Howard A. Schmidt CISSP, CISM (Hon.), (ISC)² Security Strategist and Former White House Cyber Security Advisor has had a distinguished career in defense, law enforcement and corporate security spanning almost 40 years. He most recently served in the position of Chief Security Strategist for the U.S. CERT Partners Program for the National Cyber Security Division, Department of Homeland Security.
He worked at the White House for 31 years in public service. He was appointed by President Bush as the Vice Chair of Critical Infrastructure Protection and as the Special Adviser for Cyberspace Security in 2001. Prior to the White House, he was chief security officer for Microsoft Corp.
Mr. Schmidt was with the FBI at the National Drug Intelligence Center, where he headed the Computer Exploitation Team. Before this, Mr. Schmidt was a city police officer for 11 years at the Chandler Police Department in Arizona.
Mr. Schmidt has been appointed to the ISPAB to advise the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Secretary of Commerce and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget on information security and privacy issues pertaining to Federal Government information systems.
Mr. Schmidt holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s degree in organizational management from the University of Phoenix. He also holds an Honorary Doctorate degree in Humane Letters. He recently assumed the role as Chairman of the Board for Electronics Lifestyle Integration.
Kirk Kirksey serves as the Vice President of Information Resources for the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, and the Senior Chief Information Officer for Zale Lipshy and St. Paul University Hospitals. Operating budget responsibilities exceed $40M with responsibility for over 300 employees. With over 25 years of technology experience, Kirksey has held positions in the United States and the Middle East. As an Adjunct Professor at University of Texas at Dallas, he teaches in the University’s Advance Medical Management Program, and has published over 300 articles and columns in business magazine, technology publications, and professional journals. Kirksey holds a Masters Degree from the University of Texas at Arlington. His book, Computer Factoids: Tales from the High Tech Underbelly, was published in 2006.
Stan Waddell is the Chief Information Security Officer for the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. Mr. Waddell coordinates all information security related activities for the Medical Center including the university and its two hospitals, Zale and St. Paul University hospital. Mr. Waddell is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and holds a graduate certificate in information assurance from Nova Southeastern University, a designated National Center of Academic Excellence in information assurance. Mr. Waddell holds a Bachelors of Science in Electrical engineering from Old Dominion University and a Master's of Science in Management and Administration Sciences from the University of Texas at Dallas. He is currently pursuing a PhD at Nova Southeastern University.
Tom Oreck, Executive Chairman of the cleaning products manufacturer and retailer Oreck Corp., will be the opening speaker for this Executive Forum. He will speak about how they survived Hurricane Katrina and what they have done with their Business Continuity plans. During Hurricane Katrina, Oreck's headquarters were in New Orleans, and the company also had a 375,000-square-foot manufacturing plant and call center based in Long Beach on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The company was back in operation 10 days after the hurricane. The experience taught Tom Oreck critical lessons about the role of IT, communication to and from employees and that although a good business continuity plan is essential, recovery from a disaster depends on what Oreck calls 'aggressive improvisation' by employees.
Organization and agency CEO, COO, CFO, CSO, CIO, vice president, director, or manager from IT, networking or security are eligible to attend the Executive Forum.
Brent Woodwarth is the founder and manager of “The Crisis Response Team”, an international disaster preparedness and response team that has responded to over 70 major crisis events in 49 countries. Brent is well known for his humanitarian relief work and industry leadership. Brent’s advice and counsel is sought by senior government officials, business leaders, UN agencies, and NGO’s as they prepare for, respond to, and recover from major crisis events. In 1998, Brent was appointed by James Lee Witt (Director of FEMA) to a U.S. Congressional designated taskforce where he co-authored the national plan for pre-disaster mitigation for the US government. In 1999 Brent was appointed to the board of the US Multi-hazard Mitigation Council and named Chairman in 2002. Brent was elected to the DRI International board of directors in 2003 becoming their Chairman in 2007 and re-elected in 2008. In September 2005 Brent was honored to be named and confirmed to the board of the U.S. National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) The NIBS board conducts special projects for Congress and issues their annual report to the President of the United States. Brent is a recipient of the Contingency Planning & Management magazine “Hall of Fame” award along with the PPBI (Public Private Businesses Incorporated) national achievement award and Computerworld Magazine “Laureate”. Brent is a regularly featured keynote speaker and author of multiple articles on risk, crisis management, and global humanitarian relief.
Robert C. Chandler, Ph.D. (University of Kansas) is Professor and Chair of the Communication Division at the Center for Communication and Business at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California USA. Dr. Chandler is an internationally recognized, accomplished researcher and scholar with more than 100 academic and professional papers, including widely circulated “white papers” on emergency and crisis communication. Dr. Chandler has authored more than 50 academic and professional publications, and he is the author or co-author of six books. He is an expert in organizational and business communication with a specialty in organizational crisis communication including communication during emergencies, crises, and disasters, emergency notification communication, and audience analysis for message comprehension and response. Dr. Chandler is also a subject matter expert in areas such as organizational communication priorities for pandemics and other public health crises, risk com!
munication, behavioral and psychometric assessment and appraisal, leadership, multicultural and intercultural diversity, organizational integrity, employee ethical conduct, and business ethics. Dr. Chandler is an acclaimed speaker, presenter, and trainer in a wide range of organizational and corporate settings including international Webinars, and has been a featured speaker at major international conferences, Fortune 500™ companies, schools/universities, hospitals, businesses, and a wide variety of association meetings. He is available for assessment, consulting, seminars, events, training, and workshops please feel free to contact him with inquires or RFPs.
Dr. Cynthia O. Morgan, PhD, RN has worked in public health all of her career. She taught Public Health Nursing at the baccalaureate and masters level at Brigham Young University and The University of Texas at Austin for 19 years. In 2003 she decided to return to service. She has been the Pandemic Influenza Program Coordinator at the State Department of Health Services for 2 ½ of those 3 ½ years. Cindy received her BS degree in nursing and her masters in nursing administration from San Jose State University in California ; she earned a PhD in Transcultural nursing from the University of Utah . Her research, service, and teaching interests have been with the Ute and Navajo tribes in Utah , the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas and Great Promise for American Indians, an urban Indian organization in Austin.
Ama Durham , Business Continuity Coordinator, serves as the Business Continuity Coordinator for the Department of State Health Services. She develops policy, facilitates workgroups, conducts BIAs, coordinates with intra and interagency BCP efforts, and develops COOP plans to address All-Hazards and Pandemic Influenza scenarios. She also led statewide strategic planning efforts for 42 community centers and a multi-agency policy workgroup following her work in resiliency with at-risk children and adolescents. She earned a BBA from Stephen F. Austin University , a MEd from the University of Texas in Austin , and recently became a member of ACP.
Bill Murray is senior network security consultant for Verizon Business and Associate Professor at the Naval Postgraduate School. He is Certified Information Security Professional (CISSP) and a director of (ISC)2, the certifying body, Bill is an advisor on the Board of Directors of the New York Metropolitan Chapter of ISSA.
He has more than fifty years experience in information technology and more than forty years in security. During more than twenty-five years with IBM his management responsibilities included development of access control programs, advising IBM customers on security, and the articulation of the IBM security product plan. He is the author of the IBM publication Information System Security Controls and Procedures.
Mr. Murray has made significant contributions to the literature and the practice of information security. He is a popular speaker on such topics as network security architecture, encryption, PKI, and Secure Electronic Commerce. He is a founding member of the International Committee to Establish the "Generally Accepted System Security Principles" (GSSP, now referred to as the GISSP) as called for in the National Research Council's Report: Computers at Risk. Bill remains as an active member of this committee. He is a founder and board member of the Colloquium on Information System Security Education (CISSE).
He has been recognized as a founder of the systems audit field and by Information Security Magazine as a Pioneer in Computer Security. In 1987 he received the Fitzgerald Memorial Award for leadership in data security. In 1989 he received the Joseph J. Wasserman Award for contributions to security, audit and control. In 1995 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Computer Security Institute. In 1999 he was enrolled in the ISSA Hall of Fame in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the information security community. In 2207 he received the Harold F. Tipton Award in recognition of his lifetime achievement and contribution.
He holds a Bachelor Science Degree in Business Administration from Louisiana State University. He is a graduate of the Jesuit Preparatory High School of New Orleans.
