Bio Coming Soon!

Paul Sand is the AVP, Independent Security Officer at the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago. He has worked at Bell Laboratories, AT&T Network Systems, Lucent Technologies, mVerify, Salare Security, and IP3, Inc. At Bell Laboratories and AT&T Network Systems, Paul was involved in multiple very large scale software development efforts focused on delivering services with ultra-high reliability, availability and integrity. At Salare Security, he significantly advanced the cyber security industry by bringing to market radical, novel new technology for real-time media security. Paul is an avid inventor and responsible for inventing and co-inventing 42 inventions that have resulted in 21 U.S. patents to date.

Paul was the Workgroup Co-Chairman for VoIP Security Project of the Internet Security Alliance that has been sponsored by NIST, DHS and the NSA. Paul was a contributor to second revision of the Financial Management of Cyber Risk published by the American National Standards Institute’s (ANSI) Homeland Security Standards Panel (HSPP) and was a member of the ANSI Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel. He is a member of the board of the Chicago Chapter of the FBI InfraGard (Infrastructure Protection), a member of the U.S. Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force, a member of the Cyber Committee of the Illinois Terrorism Task Force (ITTF) and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). He also serves as an industry advisor on the Underwriter’s Laboratories (UL) Security Council.

John is the President & CEO of Fanning Communications, Inc. a full service custom publishing, marketing research and advertising firm located in Chicago’s south suburbs. A native Chicagoan, John obtained his degree in Journalism from Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois and attended graduate school at Illinois Institute of Technology. The author of six textbooks and thousands of articles, John’s writing concentrates on the topics of science, engineering and medicine. He has authored thousands of feature articles that appear in magazines, newspapers and online. A service disabled veteran, John served as an Assistant Instructor for Security Investigations at the United States Army Intelligence School and in Vietnam as an Military Intelligence Coordinator and Team Chief.

Dwight is the CFO of Cohesive Networks LLC a cloud-native security and networking software products company – https://cohesive.net. Globally, over 2,000 enterprises use Cohesive’s software defined networking appliances (firewalls, routers, switches) to connect and secure and extend their critical infrastructure into public, private and hybrid clouds.  Mr. Koop has logged over 30 years in high tech investment banking and software technology.  He was COO of Bedouin Software an application life-cycle tools company which was founded in the Northwestern incubator, and acquired by Borland Software.  As EVP of The Swiss Bank Corporation (Now UBS), Dwight was responsible for investment banking infrastructure including, data centers, networking, systems engineering, and technical security.  Dwight started his career as one of the founding officers of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE).  Along the way he has also been a founder of several Chicago based low latency networking and cryptography companies.  A native Chicagoan, Dwight and his family live in Saint Charles.  He is an alumni of Northwestern University (MM), and the University of Colorado (BS).

Jill Czerwinski is an industry thought leader in Information Security and Third party risk management. At a time when organizations seek to protect their data and reputation despite an uptick in outsourcing, Jill helps her clients set strategy to prevent incident. She specializes in bringing an innovative approach to her work to tackle third party risk management processes despite overwhelming numbers of relationships. Many of Jill’s clients (which include Fortune 500 companies and large government entities) initiated projects due to incident, and, with Jill’s help, have revamped their programs to prevent recurrence.

Jill has been recognized in the industry through:
> Named one of the ‘Top 35 Consultants under 35’ by Consulting Magazine, 2014
> Publication of her perspectives in major news publications, trade journals, online publications, as well as three major television news broadcasts
> Presentations to national and local industry associations
> Membership in the Editorial Board of the International Association of Privacy Professionals
> Certifications including: Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP), Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), and Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)

When she’s not working, Jill enjoys spending time with her family, running, and sewing.

Erik Hart is the Chief Information Security Officer of Zebra Technologies based in Lincolnshire, IL. Erik serve as an advocate for the organization’s information security needs and responsibility for the development and delivery of a comprehensive information security strategy to optimize the security posture of the organization. Prior to joining Zebra Erik held information security leadership roles at Leo Burnett/Arc Worldwide, PEAK6 Investments, and Cole Taylor Bank.

Erik graduated from Western Illinois University with a B.B. in Information Systems and Decision Sciences and a Masters in Information Assurance from Western Governors University. He is currently serving as the President of the Chicago InfraGard Chapter and is a member of the US Secret Service’s Electronic Crimes Task Force, and FBI’s Citizen’s Academy, and Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) in Chicago.

Constantine J. Koulis – is an IT professional with more than 18 years of experience in the IT field. Active participant in the IT & InfoSec community of Chicago.

Currently Director of Information Technology & Information Security at Masuda Funai Eifert & Mitchell. Areas of expertise included IT leadership, IT Security, Program Management, GRC, Disaster recovery & continuity as well as Budget & Forecasting among others.

Member of InfraGard Chicago Members Alliance – ICMA – chapter since end of ’14, various board member positions include:

• Programming committee member June‘15 – Dec’17
• Programming director Jan’18 – Dec’19
• Vice President officer Jan’20 – June ‘20
• President June’20 – ’23

Constantine holds a master’s degree at Strategic Marketing from Academy of Economic studies of the state university in Europe. Certifications include, Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), ITIL Foundation v3.0, LeanSixSigma Yellow Belt, Scrum Master and Microsoft Office Specialist – MOS SharePoint 2013.