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).

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.

Tom Patterson is a top advisor on cyber and critical infrastructure security issues to companies, governments, and the international community.  Tom is currently a Senior Fellow at Auburn’s McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security, a regular lecturer at Wharton’s SIFMA Executive Education program, and the founder of Infrastructure>Forward, a business accelerator supporting the trusted use of AI, 5G, Quantum, and Communications technologies in defense of critical infrastructure around the world.

Tom has served on three public company boards and advised the FBI, Secret Service, and White House on security issues. He currently holds a Top Secret clearance and served as the co-lead for the White House’s NSTAC Cyber Moonshot subcommittee, which outlines an actionable plan for a safe and secure Internet for critical infrastructure. Previously, Tom has been the Chief Trust Officer for Unisys, Partner-in-Charge of security services for Deloitte in EMEA, and IBM's first Chief eCommerce Strategist. Tom has worked on security for the launch of a nuclear aircraft carrier and space shuttle as well as with the U.S. Government and businesses around the world.

The author of Mapping Security and lifetime achievement in Trust awardee, Tom is a frequent guest security expert in media including CNBC, Fox and CNN, blogs regularly on Twitter @TomTalks, and speaks frequently at events including TEDx, World Economic Forum, Davos, DoJ, DoD, SIFMA, East-West Institute, and many other high-level government and industry events around the world.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Born, raised and educated in the heart of Silicon Valley, Janet received her degree in accounting from Menlo College.  Practicing as a Certified Public Accountant for the past 27 years, she has used her diverse experience in financial reporting and taxation to assist a wide variety of companies from small startups to national multi-million dollar organizations.  She has proudly served on numerous non-profit boards which have benefited from her accounting expertise.

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.

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.

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.

Melanie Hill has more than 25 years’ experience in PR and media relations working across government, private and third party (charity) sectors.

She began her career as a journalist before becoming a media and PR officer for one of the largest police forces in the UK. Mel led the demanding and busy press office in one of the most challenging districts in the UK, which involved developing media strategies and hosting press conferences for crisis incidents and high-profile investigations working closely with senior leaders across agencies.

She has built a strong portfolio of professional relationships with journalists and has held senior PR and communications roles for a number of globally recognised organisations where she devised and led strategies for corporate external communications.

Helen Parkinson has over 35 years’ experience in both the public and private sectors as a Business Manager & HR professional leading organizational change, policy development and strategic planning. She also has a broad experience of talent management including specific coaching and mentoring for senior leadership roles successfully supporting senior police officers reach their potential.

Having served in senior management positions in the health and law enforcement sectors, Helen has developed a comprehensive understanding of the business needs required to support and maintain frontline operations. These have included developing and leading a complete operational HR function in one of the largest police agencies in the UK.

Over the past three years Helen has provided expert consultancy on a wide range of management and HR issues supporting businesses develop strategies to deal with complex and challenging issues.

Rachel has experience in different retail sectors in both sales and customer service and is used to engaging with clients via electronic communications and telephone, upselling and promoting various product lines.

For the last 7 years she has been a police officer in one of the most challenging districts of the UK and has honed her excellent communication and negotiation skills. Used to working alone on her own initiative or as part of a larger team she relishes new challenges and opportunities for personal growth.

Most recently she developed high levels of proficiency with a wide range of different and complex IT systems and became conversant with running multiple computer systems simultaneously, including those in a multi-screen environment when deployed in the police command and control centre.

Rachel possesses a natural curiosity and desire to succeed and understands the need for private, secure communications.

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.

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.