The Champion in Security Awards were founded to honor security leaders who embody certain values that make the security community and profession better for current and future practitioners. These cybersecurity awards seek to foster values that go far beyond the practice of security techniques and focus instead on the humans that power this critical discipline and without whom we would not have the strength to stand up to cybercriminals.
Champion in Security: Inclusion
The Champion in Security Award for Inclusion honors the security leaders who organize their team to accommodate diversity, equality and inclusion principles to the fullest degree. These individuals actively solicit individuals from diverse as well as underrepresented groups and provide training to overcome barriers to equitable progress. These leaders recognize that as a community of practitioners, security has historically not been very diverse, and so they work hard to bring about significant change in how their teams are staffed and also to ensure that individuals from diverse backgrounds are welcomed, trained, and rewarded in a fair and equitable manner.
Honorees
Brenda Curtis
Business Information Security Officer, IPG
Erika Voss
SVP/CSO, Blue Yonder
Champion in Security: Community
The Champion in Security Award for Community honors the security leaders who contribute meaningful effort towards bringing practitioners together. These individuals give their valuable time to build peer networks that become valuable sources of information, solutions to common problems, innovations, and support for the broader cybersecurity ecosystem. They create strong and much needed support systems for what is arguably among the hardest jobs in the enterprise.
Honorees
Phil Dunkelberger
President/CEO, Nok Nok Labs
Kirsten Davies
Founder/CEO, Institute for Cyber
Gadi Evron
CEO/Founder, Knostic
Champion in Security: Education
The Champion in Security Award for the Next Generation honors the security leaders who recognize that young people live in a world fraught with far more cyber risk than prior generations and seek to inform and educate this generation on safety in the digital realm. These individuals create meaningful programs that offer hands-on training and education at schools and colleges. These individuals are either young people actively involved in cybersecurity or leaders fostering the inclusion of the younger generation.
Honorees
Deidre Diamond
CEO/Founder, CyberSN
Akira Brand
AVP, Application Security
Gary Hayslip
Global CISO, Softbank Investment Advisers
Champion in Security: Innovation
The Champion in Security Award for Innovation honors the security leaders who understand that new ideas and innovation require sponsorship and safe spaces. These leaders actively seek out innovative ideas and provide air cover for their nurturing and development. These individuals support innovation by creating real-world feedback loops that help innovative ideas turn into practical solutions that can be deployed in the real world to address important security challenges.
Honorees
Ed Tamondong
CSO, Heritage Bank of Commerce
Upendra Mardikar
EVP/CISO, TIAA
Champion in Security: Respect
The Champion in Security Award for Respect honors the security leaders who foster kind and respectful behavior within their own organizations as well as in forums, industry groups, and security events. These individuals use their seniority and visibility to set an example for others and create meaningful rewards for kind and empathetic responses to challenging work scenarios.
Honorees
Leigh Honeywell
CEO, Tallpoppy
Kurt John
CIO/CSO, Expedia
Samantha Mahan
CIO/CSO, Expedia
Champion in Security: Collaboration
The Champion in Security Award for Collaboration honors the security leaders who believe in stronger security through information sharing and collaboration. These leaders participate in peer groups that exchange security intelligence, share best practices, collaborate on common frameworks, disclose positive or negative experiences, and, most importantly, provide their peers with an inside look into their own challenges as well as solutions that have worked. These leaders believe that in order to beat one of us, attackers have to beat all of us.
Honorees
Kim Jones
Director Performance Acceleration, Cybercraft