ICS and the Investment Community

Speaker Information

Panelist Information

Robert R. Ackerman Jr.

AllegisCyber Capital

Bob Ackerman is referred to as one of “Cyber’s Money Men” by major business publications for his experience and leadership in venture capital investing in Cyber Security start-up technology companies. He has been named one of "Technology’s Top 100 Investors" by Forbes magazine. With 20 plus years of experience as a venture capitalist, Bob is the Founder and Managing Director of Silicon Valley-based Cyber Security venture capital firm AllegisCyber Capital, Co-Founder of Columbia, Maryland-based Cyber Start-up Studio DataTribe and the Founder and Executive Chairman of Founder’s Equity Partners, a direct secondary investment firm that also invests in cyber security companies. Prior to his career as a venture capitalist, Bob was a serial entrepreneur as a CEO and founder of two successful technology companies, including leading UNIX technology company UniSoft, and InfoGear Technology Corporation, the visionary creator of the original iPhones. Bob has a degree in Computer Science and is a member of the Adjunct Faculty at the University of California’s Haas School of Business MBA program.

Ron Gula

Gula Tech Adventures

Ron started his cybersecurity career as a network penetration tester for the NSA. At BBN, he developed network honeypots to lure hackers and he ran US Internetworking's team of penetration testers and incident responders. As CTO of Network Security Wizards, Ron pioneered the art of network security monitoring and produced the Dragon Intrusion Detection System which was recognized as a market leader by Gartner in 2001. As CEO and co-founder of Tenable Network Security, Ron led the company's rapid growth and product vision from 2002 through 2016. He helped them scale to more than 20,000 customers worldwide, raise $300m in venture capital and achieve revenues in excess of $100m annually. Ron is President at Gula Tech Adventures which focuses on investing and advisement of two dozen cyber-security companies. Ron was honored and humbled to receive the 2017 Betamore BETA award, be named a 2016 Baltimore Tech 10 leader and a 2013 Maryland entrepreneur of the year by Ernest and Young.

Rachel Kolesnikov-Lindsey

USAF Defense Innovation Unit

Rachel is an Active Duty Air Force Acquisitions Engineer who joined DIUx in October 2017. She is the Director of Organizational Development for DIU and also leads the DIU Small, Responsive Launch efforts and Hardware to Software Transformation to modernize the legacy systems beginning with the COBRA DANE radar. Prior to DIUx, Rachel worked in the Launch Enterprise Systems Directorate at the Space and Missile Systems Center, built composite aircraft at the Spanish National Laboratories as part of the Engineer & Scientist Exchange Program (ESEP), and worked in the Materiel Directorate at AFRL. Rachel has a B.S. and M.S. in Materials Science & Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Bob Stasio

SecureTech

Bob leads Dreamit’s SecureTech vertical where he sets overall strategic focus, expands the customer network, and works daily with securetech startups from around the world helping them refine their positioning and go-to-market strategy, think through how to scale sales and operations and map out their capital needs along with how to raise their next round. Before joining Dreamit, Bob held multiple roles at IBM Security, leading efforts in Cyber Operations and Threat Hunting. Prior to IBM, Bob worked in the private sector, leading threat intelligence programs at Bloomberg and global financial firms. He also has deep government experience having held positions at NSA’s Cyber Center, U.S. Cyber Command, U.S. Army’s Signals Intelligence Corps, the FAA, and NASA. Bob served as a U.S. Army officer and is a recipient of numerous military awards, including the Bronze Star and Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal. Bob is also a Truman National Security Fellow, Brookings Institution Council on U.S. and Italy Fellow, and serves on the advisory boards of multiple startups. He received a BS in Mathematical Physics, holds a Master’s degree in Intelligence Studies, and also completed numerous U.S. Department of Defense professional education courses focusing on intelligence operations. He holds various technical certifications, including CISSP, a globally recognized standard of achievement in the cybersecurity industry.

Bryson Bort

SCYTHE

Bryson is the Founder of SCYTHE, a start-up building a next generation attack emulation platform, and GRIMM, a boutique cybersecurity consultancy, and Co-Founder of the ICS Village, a non-profit advancing awareness of industrial control system security. He is a National Security Institute Fellow and an Advisor to the Army Cyber Institute. Prior, Bryson led an elite offensive capabilities development group. As a U.S. Army Officer, he served as a Battle Captain and Brigade Engineering Officer in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom before leaving the Army as a Captain. ‍ Bryson received his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science with honors from the United States Military Academy at West Point. He holds a Master’s Degree in Telecommunications Management from the University of Maryland, a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Florida, and completed graduate studies in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Texas.