Town Hall Meeting @it-sa 2023

Ralf Kimpel has been responsible for the global governance area Corporate Audit, Risk & Information Security at the Hubert Burda Media Group based in Offenburg and Munich since 2008. In this role, he is also responsible for controlling and optimizing the group-wide risk management system. With a process and risk-oriented audit approach, Hubert Burda Media pursues an integrated audit and risk management concept. As a former certified public accountant, Ralf Kimpel previously worked for Big 4 auditing and advisory companies, primarily in industrial and commercial companies. He is a member of the German Institute of Public Accountants (IDW), the German Institute for Internal Auditing (DIIR) and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the RMA Risk Management & Rating Association e.V. (RMA).

Victor leads the Cloud Security and DevSecOps Business Unit at Spike Reply. With over two decades of experience encompassing research, technology, and management, Victor holds a PhD in Computer Science from the Technical University of Munich and a Master's in Communications Engineering from Finland. Over the past six years, Victor’s innovative contributions and eye for quality have elevated Spike Reply approach to cloud security, API management, and more. Moreover, Victor’s interest for AI's impact on security and privacy drives his continuous exploration of this dynamic field. Known for his insightful input, Victor seamlessly blends technical expertise with strategic insights, providing invaluable perspectives on securing the future digital landscape.

Elif Bilge Kavun holds the assistant professorship in Secure Intelligent Systems at the Faculty of Computer Science and Mathematics, University of Passau since October 2020. Previously, she was a Lecturer in Cybersecurity at The University of Sheffield (UK) and Digital Design Engineer for Crypto Cores at the Digital Security Solutions division, Infineon (Munich). She completed a PhD in Embedded Security in 2015 at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Ruhr University Bochum. Her research interests cover security of novel intelligent systems as well as traditional computing and embedded systems. She is also interested in secure hardware systems, design and implementation of cryptographic primitives, lightweight cryptography, and physical attacks & countermeasures.

Andreas Aschenbrenner's educational background includes psychology and computational linguistics. In his early professional career, he focused on creating and auditing AI solutions. Currently, he is running the cyber security practice at Siemens Advanta Consulting. His focus points are cyber security in OT environments, and as a Product and Solution Security Officer, he also addresses product security, cloudification, and regulatory issues.

Mike Heredia has been working at the forefront of the cybersecurity industry for over 20 years working with both established systems integrators and high growth software vendors across the industry. Mike has held regional and global leadership positions for the past 15 years.

Philip Sperl heads the Cognitive Security Technologies department at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security AISEC in Garching near Munich. The research focus of the department is the interface between AI and IT security. In his research, Philip Sperl focuses on robust and trustworthy machine learning methods.

Madeleine Myatt is a political scientist by training and a doctoral researcher in the field of cyber security at the University of Bielefeld. She also works as a security analyst for the Continental AG.

Before that, she served as a research fellow for cybersecurity and cyber norms at the German Council for Foreign Affairs (DGAP) in Berlin, inter alia by launching a new project on cyber conflict prevention and management. Prior to that, Madeleine was a research associate at the University of Bielefeld from 2016 till October 2020 where she worked for the department of comparative politics and political sociology. Throughout her career in and outside academia, Madeleine Myatt was involved in different research projects on cybersecurity, digital diplomacy, and right-wing populism in the digital age. Her research and expertise centers on the comparison of national cybersecurity strategies as well as public-/private collaboration in relation to cyber-based hybrid threats and threat intelligence with an actor-centric focus. Based on that, she serves as academic expert for cyber at Hybrid CoE since December 2019.

Madeleine Myatt holds a BA & dual MA in political science and European (University of Hannover) and successful completed an additional qualification on ‘Autocracy and Democracy in Russia and Post-Soviet States’ at the University of Oxford.

As a retired Army Officer with 29 years of experience as a Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Officer, Neil Khatod has hands on experience in large project management, international relations, strategy development, IT investments, and cyber operations.

He managed a $1.9 billion cybersecurity budget, directed the defence of the largest network in the world, consisting of over 1.4 million endpoints on five continents, led a 16,500-person workforce at the U.S. Army Cyber Command, improved the Army’s overall cybersecurity posture by 200% and built the Army’s world-class cyber analytics lab that studied malware.

Neil Kathod received several awards:

· 2016: He was awarded the Department of Defense’s Chief Information Officer award
for excellence in individual leadership and innovation

· 2020: He recieved the German Cross of Honor by the Federal Republic of Germany

· 2023: Neil was selected by the Association of Asian American Engineers as the
Executive of the Year

Herbert Abben joined Immersive Labs in February 2023 as Director for Strategic Business Solutions DACH. In this leadership role, he is responsible for global enterprise clients and government organisations.

He is a seasoned executive with over 25 years of experience in the IT training industry. From 2016 to 2023, Herbert Abben served as Director of SANS Institute EMEA, leading for the DACH region. Prior to that, he was co-founder, CEO and shareholder of several New Horizons Training Centers as well as New Horizons Germany.

He was a dedicated member of the Global Advisory Council of Microsoft Learning for many years.