
Houston CISO Community
Executive Summit
December 14, 2023 | Hyatt Regency Houston West
December 14, 2023
Hyatt Regency Houston West
Collaborate with your peers
Get together with Houston'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:
Quantifying the business's cyber-risk appetite and leveraging it to frame security investments
Improving the agility of security operating models to keep pace with organizational priorities
Collectively conquering the challenges of the cyber talent shortage
Houston 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

Doug Rinehart
Newfold Digital
CISO

Derek Rude
Weatherford
Director, IT Security

Anthony Souza
Corteva Inc
VP, Chief Information Security Officer

Genady Vishnevetsky
Stewart Title Company
CISO

Joy Wangdi
LyondellBasell
Cybersecurity Trust Officer
What to Expect
Agenda
7:45am - 8:30am Registration & Breakfast
8:30am - 9:15am Keynote
Creating a Company of Owners

Daren Martin
Culture Architect and Best-Selling Author of "A Company of Owners"
Guest Speaker
Business leaders are always hunting for ways to squash culture killers, cultivate a fun business climate and boost employee relationships. In Dr. Daren Martin’s top-selling book, “A Company of Owners,” he provides a blueprint for business leaders to build a thriving culture and maximize employee engagement.
In this session, you will discover:
- Tips for engagement to keep a high level of talent
- The importance of having a BAM – Business Actionable Mantra!
- Strategies to inspire cultural innovation and growth
9:15am - 9:40am Networking Break
9:40am - 10:25am Breakout Session
Overcoming Third-Party Risks & BYOD Challenges with the Enterprise Browser
Hosted by Island

Brian Kenyon
Chief Strategy Officer
Island
Third-party contractors are becoming increasingly important to organizations due to the rise of the gig economy and the need for specialized project work. However, hiring these contractors can lead to additional third-party risks, costs, and complexities. When using contractors CISOs may choose to allow them to bring-your-own-device (BYOD), but this comes with its own set of security challenges. One solution could be to adopt cutting-edge enterprise browser technologies to overcome this and ensure secure third-party access.
Join this session for an interactive, open discussion on the community's viewpoint on the relationship between third-party risk, third-party access and BYOD:
- Your chance to brainstorm with your fellow CISOs an approach to third-party risk, access and BYOD
- Applying technologies like the enterprise browser to secure your company’s assets and limit the potential risks of third-party access
- Streamline and secure third-party contractor access and BYOD strategies
9:40am - 10:25am Executive Boardroom
Embracing AI — Pros, Cons, and the Challenge of Change
Hosted by CrowdStrike & Abnormal Security

Victoriano Casas III
Executive Strategist
CrowdStrike

Scott Deluke
Director of Enterprise Sales Engineering
Abnormal Security

Christopher Ward
CISO
TechnipFMC

Ross Wells
Cyber Authority
BP Americas
For leaders, there’s nothing new about managing internal expectations on hyped technologies, but the recent advancements in AI have caused an increased and urgent demand for the evaluation and adoption of generative AI models. There is no question that these breakthroughs are just the beginning, but technology executives must temper expectations and ensure a thoughtful approach to building AI models that will add more value than risk.
Join this session to discuss:
- Opportunities and limitations in applying AI to security solutions
- Identifying and aligning a business need and use case for AI implementation
- Using native AI to secure the business amidst a quickly shifting landscape
9:40am - 10:25am Executive Boardroom
Clearing Data Security Hurdles in the Cloud
As the cloud environment grows in complexity, so do concerns about data governance. How can CISOs continue to ensure the enterprise’s most valuable assets are protected in the cloud?
Join this session to discuss:
- Maintaining a strong security posture as the cloud evolves
- Leveraging the right tools and teams to secure data
- Communicating the assumed risk of storing sensitive data in the cloud
10:25am - 11:00am Networking Break
10:30am - 10:55am Peer-to-Peer Meetings
Peer-to-Peer Meetings
Connect with like-minded peers in a one-on-one setting through Evanta’s Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.
11:00am - 11:45am Breakout Session
Data and AI – Driving Value for a Secure Organization
Hosted by Google Cloud

Eric Ranta
Director, Customer Value & Transformation Advisors
Google Cloud
Even the most successful companies face challenges harnessing the full value of a robust data and AI strategy. Security leaders must keep abreast of data and AI trends to understand how to realize and prioritize greater potential at scale for optimal business value.
In this session, you’ll learn:
- Benefits of a unified data and AI platform
- Customer success insights
- Five trends for an interconnected and secure data strategy
11:00am - 11:45am Executive Boardroom
Unifying the Analyst Experience to Improve Threat Detection and Response
Hosted by IBM Security

Cris Thomas
X-Force Global Lead of Policy and Special Initiatives
IBM Security

Cynthia Soares
Director, IT Information Security
Baylor College of Medicine

Mike Phillips
Chief Information Security Officer
Cheniere Energy
Given today’s dynamic threat landscape, involving constantly changing malicious TTPs, CISOs must have a proactive threat management strategy to handle complex attacks. However, with widely distributed infrastructures and the number of tools with different levels of control and responsibility, maintaining true visibility is difficult. Staffing shortages and the high volume of alerts that come in from fragmented tools adds to this challenge. The solution? Unifying the analyst experience to connect existing tools and workflows across your hybrid cloud environment.
Join this session to discuss:
- Detecting and responding to advanced attacks like ransomware
- Unifying the analyst experience with AI and machine learning - starting with understanding your attack surface and through EDR/XDR, SIEM, SOAR
- Identifying blind spots in your cloud security strategy due to information fragmentation
11:00am - 11:45am Executive Boardroom
Making Every Security Investment Count
Hosted by Expel

Philip Swiderski
Executive Cybersecurity Advisor
Expel

Anthony Souza
VP, Chief Information Security Officer
Corteva Inc
Today’s business leaders find themselves squaring up against a two-headed monster: more attack surfaces and threats to cover than ever before and macroeconomic challenges loom. Cybersecurity isn’t something that orgs can afford to “cut down on,” so increasingly, leaders are asked to achieve even greater outcomes with the same or fewer resources — from budgets to tech to headcount. As security continues to evolve as a business-critical function, how can CISOs evaluate spend without compromising on risk?
Join this session to discuss:
- Ways organizations are improving ROI on existing security investments
- How leaders can translate risk into business outcomes for leadership and boards, enabled by security investment
- How to overcome challenges security leaders face as they work to scale, grow, and innovate without sacrificing security
11:45am - 12:30pm Lunch Service
Apply to Participate
Apply to participate in the Houston CISO Community Executive Summit.
Gartner facilitates exclusive, C-level communities by personally qualifying and understanding the priorities, challenges and interests of each member.
Our selective approach maintains the high quality of the network and ensures top-level discussions with peers from the world’s leading organizations.
Each application will be reviewed, and once your participation is confirmed, you will have access to year-round community programs.
Location
Venue & Accommodation
Hyatt Regency Houston WestParking
Self-parking is complimentary and located on the West side of the building. There is attached covered parking as well as uncovered parking available.
Valet is $21.00 for overnight and $10.00 for day parking.
A block of rooms has been reserved at the Hyatt Regency Houston West at a reduced conference rate. Reservations should be made online or by calling 877-803-7534.
Deadline to book using the discounted room rate of $149 USD (plus tax) is November 20, 2023.
Community Program Manager
For inquiries related to this community, please reach out to your dedicated contact.