We are a team of security experts

A retired senior executive having served in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Citigroup, Inc. (Citi).  Tom retired from the FBI having served over 30 years with the US Government. He served at the FBI in a series of senior leadership positions to include national security, counterterrorism, criminal, cyber, intelligence operations and field office operations. His last position held was as Associate Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer.   Tom’s leadership and organizational transformation success were recognized in 2012 with the award of the FBI’s Medal for Meritorious Achievement.  He was also recognized with two Presidential Rank Awards; President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Rank Award of Distinguished Executive for his work on the global counterterrorism mission and President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Rank Award of Meritorious Executive for his work on the FBI’s intelligence and business transformation efforts.   Following his retirement from the FBI, Tom served over six years as a Managing Director and the Chief Information Security Officer at Citi.  He led a transformation effort to install an intelligence led, threat focused approach to Citi’s global information security program.  Tom’s “must win battle” focused on a campaign to create a world class learning organization, which is cohesive, adaptable, and responsive to evolving and changing cyber threats.  He led the creation of a network of Cyber Security Fusion Centers in New York, Budapest and Singapore all built on a principal of the “Team of Teams” approach.  Tom expanded the crisis management program to include a global cyber war gaming initiative, complemented by the expansion and operationalization of crisis management playbooks, team preparation and the development of business leaders capable of responding to real world challenges. Core to his leadership approach has been his commitment to invest in talent, teamwork, and technology to create a winning strategy.  At the time he retired from Citi he was a member of the Operations & Technology (O&T) senior leadership team, serving on the O&T Management Committee, the Information Security Risk Committee, the Global Fraud Management Committee and the Global O&T Business Risk, Compliance & Control Committee.  

Today, Tom is a Senior Advisor at McKinsey & Co., where he provides assistance to both commercial and government clients on cyber and risk challenges.   Tom sits on the board of advisors of several young startup organizations.  These include Securonix Inc., a security information and event management cloud service; Cyware Labs Inc., a virtual cyber fusion exchange providing threat intelligence sharing and analysis; Session Guardian, a continuous identity verification application and Modern Executive Solutions Inc., an executive search firm focused on information technology and human capital executives.    

Tom has served as a senior fellow at both the Zicklin Center for Business Ethics, the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and the McCrary Institute for Cyber & Critical Infrastructure Security, Auburn University. He is a member of the Board of Trustees at Mount St. Mary’s University.  Tom is a graduate of Mount St. Mary’s University, the Stonier Graduate School of Banking, at the University of Delaware and Harvard University’s Kennedy School Government Executive Program. 

Jim Routh is currently on the Boards of Supply Wisdom, Savvy Security, Accountable Digital Identity Association and the Global Resiliency Federation. He is the former Board Chair for the Health Information Sharing & Analysis Center (H-ISAC) where he served for five years and former Board member for the Financial Services Information Sharing & Analysis Center (FS-ISAC). Jim is the Chief Trust Officer for Saviynt. Jim is a former CSO/CISO for American Express, DTCC, KPMG, Aetna, CVS and MassMutual. Jim brings to the boards and senior executives a vast business and technology background and is considered a digital and cyber security industry expert and thought leader. Jim is currently an advisor for Wiz, Transmit Security, Netskope, Armis, Security Scorecard, Devo, Gurucul, Data Theorem, CalypsoAI, CodeZero, Picnic, and Legit Security. He serves in an advisory capacity and investor for cyber specific venture funds including: Syn Ventures, CyberStarts, Security Leadership Capital, Ballistic Ventures and Rain Capital. Jim is an ICIT Fellow and an Adjunct Faculty member where he teaches cybersecurity for the NYU Tandon School of Engineering. Jim also mentors over 70 cybersecurity leaders and potential leaders.

Joseph Martinez brings more than 25+ years of experience in Supply Chain Management. He is the retired Chief Procurement Officer of — Bank of New York Mellon. He has also been a CPO for several Global Banks where he was responsible for organizations such as sourcing, travel, procurement to pay operations, corporate real estate, corporate insurance, corporate security and 1st line third party risk management during his career.

He has held various senior positions in financial institutions such as Bank of America, American Express and MUFG Bank. Joseph has successfully leading the Supply Chains on a global scale. His prior experience also includes consulting for PricewaterhouseCoopers, as well as spending over ten years living and working internationally in Asia (Japan, China and Singapore) and two years in the Latin America markets earlier in his career.

Joseph is a graduate of the University of New Mexico and post university Joseph served 8 years in the U.S. Army and is a veteran.

Joseph is the Recipient, SIG Future of Sourcing Award, - Super Nova Sourcing Award and was named as one of the top 100 Supply Chain Leaders Globally by Supply Chain Digital Magazine. He was awarded the ProcureCon 2023 EPIC Lifetime Award. Joseph is a Senior Advisor with AHEAD and the CEO of PrimusVets a certified Veteran owned and Minority business.

He is a Certified Third Party Risk Management Professional, Certified Sourcing Professional as well as a Certified Professional in Supply Management.

He has contributed to publications and written articles on topics of Supply Chain Management for the World Commerce and Contracting and the Institute for Supply Management. Joseph is a co-author for the CPSM Study Guide and the three-book ISM Professional Series Certified Professional in Supply Management.

Gary Heffernan is a globally recognised leader in Digital Transformation in the TMT Industry. Gary served most of his 30 year career with Accenture . As a pre IPO partner, he built a track record in growing successful businesses and client partnerships around the Globe . He led Accenture’s multi billion dollar International TMT business, pioneering Transformational deals in the digital cloud, security, data, space with many of Accentures largest clients.  

In recent years , Gary has co-founded several companies focused on advising International CEOs create hyper growth in digital services across global markets. He recently launched an Ai platform , developing user case solving existential Industry problems .He sits on a number of private company boards in Europe & the US 

Gary is based in London with his wife  & six children. He is an ardent sports lover, & is a writer, speaker, facilitator at key Industry events. He founded and is a Trustee of Charity Street Child, which funds and delivers education for children in 23 African & Asian countries.  He holds a BSC degree in Technology & Business Studies &  a Professional degree with the Institute of Cost & Management Accountants ( ICMA )  

Tim Byrd was named Executive Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer at M&T Bank in October 2023.  Previously, he was the Chief Information Security Officer at PROG Holdings.  Prior to his time at PROG, he spent over 3 years as Executive Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer at TIAA, responsible for the information security strategy and governance, technologies, security engineering, and cyber defense and monitoring.  

Recognized as an industry leader, Tim currently is a member of the NYU Cyber Fellows Advisory Council at NYU Tandon, which is dedicated to advancing the education, learning outcomes, and workforce readiness of students enrolled in the NYU Cyber Fellows Master program. Tim is passionate about developing the next generation of cybersecurity experts.   

Tim is currently the Vice Chair of the Bank Policy Institute’s BITS (Business Information Technology Security) Security Steering, where he focuses on various sector-wide initiatives such as AI Cybersecurity considerations and Quantum threats.  Previously, Tim served as the Chair of the Risk Committee at the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC), a trusted peer-to-peer network of experts focused on anticipating, mitigating, and responding to cyber threats.  

“Our role in Information Security is to protect our customers and enable our business. By creating a strong cybersecurity posture, we can drive towards digital transformation and provide a better customer experience.” – Tim Byrd  

Prior to joining TIAA, Tim served as Executive Vice President, Head of Strategic Assessments and Engagement at Wells Fargo, and was responsible for front-line information security and risk assessment. His responsibilities included designing a risk-based approach and building a world-class team to execute cyber-risk initiatives globally. Additionally, Tim oversaw third-party risk programs, security awareness and training, and all external cybersecurity public-private partnership engagement. He was also selected to serve as the executive sponsor for all cloud security efforts. In this role, Tim established strong governance and security criteria and led a cloud strategy transformation at Wells Fargo.  

Before his time at Wells Fargo, Tim was the Senior Vice President, Global Information Security Executive at Bank of America, holding a variety of leadership positions during his 12-year tenure. In various roles, he provided strategic direction for the Distributed Denial-of-Service, Advanced Persistent Threat, Malware, Cyber Analytics and Network Access Control programs to design and build operational controls and end- to-end strategy.  

Tim received a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and currently holds four product patents.  

George is a prominent figure in the world of angel investment and venture capital known for his role as a co-founder and former Managing Partner of Robin Hood Ventures. With a keen eye for promising companies, George has also lent his expertise to the Board of Directors at LoanLogics, Inc. and Securonix, two leading companies in the financial and cybersecurity sectors. As the Managing Partner of Phase 2 Investments, he continues to shape the future of innovative investment and plays a pivotal role in the growth and success of business in various industries. George embodies the spirit of strategic leadership and forward-thinking investment.

Jordan serves as the CTO and Chief Architect of SessionGuardian, guiding the company towards a future where data security is paramount. His leadership and commitment to excellence are evident in every aspect of his work, driving SessionGuardian's mission to redefine data protection standards.

In the ever-evolving landscape of cybersecurity, Jordan embarked on a remarkable journey as the founder of SessionGuardian. This visionary startup is at the forefront of technological innovation, addressing the pressing need for secure hybrid and remote access to highly confidential information. Jordan's brainchild employs continuous identity verification to safeguard sensitive data, revolutionizing how organizations protect their assets.

In his 25 years in enterprise application development, Jordan has focus on document collaboration systems that have benefited major corporate entities, financial services institutions, and prestigious law firms. Jordan played a pivotal role in establishing the first extranet presence for three of the top twenty U.S. law firms.

Keith has over 30 years’ experience in leading large global technology teams and successfully delivering complex technology and business transformation initiatives in multi-national financial services and commodity trading organizations. Keith was Scotiabank’s first US CIO. Keith completed a 2-year assignment at the Digital Financial Services Observatory, within the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information at Columbia University in New York, where he led the creation of a process-based Cybersecurity Risk Management Framework for use in Digital Financial Services in the developing world. This project was funded by the Gates Foundation to promote financial inclusion in a safe environment.

Keith has a BSc. (Hons) in Electronic and Microprocessor Engineering from the University of Strathclyde and is a Fellow of the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information at Columbia Business School.

Cristina has over 35 years’ experience leading sales and channel teams globally. As an early member of sales teams, Cristina’s passion and drive have secured the first customers for many organizations then grown the teams through the many stages to acquisition. at some of the industries most successful startups including Securonix (acquired by Vista Equity Partners), SailPoint (acquired by Thoma Bravo), Credant Technologies (acquired by Dell), Mercury Interactive (acquired by HP), BEA (acquired by Oracle), Bowstreet (acquired by IBM), Tivoli (acquired by IBM), Sun Microsystems (acquired by Oracle). She started her career at NCR.

Cristina has a BA in Economics (Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa) from the University of Maryland. Go Terps!

Sudhir Udipi brings over 15 years of experience in the cybersecurity industry to his role leading the solutions engineering organizations. He has experience developing solutions for and bringing to market technologies across Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), Endpoint and Network Forensics, Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Authentication, Identity and Access Management (IAM), User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) as well as Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC) domains. Sudhir has extensive experience building technical presales and solutions engineering organizations for startups, having previously developed the presales organization for Securonix, a Gartner leading SaaS UEBA and SIEM provider.

Susan is the Director of Operations and plays a critical role in SessionGuardian’s daily business activities ensuring customer satisfaction, optimizing operational efficiency, and driving growth in our customer base. Susan leads a team responsible for delivering exceptional customer support, managing customer relationships, and enhancing operational processes. Prior to joining SessionGuardian, Susan dedicated over 20 years working in the legal industry providing strategic administrative leadership with a focus on paralegal, staff attorney and litigation support services.

Kasey is Manager of Customer Success at SessionGuardian, where she is responsible for assisting the sales and operations team in all aspects of customer journey as they transition from prospect to customer by fostering a positive experience for all customer.  Prior to SessionGuardian, Kasey worked at Morgan Lewis on the Litigation Business Operations team as a Business Analyst.  She previously worked at MassMutual and a tech payment startup CardConnect.  Kasey holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing and business administration from Shippensburg University.