As founder, CEO, and editor-in-chief at Techstrong Group, Alan manages a broad array of businesses and brands including Techstrong Media (DevOps.com, Security Boulevard, Cloud Native Now, Digital CxO, Techstrong.ai, Techstrong ITSM and Techstrong TV), and Techstrong Learning. To do so and succeed, Alan has to be attuned to the world of technology, particularly DevOps, cybersecurity, cloud-native and digital transformation. With almost 30 years of entrepreneurial experience, Alan has been instrumental in the success of several organizations. Shimel is an often-cited personality in the security and technology community and is a sought-after speaker at conferences and events. In addition to his writing, his DevOps Chat podcast and Techstrong TV audio and video appearances are widely followed. Alan attributes his success to the combination of a strong business background and a deep knowledge of technology. His legal background, long experience in the field and New York street smarts combine to form a unique personality. Mr. Shimel is a graduate of St. John’s University with a Bachelor of Arts in Government and Politics, and holds a JD degree from NY Law School.

Damon Edwards is the Co-Founder and CEO of Attestify Inc., a developer of real-time operational risk management and compliance solutions. Damon was previously the Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Rundeck Inc., the popular runbook automation platform acquired by PagerDuty. Prior to Rundeck, Damon was Managing Partner of DTO Solutions, a consultancy focused on improving technology operations in complex enterprise environments. Damon has been a noted leader in bringing automation and DevOps practices into large-scale organizations. He is a frequent conference speaker, writer, former co-host of the DevOps Cafe podcast, and serves as a content chair for Gene Kim’s Enterprise Technology Leadership Summit (formerly DevOps Enterprise Summit).

John Willis is an experienced IT management professional with over 40 years of experience. He is currently conducting research on DevOps, DevSecOps, IT risk, modern governance, and audit compliance, as well as Generative AI. In the past, he has held various positions such as Senior Director at RedHat, VP at Docker Inc., Founder of Socketplane (which was later sold to Docker) and Enstratius (which was later sold to Dell), and VP at Opscode. He also founded Gulf Breeze Software, an award-winning IBM business partner specializing in Tivoli technology deployment.

John Willis is also an accomplished author, having written six IBM Redbooks on enterprise systems management and four books for IT Revolution, including the DevOps Handbook and Deming’s Journey to Profound Knowledge. He is working on his latest book, The Operational History of Generative AI.

Guy Podjarny is the founder & CEO of Tessl, the pioneering AI Native Development platform. Guy previously founded Snyk, which created and leads the Developer Security market, scaling it to an $8B company. Before that, he founded Blaze and sold it to Akamai, where he served as CTO.  Guy is an active angel investor and a co-host of the AI Native Dev podcast.

Shannon Lietz is a 30+ year award-winning technology and security industry veteran with a track record of success. She is currently Co-Founder & CEO of ThirdScore, a trust intelligence community.

Previously, she was the Vice President of Product and Software Security at Adobe, driving the security of Adobe's products and software ecosystem. Ms. Lietz has held numerous roles throughout her career with a focus on Platform Development, Big Data & Analytics, Offensive Security, Application Security, Cloud Security, DevSecOps, and Threat Intelligence.

Shannon has worked for and consulted with many of the Fortune 500. Her work has been instrumental in changing how companies implement software security and has brought critical focus to security metrics. She holds 40+ Cloud Security patents, is a Start-up Advisor, Community Whisperer, RSA Program Committee, Glynn 100, and dedicates time to mentoring and coaching. Ms. Lietz is an IANS faculty member and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences from Mount St. Mary’s College.

David Brin is an astrophysicist whose international best-selling novels include The Postman, Earth, Existence, and Hugo Award winners Startide Rising and The Uplift War. 

A Caltech Distinguished Alumnus, David consults for NASA, companies, agencies, and nonprofits about how science, technology, and evolving values will affect our onrushing future. His first nonfiction book, The Transparent Society, won the Freedom of Speech Award. Another is Vivid Tomorrows: Science Fiction and Hollywood. His new book on AI will be about raising these new entities to be good citizens.
(http://www.davidbrin.com)

James is the CEO of DryRun Security, where he and his team built a team of AI-powered Contextual Security Agents that dry-run your code before it gets merged. They enforce policy, detect vulnerabilities (including logic flaws most tools miss), and provide real insight that appsec & eng teams need.

He draws on lessons from distributed systems and Promise Theory to show how explicit commitments between agents lead to security, resilience, and trust at scale. Over his career, he's built application security programs, advanced DevSecOps practices, and helped organizations reimagine how security fits into fast-moving engineering environments.,

James has taught 1M+ professionals through his popular DevOps courses on LinkedIn Learning and has delivered talks at leading conferences, including RSA Conference, OWASP, and SXSW. He lives in Austin, TX, and keeps trying to make the perfect smoked brisket.

Caroline Wong is a cybersecurity leader, author, and advisor with more than two decades of experience helping organizations make smarter, more human-centered security decisions. Her career spans senior leadership roles across technology, e-commerce, and application security, including work at eBay, Zynga, Cigital, Cobalt, and Teradata. Known for her ability to translate complex technical risk into clear business impact, Caroline regularly advises executives, boards, and product teams on building security programs that actually work in the real world.

Caroline is a published author and recognized thought leader in the cybersecurity community. Her book on security metrics, published by McGraw-Hill, was inducted into the Cybersecurity Canon Hall of Fame, and her latest book on AI and cybersecurity will be published by Wiley in Spring 2026.

Experienced technology executive with deep cybersecurity expertise. Board of Director for MDU Resources, a Fortune 500 company, serving on Audit and ESG Committee. Founder and General Partner of Rain Capital, a Cyber-focused venture fund. Held senior tech strategy roles in large companies (Intel Security). Led Go-to-market operations and product strategy in successful Silicon Valley startups (Twistlock, Ciphercloud). Advocate for diversity & inclusion, founder of the Forte Group, a 5013(C) organization to advance women's careers in Cyber. Former computer engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science. 

Skilled in cyber technology, finance, product strategy, and Go-to-market operations. A Cybersecurity thought leader. Winner of 2019 Women Investor award, and Women of Influence award by SC media in Cyber.

David Brin is an astrophysicist whose international best-selling novels include The Postman, Earth, Existence, and Hugo Award winners Startide Rising and The Uplift War. 

A Caltech Distinguished Alumnus, David consults for NASA, companies, agencies, and nonprofits about how science, technology, and evolving values will affect our onrushing future. His first nonfiction book, The Transparent Society, won the Freedom of Speech Award. Another is Vivid Tomorrows: Science Fiction and Hollywood. His new book on AI will be about raising these new entities to be good citizens.
(http://www.davidbrin.com)

Edna M. Conway is a globally recognized leader in cybersecurity, risk management, and supply chain resilience who has shaped the future of secure digital infrastructure across Fortune 10 technology companies. As CEO of EMC Advisors, she provides strategic counsel to CEOs, boards of directors, and governments worldwide on critical issues spanning third-party risk management, operational security, AI governance, and enterprise transformation.

With over 30 years of executive leadership experience, Conway has held Chief Security and Risk Officer roles in companies representing $245 billion in combined revenue, including Microsoft and Cisco. At Microsoft, she served as Vice President and Chief Security & Risk Officer for Azure, where she created the award-winning Security and Resiliency Architecture for the cloud infrastructure supporting nearly 1 billion platform users annually and 90% of the Fortune 500. During her tenure, she protected $24 billion in at-risk revenue, improved compliance from under 30% to 94% within 24 months. 

Edna brings to every engagement a unique combination of legal acumen, operational excellence, technical depth, and strategic vision. Her ability to forecast future trends, navigate complex regulatory landscapes, and build enduring relationships has made her one of the most respected voices in cybersecurity and enterprise risk management globally. Whether advising government agencies on national security, guiding Fortune 100 companies through digital transformation, or helping startups scale securely, Conway's work is defined by an unwavering commitment to building security and resilience that "just works" while enabling business growth and innovation.

Fernando Montenegro serves as the Vice President & Practice Lead for Cybersecurity & Resilience at The Futurum Group. In this role, he leads the development and execution of the Cybersecurity research agenda, working closely with the team to drive the practice’s growth. His research focuses on addressing critical topics in modern cybersecurity. These include the multifaceted role of AI in cybersecurity, strategies for managing an ever-expanding attack surface, and the evolution of cybersecurity architectures toward more platform-oriented solutions.

Mitch Ashley is Vice President and Practice Lead, Software Lifecycle Engineering for The Futurum Group. Mitch has over 30+ years of experience as an entrepreneur, industry analyst, product development and IT leader, with expertise in software engineering, cybersecurity, DevOps, DevSecOps, cloud, and AI. Mitch comes to The Futurum Group through the acquisition of Techstrong Group (devops.com, securityboulevard.com, and techstrong.tv), where he serves as CTO and founder of Techstrong Research.

Guy Podjarny is the founder & CEO of Tessl, the pioneering AI Native Development platform. Guy previously founded Snyk, which created and leads the Developer Security market, scaling it to an $8B company. Before that, he founded Blaze and sold it to Akamai, where he served as CTO.  Guy is an active angel investor and a co-host of the AI Native Dev podcast.

Steve Wilson is a global leader in artificial intelligence innovation and security. As Chief AI and Product Officer at Exabeam and founder and co-chair of the OWASP Gen AI Security Project, he leads the development of next-generation AI technologies and the industry standards that safeguard them. Under his leadership, the OWASP community has grown to over 20,000 experts delivering leading research at the intersection of AI and cybersecurity.

Named a 2025 Google Cloud AI Innovation All-Star, Steve is also the author of The Developer’s Playbook for Large Language Model Security (O’Reilly Media), recognized as Cutting Edge Cybersecurity Book of the Year by Cyber Defense Magazine. He is widely recognized as an expert in building reliable, secure production-ready AI systems.

Earlier in his career, Steve was an early member of the Java team at Sun Microsystems and held executive roles at Citrix and Oracle. He holds 11 U.S. and international patents across cybersecurity, networking, and IoT.

Technical Director, Adjunct Faculty Member at SEI, Carnegie Mellon University, Technical Director, Software Development Manager, Senior security engineer, software engineer, certified scrum master, and software architect with 25+ years of experience in all phases of secure software development and information modeling processes. 

Extensive knowledge of current software tools and techniques such as DevSecOps, Agile, Lean. Specialized in secure software solutions design and development experience in the cybersecurity domain, including data-driven investigation and collaborative incident management, network security assessment, automated, large-scale malware triage/analysis, medical records management, accounting, simulation systems, and document management.

Casey Ellis is the Founder of Bugcrowd, as well as the co-founder of The Disclose.io Project. He is a 20+ year veteran of information security who entered the space from a youth spent inventing things and generally getting technology to misbehave.

Prior to Bugcrowd, Casey entered information security as a penetration tester and security researcher, before wearing a variety of hats ranging from solutions architecture and sales to CSO, and finally landing as a career cybersecurity entrepreneur. Casey pioneered Crowdsourced Security as-a-Service, launching Bugcrowd and its first bug bounty programs in 2012, and co-founded the disclose.io vulnerability disclosure standardization and adoption project in 2014.

Since then, he has personally advised the US Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security/CISA, the US Department of Justice around CFAA reform, the Australian and UK intelligence and policy communities, and various US Whitehouse, executive, and judicial branch legislative cybersecurity initiatives, including the US National Cyber Strategy and preemptive cyberspace protection ahead of the 2020 and 2024 Presidential Elections.