Vice Admiral TJ White (RET.)

TJ White is a 30-plus year national security practitioner, strategist, and cyber operations expert leading joint military formations and combined intelligence community organizations. He has commanded at all levels within the Navy and Joint Service, most recently as the Commander, United States Fleet Cyber Command / United States TENTH Fleet / United States Navy Space Command and previously as the Commander, United States Cyber National Mission Force / USCYBERCOM. He is a former Director of Intelligence for United States Indo-Pacific Command and has served globally in various combat zones and conflict areas supporting competition dynamics. A former CINCPACFLT Shiphandler-of-the-Year, he misses his days driving a Battleship. He is a 1987 graduate of the United States Naval Academy and holds additional diplomas from the Naval Postgraduate School, Naval War College, National Defense University, and myriad professional education institutions.

As a cyber planner, practitioner, operator, strategist, and leader, he has been on the tail-end of acquisition, implementation, rollout (training, sustainment - lifecycle), organizational understanding, and Trust, Technology, Tactics, Tradecraft, and Procedure uptake. Across key national security sectors of defense, cyberspace, and space, we are in a race condition, no longer possessing the luxury of time, distance, and accepted international standards. Collective security and confident national resiliency will only be found in effective collaboration.

Dr. Rick Geddes

R. Richard “Rick” Geddes is a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he focuses on infrastructure public and private partnerships, the US postal system and postal delivery policy, and corporate governance. Concurrently he is professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell University and director of the Cornell Program in Infrastructure Policy.

Dr. Geddes served as a commissioner of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, which submitted its report to Congress in January 2008. Previously, he was a senior economist on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, a national fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and a visiting faculty fellow at Yale Law School.

In 2009 and 2010, Dr. Geddes worked on public-private partnerships in Australia, first as a Fulbright senior scholar at Australian National University in Canberra and later as a visiting researcher with the Australian government’s Productivity Commission.

Dr. Geddes’ work has been published in scholarly journals, which include the American Economic Review, the Journal of Urban Economics, the Encyclopedia of Law and Economics, the Journal of Law and Economics, and the Journal of Regulatory Economics. In addition, his commentary has appeared in CNN.com, The Hill, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, among others.

Dr. Geddes has a PhD and an MA in economics from the University of Chicago. He has a Bachelor of Science in economics and finance from Towson State University.

Matt Ashburn

Matt previously served as a CIA officer focusing on cyber issues, including a detail serving on the National Security Council as the Chief Information Security Officer and Special Advisor to the National Security Advisor, leading technical expertise, risk reduction strategies, and policy for national security systems.

At CIA, Matt led the technical direction and coordination to stand up an innovative, unified cyber security operations center to fully harness agency authorities, resources, and talents to prevent and respond to advanced cyber threats. He also led the detection watch floor of CIA's cyber incident response team, and has been recognized with a national intelligence award and service ribbon from the Director of National Intelligence and the IC CIO Partnership Award.

Prior to CIA, Matt gained over 10 years of government and private sector experience focusing on intelligence matters and cyber security initiatives at federal agencies and a major financial institution. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia and is a graduate of FBI's Intelligence Basic Course at Quantico, VA. Matt splits his time between Washington, DC and Puerto Rico, and volunteers as a sworn reserve police officer with the DC Metropolitan Police.

Jorena Thomas

Jorhena Thomas has dedicated her career to finding meaningful ways to improve, enhance, and transform security efforts at all levels. She has extensive experience in intelligence analysis and investigations, homeland security, emergency management exercises, critical infrastructure protection, strategic communication, and inter-organizational liaison at the international, national, and local levels. She has a particular interest in the study of disinformation and the integration of intelligence analysis principles into security work. Her background spans government, the private sector, and academia.

Jorhena started her security career as an Intelligence Analyst and Program Manager for the FBI, where she worked international terrorism and criminal matters, as well as oversaw the FBI’s intelligence program in the Western Hemisphere. She went on to serve in a range of security-related positions, to include Deputy Director/Operations Manager at the Washington Regional Threat Analysis Center (the District of Columbia's intelligence fusion center), Chief of Staff to the District of Columbia Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice, Senior Risk Consultant with The Gate 15 Company, and Regional Security Manager for the Americas with CARE USA.

Jorhena has also worked closely with the National Council of ISACs (Information Sharing and Analysis Centers) and has served as the Vice-President of the Washington DC Area Chapter of the International Association for Intelligence Education. In addition to having been a faculty member in the Crime, Justice, and Security Studies program at the University of the District of Columbia, she occasionally instructs courses with the American University School of International Service and School of Public Affairs. She is currently an award-winning faculty member in the Applied Intelligence Program at the Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies, and also writes, speaks, and consults on a range of security and intelligence matters throughout the US and abroad.

Vita Bruno

Vita Bruno is an operations and finance executive and has spent her entire career working at highly innovative companies. She has experience in multiple supply chain & finance functions including strategy and planning, global procurement, manufacturing, distribution, logistics, channel programs, and enterprise information systems. She has extensive relationships within the Silicon Valley network and is currently serving as a CFO and start up advisor to venture capital backed startups to develop infrastructure and curate strategic partnerships for rapid growth, capital raises and acquisitions.

After receiving her CPA from PricewaterhouseCoopers, she joined Hewlett-Packard and worked at multiple product divisions in both finance and supply chain leadership roles. As a supply chain manager, she partnered with think tanks and internal strategic organizations to implement innovative solutions to overhaul and optimize the global product, information and financial flows for several HP product lines which significantly lowered costs while creating the necessary agility to compete with evolving business models. During her tenure at HP, she gained extensive visibility into the capabilities of US and global suppliers, manufacturers & distributors.

Most recently she has worked with several venture capital backed and innovation hub start-ups in the aerospace and robotics industries to raise capital and develop infrastructure to allow them to scale rapidly. This experience has given her a deep understanding of the supply chain, production, and security challenges that these industries are currently facing.