Encouraging Inclusivity & Advocacy for Women in Cybersecurity

Dr. Eric Cole, World Renowned Cybersecurity Expert, CEO of Secure Anchor

World Renowned Cybersecurity Expert with more than 30 years of network security experience, Dr. Eric Cole is a distinguished cybersecurity expert and keynote speaker who helps organizations curtail the risk of cyber threats. Many of the foundational principles of this course and training in cybersecurity were developed by Dr. Cole. He has worked with a variety of clients ranging from Fortune 50 companies, to top international banks, to the CIA, for which he was a professional hacker.

Jo Peterson, Vice President of Cloud and Security Services

Jo Peterson is the Vice President of Cloud and Security Services for Clarify360. Her engineering team focuses on cloud optimization, cloud security and security as a service offerings. Jo is a trusted advisor in the security space, providing an agnostic metric-driven sourcing service without any consulting fees.

An Engineer by trade, Jo is currently ranked as #5 on the Rise Global Cloud Power 100 as well as #2 on the Rise Global Cybersecurity Power 100, and Top Woman in CyberSecurity by CyberCrime Magazine. Jo is a 2016-2020 CRN Women of the Channel Recipient. She is a member of the Forbes Technology Council. Jo is followed by an audience of over 60,000 on Twitter. In 2021, Thinkers360 listed Jo as one of the Top 100 Thought Leaders and Influencers to follow on social media and Onalytica listed her as one of the Top 100 Cloud Influencers. She is currently in process on her CCSP and CISSP. She is an Air Force vet and the founding Co-Chair of cloudgirs.org

Diana Kelley, CSO2 (Chief Strategy Officer/Chief Security Officer) and co-founder of Cybrize, Executive Mentor, Research Analyst, Security Keynote Speaker

Diana Kelley is the CSO2 (Chief Strategy Officer/Chief Security Officer) and co-founder of Cybrize. She also serves on the boards of Cyber Future Foundation, WiCyS, and The Executive Women’s Forum (EWF). Diana was Cybersecurity Field CTO for Microsoft, Global Executive Security Advisor at IBM Security, GM at Symantec, VP at Burton Group (now Gartner), a Manager at KPMG, CTO and co-founder of SecurityCurve, and Chief vCISO at SaltCybersecurity.

Her extensive volunteer work has included serving on the ACM Ethics & Plagiarism Committee, Cybersecurity Committee Advisor at CompTIA, CTO and Board Member at Sightline Security, Advisory Board Chair at WOPLLI Technologies, Advisory Council member Bartlett College of Science and Mathematics, Bridgewater State University, and RSAC US Program Committee.

She is a sought-after keynote speaker, the host of BrightTALK’s The (Security) Balancing Act, co-author of the books Practical Cybersecurity Architecture and Cryptographic Libraries for Developers, has been a lecturer at Boston College's Masters program in cybersecurity, the EWF 2020 Executive of the Year and EWF Conference Chair 2021 and 2022, an SCMedia Power Player, and one of Cybersecurity Ventures 100 Fascinating Females Fighting Cybercrime.

Matt Dircks, Chief Executive Officer & Board Member

As Chief Executive Officer of BeyondTrust, Matt Dircks is responsible for BeyondTrust’s long-term market and product strategy and leads the company’s day-to-day operations. He also guides BeyondTrust’s unique culture that is centered on integrity, transparency, respect, and innovation.

Dircks has more than 25 years of experience in the software industry with roles encompassing product strategy, product management, engineering, sales, marketing, and corporate development. Prior to becoming CEO of Bomgar, which became BeyondTrust in 2018, he was the Vice President and General Manager of Service Support Products at BMC software, joining BMC through the acquisition of Numara Software in February 2012 where he was Vice President of Products since 2008. Before Numara, Dircks served as General Manager of the Server Virtualization Business at Quest Software.

Previously, Dircks was President of Full Armor Corporation, a start-up he helped transform from a single-product business into a highly-scalable multi-product, multi-channel corporation. He also served as Senior Vice President of Products & Markets at NetIQ Corp, and General Manager for the Web Products Group and Director of Worldwide Product Management at Citrix Systems. Dircks holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Iowa.