Alex is a seasoned cybersecurity leader with 20+ years of industry experience. Founding Vigil Software, Alex grew it into a $44M+ operation before its sale in 2016. As CEO of Chillisoft, Alex has transformed the company into a multi-Gartner leading vendor, distributing top brands like ESET, LogRhythm, CyberArk, and more. Alex is committed to team growth and integrity, having built sales, technical, and marketing teams focused on cybersecurity excellence. With a deep understanding of cybersecurity, he’s worked directly with over 5,000 partners in EMEA and ANZ. Now, with over 2,000 partners in the ANZ market, Alex’s expertise spans various cybersecurity domains, from Next-Gen Firewalls to Mobile Security. Passionate about helping businesses establish SOCs and security services, Alex is dedicated to delivering top-notch cybersecurity solutions across New Zealand, Australia, and the Pacific.

Dan is the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Westpac New Zealand. Dan previously worked for the National Cyber Security Centre in Wellington as the Acting Assistant Director for Cybersecurity and manager of the Cyber Threat Response team, working on significant cybersecurity incidents across government and industry. He has also worked in cybersecurity and technology for global companies in Europe, Australia and the US.

Jason Pearce joined Mimecast in January 2023 and is the Director of Customer Success for Asia Pacific. In this role, Jason is responsible for driving customer success and satisfaction across the organization with the primary objective of ensuring that customers achieve their desired outcomes, maximize the value of Mimecast’s cyber security solutions. Jason provides thought leadership and security advisory engagements to customer to ensure that they understand the cyber threat landscape and have cyber resilience programs in place.

Prior to joining Mimecast Jason was the Chief Technology Officer for Asia- Pacific, Japan, Middle East & Africa. Jason is responsible for leading the IFS presales team in region and is responsible for a series of initiatives, exploring emerging technologies and their application to business challenges.

Jason regularly consults with customers providing cyber security, digital transformation, servitisation and solution best practices that can be easily adopted and translated into business value and return on investments.

Prior to IFS, Jason was Vice President of Professional Services Asia-Pacific & Japan at ClickSoftware where he was responsible for field service process and technology. Prior to ClickSoftware he was Chief Technology Officer for MailGuard, building out cloud security solutions on the Microsoft Azure and AWS cloud platforms. Jason has also held various other senior cyber security leadership roles in Consulting and Pre-sales with EMC, RSA, Oracle, HP and Cisco Systems.

Jason has over 25 years of cyber security experience, attained a Bachelor of Applied Science from Edith Cowan University and is a current Commercial Pilot License holder from CASA in Australia.

With over twenty years of experience in software development and information security, Laura Bell Main specialises in bringing security into organisations of every shape and size.

She is the co-founder and CEO of SafeStack, an online education platform offering flexible, high-quality, and people-focused secure development training for fast-moving companies, with a focus on building security skills, practices, and culture across the entire engineering team.

Laura is an experienced conference speaker, trainer, and regular panel member, and has spoken at a range of events such as BlackHat USA, Velocity, and OSCON on the subjects of privacy, covert communications, agile security, and security mindset. 

She is also the co-author of Agile Application Security and Security for Everyone.

Richard is currently the Head of Cyber & Technology Risk at Foodstuff’s South Island, a 100% New Zealand owned and operated supermarket group delivering fresh and affordable food to local communities across Te Waipounamu.

 He is a senior leader and advisor with over two decades of experience in strategy, operations and people and has a track record of delivering innovative IT and digital solutions that enhance information security and data privacy across complex and regulated environments.

As a governance, risk and compliance expert, Richard helps organisations align their security strategy with their business goals, manage risks effectively, respond to threats proactively and be incident ready.

Alan has worked in the IT industry for nearly 30 years in world class companies such as Frucor Suntory, SKYCITY, Russell McVeach and now Rocket Lab. Focusing on leading infrastructure and service teams while implementing robust operational and security frameworks, he is dedicated and adaptable. Alan has led teams in development of timely, robust and cost-effective solutions and systems. Alan’s passion for IT comes from his fascination with the quality of life improvements often awarded by IT advancements and technologies. He enjoys being both hands with his high technical skill, and also taking strategic approaches to solving advanced problems.

Michael Bovalino, LogRhythm Country Manager Australia/New Zealand

Michael has over 20 years of experience in Telecommunications, Network and IT security. He is responsible for working with the IT Security community on LogRhythm’s award-winning NextGen SIEM, empowering enterprises to measurably reduce cyber and operational risk by rapidly detecting, responding to, and neutralising damaging cyberthreats. 

Prior to LogRhythm, Michael held senior account management roles at Optus Business, Check Point Software Technologies, and CyberArk where he was responsible for growing and evolving the customer and channel relationships within the cyber security and threat prevention community.  He also oversees Regional Sales Managers in the LogRhythm Australia/New Zealand region.

Working at ESET for over a decade, Peter grew through the ranks and bolstered his leadership skills. Since 2017, he has been the Security Research and Awareness Manager for ESET. Now, based in Christchurch, New Zealand, Peter leads a multinational team of cybersecurity researchers, awareness specialists and editors. His team is responsible for experimental research, awareness and research publication process, and for a threat telemetry framework. Peter oversees the creation of the bi-annual ESET Threat Reports, as well as the production of the ESET research podcast. When not sitting at his computer, he enjoys the outdoors and everything to do with coffee, both factoring in his decision to call Christchurch home.

Simon is responsible for building and managing relationships with organisations in Asia Pacific & Japan (APJ) for AttackIQ. A respected industry expert in the APJ region with over 25 years of sales and management experience Simon collaborates with the cyber security community to inform and uplift cyber security programs and capability. Prior to AttackIQ, Simon was a senior executive at LogRhythm where he served as Vice President of Sales for Asia Pacific. Simon has also held senior sales and leadership roles at Symantec, Commvault and Acronis. Originally from the UK, Simon has lived in Sydney since 1998.

Brian is a highly accomplished Cyber Security leader with over 25 years’ experience in technical consulting, digital transformation, cloud security, cloud brokerage, and data protection practices across Asia Pacific. Brian is respected for his prescriptive approach in assisting SMBs to large enterprises enhance cyber resilience and reduce organisational risk. As a Regional Director, Brian works closely with Netskope’s customers, partners, and verticals, and plays a pivotal role in establishing long-term cloud transformation strategies, and modernising Security Service Edge deployments. An advocate for strategic partnering, Brian’s fosters strong relationships to ensure organisations stay ahead in the cyber security landscape.

Loris Degioanni is the CTO and founder of Sysdig. He is also the creator of the popular open source troubleshooting tool, sysdig, and the CNCF runtime security tool Falco. Prior to founding Sysdig, Loris was one of the original contributors to Wireshark, the open source network analyzer, which today has 20+ million users. Loris holds a Ph.D. in computer engineering from Politecnico di Torino and lives in Davis, California.

Phil has experience within ICT for 21+ years within both large Government and private sector organisations, with lead roles in system infrastructure and cybersecurity.  His previous cybersecurity experience includes time with the National Cyber Security Centre and managing Vodafone NZ’s Cyber Defence Centre (now One NZ).  Phil likes to take a pragmatic approach to cybersecurity that supports the enablement of the tech roadmap, implementing both proactive defence and cyber incident response strategies.  Currently he architects and leads the cybersecurity product portfolio for SkyCity, New Zealand’s largest tourism, leisure, and entertainment company.

Dan is the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Westpac New Zealand. Dan previously worked for the National Cyber Security Centre in Wellington as the Acting Assistant Director for Cybersecurity and manager of the Cyber Threat Response team, working on significant cybersecurity incidents across government and industry. He has also worked in cybersecurity and technology for global companies in Europe, Australia and the US.

An experienced cyber security professional with extensive experience throughout the Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) region, Gareth has filled the role of Vice President for leading security intelligence organisation Exabeam since 2018. With 16 years seniority in the industry, Gareth has led Exabeam’s APJ operations to become the highest growth region for the company over the past five years. During that time, Gareth and his team have successfully deployed security solutions in a number of ASX 200 and Fortune 500 companies across the region in addition to setting up a strong partner ecosystem.

Prior to running the APJ business and strategy for Exabeam, Gareth launched Skyhigh Networks, a Cloud Access Security Broker in APJ that was acquired by McAfee in January 2018. Prior to Skyhigh, Gareth ran Check Point Software’s financial services division, where he learned to manage operational complexity within large FSI organisations.

Based in Melbourne, Nick Lennon spearheads Mimecast’s expansion in the ANZ and APAC markets. Since 2013, Nick has overseen the APAC team expand from 10 to more than 130 staff supporting thousands of customers and hundreds of partners who have chosen Mimecast to meet their cyber security and cyber resilience requirements. Prior to setting up the ANZ region, Nick spent 6 years in London working at Mimecast in business development, sales and sales leadership roles.

Reinhart is an experienced Information Technology and Cyber Security leader with over 25 years of experience.  His career is founded by a degree in Computer Science from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) where he majored in Data Security and Communications.

Initially developing applications and security middleware for the Financial Services industry his career quickly became focused on helping organisations manage cyber risk by securing their applications, infrastructure and data using a wide variety of vendor technology combined with industry best security practices.   He has a demonstrated history of working in technology advisory, architecture, solution design and pre-sales roles. 

Reinhart is passionate about all aspects of cyber security and has been with Imperva since 2015.  Initially working as a principal SE in the APJ region, he is currently a Director of Technology within Imperva’s CTO Office and reports to Kunal Anand, Imperva’s CTO. 

Hilary Walton is a director and a CTO at Microsoft and prior to this she was CISO of the Kordia Group. She has a diverse background in psychology, ICT, risk management, and security and has worked for organizations such as Mi5 and the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games.

Hilary is also an author, having written a book on security culture. She is a digital influencer who is passionate about sharing digital culture ideas through her YouTube show and podcast called “Digital Culture Ideas”.

She has received various awards and recognition, including being a winner of the 2022 Women in Security Aotearoa, Thought Leader category and Women in ICT – Rising Star category. She can be found on various social media platforms including Discord, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and TikTok.

Jo is passionate about working collaboratively with clients to develop strategies that allow them to respond in this evolving environment. She has worked with a broad range of public and private sector organizations as a Cyber Executive, using her strong industry knowledge and relationships to deliver beneficial outcomes.

In her role, Jo drives growth in the PwC Alliance Partnerships and develops key market strategies and new markets, with a strong focus on expanding PwC Managed Cyber Defense Services along with their Cloud SOC and Identity Services.

Jo is the Microsoft Alliance Lead and drives the establishment between our two organizations and ongoing relationship management. She has built PwC’s visibility within our partner executive teams and created strong connections and relationships. What this means to our clients is that we have escalation paths to our partner leadership teams to support you with requests, escalations or connecting with the right people.

Based in Melbourne, Nick Lennon spearheads Mimecast’s expansion in the ANZ and APAC markets. Since 2013, Nick has overseen the APAC team expand from 10 to more than 130 staff supporting thousands of customers and hundreds of partners who have chosen Mimecast to meet their cyber security and cyber resilience requirements. Prior to setting up the ANZ region, Nick spent 6 years in London working at Mimecast in business development, sales and sales leadership roles.

Pierro is a senior technical manager and cybersecurity architect with more than 28 years’ experience in the IT industry across Cyber Security, Cloud, Infrastructure & Hyperconverged Technologies, IT Support and Professional Services. He has delivered solutions to various multinational and international companies spanning finance, government, utilities  and retail.  

Anirudh has been in Cyber Security for the last 20 years, with emphasis on Compliance, Integrity Monitoring, Privilege Access and Vulnerability Management. For the past 7 years, he has been leading Solution Engineers for different vendors, developing teams that add intrinsic value to the organizations. He currently heads a highly skilled team of cyber professionals for Fortra across Asia Pacific and Japan.

Anirudh’s experience in Cyber across both IT and OT provides unique insights into challenges that organizations face in the age of blurred lines between security and technology.

During his free time, Ani loves to play Badminton, trekking and basketball. He also loves cooking, though he confesses he’s not very good at it!

Brad Collins is the Enterprise and MSP Business Manager for ESET, focusing on our MSP partners and customers with our Complete, Enterprise and Elite products with the goal of allowing our MSPs to increase the security of their customers in an easy and cost effective manner. Brad has worked in IT Companies and MSPs for just over 20 years including growing one of those companies from 6 to 55 staff and is applying his wealth of real world experience in customer expectations and security solutions in this role to discuss the wider ESET product stack with MSPs.

Jason Pearce joined Mimecast in January 2023 and is the Director of Customer Success for Asia Pacific. In this role, Jason is responsible for driving customer success and satisfaction across the organization with the primary objective of ensuring that customers achieve their desired outcomes, maximize the value of Mimecast’s cyber security solutions. Jason provides thought leadership and security advisory engagements to customer to ensure that they understand the cyber threat landscape and have cyber resilience programs in place.

Prior to joining Mimecast Jason was the Chief Technology Officer for Asia- Pacific, Japan, Middle East & Africa. Jason is responsible for leading the IFS presales team in region and is responsible for a series of initiatives, exploring emerging technologies and their application to business challenges.

Jason regularly consults with customers providing cyber security, digital transformation, servitisation and solution best practices that can be easily adopted and translated into business value and return on investments.

Prior to IFS, Jason was Vice President of Professional Services Asia-Pacific & Japan at ClickSoftware where he was responsible for field service process and technology. Prior to ClickSoftware he was Chief Technology Officer for MailGuard, building out cloud security solutions on the Microsoft Azure and AWS cloud platforms. Jason has also held various other senior cyber security leadership roles in Consulting and Pre-sales with EMC, RSA, Oracle, HP and Cisco Systems.

Jason has over 25 years of cyber security experience, attained a Bachelor of Applied Science from Edith Cowan University and is a current Commercial Pilot License holder from CASA in Australia.

Working at ESET for over a decade, Peter grew through the ranks and bolstered his leadership skills. Since 2017, he has been the Security Research and Awareness Manager for ESET. Now, based in Christchurch, New Zealand, Peter leads a multinational team of cybersecurity researchers, awareness specialists and editors. His team is responsible for experimental research, awareness and research publication process, and for a threat telemetry framework. Peter oversees the creation of the bi-annual ESET Threat Reports, as well as the production of the ESET research podcast. When not sitting at his computer, he enjoys the outdoors and everything to do with coffee, both factoring in his decision to call Christchurch home.

Alex is a seasoned cybersecurity leader with 20+ years of industry experience. Founding Vigil Software, Alex grew it into a $44M+ operation before its sale in 2016. As CEO of Chillisoft, Alex has transformed the company into a multi-Gartner leading vendor, distributing top brands like ESET, LogRhythm, CyberArk, and more. Alex is committed to team growth and integrity, having built sales, technical, and marketing teams focused on cybersecurity excellence. With a deep understanding of cybersecurity, he’s worked directly with over 5,000 partners in EMEA and ANZ. Now, with over 2,000 partners in the ANZ market, Alex’s expertise spans various cybersecurity domains, from Next-Gen Firewalls to Mobile Security. Passionate about helping businesses establish SOCs and security services, Alex is dedicated to delivering top-notch cybersecurity solutions across New Zealand, Australia, and the Pacific.

Winner of the 2015 NZ Comedy Guild Award for Best Male Comedian.

Brendhan is a favourite on the NZ Comedy Circuit and a much-loved regular headliner and host at The Classic. 
With an arm’s length list of awards, he has entertained sold-out crowds for well over a decade within New Zealand, Australia, Asia and UK. 

Brendhan’s manic physical presence combined with a sureness of delivery and material that can be described as verging on the psychotic side of human nature, has delighted and frightened audiences throughout New Zealand. 

Brendhan has appeared on numerous local television programmes including all 8 series of Pulp Comedy TV, the last series of which he hosted. He stars in TVNZ’s mockumentary ‘A Night At The Classic’ Season 1 and 2; as well as several appearances on TV3’s 7 Days. 

Brendhan’s Awards 
2013 Best International Act – Jakarta International Comedy Festival 

2006 to 2012 Best Male Comedian – NZ Comedy Guild Awards (Yes, that’s 7 years in a row!)

2012 Rielly Comedy Award – Variety Artists Club of New Zealand

2006 The Fred Award – Oddfellows NZ International Comedy Festival

1998 The Billy T Award – NZ International Comedy Festival

Hilary Walton is a director and a CTO at Microsoft and prior to this she was CISO of the Kordia Group. She has a diverse background in psychology, ICT, risk management, and security and has worked for organizations such as Mi5 and the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games.

Hilary is also an author, having written a book on security culture. She is a digital influencer who is passionate about sharing digital culture ideas through her YouTube show and podcast called “Digital Culture Ideas”.

She has received various awards and recognition, including being a winner of the 2022 Women in Security Aotearoa, Thought Leader category and Women in ICT – Rising Star category. She can be found on various social media platforms including Discord, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and TikTok.

Jo is passionate about working collaboratively with clients to develop strategies that allow them to respond in this evolving environment. She has worked with a broad range of public and private sector organizations as a Cyber Executive, using her strong industry knowledge and relationships to deliver beneficial outcomes.

In her role, Jo drives growth in the PwC Alliance Partnerships and develops key market strategies and new markets, with a strong focus on expanding PwC Managed Cyber Defense Services along with their Cloud SOC and Identity Services.

Jo is the Microsoft Alliance Lead and drives the establishment between our two organizations and ongoing relationship management. She has built PwC’s visibility within our partner executive teams and created strong connections and relationships. What this means to our clients is that we have escalation paths to our partner leadership teams to support you with requests, escalations or connecting with the right people.

Based in Melbourne, Nick Lennon spearheads Mimecast’s expansion in the ANZ and APAC markets. Since 2013, Nick has overseen the APAC team expand from 10 to more than 130 staff supporting thousands of customers and hundreds of partners who have chosen Mimecast to meet their cyber security and cyber resilience requirements. Prior to setting up the ANZ region, Nick spent 6 years in London working at Mimecast in business development, sales and sales leadership roles.

Pierro is a senior technical manager and cybersecurity architect with more than 28 years’ experience in the IT industry across Cyber Security, Cloud, Infrastructure & Hyperconverged Technologies, IT Support and Professional Services. He has delivered solutions to various multinational and international companies spanning finance, government, utilities  and retail.  

Winner of the 2015 NZ Comedy Guild Award for Best Male Comedian.

Brendhan is a favourite on the NZ Comedy Circuit and a much-loved regular headliner and host at The Classic. 
With an arm’s length list of awards, he has entertained sold-out crowds for well over a decade within New Zealand, Australia, Asia and UK. 

Brendhan’s manic physical presence combined with a sureness of delivery and material that can be described as verging on the psychotic side of human nature, has delighted and frightened audiences throughout New Zealand. 

Brendhan has appeared on numerous local television programmes including all 8 series of Pulp Comedy TV, the last series of which he hosted. He stars in TVNZ’s mockumentary ‘A Night At The Classic’ Season 1 and 2; as well as several appearances on TV3’s 7 Days. 

Brendhan’s Awards 
2013 Best International Act – Jakarta International Comedy Festival 

2006 to 2012 Best Male Comedian – NZ Comedy Guild Awards (Yes, that’s 7 years in a row!)

2012 Rielly Comedy Award – Variety Artists Club of New Zealand

2006 The Fred Award – Oddfellows NZ International Comedy Festival

1998 The Billy T Award – NZ International Comedy Festival