Advisory Council for Cyber Operations
Executive Committee 2025 - 2027
Dale Jordan, Founder and Principal, Perspectives Cyber and Technology Advisors
Chris Koc (Chair 2025-2027), Head of Cyber Governance, New York Life Insurance Co.
Han (Kevin) Lin ('19 BS Computer Science), Senior Principal Infrastructure Engineer, Truist
Matthew Perrino ('24 BS Cyber), Cyber Threat and Vulnerability Management Specialist, Piedmont Healthcare
Kevin Thompson ('19 BS CS), Senior Associate, AI Software Engineering, Dark Wolf Solutions
Joseph Winters, Sr. Director, Cyber & Intelligence Sector, Peraton
Board Members
Dr. Tamirat Abegaz, Professor & Graduate Coordinator, University of North Georgia
Glennis Barnes, Area Manager - Gainesville, Georgia Power
Luke Brady ('18 BS CS), Software Engineer, NVIDIA
COL (USA, Ret) Dave Branch ('93 BA English), Principal Advisor, Touchstone Futures
Ryan Campbell, Security CSM - US Public Sector, Cisco
Rob Cherveny, CISO, University of North Georgia
Julia Chester ('13 BS C.I.S.), Identity and Data Governance Manager, SAIA, Inc.
Caitlin Conneely, Deputy Dir., Cyber Institute, University of North Georgia
Peter Cresse, President, Entropy, Inc.
Alec Diaz ('18 BS CS), Regional Sales Engineer, CrowdStrike
Alin P. Dobre, Solutions Architect, Trideum Corporation
Kyle Johnson ('11 BS C.I.S.), Senior Engineer, Georgia Sstem Operations Corporation
Grady Johnston, Global Director of Bus. Dev., eSentire
Jeff Jones, Founder and CEO, Barrix Nexus Group
Deniz Keskin (’20 BS Cyber), ML/AI Lead, Scientific Research Corporation
Dr. John Leyba, Dean, College of Science & Math, University of North Georgia
Dr. Lindsay Linsky, Professor, College of Education, University of North Georgia
Mallik Medarametla, Founder and Chief Architect, Samprasoft
Brian Murray ('07 BS C.I.S.), Sr. Manager Cyber Security Audit, Equifax
Eric Niconovich ('22 BS Cyber), Sr. Cybersecurity Engineer, Chick-fil-A
Vernon O'Neal, Senior Vice-President, USI Insurance Services
Dr. Bryson Payne ('97 BS, '99 MEd), Director, Institute for Cyber Ops, University of North Georgia
1st Lt. (USMCR) Bradford Regeski ('19 BS CS), Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst, Retail & Hospitality ISAC
Jacob Elliott ('10 BS CS), Principal, Dark Wolf Solutions
LTG Steve Fogarty ('83 BA History), Senior Executive Advisor, Booz Allen Hamilton
Aaron Fritz, President, Inertia Legal
Christian Gibbs, Penetration Tester, Abricto Security
Andrew Gomez ('18 BS CS), Consultant, SpecterOps
Scott Hand ('01 BS CIS), Software Development Manager, Amazon Web Services
Des Henderson ('21 BS Cyber), Application and Platform Security Engineer, Morgan Stanley
Steven Herring, Sr. ('17 BS C.I.S.), Cyber Defense Center Lead, Randstad
Benjamin Huckaba ('23 BS Cyber), Software Reverse Engineer, Cryptic Vector
Robert Ingram, Academic Liaison, NSA-Georgia
LTG James Jarrard ('88), Professor of Practice, University of North Georgia
1LT (USAR) Tremaine Reid (’24 BS Cyber), Computer Network Defense Analyst, Peraton
Todd Renner, Senior Managing Director, FTI Consulting
Joesph Saunders, Founder & CEO, RunSafe Security
Alyssa Scott ('22 BS Cyber), Digital Forensic Investigator, GBI
Steve Shepherd, Director of Development, CSM, University of North Georgia
Dr. Dianna Spence, Interim Dept Head, CS+Cyber, University of North Georgia
Dean Thalman, Sr. Manager Security & Network Ops, RPC, Inc.
Jonathan Vinson, UX Designer, Tektonux
1LT (USAR) Robbie Ward (’25 BS Cyber), SOC Analyst, Versetal
Shannon Whiting ('18 M.B.A.), SVP, Business Information Security Manager, Truist
LTC Heath Williams ('89 BS CRJU), AVP and Chief of Staff, Cadet Leadership Academy
Past Board Members
Charlton Barker, Business Systems Manager, Georgia Power
Doug Britton, CTO and Director, RunSafe Security
Robert Brown ('10 BS CS), CTO, GetUWired
Steven Meyers, Patient and Family Advisory Council Member, Fred Hutch
Phillip Nierodzik, Manager, IBM Security (Chair 2019-2022)
Shah Rahman ('09 BS CIS), Senior Game Producer, Blizzard Entertainment
Patrick Davis (AS CS), Principal Security Consultant, HanaByte
Anna Dooley ('17 BS CS), Senior Technical Project Manager, Serve Robotics
Ron Goodwyn, Information Assurance Engineer, Lockheed Martin
Shannon Vaughn ('07 BS Physics, Chinese), General Manager, Virtru Federal
Flavio Villanustre, VP Technology & CISO, LexisNexis Risk Solutions
Rodger Wille, Director of Cyber Security Operations, Alyn Inc.