Chief Strategy Office (CSO)

Mike Anderson brings over 20 years of experience to his role as Chief Digital and Information Officer for Netskope, having built and led high-performing teams across a wide range of disciplines, including sales, operations, business development, and information technology. He is considered a thought leader, visionary, and speaker on digital transformation, leadership, and business agility.

He joins Netskope from Schneider Electric, a global fortune 500 industrial manufacturer, where he served as SVP, CIO and Digital Leader for North America. In 2020, Constellation Research named him a member of the Business Transformation 150, an elite list that recognizes the top global executives leading business transformation efforts in their organizations. The National Diversity Council also recognized him as a Top 50 CIO for diversity and inclusion. Before Schneider Electric, Mike served as CIO for CROSSMARK, where he digitally transformed the business capabilities for the 40,000 employee service provider to the retail and consumer goods industry. Also, he has held executive leadership roles at Enterprise Mobile, a Microsoft joint venture that is now part of Honeywell, Insight, Software Spectrum, and InVerge, a web services pioneer that he co-founded in 1999.

Mike serves on numerous technology and industry advisory boards and volunteers his time working with nonprofits focused on mental health and suicide prevention and those that benefit the development of our future workforce in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

A highly regarded and awarded researcher in security, behavioral anomaly detection, and deep packet inspection, Krishna brings two decades of technical and thought leadership as founder and chief technology officer at Netskope. Krishna leads Netskope’s data science and user behavior research and is a prolific writer and speaker on a range of cloud security topics. He has authored more than 20 patents and co-authored the industry’s first Cloud Security for Dummies book. Prior to Netskope, Krishna held numerous leadership positions, including founding Top Layer Networks and serving as a distinguished engineer at Juniper Networks.

James Christiansen is Netskope’s VP and CSO Cloud Strategy. He is focused on Netskope’s global strategy to drive thought leadership in cloud security transformation.

James brings extensive expertise as a global leader in information security. Prior to joining Netskope, he was vice president CISO at Teradata where he led the global security, physical, and information security teams. Previously, James was vice president of information risk management at Optiv, chief information risk officer for Evantix, and CISO at Experian Americas, General Motors, and Visa International.

As a sought-after expert speaker on security, James has been featured at numerous prestigious events, including the Business Roundtable, Research Board, American Bar Association, American Banker, the RSA Conference, BankInfoSecurity, ISSA, ISACA, HIMSS, and MIS Training Institute. He has also been featured in The New York Times and quoted as an expert in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, United States Cybersecurity Magazine, Bloomberg, and Healthcare IT News.

James is a patent inventor and has received three innovation awards in cyber security, GRC, and cloud computing. He is the author of the Internet Survival Series and contributing author of CISO Essentials, as well as numerous industry papers.

He earned his master’s degree in business administration with a focus on international management and his bachelor’s degree in business management from Westminster College.

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James Robinson is a seasoned professional with over 20 years of experience in security engineering, architecture, and strategy. He specializes in services and solutions that help executives change their security strategies using innovation.

Before joining Netskope in 2018, Robinson was the VP and General Manager of third-party risk management at Optiv, where he worked as a core contributor around strategic internal initiatives including threat management, risk management, vulnerability management, and data protection. Prior to Optiv, he was the security architecture and strategy officer for Websense. He also previously served as product security officer for Emerson Network Power, a division of Emerson Electric Company, where he built the company’s first product security organization, including program and reference models, which were later adopted by Emerson Electric’s CTO office. He has also held leadership positions with other Fortune 500 companies such as Anheuser-Busch and State Farm Insurance, where he ran one of the most successful penetration testing engagements in the company’s history.

Robinson attended Webster University where he studied business and management, and he holds a number of technical certifications. He is also a regular commentator on security issues for business and trade publications, and holds six U.S. patents as an inventor.

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As Vice President of Strategy and Chief Evangelist at Netskope, Bob is dedicated to helping clients transform their security and networking infrastructure to meet the demands of an ever-changing world. He specializes in Security Service Edge (SSE) and Secure Access service Edge (SASE), and Zero Trust frameworks, providing expert guidance and innovative solutions.

Over the past 20 years, Bob has established himself as an influential speaker, captivating presenter, and skilled product demonstrator, engaging live audiences across 55 countries. He has a fervent passion for education, teaching cybersecurity courses at ESADE’s International Business School, and serving as a guest lecturer for the University of San Francisco’s MBA program for the past six years.

Throughout his 25-year career in Silicon Valley, Bob has held strategic leadership roles in product marketing and management. Prior to Netskope, he served as Chief Evangelist at Riverbed, where he played an instrumental role in the company’s growth from a modest start-up to a market leader in WAN optimization, boasting over 3,000 employees and $1B in annual revenue.

Bob’s fascination with cybersecurity began in the 1980s when, as a teenager, he hosted a popular Bulletin Board System (BBS) from his parents’ living room. It was then that he developed a firewall tool to safeguard his site from potential hackers, sparking a lifelong passion for protecting digital assets and shaping the future of cybersecurity.

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Nate is an experienced CISO and technology leader with over two decades of experience across insurance, financial services, management consulting, and software industry verticals.

Nate currently serves as Head of Cyber Intelligence Strategy as a member of the CSO team at Netskope; focused on cyber intelligence and the impacts of digital transformation on security programs and business strategies. Nate also is actively involved in security research, threat analysis, and attack surface discovery and management. Nate previously served as Head of Enterprise Security Strategy at Netskope.

Prior to rejoining Netskope, Nate served as the CISO for Corvus Insurance; a leading Insurtech startup focused on data and technology driven commercial insurance products. Nate has also previously served as CISO and held leadership roles at Zurich North America, Spencer Stuart, 21st Century Insurance, The NY Life Insurance Company, and Bank Julius Baer & Co NY.

Nathan maintains the CISSP, CISA, and CISM designations and has an educational background in business, technology, and homeland security. A 2016 nominee for Chicago’s CISO of the Year, Nathan is active in security communities around the U.S., actively serves as a board member and mentor for several cybersecurity technology companies, and as a board advisor to Ithaca College.

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Shamla Naidoo is a technology industry veteran with experience helping businesses across diverse sectors and cultures use technology more effectively. She has successfully embraced and led digital strategy in executive leadership roles such as Global CISO, CIO, VP, and Managing Partner, at companies like IBM, Anthem (Wellpoint), Marriott (Starwood), and Northern Trust.

Shamla has helped organizations in over 20 countries recognize the impact of digital transformation globally and advise their stakeholders on predicting and navigating the necessary changes in laws and regulations. In addition, she has worked with intelligence communities to use digital and cyber within their organizations to protect businesses and society from technology misuse.

Shamla remains actively engaged in the industry, with organizations like the Security Advisor Alliance, the Shared Security Assessments Group, Institute for Applied Network Security (IANS), Executive Women’s Forum (EWF), HMG Strategy Group, and the Round Table Network. In addition, she is an influential member of the legal community, creating and teaching courses on law, technology, and privacy for the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law. She frequently speaks at the American Bar Association and formerly served as the Committee Chair on Legal Technology for the Illinois State Bar Association. As a practitioner, teacher and coach, she enjoys the opportunity to help seasoned professionals to take their careers to the next level.

Neil Thacker, a cybersecurity executive and co-founder holds over 20 years’ experience in the cybersecurity and technology industry.

As Netskope Chief Information Security Officer EMEA, Neil works alongside product and engineering teams to ensure the secure delivery of Netskope technology and services. With a focus on data protection and regulatory compliance, Neil works with Netskope customers to ensure their security programmes are both optimised and can deliver on their strategic requirements in a cloud-first world.

Prior to joining Netskope, Neil served at Swiss Re, Deutsche Bank, Camelot Group and Forcepoint.
Neil is co-founder and board member of the Security Advisor Alliance (SAA), a not-for-profit organisation formed to both help security leaders in their role and to promote information security and cybersecurity careers to future generations.

Neil is Advisory Board member for the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) EMEA and member of the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) where he contributes to the EU agency program to position the threat landscape, mitigation advice and threat analysis and innovation.

Neil is an Advisory Board member to NeuroCyber, supporting and coordinating national activity, awareness, knowledge and action on improving neurodiversity and inclusion in cybersecurity.

Neil is CISSP, CIPP/E and CEH certified and is a frequent speaker and writer on cybersecurity, data protection and privacy-related topics.

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David Fairman is an experienced CSO/CISO, strategic advisory, investor and coach. He has extensive experience in the global financial services sector. At NAB, David was the Chief Security Officer (CSO) owning all aspects of Physical Security, Fraud, Investigations and Cyber Security. Prior to NAB, he was the Group Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for the Royal Bank of Canada. David has been a senior leader at JP Morgan Chase & Co as Deputy Technology Controls Officer and Global Head of Technology Risk and Control. David has also held several senior roles at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), including CISO RBS Americas and Head of Information Security EMEA.

David was raised and educated in Australia where he received his Bachelor of Information Technology in Software Engineering and Computer Science. He holds a Masters of Business Administration and a Masters of Project Management. David began his career in Information Security while serving in the Royal Australian Air Force’s Electronic Warfare and Communications group, where he gained valuable experience in the technology, policy and process aspects of security and risk management.  Subsequently, David worked in a variety of roles in technology and cyber, including in the utilities sector (gas and electricity). David holds a number of positions on boards of directors and was a founding member of the Security Advisor Alliance (www.securityadvisoralliance.org), and the Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange. During his tenure at NAB, David was the Chair for the Board of Directors for the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange. David also advises a number of VC funds and Cyber Security companies.

In 2015, David was named as one of the Top 10 CISOs to know, and is seen as a thought leader in the cyber security industry as profiled by K-Logix.

David co-authored “Cyber Risk” (2016), and co-edited “Fintech: Growth and Deregulation” (2018) published by Risk Books.

David is passionate about education. He has held Adjunct Professorships at both the University of New York and the University of Toronto and is currently working with Deakin University in Australia.

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Damian Chung is a cybersecurity leader with over ten years of security experience focused in healthcare.

As the Business Information Security Officer at Netskope, Damian is responsible for overseeing corporate security tools and processes and acts as the subject matter expert in the healthcare vertical. He also serves as an adjunct professor for the cybersecurity program at the University of Advancing Technologies in Tempe, AZ.

Prior to Netskope, Chung was the Sr. Director, Cybersecurity Engineering at Dignity Health where he implemented multiple cybersecurity controls and helped mature their security program by developing a healthcare-focused security roadmap.

Additionally, Damian has held the role of VP of IT, Cloud Security & Compliance for a healthcare technology company where he built a HIPAA compliant cloud service. Damian has an MSc from Arizona State.

Mark Day brings a diverse background to his role at Netskope, where he combines his interests in competitive analysis and technology strategy. He is author of the book Bits to Bitcoin: How Our Digital Stuff Works. He has more than thirty patented inventions, and has taught at both MIT and Harvard.

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Steve Riley is a Field CTO at Netskope. Having worked at the intersection of cloud and security for pretty much as long as that’s been an actual topic, Steve offers that perspective to field and executive engagements and also supports long-term technology strategy and works with key industry influencers. A widely-renowned expert speaker, author, researcher, and analyst, Steve came to Netskope from Gartner, where for five years he maintained a collection of cloud security research that included the Magic Quadrant for Cloud Access Security Brokers and the Market Guide for Zero Trust Network Access. Before Gartner, Steve spent four years as Deputy CTO of Riverbed Technology and held various security strategy and technical program management roles at Amazon Web Services for two years and at Microsoft for eleven years. Steve's interest in security began all the way back in 1995, when he convinced his then-employer that it would be a good idea to install a firewall on their brand new internet connection.

Gerry Plaza serves as Field CTO in the Chief Strategy Office at Netskope. In this role, Gerry focuses his expertise on the vision and strategy around Network and Security Transformation driven by Secure Access Services Edge (SASE). Helping companies understand and deliver the zero trust technology framework used by wide area network and security controls as a cloud computing service directly to the source of connection rather than a data center, providing the flexibility, scalability, and adaptability to support the constant changing nature of business.

Gerry’s career trajectory has taken him through every IT functional role of increasing responsibilities, throughout his 25+ years in the IT Industry. This expansive experience has allowed him to build a deep expertise in Enterprise Architecture allowing him to have a positive impact in every functional area of Infrastructure and Operations from 3-Tier Architecture to Hyperconverged, Virtualization, IP & FC Networking, Network Security, Cyber Security, Cloud, IaaS, and everything in-between throughout Design, Engineering and Operations teams.

Prior to joining Netskope, Gerry was Directory of Systems Engineering at Dell Technologies where he led a large team of elite solutions specialists who partnered with companies in all Industries throughout North America where they helped Companies create a Vision and Strategy plan to solve their business challenges with a roadmap for their future. Gerry and his team led Executives and their teams through consultation to drive business outcomes using a deep expertise of the industry, integration of disruptive technologies, and differentiated offerings, inclusive of Modern Data Center architecture, Strategic Multi- Cloud, and as-a-Service platforms to achieve their transformation goals.

Before joining Dell Technologies, Gerry spent over a decade at MasterCard leading various global teams covering architecture, engineering, operations, and service management with a focus on platform service delivery, digital transformation, technical excellence, quality of service, technology standardization and governance. His team was responsible for all aspects of providing data networking services and security enforcement to support the evolving business strategy of growth and expansion, while delivering cost efficiencies and stability to the overall MasterCard Data Center Infrastructure and Global Network. At MasterCard, Gerry was the driving force behind MasterCard’s transformation from a company that relied on infrastructure to maintain the business into a company that strategically leveraged Infrastructure and a Cloud Operating model as a means to accelerate growth and competitive advantage.

Gerry’s other professional experiences include facilitating Technical Workshops to help build future state strategies for customers. Leading Executive Briefings and Executive Advisory Board conversations with business leaders. Designing and creating strategy frameworks in support of large Data Center builds, migrations and/or consolidations. Helping to accelerate business efficiencies of M&A activity through the integration of independent environments. Collaborating with cross-functional teams in support of the overall business goals for a customer to create a cohesive entity with a shared vision.