About Our Speakers
Mr. Jim Stickley – Stickley on Security
Jim Stickley has stolen credit cards, hacked Social Security numbers, robbed banks, and created fake ATMs. He has broken into armed government facilities and has stolen from teenagers. He is an identity thief, but he is no criminal. Fortunately for all victims involved, Stickley is a cybersecurity expert with over 20 years in the industry who was hired to perform these attacks by corporations testing their security, news agencies investigating security concerns, and other media outlets interested in knowing just how easy it is to commit identity theft. His job is to find security flaws before the real criminals and warn people and organizations about what they can do to protect themselves.
Stickley is a published author and has been featured in numerous magazines and newspapers including Time Magazine, Business Week, Fortune Magazine and New York Times. He has also been showcased on numerous television shows including NBC’s “Nightly News”, CNN’s “NewsNight”, CNBC’s “The Big Idea”, Anderson Cooper’s “Anderson” and is a frequent guest on NBC’s “Today Show.” You can also see Stickley almost any night of the week as the featured cybersecurity expert for LifeLock infomercials.
Merrill Albert, Data Services Delivery Director – Trellance
Merrill Albert is a senior professional with a career focused on data. She has years of experience in logical data modelling and data governance and has had sole responsibility as a Data Officer in previous organizations. Prior to joining Trellance, she held the most senior data role at European pharmaceutical company, UCB, where she was responsible for all North American data and advised European operations on data management practices. She also worked for Deloitte where she collaborated with business and technology teams to develop compliant data solutions and solve data problems for better decision making.
Mr. James Morrison – Federal Bureau of Investigation
James Morrison is a Computer Scientist with the Federal Bureau of Investigation assigned to the Houston Division. He serves as a local technical expert to the Special Agents and Task Force Officers assigned to the Houston Area Cyber Crimes Task Force. He assists in computer intrusion investigations and reverse engineers software to determine source and purpose of the malignant code. He has worked in the IT field for more than 31 years, including 22 years with the FBI.
Prior to working with the FBI, Morrison was an engineer with Lockheed Martin at Kirtland AFB, NM and a UNIX/database administrator with the US Air Force at Falcon AFB (now Shriver AFB), CO and Clark AB, Republic of the Philippines. Morrison holds a BS in Computer Engineering degree from Colorado Tech University, a MA in US History from the University of New Mexico, and a MBA from the University of Phoenix as well as other professional certifications.
Mr. Michael S. Edwards, Attorney-at-Law, Law Office of Michael S. Edwards
Michael S. Edwards is an attorney-at-law with extensive experience representing credit unions and banking institutions on a wide range of prudential safety and soundness, financial consumer protection, Bank Secrecy Act and other legal and regulatory matters. He has served as Senior Vice President for Advocacy and General Counsel of the World Council of Credit Unions and was Senior Assistant General Counsel in the Regulatory Advocacy section of the Credit Union National Association.
Michael has been published on credit union and banking regulatory issues by the Administrative Law Review, Credit Union Times, CUInsight, Enterprise Magazine and other publications.
He holds a J. D. from American University-Washington College of Law, an M.A. in International Affairs from American University-School of International Service and a B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Gene Fredriksen, CISM, CRISC – National Credit Union ISAO
Gene has over thirty-five years of Information Technology experience, with the last thirty focused specifically in the area of Information Security. In this capacity, he has been heavily involved with all areas of Audit and Security. In 2019 he was named as one of the top three Information Security Executives of the last thirty years by SC Media.
Gene recently retired as Chief Security Strategist for PSCU. He is also the founder and current Executive Director of the National Credit Union ISAO. Gene has also held the positions of Global CISO for Tyco International, Principal Consultant for Security and Risk Management Strategies for Burton Group, Vice President of Technology Risk Management and Chief Security Officer for Raymond James Financial, headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida, and Information Security Manager for American Family Insurance.
He served as the Chair of the Security and Risk Assessment Steering Committee for BITS, as well as serving on the R&D committee for the Financial Services Sector Steering Committee of the Department of Homeland Security. He also served as an advisor on various cyber security steering committees for the administration of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, assisting in the preparation of the president’s Cyber Security Position Paper.
Gene is a member of the SC Magazine Editorial Advisory Board. He has published numerous papers and four books, and is a frequent speaker before audit and security audiences, and has served as Chair of the St. Petersburg College Information Security Advisory Board. He is a member of multiple advisory boards for universities, organizations, and security product companies. Gene attended the FBI Citizens Academy and maintains a close working relationship with both local and federal law enforcement agencies.
Kristen Haught – Amazon Web Services
Mr. Steve Soukup – DefenseStorm
As President of DefenseStorm, Steve is responsible for the strategic direction, daily operations and growth of the company. Prior to assuming the role of President, Steve served as Chief Revenue Officer for two and a half years where he led the Sales and Marketing teams, resulting in 3.5X growth in DefenseStorm’s customer count, numerous strategic partnerships and the establishment of DefenseStorm as the standard for cyber safety and soundness for the banking vertical.
Before joining DefenseStorm Steve spent more than 20 years successfully leading sales at early stage, private-equity-owned, and large global market-leading business-to-business brands. As an executive with deep banking industry expertise, Steve has built world class customer-focused sales teams that have delivered double-digit year-over-year profitable revenue growth in fast paced and competitive environments.
His background includes shaping a 100+ sales organization at e-banking leader Q2 to deliver 30% year-over-year revenue growth, as well as leadership positions at Intuit, S1 Corporation and KPN. Steve also has direct banking experience through management positions at Key Bank, Bank Boston and State Street Bank. Steve is a graduate of Boston College and earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Boston University.
Mr. Col. (Ret.) Timothy Evans, J.D., LL.M. – Adlumin
Tim Evans is the Co-Founder and Senior Vice President of Adlumin, a cybersecurity software development company established in 2016. Previously, he was the Senior Advisor of Cyber Strategy and Policy at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
Colonel Evans (Ret.) spent three years as the lead U.S. Computer Network Attack attorney and six years at the National Security Agency (NSA) as a Commander of an Offensive Hacking Squadron. For more than three years, Col. Evans also represented the NSA on the White House National Security Council for 3 ½ years.
Mr. Michael Crofts – Maple Street
Mike Crofts helps credit unions and community banks build vendor management programs that reduce expenses, improve vendor performance, and manage risk. Mr. Crofts is a graduate of the University of Idaho (B.A. 1977) and Gonzaga University School of Law (J. D. 1980) and has worked in private practice and as corporate attorney for ISC-Bunker Ramo Corporation (Olivetti USA), Marketing Profiles, Inc., the John H. Harland Company, and The Sedona Corporation.
Mr. Crofts has practiced law for 39 years and negotiated hundreds of contracts for banking related products and services. Mr. Crofts has spoken at national and international conferences and authored articles on negotiation techniques, technology contracts, contractual risk management, contract management, and vendor management and has been recognized as a “Top Rated Speaker” on several occasions.
Mr. Crofts is a member of the Washington State Bar Association, the Florida Bar Association and Rotary International. Mr. Crofts founded Maple Street, Inc., in 2003, a company that provides the Vendor Advantage System® to over 200 financial institutions to better manage their contracts and contract relationships, reduce costs, improve vendor performance, and meet regulatory requirements.
Becky Reed – Lone Star Credit Union
Becky Reed is the CEO of Lone Star Credit Union in Dallas, Texas. Becky has experience leading multiple areas in credit unions including retail operations, lending back office operations and IT. She has developed game changing programs through technology which landed Lone Star Credit Union the CUNA Technology Council Award for Excellence in Technology in 2019.
Becky is the co-founder of the Credit Union Service Organization, PureIT CUSO and serves as its Board Chairman. She is on the board of NACUSO, is the Board Chairman for the Corelation South East Users Group and serves on the Advisory Board for Corelation, Inc. Helping credit unions collaborate and support each other is her passion.
In addition to her credit union expertise, Becky is a management coach, mentor and blogger. Becky graduated Summa Cum Laude from Concordia University in Austin, Texas with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business.
Mr. Trent Henson – Pure IT CUSO
Trent has 30 years in Network Architecture, Enterprise Applications, Web-based Data Management, Business Operations, Service Delivery
He has previously served as CIO for Asgard Cloud Services, CTO of a healthcare information company that was a technology offshoot of the Mayo Clinic. Founder of BlueInk Technologies (now a part of Apple Computer.) VP of Information Technologies at Dyonyx
Mr. Mike Riggs – Perch Security
Mike is a seasoned senior cyber security executive who works with organizations to develop and implement modern technology strategies while baking security in from the start. He is currently leading various initiatives as Vice President of Strategy at Perch Security.
Mike’s previous experience includes leading the information security group at a rapidly growing financial institution and the chair the Community Institution Advisory Council group for the FS-ISAC (Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center) along with helping build threat intelligence sharing standards with OASIS. Mike has presented at industry conferences and has also been covered by media outlets such as Network World and CSO.
When he isn’t consumed with making technology a rich and secure business experience, he enjoys time his wife and two kids along with running.
Mr. Camilo Ruiz – Dupaco Community Credit Union
Camilo Ruiz joined Dupaco Community Credit Union in 2016 with more than 20 years of combined experience in information technology, project management, audit and compliance, risk management and information security.
Currently, Camilo is responsible for identifying, developing, implementing and maintaining information security processes across the organization to reduce risks and respond to information security incidents.
Camilo holds a BA in Business Administration, with minors in Technology and Information Management and Organizational Leadership from Upper Iowa University.
Mr. James (Jim) Fuher – Spokane Teacher’s Credit Union (STCU)
Jim was raised in Spokane, WA and graduated Gonzaga University (Finance) in 1995. He has prior service as an Officer in the United States Army and brings 22 years of financial institution experience.
He has been at STCU for 15 years, and is currently the Fraud Prevention Manager. Jim is currently a CFE (certified fraud examiner) and CFCI ( certified financial crimes investigator).
He also has a limited Commission through the Spokane Police Department since 2010, is a board member of the Financial Fraud Identify Theft task force since 2012, and is CUNA certified as a Security and Fraud Expert.