John is a former UK Chief of Police with global experience of security and counter-terrorism issues. He was head of the UK’s North-East Counter Terrorism Unit and UK Senior National Coordinator for Counter Terrorism.  He has led security and development programmes worldwide.

He holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Cambridge in England, is a past President of the Leadership in Counter Terrorism Alumni Association and is the Associate Executive Director.

John is also Visiting Professor of the Secure Societies Institute and the Chair of CENTRIC (Centre of Excellence for research into Terrorism, Resilience, Intelligence & Organised Crime). He actively supports the development of new technologies and cyber security to support public safety and businesses worldwide.

He was awarded the OBE for services to Policing and Counter Terrorism in 2011.

Pete is a partner in R&R Partners, Inc., and serves as its chief government relations officer. For over 15 years, he has spearheaded efforts to expand R&R Partners’ government relations presence regionally, nationally and internationally. His vision and direction have led to a national and international footprint with government and public affairs offices in six states, Washington, D.C., and Mexico City, Mex.

A former three-term Nevada state assemblyman, he is widely known as one of the state’s and region’s most influential political consultants. Pete’s background in local, state, federal and international government, along with over 30 years of experience in many industries such as energy, gaming, tourism, mining and telecommunications, gives him a high and diverse level of government and public affairs expertise.

Among Pete’s many accomplishments, he recently led efforts to pass groundbreaking legislation in the areas of online gaming, renewable energy development and telecommunication deregulation, as well as oversaw all government and public affairs strategy on a major interstate natural gas pipeline, utility transmission line projects, and both renewable and nonrenewable power plant permitting in multiple states. Pete also has considerable experience in political campaigns and elections, including serving as the primary strategic adviser to Nevada Govs. Brian Sandoval and Kenny Guinn, as well as U.S. Sens. John Ensign and Dean Heller.

Pete is a graduate of the University of Southern California and lives in Reno, Nevada, with his wife Wendy. They have four children.

 He is an avid golfer and fly fisherman.

John Benson is the Chairman & Co-Founder of Verisys, the leading provider of health care credentialing services for health systems and plans, pharmaceutical companies, pharmacies and telehealth. His prior roles include LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Concentra.

With 35 years in multi-line insurance, John led large operational units for established carriers. He has served on editorial boards for insurance industry publications and chaired committees both for industry organizations and for a state Department of Insurance leveraging my leadership involvement with industry associations including the California Workers’ Compensation Institute (CWCI) (committee chairperson), NHCAA, IASIU, AISG/ISO Insurance Fraud Management Committee, and the Antifraud Sub-Committee of the California Department of Insurance (co-chairperson).

He also holds certifications from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (CFE), the International Association of Special Investigation Units (Certified Insurance Fraud Investigator) and the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association (Accredited Health Care Fraud Investigator).

Damien’s career began on Wall Street, where he worked as a sell-side analyst covering energy and industrial equities, and eventually led a research group covering Special Situations. From there, he transitioned into private equity as a portfolio manager, and eventually into a role as CFO/COO of a portfolio company as part of its reorganization and transition from B2C to B2B.

He holds a Juris Doctor from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York, and a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration from the College of William & Mary in Virginia.

Damien also serves as Senior Financial Adviser for SuperAlloy Interactive, one of the leaders in motion capture for the film and video game industries.

Dylan previously worked at several New York City software startups developing SaaS systems and applications for the web, desktop, and mobile devices while working in fast-paced and resource constrained environments. At those companies, he assumed additional roles in Developer Operations, Product Management, Security Compliance, and Information Technology along with ascending to CTO at one startup. He has published four apps to the iOS app store, deployed an additional three apps for enterprise use, and is or has been solely responsible for the operation and maintenance of five web applications. As such, he has gained knowledge in cloud computing services, web technologies, networking, mobile app development, internet telephony services, databases, UI/UX design, among others.

Dylan wields dual bachelor's degrees in Computer Engineering and Computer Science from Clarkson University as well as a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh. While pursuing these, he interned at IBM, Ericsson, and Google and served as Director of Administration for the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students.

Dylan also owns and operates bodhi, an app bringing modern technology to therapy and mental health.

Keli has been consulting and incubating businesses for over 15 years. Founded the country’s largest database to help protect families and children with over 1M membership, working closely with law enforcement and media nationwide. Featured in hundreds of media interviews for television (live and recorded), radio, and print across the country.

Keli is also the Managing Director for Aria Holdings, a business incubation company. In addition to the companies that Aria Holdings owns and operates, she continues to help leverage her relationships in New York and Los Angeles to assist companies with public relations, marketing, advertising and business strategy.

She and her husband founded and fund the non-profit The Hand of Hope International in 2008 and have been involved in numerous humanitarian projects to help children. Much of their efforts have involved assisting homeless children and families in the United States and abroad.

Keli holds dual bachelor’s degrees from the University of Nevada.

Jayne is the former Chief Executive Officer at a UK police and crime commissioner’s office having over 33 years corporate development experience in the law enforcement and public safety sector. Specific achievements include streamlining business processes for continuous improvement, increased productivity and significant efficiency gains in performance and intelligent analysis. She successfully secured multi-million government funds for innovation in the field of technology to support predictive policing enabling crime prevention and the establishment of a pan-organisation Violence Reduction Unit to design out the causes of serious violence.

She holds a master’s degree from the University of Cambridge where her research interests focused on the efficacy and contribution of technology, including body worn video, to law enforcement practices and police legitimacy. She subsequently has many associated academic publications, contributing to the global evidence-base for crime prevention and reduction.

Jayne continues to support the use of technology and is a consultant Senior Tutor at the Cambridge Centre for Evidence-Based Policing aimed at supporting global police leaders.

Prior to his career as an FBI Special Agent, Gibson was an attorney for a multi-national corporation. A highlight of his FBI career was his assignment to the American Embassy in London in a Diplomatic capacity as an FBI Assistant Legal Attache primarily responsible for all FBI cyber investigations in the U.K. and Republic of Ireland, as well as a period as Acting Legal Attache, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Upon retirement from the FBI Gibson was headhunted by Microsoft to be its Chief Cyber Security Advisor, and Senior Risk spokesperson, in the U.K. and Ireland, based in London. Formally press trained by BBC, Gibson gave over 250 presentations in 18 countries about Microsoft's rabid focus on software security. After 10 years in London Gibson returned to the U.S. where he worked as a senior cyber and financial crimes consultant for two global consultancies based in Washington, D.C.; and, as an Adjunct Associate Professor of White Collar Crime at American University's Washington College of Law.

Chris Perry has 31 years’ experience in Public Safety.

As Chief of the Highway Patrol Division, he was responsible for statewide operational and administrative oversight of three regional commands and 623 sworn and civilian employees.

Perry was appointed the Director of the Nevada Department of Public Safety which consists of oversight for the Highway Patrol Division, Parole and Probation Division, Investigations Division, Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, Capitol Police Division and various Criminal Justice related offices. He managed nearly 1,500 personnel with a mission to ensure the safety and protection of all citizens in the state and oversaw Homeland Security for the State.

Chris Perry holds degrees from UNLV and advanced certifications from Northwestern University, the U.S. Department of Justice, and Nevada POST. Perry has received both Senatorial and Congressional Recognition for his efforts in helping to secure the community.

Kyle Bebee is Secured Communications’ Chief Product Officer and plays a critical role in the development and evolution of the company’s products.  His group serves as the primary source of competitive analysis and works closely with the Technology group to ensure that the company continues to innovate and maintain its position as an industry leader in security and productivity.

Kyle also heads the company’s Support division, which ensures that all Mercury and Artemis users are set up for success.  Prior to joining SC, Kyle was a lead technician at one of Montana’s fastest-growing wireless internet service providers, Montana Sky.  He began his career in the grocery retail industry, working his way up from an entry level position to senior management at a regional chain.

Tony has over 35 years of Sales and Marketing experience in the energy and telecommunications industries, working at startups as well as international corporations. As employee #2 at Masergy Communications, Tony helped build the sales and marketing teams from the ground up, supporting both direct and indirect channels, in over eighty countries around the world. He worked in Strategic Marketing at Ericsson, where he supported the sales teams for Cloud, IoT and Systems solutions. Tony is Co-Founder of AERnano, an energy savings company that leverages AI and IoT to help businesses meet their ESG objectives.

Tony holds a Masters of Public Policy degree in energy policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from the University of Utah.

Peggy Taylor brings decades of board and consulting experience and an extensive track record of expanding and scaling technology companies across the enterprise software and financial services industries.

Ms. Taylor served as president of PeopleSoft Investments, Inc., an investment management and advisory services company and subsidiary of PeopleSoft, Inc., an enterprise software company acquired by Oracle Corporation. While at PeopleSoft, Ms. Taylor also served in the role of senior vice president of corporate operations. Ms. Taylor’s financial services experience includes roles as vice president of trust and investment management at Hibernia Bank and as vice president of organization, planning, and development at Bank of California.

Ms. Taylor has served on the boards of directors for numerous privately traded and publicly traded corporations, including FICO. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in communications and psychology from Lone Mountain College of California and has completed the Corporate Governance Program at Stanford Business School and the Compensation Committees Program at Harvard Business School.

Recognized by Advertising Age as one of the 100 most influential people in advertising in the past century. In 1986, he led what Time called advertising's "big bang,” the creation of Omnicom Group, one of the largest, most successful global marketing communications companies.

Mike began his Law Enforcement career as a Municipal Police Officer in the Detroit Metropolitan area for the first eight years. He left the agency to become a Police Chief in a mid-Michigan Police Department. During this same time, he earned his Bachelors Degree in Police Administration and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration.

He resigned his Police Chief’s position and excepted an opportunity to become a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and retired after 30 years of service. While with the FBI he served in the Minneapolis Division, New York Field Office, Headquarters, Washington Field Office working in a number of different investigative programs.

He concluded his career with the FBI as the Chief of the Leadership Development Institute at the FBI Academy managing and developing both internal and external leadership programs. While at the FBI Academy he competed a Masters Degree in Adult Learning and Human Resource Development. He continued on in the Doctoral Program in the same discipline completed all course work and the comprehensive examination.

After the terrorist attack in New York on 9/11/2001 he co-developed, with partners from the United Kingdom, a new program designed to address the new global challenges, Leadership in Counterterrorism (LinCT). This program continues today under the direction of a Board of Governors from the FBI, RCMP, Australian Federal Police, Police Service of Northern Ireland, Police Scotland and the Australian Federal Police.

As with all of the FBI leadership programs, individuals completing the courses are invited to join an Association of graduates and in 2008 the Leadership in Counterterrorism Alumni Association (LinCT-AA) was formed. From 2008 to date he continues to serve as the Executive Director of LinCT-AA.

He is also a senior partner of the Academy Leadership Associates (ALA), specializing in leadership training and development, program design, organizational program and process evaluations, and performance consultation.

He currently is a member of the FBI National Academy Associates, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the LinCT-AA, and the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI.

As the chief executive of the largest and broadest-based business association in Nevada, Mary Beth Sewald sets the vision for the Las Vegas Metro Chamber and leads its strategy of supporting local businesses and pursuing initiatives to boost job growth, a healthy economy, and a vibrant community.

In her role, Sewald represents the business community in a wide-range of capacities.  She currently serves on the board of directors for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, where she serves on the Finance, Compensation and Marketing Committees.  She is also on the boards of Workforce Connections, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Committee of 100, Western Association of Chamber Executives, the Nevada Military Support Alliance,  The Congressional Award of Nevada, City National Bank, US Bank, the UNLV Lee Business School Dean’s Advisory Board, the Leadership Foundation of Greater Las Vegas and of the National Championship Reno Air Races.   She was appointed by Governor Brian Sandoval to the Southern Nevada Sporting Events Committee, charged with making recommendations on how Las Vegas can maximize opportunities from professional sports to grow the economy.

Sewald is engaged on several policy initiatives at the local, regional, national and international levels, and works with the Chamber’s Government Affairs Committee and team to advocate on behalf of the business community.  Under her leadership, the Vegas Chamber was named as the World Trade Center Las Vegas Business Club to connect international visitors to the local business community.  And she worked with the Secretary of the US Department of Labor on Association Health Plans, helping businesses provide more affordable health insurance to their employees.

Sewald has successfully served as a strategic and visionary executive in both the private sector and non-profit association sectors.  She is the former President & CEO of the Nevada Broadcasters Association (NVBA) where she led the efforts of the NVBA to collaborate with government officials, represented Nevada’s broadcast industry to all constituencies, and assured the financial health of the Association.  She also served as General Manager of the NBC affiliate, KRNV TV in Reno, NV, where she managed and developed a staff of 110 broadcast professionals across all disciplines required to run a professional broadcast organization.

Sewald was recognized as the first woman to be named Television General Manager in 2003 and was inducted into the Nevada Broadcaster’s Association Hall of Fame in 2009. She earned an Emmy Award for a documentary she executive-produced called “Meth Madness” at the NBC affiliate that is now KSNV-TV in Las Vegas.  Most recently, she was honored with the Silver State Award for Excellence in Service, named one of Nevada Business Magazine’s 2019 Women to Watch and has graced the July 2019 cover of Nevada Business Infinity Magazine.

She is the host of the Vegas Chamber’s Like Nobody’s Business television show and is a 2017 graduate of the Leadership Las Vegas program.

Babak is Professor of Informatics and Director of CENTRIC at Sheffield Hallam University and Fellow of British Computer Society. He graduated in Software Engineering, and later gained considerable commercial experience as a Strategy Analyst and Methodology Director for several companies. He consolidated this experience by obtaining a Masters degree (with distinction) in Information Systems in Management and a PhD in Information Systems.

Babak has more than 100 referred publications in international journals and conferences on information systems with specific focus on knowledge management (KM). He is member of editorial boards of three international Journals, Chair and programme committee member of several international conferences. He has extensive and hands on experience in development, management and execution of KM projects and large international security initiatives.