Speakers

John Ackerly, Co-Founder and CEO, Virtru

As CEO and Co-Founder of Virtru, John is a long time privacy advocate. Prior to co-founding Virtru, John was an investor at Lindsay Goldberg LLC, working with entrepreneurs to dramatically scale their businesses. John also served as the lead technology policy advisor at the White House National Economic Council and was the Policy and Strategic Planning Director at the U.S. Department of Commerce.

John graduated from Williams College, was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Yossi Appleboum, CEO, Sepio

With over 20 years in security, networking, computer science, and control systems, Yossi Appleboum began his career in the early ’90s as a team leader and Chief Architect in Israel’s Army Intelligence Corps (Unit 8200), designing critical infrastructure monitoring and security systems. In 1998, he co-founded WebSilicon, serving as VP of R&D to deliver more than 250 advanced networking and security solutions worldwide. Promoted to CTO in 2007, he oversaw North American business and next-generation product development. After WebSilicon’s 2013 acquisition by Magal (NASDAQ: MAGS), he led its integration and rebranding as CyberSeal and, as CTO for Cyber Security at Senstar Inc., drove the Tungsten and Rubidium convergence solutions. In 2016, he co-founded Sepio Systems and now serves as its Co-CEO, heading North American operations.

Daniel Bardenstein, Founder & CTO, Manifest Cyber

Daniel Bardenstein is the CTO and co-founder of Manifest, working to make software and AI supply chains more transparent and secure. Prior to founding Manifest, Daniel served as the Chief of Tech Strategy at CISA, where he drove technology modernization and OT/ICS strategy across the agency, and led the development of the Cybersecurity Performance Goals. At the Defense Digital Service, he led cybersecurity programs across the Department of Defense, including securing the COVID-19 vaccines and the Hack the Pentagon program. Before joining the government, Daniel directed product teams at Exabeam and Palantir developing cybersecurity and data analysis platforms.

Jennifer Bird, Senior Director - Global Defense, Anduril Industries

Jennifer Bird is Senior Director of Global Defense at Anduril where she leads Anduril’s international strategy team. Previously, Jennifer supported the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research & Engineering where she focused on technology transition and fielding of new capabilities across the Department of Defense. Jennifer worked as a Professional Staff Member for the House Armed Services Committee where she supported members of congress and authored legislation focused on the Middle East and counterterrorism policy. Before that, she served as the Deputy Director for the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula team in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy, where she helped develop and execute DoD strategy on bilateral defense sales, regional policies, and support to the Counter-ISIL campaign. Jennifer began her career as an analyst. She supported the US Army in Baghdad and later worked for the Navy where she deployed to Bahrain in support of Naval Special Warfare operations in the Middle East. In addition, Jennifer served as an international election observer for the Organization of American States in Colombia, Peru, Guatemala and Panama. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and her master’s degree from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Jennifer Bisceglie, CEO & Founder, Interos

Founder & Executive Vice Chair Jennifer Bisceglie focuses on interos.ai’s strategy and vision for continued innovation and leadership in the supply chain risk management space, including the expansion of  strategic public and private sector partnerships. A highly sought-after global supply chain architect and strategist with over 25 years of industry experience, Jennifer regularly appears in Bloomberg, Financial Times, Washington Post, and other top-tier media outlets. Jennifer has also been called on to share her expertise with numerous congressional committees and conferences, including the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus, the Homeland Security Governmental Affairs Committee, and the U.S.– China Economic Security Review Commission.

Mike Brown, Founder & CTO, Strider Intelligence

Mike Brown is the Chief Data Officer and co-founder of Strider, where he leads the company’s technology development. With over 20 years of experience as a technology executive, Mike previously served as Chief Technology Officer at ComScore and ID.me, managing large-scale data systems and launching products across 45+ countries. Earlier in his career, he held technical and leadership roles at CSRA, Global Systems Management Inc., Pragmatic Image Technologies, and IBM. Mike holds an M.S. in Computer and Information Science from Hood College and a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland. He is the inventor of 28 patents and a frequent speaker on big data and its business applications.

Stephanie Cherrin, Partner, JP Morgan Technology Ventures

Stephanie Cherrin is a Partner at J.P. Morgan Technology Ventures in San Francisco, California, with a background in international relations and foreign policy. She has made significant contributions to the firm's investments in Series A and Series B stages, particularly in sectors such as social networks, sales & CRM, IoT, and Israel. Cherrin's career highlights include serving as a Board Observer for companies like RunBuggy and RepairSmith by AutoNation, as well as holding roles as an Investor at Cresta and DSP Concepts, showcasing her expertise in strategic planning and investment decision-making.

Mishi Choudhary, SVP & General Counsel, Virtru

A technology lawyer with over 17 years of legal experience, Mishi has served as a legal representative for many of the world's most prominent free and open source software developers and distributors, including the Free Software Foundation, Cloud Native Computing Foundation, Linux Foundation, Debian, the Apache Software Foundation, and OpenSSL. At Virtru, she leads all legal and compliance activities, builds internal processes to continue to accelerate growth, helps shape Virtru and open source strategy, and activates global business development efforts.

Zack Concord, VP Corporate Sales, XBOW

Michael Edenzon, Founder & CEO, Fianu

Michael Edenzon is the CEO and Co-Founder of Fianu, a DevSecOps automated governance platform. He previously served as Director of DevOps at PNC Bank, where he co-authored the IT novel Investments Unlimited.

John Funge, Venture Partner, Data Tribe

In this discussion, John Doyle, former head of cyber security at Palantir and current founder and CEO of Cape Wireless, and Anup Ghosh, former founder and CEO of Invincea and current founder and CEO of ThreatMate, shared their candid experiences of building world-class cybersecurity startups in the DMV region. This panel explored the challenges, triumphs, and lessons learned in the competitive local ecosystem, offering valuable insights for aspiring entrepreneurs and established players alike.

Past DMV Rising Panels:

2023: State of Cyber Capital Markets: Early Innovators, M&A, and Public Performance

2024: (Moderator) Early Innovators, Big Ideas, and Crossing the Cyber Penny Gap

Jason Kaplan, CEO, SixMap

Jason Kaplan has spent over 27 years bridging the gap between technical excellence and business success. His experience ranges from founding and scaling startups to leading global teams at large enterprises. Jason was the first Director of Sales at Akamai Technologies. He founded and led the team at Milestone Sports, which was later acquired by Zwift. Most recently, Jason has been bringing his business acumen and leadership to the cybersecurity industry as CEO of two companies: CyTwist, Israeli-based advanced threat detection, and SixMap, a leading exposure data company focusing on commercial and DoD customers.

Charlie Katz, King & Spalding

 Charlie Katz is Managing Partner of King & Spalding’s Northern Virginia office.  He advises emerging growth and technology companies. On transactional work, Charlie offers deep knowledge on mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital transactions, divestitures, recapitalizations and restructurings, debt and equity financings and securities offerings, leveraged and management buyouts, joint ventures, and strategic investments.

Dave Merkel, Founder and CEO, Expel

Dave Merkel (aka “Merk”) is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Expel.

Dave has been involved in the information security field for nearly 30 years, first as a federal agent pursuing cyber criminals in the era of floppy disks and 2400 baud modems, then as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and vice president of products at Mandiant. Following FireEye’s acquisition of Mandiant, Dave served as the global CTO of FireEye.

Before Dave’s 10 years as a solutions provider, he spent another decade as a security practitioner. He got his start as a special agent in the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, pursuing cyber criminals and conducting digital forensic investigations, and later as head of AOL’s technical security organization. While at AOL, he created and ran the first incident response capability for AOL and Time Warner, managed software security and policy programs, and built technologies for AOL’s security infrastructure.

He is frequently invited to comment on security-related headlines, and has been featured in news outlets like Fast Company, Bloomberg, The Washington Post, VentureBeat, The Washington Business Journal, Forbes, and numerous security media outlets. Washingtonian has also named Dave on DC’s “Tech Titans” list an impressive six times since 2015, and most recently in 2023.

Seanna Senior, SVP of Product, Govini

Seanna Senior serves as the Senior Vice President of Product at Govini. She has held product leadership positions across consumer and defense tech companies including at Amazon and Vannevar Labs. She holds a BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard University. She is also a Term Member on the Council of Foreign Relations.

Vikram Singh, Senior Vice President, WestExec Advisors

 Vikram J. Singh is Senior Advisor for Asia at the United States Institute of Peace and an expert on defense, aerospace, technology, and Asian affairs with over 15 years of public‐policy leadership at the Departments of Defense and State and major nonprofits. He served five Secretaries of Defense and, as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia (2012–14), negotiated new access agreements and led the U.S.–India Defense Trade and Technology Initiative. From 2014 to 2017, he was vice president for national security and international policy at the Center for American Progress, where he founded CAP’s Asia program and launched initiatives on nuclear security, U.S.–India relations, and internet freedom. Earlier, as Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the State Department, he crafted the President- and Secretary-approved political-military strategy to end the war. He was the first defense fellow at CNAS (2007) and the Pentagon’s inaugural director for partnership strategy, and he has received the DoD Medal for Distinguished Civilian Service (2012) and the State Department Superior Honor Award (2006, 2012).

Seth Spergel, Managing Partner, Merlin Ventures

Seth Spergel is Managing Partner of Merlin Ventures, where he combines his technical operator background with over a decade of venture capital experience to drive the fund’s investment strategy. Seth came to Merlin from In-Q-Tel, the strategic investment firm of the US Intelligence Community. At In-Q-Tel Seth worked with the CIA, NSA and other government agencies to invest in commercial startups that helped address the intelligence community’s most difficult challenges. Prior to In-Q-Tel, Seth was VP of Engineering at ThinkGeek, a publicly-traded online retailer, and spent over a decade at IBM in roles ranging from software developer to sales manager. Seth is a graduate of Brandeis University, where he majored in Computer Science and Economics.