The Software Report is pleased to announce The Top 25 Women Leaders in Cybersecurity of 2022. Cybersecurity has grown to become essential across all industries, which means the women that comprise this year’s list, some of the most highly-skilled professionals in the cybersecurity industry, are more important than ever. A majority of this year’s awardees directly serve cybersecurity companies, dedicating themselves to protecting the valuable online assets of their clients in an increasingly digital world.
This year’s awardees include Poornima DeBolle of Menlo Security, who advises security professionals on which use cases deserve extra focus, helping protect productivity while enabling modern businesses to succeed; Jadee Hanson, who leads global risk and compliance, security operations, incident response, and the insider threat program for Code42; and Cheryl VanVoorhees of Optiv Security, who is recognized in the industry as a strategy-driven executive with expertise in leading and managing high performing teams, developing new talent, and executing critically important business initiatives.
Although these professionals work across the industry in roles in information security, data privacy, marketing, and more, they share many common traits. They have deep industry knowledge, understand the needs of their clients, and are working to innovate and develop the most effective security products, services, and programs possible. They have been recognized not just for the services they provide to their clients, but for their contributions to their organizations and to the broader cybersecurity field. Please join us in celebrating the accomplishments of The Top 25 Women Leaders in Cybersecurity of 2022.
1. Jamie Smith, RSA Security
Title: Chief Computer Analyst and Cybersecurity Officer
Jamie Smith is the Chief Computer Analyst and Cybersecurity Officer for RSA Security, which helps manage digital risk with a range of capabilities and expertise, including integrated risk management, threat detection and response, identity and access management, and fraud prevention. It is well known for RSA SecurID Access, providing two-factor authentication to hundreds of technologies utilizing hardware tokens that rotate keys on timed intervals, software tokens, and one-time codes. Smith runs all cybersecurity operations for the company, and she is integrated with 21st-century skills such as AI intelligence, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, communication skills, and extensive computer knowledge.
Smith joined RSA after three years as the Information Technology Manager at ABC Technologies. She earned a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science from New York University.
2. Poornima DeBolle, Menlo Security
Title: Co-founder and Chief Product Officer
Poornima DeBolle is Cofounder and Chief Product Officer of Menlo Security, a leading vendor in the Isolation space that secures customers the world over while prioritizing the user experience. Her specialties include network security architecture, management of engineering and technical groups, product definition, company and product evaluations for M&A and partnerships, and more. She is known to advise security professionals on which use cases deserve extra focus to help protect productivity while enabling modern businesses to succeed.
Previously, as a product management executive at Juniper Networks, DeBolle was responsible for cloud security, security management, and security analytics. She came to Juniper through its acquisition of Altor Networks, where she was the Vice President of Product Management and Business Development. Prior to Altor, she was Head of Business Development at Check Point, where she also held product management and engineering roles. DeBolle started her career as a Firmware Engineer for Technically Elite. She is currently an official member of the Forbes Technology Council. DeBolle holds a Master of Science in Computer Science from Arizona State University and a Bachelor of Engineering from Bangalore University.
3.
Jadee Hanson, Code 42
Title: Chief Information Security Officer and Chief Information Officer
As Chief Information Security Officer and Chief Information Officer at Code42, the Insider Risk Management leader, Jadee Hanson leads global risk and compliance, security operations, incident response, and the insider threat program.
Prior to Code42, Hanson held senior leadership roles in security at Target Corporation, where she implemented compliance, risk management, and insider threat programs. She also served as the security lead for the sale of Target Pharmacies to CVS Health. Before Target, Hanson was a security consultant at Deloitte.
Cyber Defense Magazine named Hanson a Black Unicorn - Top 10 Women in Cybersecurity and Top 10 CISO in 2021 and one of the Top 100 Women in Cybersecurity for 2020, and SC Magazine named her a Women in Security: PowerPlayer in 2019. She is regularly quoted in cybersecurity media outlets and co-authored the book Inside Jobs: Why Insider Risk Is the Biggest Cyber Threat You Can’t Ignore.
4. Cheryl VanVoorhees, Optiv Security
Title: Executive Vice President of Operations
As Executive Vice President of Operations for Optiv Security, Cheryl VanVoorhees is responsible for driving scale for her company that enables growth while leading core operations, services, and sales support functions. VanVoorhees is recognized in the industry as a strategy-driven executive with expertise in leading and managing high performing teams, developing new talent, and executing critically important business initiatives. She has a track record of using her business acumen in the areas of change management, operations and systems improvement, and operational excellence to make organizations more data and process-focused.
VanVoorhees has more than 20 years of sales, operations, and leadership experience in the IT and cybersecurity industries. She arrived at Optiv from Avnet Technology Solutions, where she managed inside sales teams, led strategic growth initiatives, ran a high potential talent development program, and led integration efforts for acquisitions. Today, she serves on numerous advisory councils for key industry companies. VanVoorhees earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
5. Meg Berry, Axonius
Title: Vice President of Demand Generation
Meg Berry is Vice President of Demand Generation at Axonius. A founding member of the Axonius marketing team with over six years of experience in cybersecurity and 13 years in demand generation, she’s responsible for establishing and scaling the company’s growth strategy.
Berry has been recognized for her contributions to cybersecurity marketing as the recipient of the 2020 Cybersecurity Marketer of the Year: Rising Star Award, the Axonius CEO Award, the Axonius Bulldog Award for Outstanding Contribution to Sales, and Cybereason’s 2018 Field Marketer of the Year Award. She was also recognized as one of the Top 25 Women Leaders in Cybersecurity in 2021.
Berry has a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from Bentley University. While there, she played an integral role in shaping the Bentley Service Learning and Civic Engagement Certificate Program, helping drive student engagement in local community service projects and organizations.
6. Erica Geil, Snyk
Title: Chief Information Officer
Erica Geil is the Chief Information Officer for developer security platform company Snyk, which helps businesses use open source code and stay fully secure. As a C-suite leader, Geil drives stellar results while building trust and collaboration across global, cross-functional teams such as Corporate Information Systems and Information Security. She inspires her employees and peers to perform to the best of their ability, bringing a versatile and strategic approach to business that adds value at the highest levels and in high-pressure, high-stakes environments. Geil has earned a reputation for her pre and post-public offer scaling expertise.
Geil joined Snyk after an impressive decade with Groupon, and as its Vice President of Global Engineering and Operations she established the company as one of the world’s ten largest email senders. She accomplished this by leading marketing platform operations to attain zero downtime in 2018 while also reducing total annual consumer fraud losses by more than 40% for two years. In the same Groupon division, Geil previously worked as Senior Director, Director, and Senior Operations Manager. Prior to that, she collaborated in establishing technology and design consulting firm Eight Bit Studios. Preceding this, she was a Senior Project Manager for Designkitchen (now Blast Radius Chicago.) Geil earned a Master of Business Administration from Pepperdine Graziadio Business School as well as a Bachelor of Science in Graphic Design from the University of Cincinnati.
7. Katie Hanahan, ITsavvy
Title: Vice President of Cybersecurity Strategy
Katie Hanahan is Vice President of Cybersecurity Strategy for ITsavvy, a single source, end-to-end IT provider and one of the first in the country to specialize both in expedited product delivery and advanced IT solutions. ITsavvy’s growing technology portfolio includes Lifecycle Management, vCISO Services, Cloud, Data Center, and Managed Services. ITsavvy supports everyday IT operations, protects IT environments and equipment, and architects custom-tailored solutions from its industry-respected IT experts and engineers.
As the strategy lead for cybersecurity at ITsavvy, Hanahan is directly responsible for developing reliable and trustworthy solutions that meet clients’ cybersecurity needs. She has managed security operations on the client side, and therefore has personal experience with the challenges ITsavvy’s clients confront every day. She values strong solution partnerships, operational agility, and a creative mindset, particularly in addressing emerging security threats.
Hanahan has served as Vice President of Cybersecurity Strategy at ITsavvy since January 2021. Prior to that, she was Territory Director for Cybereason, Regional Director-Central U.S. for HYPR Corp., and Regional Director-Central Region for Agari. Hanahan began her career with CDW as an Account Manager and then Field Account Executive-U.S. Army Strategic Programs. She received her Bachelor of Arts in History from North Park University.
8. Tammie Tham, Ensign InfoSecurity
Title: Chief Executive Officer
Tammie Tham is the Chief Executive Officer at Ensign InfoSecurity. Tham was a founding member of Ensign at its inception in 2017, and worked for years as the head of its enterprise portfolio management division. Tham’s rise to her current position corresponded with a significant expansion in Ensign’s operations throughout its territory, adding hundreds of employees per year in addition to offering bespoke security infrastructure and threat detection services to international enterprises.
Tham is an industry veteran boasting 20 years of experience in the cybersecurity field. Before signing on with Ensign, Tham worked as IBM’s Security Practice Leader for the ASEAN region, after which she served as Vice President of BT Frontline. She also founded and served as CEO of Singapore-based Accel Systems and Technologies. Tham is a member of the board of trustees for Singapore Institute of Technology and sits on the board of directors for Mediacorp. She is also the Honorary Secretary of SGTech and the Co-chair of the Cyber Security Awareness Alliance.
9. Sara Shekel, AU10TIX
Title: Chief Delivery Officer
Sara Shekel was named Chief Delivery Officer for AU10TIX in October 2018. AU10TIX is an identity intelligence leader headquartered in Israel, providing critical, modular solutions to link physical and digital identities so that companies and their customers can confidently connect. AU10TIX is the preferred partner for customer onboarding and customer verification automation. Its proprietary technology provides results in under 8 seconds, allowing companies to onboard faster, prevent fraud, meet compliance mandates, and establish trust with their customers.
Shekel is a delivery leader with a wide variety of expertise and proven year-over-year results. In her more than 20 years in the industry, she has developed the ability to navigate complex projects through out-of-the-box thinking and deep experience in the software development life cycle. She has built teams and partnerships around the globe to deliver the right solutions in the most effective ways.
Prior to AU10TIX, Shekel was Program Director at Nutcracker Technology. Before that, she spent a majority of her career at Amdocs, where she was Vice President – Delivery & Program Management for more than 20 years and then Vice President Service Partner for more than 6 years. Shekel earned a degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from Tel Aviv University and speaks both English and Hebrew.
10. Pamela Diaz, Entara
Title: President and Chief Executive Officer
Pamela Diaz is President and Chief Executive Officer of Entara, a new kind of IT Managed Services Company designed to help clients journey from their current issues and the immediate needs of today, through the adoption of new but proven technologies of tomorrow, and then, to the preparation for the uncharted technical opportunities that are beyond.
Diaz brought her experience in the investment world to Entara and has been pivotal in the development of the strategic vision and offerings at the firm. She is an experienced leader and has devoted her career to connecting organizations with the solutions and assets that their businesses need to thrive.
In addition to her work at Entara, Diaz is the Founder of Forecheck, an automated incident management, remediation, and resilience platform built for shielding companies from repeated attacks. She is on the Board of Directors of Bounce Children’s Foundation, an organization transforming the lives of chronically ill children and their families, and serves as the Chair of the Governance Committee. She is also very involved with the Female Integrator Mastermind (FIM), a peer-to-peer female mentoring group, and is on the Events Committee. Through FIM, she regularly presents about equality and female empowerment. She received a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Enterprise Management, both from Northern Illinois University.
11. Saryu Nayyar, Gurucul
Title: Chief Executive Officer
Saryu Nayyar is an internationally recognized cybersecurity author, speaker, and member of the Forbes Technology Council. She has more than 15 years of experience in information security, IAM, compliance, and risk management. She has been recognized for her industry achievements with several awards including EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women, Cyber Defense Magazine Top 10 Women in Cyber Security, the SC Magazine Reboot Leadership Award, and more. A serial entrepreneur, Saryu was part of the founding team that created Vaau, an identity and access management startup that was acquired by Sun Microsystems (now Oracle) in 2008. She has held security product leadership roles at Oracle, Simeio, Sun Microsystems, and Disney. She also spent several years in senior positions at the technology security and risk management practice of Ernst & Young. She is passionate about building disruptive technologies and has several patents for behavior analytics, anomaly detection and dynamic risk scoring inventions.
12. Lisa Maynard, ID.me
Title: Chief Experience Officer
Lisa Maynard is the Chief Experience Officer at ID.me, a federally certified identity provider specializing in digital identity protection. She is resolutely committed to tailoring customer experiences and improving identity protection outcomes for clients. Maynard rose to her current position after a period as Chief of Staff, where she served as Principal Deputy to the CEO and was responsible for general management, culture, strategic projects, and operations. She additionally fleshed out and managed company-wide future organization design.
Maynard came to ID.me following a nearly ten-year career with Accenture. Her most recent role there, Management Consulting Senior Manager, entailed advising organizations on strategy, technology, and human capital best practices as well as leading a 75-person technology program. She previously held several other roles within the company, beginning as a Management Consulting Analyst. Prior to that, she was an Analyst in Aon Hewitt's Early Career Development Program. Maynard holds a Bachelor of Science in Human and Organizational Development from Vanderbilt University.
13. Erin Murtha, OccamSec
Title: Chief Operating Officer
Erin Murtha currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer at OccamSec, a top cybersecurity company providing effective end-to-end customized solutions by understanding each customer’s specific needs and budget. As COO, Murtha executes strategic organizational activities to ensure effective outcomes in support of OccamSec’s vision and growth trajectory. To this end, she optimizes organizational performance and responds swiftly to business needs through growth plans, implementing cost controls, and process optimization. She oversees targeted recruiting, ensures efficient resource management, and provides client delivery that exceeds standards.
Murtha brings over 15 years of risk mitigation experience from her work at Homeland Security, where she identified high priority procurement activities and developed comprehensive risk reporting on which the Executive Branch relied.
Murtha has led teams responding to Congressional inquiries under critical deadlines affecting security posture. She represented the U.S. Trustees Program for the analysis and implementation of all U.S. bankruptcy systems and helped implement the U.S. special permit system that tracks one million daily shipments of hazardous materials.
14. Divya Ghatak, SentinelOne
Title: Chief People Officer
Divya Ghatak is the Chief People Officer of SentinelOne, a pioneer in delivering autonomous security for the endpoint, datacenter, and cloud environments to help organizations secure their assets with speed and simplicity. SentinelOne unifies prevention, detection, response, remediation, and forensics in a single platform powered by artificial intelligence. The firm has enterprise customers worldwide and offices in Mountain View, Tel Aviv, and Tokyo. It has been recognized as a Leader by Gartner in its Endpoint Protection Magic Quadrant.
Ghatak is one of technology’s most-accomplished HR professionals. At SentinelOne, Ghatak leads People and Talent functions across the firm’s global footprint and has enabled the company’s significant growth and expansion plans for go-to-market and engineering, along with further strengthening SentinelOne’s amazing company culture.
Prior to SentinelOne, Ghatak held the position of Global Vice President of People at Nevro. While there, Ghatak built out the global people function and helped drive hypergrowth as the company nearly doubled in both revenues and size after its IPO. Before that, Ghatak was Chief People Officer at GoodData and held global HR leadership roles in a variety of technology companies, including Cisco and Tavant. Ghatak received her Master’s in Human Resources Management/Personnel Administration from Tata Institute of Social Science and her Bachelor of Arts in Economics with Honors from Delhi University.
15. Christine Kaszubski, Pindrop
Title: Chief People Officer
Christine Kaszubski is the Chief People Officer at Pindrop, a company founded with one goal in mind: to bring security, identity, and trust to every voice interaction. Pindrop solutions help detect fraudsters and authenticate callers, reducing fraud and operational costs, while improving customer experience and protecting brand reputation using patented technology that extracts an unrivaled amount of intelligence from every call encountered. Pindrop solutions have been implemented in 8 of the top 10 U.S. banks and 5 of the top 7 U.S. life insurers. Additionally, 70% of Pindrop U.S. customers are Fortune 500.
Kaszubski is a strategic human resource leader with extensive experience across multiple global industries and functions. She is a true business partner, aligning human resource visions to support organizational goals and initiate change across business and geographic boundaries. She is a champion for women leaders and their development in the workplace, and her goal is to successfully build systems and teams from the ground up to deliver value-add solutions.
Prior to Pindrop, Kaszubski served as Chief People Officer for both SalesLoft and Commissions Inc. Before that, she was Vice President at C2 Education and Senior Human Resource Business Partner at Dunkin’ Brands. She got her start as Human Resource Manager at Ford Motor Company. Kaszubski received her Master’s Certificate of Study in Organizational Development from Colorado State University and her Bachelor of Business Administration in Human Resource Management and Organizational Communications from Western Michigan University.
16. Marina Ruiz Floriach, IThinkUPC
Title: Chief Corporate Services Officer
Marina Ruiz Floriach is the Chief Corporate Services Officer at IThinkUPC, the advanced digital services company of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (BarcelonaTech), one of the leading technical universities in Europe. IThinkUPC delivers a wide range of cybersecurity services, including SOC-as-a-Service, ethical hacking, training, etc. She brings 20+ years of experience helping grow IT companies like IThinkUPC, where she is currently responsible for finance, legal, people, culture, information systems, and organizational processes.
Ruiz Floriach led the creation of the company after carrying out a partial division in 2016. Since then, she has played a key role in achieving a CAGR of 17%, allowing her to expand IThinkUPC’s talented team by over 200%. In these years, she has led the financial and talent management model that has made IThinkUPC the trusted go-to partner for companies in all sectors in terms of cybersecurity. Likewise, always leading by example, guided by her commitment to people and well supported by her team, Ruiz Floriach constantly promotes initiatives such as the work-life balance program “People First,” the Gender Equality Plan, and the Code of Ethics.
17. Renata Budko, Traceable AI
Title: Head of Product
Renata Budko is an accomplished product and technology leader in the cybersecurity space and currently Head of Product at Traceable AI, a security platform that provides API security for cloud native applications. Traceable AI applies the power of distributed tracing and machine learning to protect your business applications and its data from API based attacks.
Budko is a well-respected industry expert with a wide understanding and knowledge of industry trends and technologies in the security space and holds four patents in cloud security. She has extensive experience in leadership and executive roles across product management and go-to-market roles. Prior to Traceable AI, Budko was the Chief Marketing Officer at Wallarm and Vice President of Products at Winkk. Before that, she co-founded HyTrust (acquired by cloud security firm Entrust) and led product management and marketing. Budko has been a speaker at VMworld, API security conference, Network Interop, HPWorld, CloudCon, and EMC World events as well many regional and online events.
As a leader, Budko is known for her visionary leadership in solving challenging and emerging cybersecurity problems by going where the puck is and using her knowledge and collaborative skills to create growth and educational opportunities for everyone in her immediate and extended teams. She holds a Master in Business Administration and a Master of Computer Engineering from UC Davis and a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Moscow.
18. Selena Proctor, AppViewX
Title: Chief Marketing Officer
Selena Proctor was recently appointed as the Chief Marketing Officer of AppViewX, a company revolutionizing the way NetOps and DevSecOps teams deliver Machine Identity Management and Application Delivery Automation solutions to enterprise IT. In her role, Proctor spearheads the execution of strategic objectives to increase the company’s global awareness within the market. She leverages her extensive experience in cybersecurity marketing in addition to a strong background in demand generation.
Proctor had previously served in several positions at Onapsis, beginning as the Director of Marketing Programs, then as Vice President of Marketing, before becoming Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Chief of Staff to the CEO. Her unique vision was celebrated for directly enabling Onapsis brand awareness in the market and led to her ultimate appointment as its Chief Customer Officer. In her prior role at Core Security, Proctor was responsible for fueling the global sales pipeline, overseeing the marketing programs and customer events, and maintaining the marketing budget. She also held a role in optimizing inside sales for Dell. Proctor received a Bachelor’s in Marketing Management from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
19. Mary Byrne, Immuta
Title: Chief Operating Officer
Mary Byrne is the Chief Operating Officer of Immuta, a leader in cloud data access control providing data engineering and operations teams one universal platform to control access to cloud-based analytical data sets. She is responsible for overseeing data access operations strategies, driving growth, setting ambitious milestones, and is credited with fostering a diverse and welcoming work environment at her company.
Preceding her tenure with Immuta, Byrne was the Vice President of Sales for TurnTo Networks. Before that, she was the Chief Operating Officer of data relationship company Personal BlackBox Company. At BloomReach, Byrne served as Head of Sales first for the Eastern division and then for scale. Earlier in her career, she held Vice President roles at ividence, Goodmail Systems, Microsoft subsidiary FAST, Bluestreak, and DoubleClick. Byrne earned a Master of Business Administration from Simmons University and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Long Island University.
20. Aisling MacRunnels, CyCognito
Title: Chief Growth & Strategy Officer
Aisling MacRunnels is the Chief Growth and Strategy Officer for CyCognito, a cybersecurity software company based in Palo Alto, California. Founded in 2017, CyCognito is the creator of the Shadow Risk Elimination platform, providing nation-state-level cyber reconnaissance techniques for any organization. With a team of more than 160 cybersecurity experts and professionals, the company has a valuation of $800 million.
As a leader, MacRunnels boasts over 30 years of experience in building early-stage and mature businesses in tech and cybersecurity. With a passion for creating markets, she is an executive who knows how to balance analytics and emotional intelligence. Prior to joining CyCognito in 2021, she was Chief Business and Growth Officer at Synack, a cybersecurity technology company. Previously, she served as Chief Development Officer for Jive Software, Chief Marketing Officer at Valassis Digital/Brand.net, and Chief Marketing Officer at 3VR, Inc. She holds a Bachelor of Science from Mount St. Mary's University and a Master of Business Administration from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business.
21. Kate Toumazi, Privitar
Title: Chief Operating Officer
As Chief Operating Officer of Privitar, Kate Toumazi is responsible for driving an execution focus across the organization and overseeing the day-to-day operation of the business. Founded in 2014, Privitar empowers organizations to harness the power of data to innovate faster while protecting the privacy of individuals. Headquartered in London, the company has over 150 employees and offices around the world, with an international customer base that includes many Global 2000 banking, healthcare, insurance, life sciences, professional services, retail, and telecommunications companies.
Prior to joining Privitar, Toumazi held several global leadership positions in transformation and growth at Thomson Reuters, and she has extensive experience in pricing and commercial strategy. She began her career qualifying as a U.K. Chartered Accountant in professional practice at Arthur Andersen & Co. She is a trustee with Tender, an arts-based charity working to prevent domestic abuse and sexual assault. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Nottingham and an Associate Chartered Accountant (ACA) qualification from The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).
22. Nancy Free, Armor Cybersecurity
Title: Chief Compliance and Data Privacy Officer
Nancy Free serves as Chief Compliance and Data Privacy Officer for Armor Cybersecurity in Richardson, Texas. Armor is a global leader in cloud-native managed detection and response. As a trusted partner to more than 1,500 firms in over 40 countries, Armor offers cybersecurity and compliance consulting, professional services, and managed services. The company boasts more than 140 employees between offices in Texas and London. In her dual role, Free oversees Armor’s data protection strategy and implementation to ensure compliance with privacy laws and regulations and ensures compliance with multiple regulations and frameworks for customers, partners, and the company.
Previously, Free led global IT compliance for Game Stop, oversaw regulatory policy and compliance for Energy Future Holdings, and served in IT roles at Southwest Airlines and Centex. Free is a Certified Information Privacy Manager, a certificate she received from the International Association of Privacy Professionals, and is a Board Member and Director of CyberWIDE. She holds a degree in Biochemistry from the University of North Texas.
23. Aimei Wei, Stellar Cyber
Title: Founder and Chief Technology Officer
Aimei Wei is the Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Stellar Cyber, Inc., a cybersecurity software company based in Santa Clara, California. Launched in 2015 as Aella Data, Stellar Cyber is the innovator of Open XDR, the only intelligent, next-gen security operations platform that provides high-speed, high-fidelity threat detection and response across the entire attack surface. The company’s industry-leading security software improves security operations productivity by empowering security analysts to kill threats in minutes instead of days or weeks. Driven by a workforce of 120 professionals, Stellar Cyber has amassed a considerable number of industry awards, including the Gold Globee® Award for Best Cyber Security Solution & Service.
As an industry leader, Wei has over 25 years of experience building successful products and leading teams in data networking and telecommunications. Prior to founding Stellar Cyber, she was a Senior Software Engineer at Cisco Networks, as well as a Lead Software Engineer at Kineto Wireless and Ciena. Wei holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Tsinghua University and a Master’s in Computer Science from Queen’s University at Kingston in Ontario, Canada.
24. Cristina Bentue, IriusRisk
Title: Chief Operating Officer
After earning several master’s degrees in Near Eastern Studies, Cristina Bentue forged her career in technology startups between Barcelona and the City of London before co-founding IriusRisk. In 2008, along with Stephen De Vries, Bentue founded Continuum Security, which developed the IriusRisk platform; the company rebranded as IriusRisk in 2020. In her day-to-day, Bentue is the company’s Chief Operating Officer and Head of Research & Development (R&D). Headquartered in Huesca, Spain, IriusRisk boasts a workforce of more than 100 dedicated professionals and is trusted by global organizations including IBM Security and Red Hat.
Bentue is an advocate for open platforms and leads the community edition of IriusRisk, offering users a free and collaborative platform to share threat models of system architectures. Prior to founding IriusRisk, she was an Operations Assistant at Inverline Networks and a professional translator at Amalgama Publishers. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish Language and Literature from the National Distance Education University in Madrid, Spain; several degrees from the University of Barcelona, including a Master’s in Comparative Semitic Linguistics; and a Master’s in the Ancient Near East from SOAS University of London.
25. Honey Shelton, SBS CyberSecurity
Title: Chief Executive Officer
In her role as Chief Executive Officer of SBS CyberSecurity, Honey Shelton develops, communicates, executes, and sustains corporate strategic initiatives. SBS CyberSecurity (SBS) is a premier cybersecurity consulting and audit firm based in Madison, South Dakota. Since 2004, SBS has been dedicated to assisting organizations with the implementation of valuable risk management programs and to mitigating cybersecurity risks. The company has provided cybersecurity solutions to over 1,300 organizations across the United States and abroad, including financial institutions ranging in asset size from $12 million to over $20 billion.
Shelton is a nationally-recognized professional speaker, with over a half-million bankers participating in her programs. She invests time as a faculty member for banking schools around the country and is a frequent presenter for state banking associations. In 1983, she founded InterAction Training, and she remains in a consulting capacity for the company’s current team. Previously, she also served as an Executive Vice President and Chief Retail Banking Officer for First Victoria Insurance. She is a graduate of the University of Colorado School of Bank Marketing.
