Lou Rabon started his journey in cybersecurity at a very young age, and his lifelong passion for technology led him to start CDG in 2016. Professionally, Lou has over 10 years of experience in Privacy and over 25 years in Security. Lou has worked for and with some of the largest organizations in the world, and has led Incident Response engagements against Nation-State attackers. His broad global experience in
technology allows him to speak to the full security stack, both at the executive and operational levels.
As a long-time technology professional, Lou also has experience in a diverse range of environments in
many industries. Lou understands the business processes that are necessary in
a complex, fast-moving environment and how to facilitate cybersecurity across business units. He
implicitly understands how data protection and cybersecurity can enable greater revenue for
organizations and become a differentiator for agile, forward-thinking organizations.

J.J. Powell is an entrepreneurial-minded cybersecurity leader and expert who is comfortable bridging the
gap between technical experts and company executives. J.J. has worked in Information Technology
and Security for over 17 years and developed the information security program at the largest telemedicine
provider in the U.S., along with cybersecurity programs, which included incident response, security
architecture, penetration testing, DevSecOps, and vulnerability management. J.J. has also built Security
Operation Centers (SOC) and implemented many top information security toolsets.

From the dawn of virtualization, hybrid clouds and, eventually, AWS, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Azure,
and the IBM Cloud, Philip has helped dozens of companies architect solutions that fit their specific needs.
Philip’s diverse experience in working in Silicon Valley, Silicon Alley, and Silicon Beach, has had him
working directly with companies, such as Uber, AppNexus, The Weather Channel, Wag!, Eventbrite, and
IBM. Philip’s experience has ranged in post-sales support, sales engineering, and development, aiding in
both increasing sales and decreasing spend. He has led both Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) and security
teams, bringing them to the forefront in the utilization of bleeding-edge technologies, DevOps
methodologies, and automated compliance and auditing

Ian Schwartz is an entrepreneur and special projects expert who has been working with fast-paced organizations and startups for over 20 years. With experience in Media & Entertainment, Marketing, Technology, and Real Estate, Ian has worked with clients in more than 15 countries over his career and specializes in providing robust client experiences that are tailored to stakeholders and their teams.

With the depth and diversity of his experiences, Ian’s focus is on understanding each client’s business and individual goals. This allows him to help stakeholders develop programs to address their immediate pain points while providing a foundation for further growth. In cybersecurity, this has meant everything from immediate leadership in incident response situations to the development of detailed roadmaps that help organizations address their cybersecurity gaps while understanding the impact that schedule, budget, and available resources have on their goals. When working together, Ian believes communication, transparency, and buy-in are all fundamental aspects of any engagement.

Caroline Connolly is an accomplished cybersecurity professional with a wide range of interests. Caroline started in application security, completing penetration tests, vendor risk assessments, and red teaming exercises. After working with internal teams as side projects, she realized her desire to advise and support organizations across their entire security journey and moved to the consulting space as a technical program manager. Recently, Caroline has been focused on helping clients pinpoint their missing security practices and moving them toward a more mature security posture by advising on strategies, tool selection, and documentation, among other things.
Outside of work, Caroline is passionate about ensuring that the most vulnerable members of our society have the tools and knowledge to understand and not fall victim to security scams.