In-Person

Atlanta CISO Community

Executive Summit

November 19, 2026 | Atlanta Marriott Northwest at Galleria

November 19, 2026
Atlanta Marriott Northwest at Galleria

Collaborate with your peers

Get together with Atlanta's top CISOs to tackle shared business challenges and critical priorities facing your role today. Participate in this one-day, local program with peer-driven topics and interactive discussions with your true C-level peers.

Join your peers to discuss the most critical issues impacting CISOs today:

Operationalizing trusted AI at scale through governance, accountability, and adaptive security

Elevating security leadership from risk management to enterprise strategy

Harnessing cyber resilience to sustain growth amid uncertainty

Atlanta CISO Governing Body

The Governing Body Co-Chairs shape the summit agenda, ensuring that all content is driven By CISOs, For CISOs®.

Governing Body Co-Chairs

Derek Benz

The Coca-Cola Company
SVP & CISO

John Dickson

Insight Global
CISO

John Gift

PepsiCo
SVP & Global CISO

Stacy Hughes

ABM
SVP & CISO

Kemper Seay

Carter's
VP Infrastructure & Chief Information Security Officer

What to Expect

Interactive Sessions

Hear from CISO practitioners and thought leaders on how they're solving critical challenges impacting your role today in Keynote sessions, and join smaller, interactive discussions with your peers in Breakout and Boardroom sessions.

Community Networking

Make new connections and catch up with old friends in casual conversations during dedicated time for networking designed to better acquaint you with your Atlanta CISO community.

Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Connect with like-minded peers in a private, one-on-one setting through Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.

Agenda

November 19, 2026

8:00am - 8:30am  Registration & Breakfast

8:30am - 9:15am  Gartner Keynote

Turn Cybersecurity Spending into a Business Investment Decision

Chet Geschickter headshot

Chet Geschickter

VP Analyst

Gartner

Executives are often flying blind when it comes to cybersecurity spending. They want limited risk, but don’t know how to achieve it. Protection level agreements (PLAs) turn cybersecurity spending into a strategic business decision. CISOs can use PLAs to offer executives a continuum of risks in return for different levels of investment.  

In this session, you'll learn how to:

  • Expose gaps between security investments, business expectations, and actual protection
  • Move from reporting metrics to governing protection outcomes
  • Use Protection Level Agreements to align risk, funding, and accountability

9:15am - 9:40am  Networking Break

9:40am - 10:25am  Breakout Session

Breakout session

 Details coming soon.

9:40am - 10:25am  Breakout Session

From CISO to Business Influencer

John Gift headshot

John Gift

SVP & Global CISO

PepsiCo

 In today’s dynamic world, CISOs must elevate beyond tactical experts to strategic business partners who influence true change. The time has come to redefine security leadership into business leadership by championing a responsible culture of innovation, driving organizational growth, and taking personal ownership of the company’s reputation.

Join John Gift, SVP & Global CISO at PepsiCo as he shares his perspective on:

  • Reducing risk while improving resiliency to maintain a company’s brand and customer’s trust
  • Building a responsible culture of emerging technology from AI to Quantum
  • Developing intentional relationships to navigate evolving threats, and operational challenges

9:40am - 10:25am  Executive Boardroom

Executive Boardroom

 Details coming soon.

9:40am - 10:25am  Executive Boardroom

Executive Boardroom

Chris Tignor headshot

Chris Tignor

Chief Security Advisor

Microsoft Corporation

Details coming soon.

10:25am - 11:10am  Networking Break

10:35am - 11:00am  Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Connect with like-minded peers in a one-on-one setting through Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.

11:10am - 11:55am  Breakout Session

Explore Cyber Resilience and Recovery with Rubrik

Bryan Willett headshot

Bryan Willett

CISO in Residence

Rubrik

 Join this session to explore one of the community's top priorities this year: Resilience and Recovery. Gain insights into key challenges, emerging approaches, and practical applications to help you navigate what's next.

11:10am - 11:55am  Breakout Session

GenAI — A Generational Paradigm Shift

Lane Sullivan headshot

Lane Sullivan

Chief Information Security and Strategy Officer

Concentric AI

 Generative AI has rapidly evolved from a curiosity into a core driver of enterprise productivity. But as employees embrace its ability to generate content, code, and insights on demand, a new reality is emerging: data security is now the defining challenge of AI adoption. Organizations that recognize this shift early and proactively adapt their data security strategies will be best positioned to innovate with confidence. 

Join this session to discover: 

  • What makes GenAI fundamentally different and its impact on business operations and risk  

  • Where unintended data exposure and downstream consequences can arise  

  • How to adopt AI responsibly without slowing innovation 

11:10am - 11:55am  Executive Boardroom

Rethinking Security for the Age of Agents

Tafi Makamure headshot

Tafi Makamure

Data Security Evangelist

Cyera

Agents are becoming the biggest opportunity in the enterprise, and the biggest adversary. They read your data and act under borrowed identities, at a speed no human review process was built to match. The old question in security was how to keep bad actors out. The new one is more complex: how do you create and manage the biggest risk in your own enterprise, the agents you deployed on purpose?
Join this boardroom to discuss:

  • Establishing a framework where data, identity, and agent security operate as one system
  • Shifting from asking whether you can trust your agents to determining what access they can be trusted with
  • Balancing innovation and risk by creating visibility needed to understand agent activity

11:10am - 11:55am  Executive Boardroom

Strengthening Global AI Security and Governance

Joseph Hinkle headshot

Joseph Hinkle

Group CISO

Smurfit WestRock

Bradon Rogers headshot

Bradon Rogers

Chief Customer Officer

Island

CISOs must secure the enterprise as generative AI adoption grows, ensuring governance, compliance, and visibility. Employees using browser-based AI tools expose organizations to risks like data leakage, security breaches, and regulatory issues. Responsible AI adoption requires balancing innovation and control. Threats from “Shadow AI” and cross-border data flows highlight the need for strong policies that protect the enterprise and enable secure, productive AI use. By advancing security posture and robust policies, organizations can confidently manage AI-driven transformation.

Join this session to discover:

  • Mitigating risks from unauthorized AI tools
  • Implementing global security policies
  • Safeguarding data with secure AI adoption

11:55am - 12:30pm  Lunch Service

12:30pm - 1:05pm  Keynote

Modernizing the SOC for Machine-Speed Defense

Jay Chaudhry headshot

Jay Chaudhry

CEO, Chairman & Founder

Zscaler

Security operations centers (SOCs) are facing a new reality - attackers are leveraging AI to automate multi-step attacks, outpacing human-driven response and overwhelming traditional workflows. CISOs must reimagine their SOCs to operate at machine speed, integrating AI-driven detection, orchestration, and remediation. How should CISOs transform their SOCs with agentic workflows, closed-loop automation, and continuous red teaming that empowers security teams to contain threats faster and reduce business risk?

Join this session to learn:

  • Integrating AI-driven detection and automated response workflows
  • Operationalizing continuous red teaming for proactive threat hunting
  • Accelerating containment and remediation to reduce business risk

1:05pm - 1:30pm  Break

1:30pm - 2:15pm  Breakout Session

AI Value in Practice — CISO Learnings from Generative and Agentic AI

Mike Marsilio headshot

Mike Marsilio

Information Security & Compliance Officer

Paradies Lagardere

The AI opportunity is real, but so are the challenges. In this candid, peer-driven discussion, share and learn how CISOs are putting generative and agentic AI to work while balancing governance, risk, adoption, and measurable business value.Join this session to:

  • Exchange practical AI use cases that are improving efficiency, strengthening security outcomes, and enabling the business
  • Discuss what is working, what is creating risk, and what organizations wish they had addressed earlier
  • Prepare your organization for the next wave of intelligent automation through stronger governance, visibility, and accountability

1:30pm - 2:15pm  Executive Boardroom

Protecting Customer Trust — The CISO's Role in Fraud Risk

Ganjar Imansantosa headshot

Ganjar Imansantosa

CISO & VP Technology Operations

Tropical Smoothie Cafe

Kemper Seay headshot

Kemper Seay

VP Infrastructure & Chief Information Security Officer

Carter's

Greg Dukat headshot

Greg Dukat

Chief Executive Officer

Accertify, Inc

As fraud and cyber threats become increasingly interconnected, CISOs are partnering more closely with business leaders to protect revenue, customer trust and digital experiences. As responsibilities converge, key questions remain: who owns fraud prevention, what intelligence should be shared across teams and how can organizations strengthen protection without adding customer friction?

  • Operating models for aligning security, fraud and risk teams
  • Balancing security, fraud prevention and customer experience
  • Improving visibility and intelligence sharing across teams

1:30pm - 2:15pm  Executive Boardroom

Executive Boardroom

 Details coming soon.

2:15pm - 3:00pm  Networking Break

2:25pm - 2:50pm  Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Connect with like-minded peers in a one-on-one setting through Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.

3:00pm - 3:45pm  Executive Boardroom

The AI Org Chart Reckoning

AI may be changing the CISO role as much as it's changing the enterprise. As organizations accelerate AI adoption, security leaders are reassessing whether existing teams, reporting structures, and skill sets are fit for purpose. From AI governance and model security to autonomous defense and emerging talent needs, CISOs are rethinking how cyber capabilities are organized, staffed, and funded.

Join this session to discuss:

  • Ownership models for AI governance, security, and risk management
  • Evolving team structures, roles, and reporting lines for AI-era challenges
  • Leadership capabilities, technical expertise, and funding strategies needed to support AI initiatives

3:00pm - 3:45pm  Executive Boardroom

You Can't Audit Your Way Out of Third-Party Risk

Third-party cyber risk continues to grow despite increasingly mature assessment programs. As organizations become more dependent on cloud providers, software vendors, business partners, and AI platforms, many CISOs are asking a difficult question: are we measuring risk, or simply documenting it?

Join this peer discussion to explore:

  • Where traditional third-party risk programs break down
  • How CISOs are gaining real-time visibility into vendor risk
  • What resilience and response planning should look like when a critical partner is compromised

3:45pm - 4:00pm  Networking Break

4:35pm - 4:45pm  Closing Comments and Prize Drawing

4:45pm - 6:00pm  Governing Body Reception

Governing Body Reception

Finish the day sharing lessons learned with your peers over light fare and drinks at this closing reception hosted by your governing body members.

November 19, 2026

We look forward to seeing you at an upcoming in-person gathering

Gartner cares about the health and safety of our community. If you are feeling unwell, please refrain from attending the conference. At this time, Gartner does not have any health-related requirements in place for attendance. Should this change, we will follow up with updated guidance.

Location

Your Community Sponsors

Global Thought Leaders

CISO Thought Leaders

Key Sponsors

Program Sponsors

Community Program Manager

For inquiries related to this community, please reach out to your dedicated contact.

Kimberly Lewis

Sr. Community Program Manager

9723450198

kimberly.lewis@gartner.com