In-Person

Dallas CISO Community

Executive Summit

November 4, 2026 | The Westin Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas

November 4, 2026
The Westin Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas

Collaborate with your peers

Get together with Dallas'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:

Advancing GenAI Capabilities with Secure and Accountable Oversight

Streamlining Tools and Processes to Improve User Experience, Productivity, and Business Value

Integrating Cyber Resilience into Core Business Strategy and Operational Excellence

Dallas 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

David Bell

CBRE
SVP, CISO

Mustapha Kebbeh

Ultimate Kronos Group
VP & Chief Security Officer

Scot Miller

Mr. Cooper
SVP & CISO

Scott Moser

Sabre Corporation
SVP & CISO

Becky Palmer

National Life Group
VP & CISO

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 Dallas 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 4, 2026

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

8:30am - 9:15am  Gartner Keynote

Influencing Key Stakeholders

Ethan Budgar headshot

Ethan Budgar

Sr Principal Analyst

Gartner

As cyber risk becomes increasingly tied to business performance, CISOs must drive outcomes through leaders outside the security organization. Success requires more than authority. It depends on building credibility, understanding stakeholder priorities, challenging assumptions, and framing security issues in business terms that inspire action. This session explores practical strategies for influencing decisions, creating urgency, and gaining commitment across the enterprise.

Join this discussion to learn how to:

  • Gain commitment for security initiatives from leaders balancing competing business priorities
  • Reframe security challenges in business that motivate action and support enterprise risk reduction
  • Influence decisions, build urgency, and drive change effectively, even without direct authority


9:15am - 9:40am  Networking Break

9:40am - 10:25am  Breakout Session

Q-Day Countdown - Preparing for the Quantum Shift

Aaron McAllister headshot

Aaron McAllister

Field CTO

Cloudflare

Post-quantum migration has officially shifted from a theoretical threat to an urgent operational mandate. With finalized NIST standards and pressing regulatory deadlines, CISOs must audit legacy infrastructure, protect long-lived secrets, and hold software vendors accountable — all without disrupting core business operations. This session cuts through the Q-Day hype to deliver a practical, executive-level framework for building cryptographic agility and mitigating supply chain exposure before compliance windows close.

Join this session to explore:

  • Mapping high-risk assets, long-lived keys, and vulnerable authentication flows across your ecosystem with targeted asset discovery
  • Defining essential PQC readiness criteria for software vendors and third-party partners for supply chain accountability
  • Implementing pragmatic strategies to modernize encryption layers for future architectural agility

9:40am - 10:25am  Breakout Session

Strengthening Critical Infrastructure Through IT/OT Security Alignment

Clint Wilson headshot

Clint Wilson

CISO

HF Sinclair

As operational technology environments become increasingly connected, organizations are facing new cybersecurity challenges that blur the traditional boundaries between IT and OT. At the same time, critical infrastructure operators must balance security, safety, reliability, and regulatory demands while navigating rapid technological change, including the rise of AI and industrial digitization. Effective alignment of people, processes, and technologies helps reduce vulnerabilities, improve operational continuity, and protect mission-critical assets.

Join this session to discuss:

  • Shifting of OT security to the CISO
  • Aligning IT/OT, culture, risk, and governance
  • Building a mature and resilient converged cybersecurity programs

9:40am - 10:25am  Executive Boardroom

Boardroom hosted by Microsoft

Dd Budiharto headshot

Dd Budiharto

Chief Security Advisor

Microsoft Corporation

 More details coming soon.

9:40am - 10:25am  Executive Boardroom

Executive Boardroom

 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

Breakout session

Rick Holland headshot

Rick Holland

Data & AI Security Officer

Cyera

 Details coming soon.

11:10am - 11:55am  Breakout Session

Breakout session

Adrian Cunningham headshot

Adrian Cunningham

Director of Commercial Sales Engineering

Island

 Details coming soon!

11:10am - 11:55am  Executive Boardroom

Securing the Rise of AI Identities

According to the International Data Corporation, the number of AI identities is expected to reach 1.3 billion in just two years. Yet many organizations don’t secure AI identities effectively, granting excessive access and relying on outdated, slow processes.

Join this session to learn how to:

  • Identify gaps in agent access visibility, ownership, and governance
  • Address the unique challenges of identity security in AI environments
  • Build scalable identity foundations to enable innovation and efficiency

11:10am - 11:55am  Executive Boardroom

Executive Boardroom

 Details coming soon!

11:55am - 12:30pm  Lunch Service

12:30pm - 1:05pm  Keynote

Modernizing the SOC for Machine-Speed Defense

George Moser headshot

George Moser

Global CXO in Residence

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

Breakout Session

 Details coming soon!

1:30pm - 2:15pm  Executive Boardroom

The Autonomous Frontier — Leading Secure AI Transformation

Anthony Scarfe headshot

Anthony Scarfe

Deputy CISO

Elastic

The focus has shifted from adopting AI to determining how much of your business relies on autonomous agents. The question is now: how can CISOs drive productivity with agentic workflows while maintaining control?

Join this session to learn about:

  • The evolving landscape of AI autonomy
  • How the perimeter now centers on agent actions
  • Security as an accelerator for innovation

1:30pm - 2:15pm  Executive Boardroom

CISOs at the Center — Digital Trust As Your Competitive Edge

Your board wants AI. Your business is already running it. AI governance is maturing fast, but the gap is the external perimeter, where agents act, brands live, and AI attacks now scale rapidly. Closing this gap is not just about protecting the business — it is what makes enterprise AI safe to scale.

Join this session to discuss:

  • Navigating governance in the era of context poisoning and external visibility gaps
  • Responding to the rise of fake infrastructure targeting enterprise brands
  • Owning digital trust to position CIOs and CISOs at the center of the AI conversation

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  Breakout Session

Frontier AI and the Next Generation of Cyber Resilience

Wei Dong headshot

Wei Dong

CISO

Michaels Stores

Frontier AI is creating new opportunities to improve decision-making, automate complex processes, and drive operational efficiency across the enterprise. At the same time, its increasing capabilities introduce important considerations around security, privacy, compliance, governance, and organizational readiness. Leaders must understand both the value and the risks of Frontier AI to make informed decisions about adoption, oversight, and scale.

Join this session to learn how to:

  • Assess where Frontier AI can deliver the greatest business value while mitigating associated risks

  • Establish governance security, and compliance frameworks required to enable responsible AI adoption 

  • Prioritize leadership actions balancing innovation, organizational readiness, and risk management

3:45pm - 4:00pm  Networking Break

4:00pm - 4:35pm  Keynote

How Did You Get There? The Path to Cybersecurity Excellence

Robert Pace headshot

Robert Pace

VP & CISO

Invitation Homes LP

Becoming a top-level CISO is rarely the result of a single career move. It is a journey of continuous learning, leadership development, strategic thinking, and resilience. Successful CISOs evolve from security practitioners into business leaders who can manage risk, influence executives, and align cybersecurity with organizational goals. Along the way, some of the most valuable lessons come from mistakes, setbacks, and difficult decisions, which often become the foundation for stronger leadership and better judgment. This keynote explores key milestones, experiences, skills, and decisions that contribute to reaching the highest levels of cybersecurity leadership.

Join this session to learn about:

  • Discovering experiences and decisions that shape a successful CISO career.
  • Leveraging business alignment and strategic influence to drive organizational success.
  • Transforming mistakes and challenges into opportunities for growth and leadership excellence

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

November 4, 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

A block of rooms has been reserved at the The Westin Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas at a reduced conference rate. Reservations should be made online or by calling 972-505-2900. Please mention Gartner CISO Executive Summit to ensure the appropriate room rate.

Deadline to book using the discounted room rate of $369 USD (plus tax) is October 12, 2026.

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.

Jeff Hull

Community Program Manager

214-649-0033

jeff.hull@gartner.com