at the urging of Congress to conduct an independent assessment of the war in Iraq.

From July 1994 to January 1997, Mr. Panetta served as Chief of Staff to President William Clinton. Prior to that, he was Director of the Office of Management and Budget, a position that built on his years of work on the House Budget Committee. Mr. Panetta represented California’s 16th (now 17th) Congressional District from 1977 to 1993, rising to House Budget Committee chairman during his final four years in Congress.

Early in his career, Mr. Panetta served as a legislative assistant to Senator Thomas H. Kuchel of California; special assistant to the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare; director of the U.S. Office for Civil Rights; and executive assistant to Mayor John Lindsay of New York. He also spent five years in private law practice.

He served as an Army intelligence officer from 1964 to 1966 and received the Army Commendation Medal.

Secretary Panetta holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and a law degree, both from Santa Clara University. He was born on June 28, 1938 in Monterey, where his Italian immigrant parents operated a restaurant. Later, they purchased a farm in Carmel Valley, a place Secretary and Mrs. Panetta continue to call home. The Panettas have three grown sons and six grandchildren.

Simone Petrella

Simone Petrella is Founder and CEO of CyberVista, a cybersecurity training company that focuses on developing and providing a metrics driven approach that actually develops a qualified workforce.

Simone has spent over fifteen years in the cybersecurity industry.  Prior to founding CyberVista, Simone was a Senior Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton where she helped build the firm's cybersecurity practice in the commercial sector focusing on the creation of cyber fusion centers and the integration of cyber threat intelligence, security operations, and cyber defense operations into effective cyber security operations. For a decade she led the firm's all source cyber threat intelligence business in the national security and Defense sectors, where she built out a threat capability and team with in depth subject matter expertise in all aspects of cyber threat intelligence, including intelligence support to both defensive and offensive operations. Her areas of specialty included predictive cyber intelligence based on an understanding of the threat adversary and developing service offerings to integrate intelligence into exercises to provide realistic cyber scenarios. Simone received her J.D. with honors from Catholic University's Columbus School of Law and graduated from Georgetown University with a B.A. in Government and a M.A. in International Law and Policy. She is a member of Women in International Security and is admitted to the New York Bar. A native of New Jersey, she has resided in Washington D.C. since 2000.

Anuraag Singh

Co-founder and CTO, TechNext Inc. Anuraag was a Fellow, MIT System Design and Management and a part of the MIT Work of the Future Task Force. He worked for Honda R&D Japan in Tokyo at Think Lab, which helped create long term strategy for the company. After completing his undergraduate studies in Mechanical Engineering at IIT Delhi, he joined as an automotive interior designer at the Honda R&D automobile headquarters. While at Department of Science & Technology Center for Policy Research, he did innovation policy research, particularly innovation assessment and incubators, for the Government of India.

Morgan Brennan

Morgan Brennan is co-anchor of the 10AM ET hour on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” (M-F, 9AM-11AM ET), which broadcasts live from the New York Stock Exchange. Previously, she was co-anchor of CNBC’s “Squawk Alley” (M-F, 11AM-12PM ET). She joined the network in December 2013 as a general assignment reporter based at CNBC Global Headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and continues to cover a variety of sectors, including manufacturing, and defense and space.

Prior to joining CNBC, Brennan was a staff writer and reporter for Forbes Media where she reported for Forbes Magazine, ForbesLife Magazine and Forbes.com, most recently covering real estate. She began her career at Forbes in 2009, holding several positions including anchor/reporter and producer for the Forbes Video Network, covering a wide range of business and finance topics.

Previously, Brennan was a regular guest on a variety of networks discussing business and economic stories and also interned at Newsweek International, where she was a fact-checker and contributing writer.

Brennan has interviewed billionaires, heads of state, thought leaders and chief executives of multibillion-dollar corporations and her profile story on Equity Group Investments chairman Sam Zell was one of five magazine covers featured on the 2013 Forbes 400 issue.

Brennan graduated summa cum laude from New York University, majoring in Social Science with a double concentration in Anthropology and Media Studies.

Jon Fortt

Jon Fortt is co-anchor of CNBC's "Squawk Alley" (M-F, 11AM-12PM ET) broadcast live from the New York Stock Exchange. Previously, he was an on-air editor based at CNBC's global headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Fortt joined CNBC as technology correspondent in July 2010, working from CNBC's Silicon Valley bureau where he covered the companies, start-ups and trends that are driving innovation in the industry. He also contributes to CNBC.com.

He came to CNBC from Fortune magazine, where as a senior writer he covered both large technology companies— such as Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft—and trends, including cloud computing and the smartphone revolution.

Before joining Fortune in 2007, Fortt was a senior editor at Business 2.0magazine where he produced the "What Works" section.

From 1999 to 2006, Fortt wrote and edited at the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's hometown newspaper. There he contributed to several efforts that won awards from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.

As a personal technology writer, his coverage duties included Apple, Palm and Adobe. He also served in roles outside the business department, covering education, editing local news and developing technology strategy. As the newspaper's senior Web editor, he helped develop a blog and podcast network, managed the creation of multimedia projects and served on the board of the Associated Press Managing Editors.

Fortt graduated from DePauw University as a Media Fellow, with a B.A. in English.

Follow Jon Fortt on Twitter @jonfortt. Listen to his podcast, Fortt Knox.

Eamon Javers

Eamon Javers is CNBC’s Senior Washington Correspondent, focusing on the role of money and influence in Washington, D.C. He also reports on the U.S. Department of Justice and its Antitrust division’s expected battle with Big Tech. Javers joined CNBC in June 2010 as a Washington reporter based at the bureau in the nation’s capital and appears on the network’s Business Day programming.

Previously, Javers was a White House reporter for Politico, where he covered the intersection of Wall Street and Washington. He conducted investigations of the administration’s financial bailouts and economic stimulus efforts, broke news about the presidency of Barack Obama and authored trend stories on Washington.

Prior to joining Politico, Javers was a Washington correspondent for BusinessWeek magazine writing extensively about Washington lobbying, including the Jack Abramoff scandal and unearthed previously unknown incidents of corporate espionage. He also was an on-air correspondent for CNBC, where he covered the intersection of business and politics. Javers’ articles have appeared in Fortune, Money, Congressional Quarterly and Slate.com. He began his career at The Hill, a weekly newspaper (and website) covering Congress.

Javers is author of the book “Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy: The Secret World of Corporate Espionage,” which revealed a never-before-reported CIA policy allowing active-duty officers to moonlight in the private sector.

He has appeared as an analyst on each of the major broadcast networks, all of the major cable television news networks, the BBC and National Public Radio.

In 2014, Javers was named a finalist in the Gerald Loeb Awards explanatory category for his coverage of how market-moving financial data is released. In 2006, Javers received an Award of Distinction in investigative journalism from the Medill School of Journalism. He graduated from Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y.

Follow Eamon Javers on Twitter @EamonJavers.

Tyler Mathisen

Tyler Mathisen co-anchors CNBC's "Power Lunch" (M-F, 1PM-3PM ET), one of the network's longest running program franchises. He is also Vice President, Events Strategy for CNBC, working closely with the network's events team to grow the rapidly expanding business.

Previously, Mathisen was co-anchor of "Nightly Business Report," an award-winning evening business news program produced by CNBC for U.S. public television. In 2014, NBR was named best radio/TV show by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW). Since joining CNBC in 1997, Mathisen has held a number of positions including managing editor of CNBC Business News, responsible for directing the network's daily content and coverage. He was also co-anchor of CNBC's "Closing Bell."

Mathisen has reported one-hour documentaries for the network including "Best Buy: The Big Box Fights Back," "Supermarkets Inc: Inside a $500 Billion Money Machine" and "Death: It's a Living." Mathisen was also host of the CNBC series "How I Made My Millions."

Prior to CNBC, Mathisen spent 15 years as a writer, senior editor and top editor for Money magazine. Among other duties, he supervised the magazine's mutual funds coverage, its annual investment forecast issue and its expansion into electronic journalism, for which it won the first-ever National Magazine Award for New Media in 1997.

In 1993, Mathisen won the American University-Investment Company Institute Award for Personal Finance Journalism for a televised series on "Caring for Aging Parents," which aired on ABC's "Good Morning America." Mathisen served as money editor of "GMA" from 1991 to 1997. He also won an Emmy Award for a report on the 1987 stock market crash that aired on New York's WCBS-TV.

A native of Arlington,Va., Mathisen graduated with distinction from the University of Virginia.

Ylan Mui

Ylan Q. Mui is CNBC’s Senior Congressional Correspondent based at the network’s bureau in Washington, D.C., reporting on Capitol Hill and economic policy. She also plays a key role covering the power struggle between Big Tech and Washington as they continue to debate on Capitol Hill. Her reporting appears on television and CNBC’s digital platforms. Mui joined CNBC in February 2017 as a reporter focusing primarily on economic and regulatory policy.

Prior to CNBC, Mui spent nearly 15 years at The Washington Post, most recently as White House economic policy correspondent. She previously covered the Federal Reserve and the macroeconomy, subprime lending, consumer finance, retail and education. In addition, Mui reported on major international stories, including the Greek financial crisis and Brexit, as well as national disasters such as the BP oil spill and Hurricane Katrina.

Mui began her career as a receptionist and obituary writer at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, where she was born and raised.

Mui graduated from Loyola University in New Orleans with a major in communications and a double minor in biology and philosophy. She is a member of the Asian American Journalists Association, where she is a past vice president of the Washington, DC chapter. She is also a graduate of AAJA’s Executive Leadership Program.

AGENDA

11:45am EST

DOORS OPEN (IN-PERSON ONLY)

12:00pm EST

LUNCH

Misinformation, Ethical AI and Digital Privacy

SPONSORED BY IBM

Moderator: Eamon Javers, CNBC Senior Washington Correspondent

Making Hybrid Work Equitable, Engaging and Productive

SPONSORED BY SALESFORCE

Moderator: Morgan Brennan, CNBC “Squawk on the Street” Co-Anchor

1:15pm EST

DOORS OPEN (VIRTUAL)

1:30pm EST

HYBRID PROGRAM BEGINS

The View from the Front Lines

Almost one year after his company discovered the SolarWinds back door, American businesses and the US Government have gotten much more serious about cybersecurity. Kevin Mandia leads off the third annual TEC Summit to reflect on the progress made and the work left to do to bolster our cyber defenses and stay one step ahead of the hackers.

Kevin Mandia, Mandiant CEO
Interviewer: Eamon Javers, CNBC Senior Washington Correspondent

Skills Gap Success Stories

Last month’s TEC survey found that more than half of TEC members say “finding qualified talent to fill open positions” is the biggest technology challenge facing their organization, eclipsing worries about supply chain disruptions and even cybersecurity. One of the potential solutions to the labor crisis is partnerships with outside organizations that help find and develop talent for jobs in tech, but only 40% of members said their companies are taking advantage. In this panel. We’ll hear from two such organizations on a mission to narrow the skills gap.

Gerald Chertavian, Year Up Founder & CEO
Simone Petrella, Cybervista CEO
Moderator: Jon Fortt, CNBC “TechCheck” Co-Anchor

Presentation: Predicting the Pace of Innovation

After a three-decade career at Ford Motor, MIT professor Chris Magee entered academia in hopes of finding a way to take some of the guesswork out of technology strategy. His latest research uses AI to predict the speed of the development of highly specific new innovations and help business decision makers allocate R&D resources more efficiently. The research turned MaGee into an entrepreneur. His company, TechNext.ai, helps businesses make better decisions about tech investments. In this presentation, MaGee, along with research partner and co-founder Cherif Gamra, explain their work and offer some illuminating examples.

Chris Magee, TechNext Inc. CEO & Co-Founder
Cherif Gamra, TechNext Inc. Director of Client Operations
Moderator: Tyler Mathisen, CNBC “Power Lunch” Co-Anchor and VP, Events Strategy

3:00pm EST

NETWORKING BREAK (IN-PERSON ONLY)

3:05pm EST

EXCLUSIVE VIRTUAL-ONLY SESSION

Technology and National Security

Nine years ago, then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta warned business leaders that “too few companies have invested in even basic cybersecurity.” In 2021 that statement feels eerily prescient. Fmr. Secretary Panetta joins us to reflect on his warning, to give his read of the current state of affairs, and to take TEC member questions on how business and government can work together to improve technology policy as a matter of national security.

Leon E. Panetta, Former United States Secretary of Defense
Interviewer: Ylan Mui, CNBC Senior Congressional Correspondent

3:45pm EST

HYBRID PROGRAM RESUMES

Tech and the Zeitgeist

He helped invent the NFT, he leads a community of “friendly developers” and he really likes Prince. A lot. Anil Dash is a tech renaissance man, advocating for more humane and ethical technology through an eclectic blog and Twitter feed, and real-world participation on the boards of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Data & Society Research Institute, and more. He joins the TEC Summit to give us the latest on how technologists can and should be a positive influence on popular culture.

Anil Dash, Glitch CEO
Interviewer: Jon Fortt, CNBC “TechCheck” Co-Anchor

4:30pm EST

VIRTUAL PROGRAM CONCLUDES

EXCLUSIVE IN-PERSON SESSION

The Next Space Age

Just back from his pioneering journey as commander of the first all-civilian crew to orbit the Earth, entrepreneur and pilot Jared Isaacman shares the stories of the historic trip and what’s to come in this new era of space exploration.

Jared Isaacman, Shift4 Payments CEO & Founder and Inspiration4 Mission Commander
Moderator: Morgan Brennan, CNBC “Squawk on the Street” Co-Anchor

5:00pm EST

COCKTAILS AND NETWORKING

6:00pm EST

DINNER

Zero Trust, Ransomware and the Future of Cybersecurity

SPONSORED BY COMCAST BUSINESS

Moderator: Eamon Javers, CNBC Senior Washington Correspondent

WHY SPONSOR

Deliver a high-profile, category exclusive marketing and advertising program, and extend reach across platforms

WHY IT MATTERS

Council events will convene the premiere tech luminaries and pioneers to capture the collaborative spirit of transformation

LEARN MORE

To learn more about the Technology Executive Council program, please contact tec@nbcuni.com or visit our TEC page.

For sponsorship inquires, please connect with our sales team.

PAST SPEAKERS

Alex Stamos

Alex Stamos is a cybersecurity expert, business leader and entrepreneur working to improve the security and safety of the Internet through his teaching and research at Stanford University. Stamos is an Adjunct Professor at Stanford’s Freeman-Spogli Institute and a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution.

Prior to joining Stanford, Alex served as the Chief Security Officer of Facebook. In this role, Stamos led a team of engineers, researchers, investigators and analysts charged with understanding and mitigating information security risks to the company and safety risks to the 2.5 billion people on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. During his time at Facebook, he led the company’s investigation into manipulation of the 2016 US election and helped pioneer several successful protections against these new classes of abuse. As a senior executive, Alex represented Facebook and Silicon Valley to regulators, lawmakers and civil society on six continents, and has served as a bridge between the interests of the Internet policy community and the complicated reality of platforms operating at billion-user scale. In April 2017, he co-authored “Information Operations and Facebook”, a highly cited examination of the influence campaign against the US election, which still stands as the most thorough description of the issue by a major technology company.

Before joining Facebook, Alex was the Chief Information Security Officer at Yahoo, rebuilding a storied security team while dealing with multiple assaults by nation-state actors. While at Yahoo, he led the company’s response to the Snowden disclosures by implementing massive cryptographic improvements in his first months. He also represented the company in an open hearing of the US Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

In 2004, Alex co-founded iSEC Partners, an elite security consultancy known for groundbreaking work in secure software development, embedded and mobile security. As a trusted partner to world’s largest technology firms, Alex coordinated the response to the “Aurora” attacks by the People’s Liberation Army at multiple Silicon Valley firms and led groundbreaking work securing the world’s largest desktop and mobile platforms. During this time, he also served as an expert witness in several notable civil and criminal cases, such as the Google Street View incident and pro bono work for the defendants in Sony vs George Hotz and US vs Aaron Swartz. After the 2010 acquisition of iSEC Partners by NCC Group, Alex formed an experimental R&D division at the combined company, producing five patents.

A noted speaker and writer, he has appeared at the Munich Security Conference, NATO CyCon, Web Summit, DEF CON, CanSecWest and numerous other events. His 2017 keynote at Black Hat was noted for its call for a security industry more representative of the diverse people it serves and the actual risks they face. Throughout his career, Alex has worked toward making security a more representative field and has highlighted the work of diverse technologists as an organizer of the Trustworthy Technology Conference and OURSA.

Alex has been involved with securing the US election system as a contributor to Harvard’s Defending Digital Democracy Project and involved in the academic community as an advisor to Stanford’s Cybersecurity Policy Program and UC Berkeley’s Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity. He is a member of the Aspen Institute’s Cyber Security Task Force, the Bay Area CSO Council and the Council on Foreign Relations. Alex also serves on the advisory board to NATO’s Collective Cybersecurity Center of Excellence in Tallinn, Estonia.

Stamos worked under Prof. David Patterson while earning a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Berkeley. He lives in the Bay Area with his wife and three children.

Tom Leighton

Dr. Tom Leighton co-founded Akamai Technologies in 1998 and served as Akamai’s Chief Scientist until he became CEO in 2013. Under Dr. Leighton’s leadership, Akamai has evolved from its origins as a Content Delivery Network (CDN) into one of the most essential and trusted cloud delivery and cybersecurity platforms, upon which many of the world’s best brands and enterprises build and secure their digital experiences. During his initial six years as CEO, Akamai’s revenue nearly doubled, growing from less than $1.4 billion in 2012 to more than $2.7 billion in 2018. Over the same time, annual revenue from Akamai’s security business grew more than 25-fold, to more than $658 million in 2018.

As one of the world's preeminent authorities on algorithms for network applications and cybersecurity, Dr. Leighton discovered a solution to freeing up web congestion using applied mathematics and distributed computing. Akamai used this technology to create the world's largest distributed computing platform, which today delivers and secures tens of millions of requests per second to billions of users around the world.

Dr. Leighton holds more than 50 patents involving content delivery, Internet protocols, algorithms for networks, cryptography and digital rights management. He and Akamai’s co-founder Danny Lewin were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2017 for having “invented the methods needed to intelligently replicate and deliver content over a large network of distributed servers, technology that would ultimately solve what was becoming a frustrating problem for Internet users known as the ‘World Wide Wait.’” In 2018, the Marconi Society selected him to receive the Marconi Prize for “his fundamental contributions to technology and the establishment of content delivery networks.” He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineers, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Leighton has served on numerous government, industry and academic advisory panels. He was one of 18 CEOs invited to the White House in 2017 for the launch of the American Technology Council to develop solutions to modernize and secure the U.S. government’s IT systems. From 2003 to 2005, he served on the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee and chaired its Subcommittee on Cybersecurity. He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Leighton has been personally committed to increasing the pipeline of students pursuing STEM careers for over thirty years, first as a mathematics professor at MIT and now through his leadership at Akamai. He is a strong supporter of the Akamai Foundation, which promotes mathematics education, and he oversaw the creation of the Akamai Technical Academy, an innovative program developed in-house, aimed at training diverse non-technical professionals for technical careers. He also supports numerous charitable organizations dedicated to improving STEM education and opportunities for K-12 students, including The Center for Excellence in Education, the Society for Science and the Public (sponsor of the Intel Science Search), The Mathematical Association of America (sponsor of the Math Olympiad), the Math Competition for Girls, and Girls Who Code.

Dr. Leighton graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1978 with a B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He received his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from MIT in 1981.