Abhishek Kumar

Abhishek serves as the project and software technical lead at Tessolve Semiconductor Private Limited where he is responsible for IoT, cloud and distributed software project development and management. He is also contributing in COE projects.

With 13+ years of varied experience in the software and hardware IoT products from concept to release. Experienced in designing, developing and managing IoT product life cycles, including project management of embedded systems development.

Abhishek has worked on wireless sensor networking, smart buildings and energy-saving technologies. He has project management expertise in scope management, project planning and monitoring, resource management, including time and budget, risk and dependency management, people management, customer relations and stakeholder management.

In addition to his professional responsibilities, Abhishek has mentored the Ideathon as a technical mentor, conducted by the VLSI and embedded systems conference in 2015.

Amit Rao

Amit serves as the Vice President at Device Authority where he is responsible for driving strategy, sales, and business development initiatives for key accounts in the Asia region, focusing on the industrial, automotive and medical sectors.

The role involves implementing growth hacking strategies and nurturing collaborations with top cloud service providers, IoT platform vendors, multinational corporations (GICs), consulting firms, system integrators and semiconductor companies.

With 22 years of varied experience in the semiconductor and hi-tech industries spanning multiple business roles, Amit is a passionate advocate for technology. Previously, Amit spearheaded ST Microelectronics & Texas Instruments’ business expansion efforts in India and South Asia targeting diverse markets and segments such as industrial, automotive, consumer, medical, defense and space.

Amit is a technology enthusiast who firmly believes that IoT security and privacy are critical concerns that require immediate attention. He has been actively promoting the extension of Zero Trust principles to the IoT domain.

In addition to his professional responsibilities, Amit also dedicates his time as a volunteer for various organizations, including ISO/IEC JTC1 SC27 (WG4), IET – IoT Cybersecurity WG and IoT Security Foundation.

Amitesh Kumar

Amitesh is a Certified Secure Software Lifecycle professional with a strong technical grip and rich experience of 23 years in Software Development, Quality Assurance and Product Security. He is currently working with Honeywell as a Director Product Security for Honeywell Building Technologies (HBT) group where he is responsible for secure development of HBT products.

Before joining Honeywell, he worked with a cloud security startup Netskope, where he was responsible for setting up the Product Security function from scratch and integrating Secure SDLC framework with their existing software development lifecycle framework.

Amitesh also worked as a Software Development Manager at Amazon where he was part of worldwide Deals team. He was responsible for building new features on ‘Today’s Deals’ platform which caters to the biggest sales days at Amazon such as Prime day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.

He also worked with Amazon Music where he was responsible for building specialized tools to improve music search quality on Amazon Echo devices (voice search) and Amazon Music App (text search).

Prior to Amazon, Amitesh was with McAfee where he worked on some of the cutting-edge security products and technologies. He was McAfee’s first ‘Product Security Champion’ based out of India and was responsible of driving Secure Development Life Cycle and security testing initiatives at McAfee India center.

Amitesh holds Diploma in Business Management from Symbiosis, Pune and Bachelor of Engineering from Pune University.

Mike Bartley

Dr Mike Bartley has over 30 years of experience in software testing and hardware verification. He has built and managed state-of-the-art test and verification teams inside a number of companies (including STMicroelectronics, Infineon, Panasonic and start-up ClearSpeed) and also advised a number of companies on organisational verification strategies (ARM, NXP and multiple start-ups).

Mike successfully founded and grew a software test and hardware verification services company to 450+ engineers globally, delivering services and solutions to over 50+ clients in a wide range of technologies and industries. The company was acquired by Tessolve semiconductors, a global company with 3,000+ employees supporting clients in VLSI, silicon test and qualification, PCB and embedded product development in multiple vertical industries.

Mike has a PhD in Mathematics (Bristol University) and 8 MSc’s in various subjects including management, software engineering, computer security robotics and AI. He is currently studying (remotely) for an MSc in Blockchain and Digital Currency at the University of Nicosia, Cypress.

Durgesh Kalya

Durgesh Kalya has 18 plus years of Industry experience working in the Manufacturing, Engineering Design, and IT industries. He has a BSc in Instrumentation Technology and an MSc in Computer Engineering.

He is currently working for Covestro LLC as the OT Security Caretaker for their Baytown Facility with a specialization in OT Networks and supports the Process Control Automation Group with the application of security standards on Safety Systems, DCS, and PLCs.

Durgesh is actively involved in the IoT and OT community around the globe. He is a member of ISA and is the current Director-Elect for the Safety & Security Division. He also contributes to critical manufacturing as an SME for ICS Security for ICS4ICS at ISA Global Cyber Alliance. His passion for cybersecurity for critical infrastructure and his goal to bring communities together to share best practices and develop industry guidelines is what drives him and keeps him motivated.

Sameer Koranne

Sameer has over 22 years of experience in Cybersecurity and Application Development. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and MBA and is currently working for IBM.

Sameer has been working as an OT / IoT Security enthusiast for over 6 years. He is helping some of the world’s leading companies improve cyber resiliency around critical infrastructure.

Roya Gordon

As a Security Research Evangelist at Nozomi Networks, Roya’s primary role is to share the latest OT/IoT vulnerability, intelligence, and threat detection research conducted by Nozomi Networks Labs. Prior to Nozomi Networks, Roya worked as the Cyber Threat Intelligence SME for OT and Critical Infrastructure at Accenture, a Control Systems Cybersecurity Analyst at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), and an Intelligence Specialist in the United States Navy. She holds a Masters in Global Affairs with a focus on cyberwarfare from Florida International University (FIU).

David Lancaster

David is Associate Partner, OT/IoT Security Practice Manager at IBM. His specialties include Engineering, Procurement, Construction & Operations (EPC&O), Major Capital Projects (MCP), Midstream and Downstream Chemicals & Petroleum, Energy & Utilities, Pulp & Paper, Digital Transformation, Management Consulting, Business Process Modeling, Information Management, Portfolio, Program and Project Management, IT Systems Selection, Rationalization, Development & Implementation, IT/OT Cybersecurity and Commodities/Energy Trading and Risk Management (C/ETRM).

Pankaj Dhume

Pankaj Dhume is a CEO, entrepreneur, investor & mentor. He is the founder & CEO of Elliot Systems, a Houston based technology company that helps customers reduce their operational costs by increasing Industrial equipment efficiency. Elliot’s solutions use Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technology enabling organizations & factories to become “smart”.

Pankaj was an executive at BMC Software, an S&P 500 company where he was responsible for important initiatives including the establishment & growth of its office in India from 0 to to 1,500 employees covering all global company functions. He also led the office-of-the future initiative, completely rebranding global real estate & saving millions of dollars in operational costs.

He has contributed his time to local communities by serving in leadership roles. He is the past president of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston, past chairman of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce of Pune, India chapter & a past board member of the non-profit Pratham Houston.

Pankaj lives with his wife Asha in Sugar Land, a suburb of Houston and they have two adult children.