Protecting our future, by securing our Cyber-Physical society

Dr. Ryan Heartfield has over a decade of experience in combatting complex cybersecurity threats through AI-driven threat detection and incident response capabilities, and dynamic software-defined network security architecture. Prior to Exalens, Ryan was a senior security architect at Splunk for Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR), and security architect for UK Government, where he led the delivery of advanced cybersecurity operations capabilities. He is a previous Research Fellow of Cybersecurity within the Internet of Things and Security Research Centre at the University of Greenwich; his published work in AI-driven intrusion detection for cyber-physical systems and semantic social engineering attacks has received both academic and industry acclaim. He holds a PhD in Cybersecurity and First-class degree in Computer Systems and Networking from the University of Greenwich.

Sadaiyandi Ramadoss has over 14 years of experience in the IT industry spanning architecture, design, and implementation of the platform device drivers to distributed systems across a wider range of embedded systems platforms such Automotive Infotainment, Connected Vehicles and Mobile systems.

Prior to Exalens, he was a principal developer at BOSCH, NXP and NOKIA and has successfully led product development teams in NISSAN, GM, SUZUKI, RENAULT, VW, and DAF.

George Alexopoulos is an experienced executive manager, with a proven track record of successful strategic and operational leadership across a wide range of industry sectors.

For the past 12 years he has held senior management positions across the private sector and NGOs, leading organisations to establishment and rapid growth (Symplexis), international expansion (KMOP), and successful acquisitions (Olympic Group of Companies). George holds a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, together with an MBA from Athens University of Economics and Business.

Dr Eirini (Irene) Karapistoli, MBA, background combines over 10 years of advanced research and innovation project delivery in cybersecurity, covering domain areas such as data privacy, network intrusion detection, threats and vulnerabilities assessment, decision-making based on cost-benefit analysis, and mathematical optimisation.

Irene holds a diploma degree and a PhD in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, where she was also the recipient of a postdoctoral research grant focusing onto tackling security issues in wireless sensor networks. Irene also holds an MBA degree from the Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden.

Alberto Pelliccione is an experienced professional in cybersecurity and reverse engineering, with a career spanning back to 1998. In 2003 he started working on fundamental A.I. research on Neural Networks and new architectures at the National Council of Research in Rome, as well as various EU initiatives for the development of autonomous and collaborative robots. In 2008, Pelliccione led a research team that created lawful interception software for Intelligence and Law Enforcement Agencies worldwide, supporting national security investigations, counter-terrorism operations, and intelligence extraction. In 2014, he moved on the defensive side of cybersecurity and he founded ReaQta, a company focused on developing an Endpoint Detection and Response platform for medium and large enterprise. The company's success led to its acquisition by IBM in 2021, where he joined as the Global XDR Strategy Lead. Beyond his work in the industry, Pelliccione is also an investor in private equity, specialising in highly scalable SaaS companies with a focus on A.I. and cybersecurity. He is a regular speaker at cybersecurity and entrepreneurship events and serves as a mentor for B2B startup founders.

Frank's impressive career includes serving as the CTO and co-founder of SecureLink Group, a leading specialist in Europe in the design, implementation, and support of networking, security, and data center infrastructure solutions. Frank played an integral role in building the company for 15 years and was responsible for managing a team of 650 people across nine countries. He stepped back from his operational role in December 2017 and continued his involvement as an advisor until May 2019.

In addition to his work at SecureLink Group, Frank co-founded InvestLink, an independent investment company aimed at providing additional value to other companies through their extensive experience, network, and knowledge. As experienced entrepreneurs, Frank and his team understand the challenges that come with growing and scaling a company and aim to support companies in their growth.

Frank's expertise lies in a range of fields, including secure application delivery, virtualization, next-generation security gateways, endpoint security, and cloud security. His experience and knowledge continue to make him a valuable asset to the business community, and he is highly regarded for his passion and personal customer approach.

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Cevn Vibert CEng CITP FBCS FIET FInstMC GISCP is a distinguished industry expert in Industrial and Operational Technology Cyber Security and Compliance, with a career spanning over 30 years. Cevn has extensive experience across all areas of industrial systems engineering from Manufacturing to Energy and Water, and has delivered Industrial control, process automation and cybersecurity solutions for many global mission critical companies. Cevn is Chair of the InstMC Cyber SIG, the NCSC ICS Cyber COI, and Fellow of InstMC, IET and BCS. He is a founding member of the UK Cyber Council. He "Speaks Technical in Human", and he recently founded the NIS Regulations Compliance programme with the UK Energy Regulator Competent Authority OFGEM as Principal Cyber Assurance Manager. He is also an advisor to mission-critical facilities in all aspects of industrial information, controls, compliance, and security.

Professor Hankin joined Imperial College London in 1984 and was promoted to Professor of Computing Science in 1995.

He served as Dean for Engineering (2000-2003), Pro Rector for Research (2004-2006) and Deputy Principal for Engineering (2006-2008).  He was Director and then Co-Director of the Institute for Security Science and Technology from 2010 until 2019. His research is in cyber security, data analytics and theoretical computer science. He leads multidisciplinary projects focused on providing better decision support to defend against cyber attacks for both enterprise systems and industrial control systems.  He has published about 130 publications including 3 textbooks and 7 edited volumes.

He is Director of the UK Research Institute on Trustworthy Inter-connected Cyber-physical Systems (RITICS) which focuses on cyber security of critical infrastructure. He is founder and immediate past chair of the UK’s Academic Resilience and Security Community (Academic RiSC).  He is a Board Member for the International Cyber Security Centre of Excellence (INCS-CoE) which is a new collaboration between leading cyber security research centres in the UK, US and Japan. He is immediate past chair of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Europe Council.  He serves on the ACM Publications Board, as Co-Chair of the Assessment and Search Committee, and chairs the ACM Europe Technology Policy Committee.

Steve is a seasoned technology leader with deep experience in driving successful digital innovation and transformation across a range of emerging industry technology usecases. Steve has held various senior technology leadership positions, such as CTO and CISO for the UK government within National Security for the past 11 years, and prior to this was a senior technologist at IBM where he spent over 20 years helping build and grow their solution architecture practice. He is passionate about introducing new ideas, approaches, and methods to challenge the traditional norms and leverage cutting edge technology to the benefit of the UK. Steve is an accredited IT Architect and a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology.

George Prokopos is an Information Security expert with over 20 years of experience in IT Infrastructure focused on delivering security infrastructure architecture, information security solutions, and operational cyber security processes on a global scale.