IBM Security: Prosper in the Cyber Economy

Bob Kalka

Bob has been intimately involved for the past two decades in developing IBM’s overall strategy for its comprehensive security-related investments, and currently leads IBM’s global cybersecurity technical professionals. He has held a number of leadership positions in offering management, sales, product development, business development and marketing management. He is a frequent international speaker on the relationship of business with cybersecurity, risk management, digital transformation and cognitive computing, and has had numerous papers and articles published on these topics. He also holds a United States Patent related to secure distributed computing software. Bob received a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree in Organizational Change and Development from Syracuse University, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Bob also holds a certificate in strategic marketing planning from the Indiana University Graduate School of Business. Bob is Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC), and a Certified Data Privacy Solutions Engineer (CDPSE) by ISACA, and is Certified on the Open FAIR Model for risk quantification from The Open Group. He has served on the Cybersecurity Advisory Board for Zions Bancorporation in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is an active member of the Industry Advisory Boards for the Darwin Deason Institute for Cybersecurity in the Lyle School of Engineering at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas; the Cyber Collaborative at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, California; the Department of Computing Security at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York; and the Committee on Cybersecurity for Executive Education at the Muma College of Business at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. Bob is also a highly active musician in Austin, Texas, where he fronts several groups, spanning jazz, rock, funk, blues and worship styles.

Nikos Maniatis

Nikos Maniatis is the General Manager of IBM Greece & Cyprus. Nikos holds an extensive career with a proven track record of success in the field of sales and technology services. Nikos previously held the position of Manager of Software for IBM Greece and Cyprus. Nikos joined IBM in 2004 as a Sales Engineer in the IBM’s Technology Services Unit. In previous appointments, for the same geo, he was the Sales Manager of Enterprise & Commercial Business and Head of the Systems & Technology Group, IBM Greece & Cyprus. Prior to IBM, he worked as an IT Consultant in United Kingdom. He holds a B.Sc., Physics and M.Sc., Telecommunications from the University of London.

Thanassis Diogos

Thanassis Diogos works as an Executive Consultant in X-Force IR Team and IBM Greece. Thanassis has over 15 years of experience in the IT Security focusing on OS & Network defensive security and has authored various papers around security incidents and malicious campaigns. He is working with enterprise clients from EMEA and Asia during major security incidents delivering incident management, computer forensics, and often cooperating with Law Enforcement for threat intelligence exchange. He is researching cybercrime and malicious activities by utilizing honeypots in conjunction with Threat Intel feeds. Thanassis has graduated as Electrical Engineer and holds an MSc in Information Security and an MBA. He holds multiple IT and Information Security certifications and he is also official CISSP trainer for EMEA.

Aggelos Vlachopoulos

Aggelos is the Sales Manager of Technology Solutions for IBM in Greece and Cyprus. Aggelos joined IBM in 2015 working in sales positions covering hardware, software, cloud and services portfolio in the Financial Services Sector and others. During the past two years he is building the path for the Hybrid Cloud and AI adoption in the Greek and Cypriot markets, leveraging the acquisition of Red Hat and the OpenShift platform, in order to build cloud-native business models for IBM’s customers and organizations. Aggelos holds a BSc in Computer Science from the Athens University of Economics and Business as well as an MSc in Advanced Computer Science from the University of Bristol.

Michalis Michaloliakos

An enthusiastic and self-motivated professional, combining diverse experience from academia and field, including multinational and listed companies. Able to support the life cycle of ICT & Cyber Security operations & business development. Excellent leadership and team management skills, striving for constant executive development and results, team-conflict resolution, people performance management, IT strategic risk management handling and effective negotiations. Supporting a mindset of creative problem-solving, serving the corporate techno-economic goals and perspectives. An experienced trainer, mentor, professional coach and team leader, inspiring teams to perform their best.

Dr. John Iliadis

John is an accomplished professional with 20 years of experience in enabling cyber-resilient services for thousands of users, spearheading digital infrastructure operations and delivering complex changes. His proven professional track record has been diverse; conducting basic and applied research on Information Security, developing commercially used digital signatures software, system & network administration of financial IT infrastructures, consulting on data privacy issues, designing security architectures, performing information risk management, demonstrating thought leadership in the digital trust space. During the last 10 years he is honoured to lead teams that run IT & CyberSecurity Operations, design CyberSecurity and Data Privacy controls and perform paradigm shifts of IT infrastructures, ensuring that business goals are achieved on time, on budget and on quality. His published research work includes more than 20 international papers, cited more than 300 times. He is a Chartered Manager who maintains several certifications, among which is the CISSP.

Chris K. Dimitriadis

Experienced leader and board member, international authority in Cybersecurity, with a proven track record in developing and managing strategy, programs and initiatives. Innovative thinker, with several international patents to his name, proven successful communicator and consensus builder across borders and cultures. Chris is the Chief Global Strategy Officer of ISACA, an international non-for-profit association with 225 Chapters, serving more than 165,000 IT, Cybersecurity, Information Security, Audit, Risk and Compliance professionals. He is working with the Board of Directors and Top Management towards the continuous alignment of the organization’s strategy with the changing needs of its members, chapters and industries in 188 countries. He provides thought leadership in the Digital Trust space, future directions in collaboration with the ISACA Global Community, as well as leads strategy implementation in terms of business planning and execution at a global level. He is also Chair of the Board for ISACA Europe. Chris has served ISACA as a volunteer for the past 19 years, as Chair of the board for 2 consecutive terms (2015-2016 and 2016-2017), as director of the board for 9 terms (2010-2014 and 2015-2021) and as Chair and member of multiple committees of the association. Chris is also a former Group CEO of a global gaming solutions supplier and operator active in 42 regulated jurisdictions around the world. From 2007 to 2021, Chris has served as Board Member, Group CEO, Group Chief Services and Delivery Officer, Group Director of Technology Operations and Group Director of Information Security. Prior to that role, he held positions in cybersecurity consulting firms. He has also served as a member of the Permanent Stakeholders Group (PSG) of the European Cybersecurity Agency (ENISA) from 2012 to 2015. Chris has been working in the area of information technology for 22 years, he holds 3 patents, 6 awards and has authored more than 150 publications. He holds a degree (Bachelor’s and Master’s) in Electrical and Computer Engineering and a Ph.D. in Information Security.

Valia Demesticha

Valia Demesticha is the Security Solutions Sales Leader for IBM Greece and Cyprus. She joined IBM in 2000, and since then she has undertaken various technical and sales positions with a focus on delivering innovative business solutions by utilizing the IBM software portfolio. She is working as Senior Security Sales Professional in the ΙΒΜ Technology Unit since 2014. Within her role, her main mission is to enable the adoption of advanced security related techniques in the daily business practice of companies. She is working with various organization in the promotion of technology adoption initiatives, smarter solutions and process transformation. Valia Demesticha holds a BSc in Physics from the Kapodistrian University of Athens and a PhD in Telecommunications from the National Technical University of Athens

Panagiotis Katertzis

Panagiotis Soulos

Panagiotis Soulos is a Global Information Security Manager leading the Control and Compliance Monitoring team within Intrum’s Global Information Security. He has more than 15 years of professional experience in IT and Information Security, mainly in the Financial and Banking sector. In his current role he leads the team of assessing Information Security maturity for Intrum Markets and Global Functions against an Intrum customized control framework. Panagiotis holds an MSc in Information Security from Royal Holloway, University of London and several professional certifications in information security and privacy, such as CISSP, CCSP and CIPM. He enjoys volunteering in various activities, including public cybersecurity awareness presentations and is an (ISC)2 OTP Authorized Instructor.