Global Cybersecurity Conference in Abu Dhabi (2014) Speaker Profiles

Edward Guiliano, Ph.D.
President
New York Institute of Technology

Edward Guiliano has led New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) to worldwide prestige, particularly in the fields of architecture, medicine, communications, engineering, business, and educational technology.

An eloquent spokesman and advocate for the environment and sustainability, global higher education, and educational technology, Dr. Guiliano is a frequent keynote speaker at conferences around the globe. Since he became the university’s president in 2000, NYIT has significantly increased the size and quality of its diverse student body of 13,000 students from nearly 50 U.S. states and 100 nations this year; added more than 400 distinguished faculty members; and opened campuses and sites in North America, the Middle East, Asia, and online to complement NYIT’s hub campuses in Manhattan and Long Island, New York.

During this time, NYIT has undergone a major renovation of campus facilities while branding itself to raise its national and international profile. The administration also created a 2030 strategic plan to position NYIT as a model for a 21st-century global university. NYIT has been consistently ranked as one of America’s best colleges by leading publications.

In March 2012, in recognition of Dr. Guiliano’s commitment, scholarship, philanthropy, and transformational long-standing leadership, NYIT named its flagship Manhattan campus building on Broadway the Edward Guiliano Global Center. 

Dr. Guiliano holds a bachelor’s degree from Brown University and a doctorate from Stony Brook University. He has been awarded two honorary degrees and received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor for his personal  accomplishments, social compassion, and outstanding contributions to American society. He is married to best-selling author Mireille Guiliano.

Nada Marie Anid, Ph.D.
Professor and Dean
School of Engineering and Computing Sciences

Dr. Anid earned her Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH-Stockholm). She is among the first engineers to study the role of vitamin B12 and other organometallic coenzymes in the dechlorination of important toxic molecules such as carbon tetrachloride and polychlorinated biphenyls. Prior to joining NYIT, she was chair and graduate program director of the Chemical Engineering Department at Manhattan College.

She has been named one of the top 50 most influential women in business in recognition of her business acumen, mentoring, and community involvement by Long Island Business News and as a third-time honoree, was recently inducted into the LIBN Hall of Fame. Dr. Anid also received the 2010 Long Island Software and Technology Network (LISTnet) Diamond Award in recognition of her significant contributions toward the advancement of women in technology on Long Island as well as for her professional achievements in the technology field.

Nada Marie Anid, Ph.D., is the first female dean of NYIT's School of Engineering and Computing Sciences (SoECS). In this role, she oversees 77 engineering and computing sciences faculty members and approximately 1,700 graduate and undergraduate students at campuses located in New York City and Long Island, the Middle East, and China.

Paul Stirpe, Ph.D.
Professor, NYIT
Principal, Letse

In the past 25 years, Paul Stirpe has been a researcher at IBM and T.J. Watson Research Centre and a professor of computer science at NYIT, and he has held various IT and security advisement positions in the financial services industry for Reuters, Credit Suisse, Wolters Kluwer, and Bunge Corporation. He has authored numerous patents and research papers.

Stirpe is the founder of Letse, LLC, (Letse.com), a global software and services corporation with offices in New York and Kolkata, India, and more than 15 years of business in financial services. Letse is a technology partner for premier Wall Street and European banks with international presences and is a thought leader in cloud computing for the financial services industry. Stirpe leads the security consultancy Stratta Group (strattagroup.com) focused on providing expert security technology advisement and solutions, and is the chief technology officer of GlobeArc Corporation (globearc.com), a leading provider of business solutions for investors in hedge funds. Stirpe received his Ph.D. in computer science from Boston University in 1992.

Thomas Kartanowicz
Head of Information Security
Natixis Wholesale Banking Americas

Tom Kartanowicz has more than 15 years of experience in information security and IT. He started his career in IT working the help desk at the NYU Stern School of Business while completing his undergraduate degree in computer science at NYU. As a systems administrator at financial software company Principia Partners, Kartanowicz was responsible for ensuring the smooth operation of the development and production environments. As vice president at Natixis ABM LLC, Tom worked in business continuity planning, information security, and access management areas. In his current role at Natixis, his focus is on risk management, vulnerability assessment, security awareness, and policy management.

Kartanowicz has a master’s degree in information technology with a concentration in information assurance from the University of Maryland. Additionally, he holds two information security certifications: GIAC Security Leadership (GSLC) and Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP). He is also a member of the New York Metro Information Systems Security Association (NYMISSA) and the New York chapter of Infragard.

Nadhem Al-Fardan, Ph.D.
Systems Analyst
Cisco Inc.

Nadhem Al Fardan is a security solutions architect for Cisco, covering Europe, Middle East, and Africa. His research interests include cloud services security, network protocols security, key management protocols, and applied cryptography. He is also an active researcher in the Information Security Group at Royal Holloway, University of London, and he has published a number of papers in the area of network security. He has been a speaker in a number of Cisco events such as Cisco Live Europe (U.K., France, and Spain) and Emerging Markets (South Africa and Bahrain) along with academic conferences such as NDSS 2012 in San Diego and ISC 2010 in Florida.

Luke Forsyth
Vice President for Security Services, EMEA
CA Technologies

Luke Forsyth joined CA Technologies in September 2010. Prior to CA, Luke he worked at McAfee and Accenture, and he began his career at Telstra. Forsyth is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) with more than 15 years of consulting experience, including senior and leadership roles. He has certifications in Cloud Security, COBIT, ITIL®, and PRINCE2, and was educated at Cambridge University, Curtin University, and the University of Western Australia.

Forsyth frequently speaks on subjects such as cloud security and cyber defense. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Partnering for Cyber Resilience project, NATO’s Industry Advisor Group for Cyber Defense, the European Union Clean IT Project, the Open Group Trusted Technology Forum, the Open Group Cloud Work Group, and other government and industry forums.

Henrik Davidsson
Director for Security Sales, EMEA
Juniper Networks

Henrik Davidsson is director of security sales EMEA, responsible for the go-to-market of Juniper Network’s security offerings. He is also the spokesperson for security in the region. Prior to joining Juniper, he led the security business development team in EMEA at Cisco Systems, led Cisco’s security business in Northern Europe, and built up the IronPort business in the Nordic & Baltics prior to the Cisco acquisition. Before entering the security industry, Davidsson founded several companies and has worked in several start-up organizations.

He has lived in several countries across Europe and speaks multiple languages. Davidsson is known for putting customers’ business concern in context of technical capabilities and translating complex IT solutions into the language of the customer.

Ragy Magdy
Middle East Regional Sales Leader
IBM Security Services

Ragy Magdy has been in the information technology industry for the past 11 years. He started his career in security sales and marketing in 2003 with ISS (Internet Security Systems). At ISS, he was the business development manager for Egypt and Levant. He was then moved to ISS Country Manager for the U.A.E. and Oman.

Since the IBM acquisition of ISS in 2006, Ragy has been spearheading IBM security and privacy practice for the Gulf and Pakistan. During his tenure at IBM Security Services, he has been able to develop the Middle Eastern market for Infosec and enabled major corporations and government entities in the region to combat cyber threats.

Edward J. Chance
Director – U.K., France, and Emerging Markets
Dell SecureWorks, Dell Inc.

Edward (Eddie) Chance has worked in the IT industry since 1986, when he joined NCR in London. In 1995, Chase joined the software sales division at Oracle Corporation and started what was to become a highly successful sales career spanning almost 10 years before he moved in to sales management. During that time, he was responsible for winning many significant orders for Oracle and aided in the creation of new licensing policy and practice. 

 In 2008, Chase left Oracle to take on the role of CEO at Adventi Group, a small IT services business in Glasgow. Successfully raising additional private equity and providing the business a platform for exit, Eddie went on to be a founder director of Chance Associates Ltd., a management consulting business specialising in effect sales team development. In 2010, Chase joined SecureWorks, focusing on developing their sales processes. The business was acquired by Dell in January 2011 and today, Chase is the EMEA director for sales, operations, and channels.

Parag Pruthi, Ph.D.
Founder, Chairman, and CEO
NIKSUN

Parag Pruthi, Ph.D., brings over 25 years of expertise in the network security, wireless, and applications analysis industry. Recognized as one of the foremost experts in advanced cybersecurity technologies, Pruthi advises on cyber defense strategies at the highest levels of governments and enterprises, both nationally and globally.

Widely accepted as one of the leading innovators in the field of cybersecurity, in 2001 he introduced NetDetector, the only device in the world capable of multi-gigabits per second line rate recording and simultaneous analysis, reconstruction and replay in order to discover the source of security incidents, and identification of potential information leakage. This ground-breaking invention led to the creation and growth of the field of network forensics.

Pruthi holds a bachelor´s degree in electrical engineering, a master’s in computer science from Stevens Institute of Technology, and a doctorate in telecommunications from The Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. Pruthi is also a member of the Steering Board for the Journal of Cyber Security & Mobility. He is a frequent speaker on cybersecurity issues, including keynotes to delegates from across 28 NATO nations, agencies, and strategic commands at the NATO Information Assurance Symposium 2010-2013.

Ronald Mraz, Ph.D.
President and CTO
Owl Computing Technologies

Ronald Mraz, Ph.D., directs advanced development of secure data transfer systems. With more than 20 years of private sector experience in a variety of technical positions including major research facilities at Westinghouse and IBM, he began his career developing microprocessor controls for switching power converter systems with Westinghouse Research. Mraz then participated in the development of several high-performance vector and supercomputing systems for IBM Server and Research Divisions. Additionally, he developed metrics for analyzing communication hardware in high-performance networks for super computer and real-time applications such as streaming video transmission.

Mraz received his doctorate in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 1992. He holds a master’s of science degree in electrical engineering from Syracuse University and a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from Drexel University. He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and a member of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA). He holds eight patents and has published more than 12 articles in the field of computer engineering.

Richard Archdeacon
Head of Security Strategy
HP Enterprise Security Services

Richard Archdeacon is a member of the Office of Strategy and Technology within HP Enterprise Security Services. He leads research and innovation into new strategic security services for clients in all major sectors. Archdeacon has 25 years of experience in consulting at a senior level with major corporations across Europe, the Middle East, and the U.S. Prior to joining HP Enterprise Security Services, he was a consultant to various organizations including ENISA and was on assignments in the Middle East with a major oil company and a government department.

Archdeacon was previously with the security vendor Symantec for several years during which he held a number of roles including leading the consulting and technical services team for Northern Europe and finally EMEA Head of Innovation. He has been on the board of advisory bodies such as IAAC and is currently a member of the Accreditation Committee of the IISP. Archdeacon is a qualified lawyer and holds an M.B.A. from Cranfield University.