John Pescatore is the emerging security trends director at the SANS Institute, a cooperative research and development organization.

He brings more than 35 years of experience to his position and began his career with the National Security Agency as a designer of secure voice systems.

Pescatore developed secure computing and telecommunications systems for GTE after his tenure at the NSA.

He later moved to Entrust Technologies and Trusted Information Systems, where he managed security consulting groups with core focus on firewalls, network security, encryption and public key infrastructures.

Later in his career, Pescatore served as lead security analyst at Gartner prior to taking his current role at SANS.

Pescatore earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Connecticut.

Stuart Delery serves as the U.S. acting associate attorney general, with responsibility in helping the attorney general and the deputy attorney general to implement departmental policies and programs.

Delery leads the Justice Department‘s civil litigating and grant-making components, Office of Tribal Justice, Executive Office for U.S. Trustees, Office of Information Policy, Foreign Claims Settlement Commission and the Access to Justice Initiative.

He is also the government’s chief FOIA officer, vice chairman of the steering committee of the president’s financial fraud enforcement task force and previously served as co-chairman of various working groups within that task force.

The Senate confirmed Delery as assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil division on Aug. 1, 2013, with responsibility in national security, health and safety and financial fraud cases.

He joined the department as chief of staff and counselor to the deputy attorney general in January 2009 and became the associate deputy attorney general later.

Delery was previously a partner in WilmerHale’s Washington D.C. office, where he served on the litigation department and the appellate and supreme court litigation practice group, and as vice chair of the law firm’s securities department.

He is a graduate of Yale Law School and the University of Virginia.

Ahmed Haque serves as the director of the Office of Programs and Engagement in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology‘s.

He leads efforts to drive adoption of interoperable health IT in the U.S.

His work at the Department of Health and Human Services agency also covers the reform of the health service delivery system, including technical assistance development, learning and education programs and resource dissemination.

He previously served with the National Quality Forum as program designer and subject matter expert on health informatics standards.

Haque has also worked on health services research on healthcare policy with the American Hospital Association and founded the IT startup company Reviving Styles.

Katrina McFarland serves as assistant secretary for acquisition at the Defense Department, where she advises the defense undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics on acquisition-related matters.

She was previously the president of Defense Acquisition University, where she oversaw the development and expansion of acquisition curriculum for defense acquisition workforce.

McFarland helped DAU to address the changing requirements for defense acquisition under the Better Buying Power program and the new National Defense Authorization Act guidance.

She served as director for acquisition at the Missile Defense Agency since 2006, with responsibility in developing process activities and program policy for executing ballistic missile defense system research and setting the baseline execution review.

McFarland started her career with the public sector as a general engineer at Headquarters Marine Corps in 1986 before she moved to the Canadian Department of National Defense in Ottawa in 1990 as procurement head of electronics.

She returned to the Marine Corps in 1992 as head of acquisition for USMC aviation and ground command and control, radars/sensors, air defense, combat ID and cooperative engagement capability initiatives.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) serves on the armed services, budget, foreign relations and aging committees and is a ranking member of the armed services readiness subcommittee.

Kaine first entered public service in 1994 as a city council member and then mayor of Richmond before he became a lieutenant governor of Virginia in 2002 and Virginia’s 70th governor in 2006.

A U.S. senator since 2012, Kaine has helped active duty service members transition into civilian employment with the passage of the Troop Talent Act of 2013 as his first legislation.

He also serves as honorary chairman of the U.S.-Spain Council.

Kaine motioned to change the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and proposed to revise authorization for the U.S. military’s operations in response to the Islamic State group.

As member of the budget committee, he helped Congress pass a two-year budget agreement in 2013 to compensate the impacts of sequestration on the commonwealth.

A supporter of initiatives to mitigate the impact of climate change on Virginia, Kaine co-hosted a conference in 2014 to convene policymakers, experts and regional stakeholders with the goal of addressing the effect of climate change to Hampton Roads.

He studied at the University of Missouri and Harvard Law School.

Richard Ledgett is National Security Agency’s deputy director and senior civilian lead, with responsibility in directing studies, operations and policy as acting chief operating officer.

Ledgett held operational, management and technical leadership roles at the NSA since he started his career with the agency in 1988.

As a former director of the NSA/CSS threat operations center, he oversaw the agency’s cryptologic efforts meant to counter cyber threats.

He previously held various roles in both the collection and cyber mission areas in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence between 2010 and 2012.

Ledgett also advised the director of national intelligence on cyber affairs, led development efforts of the Unified Intelligence Strategy for Cyber and coordinated cyber programs across the intelligence community.

He also held the positions of deputy director for analysis and production, deputy director for data acquisition, chief of NSA/CSS Pacific and instructor and course developer at the National Cryptologic School.

Ledgett holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a graduate degree in strategic intelligence.

John Giacalone has served as executive assistant director for the national security branch at FBI since September 2014.

In this capacity, the 24-year bureau veteran is responsible for executing programs against terrorist activity, espionage and weapons of mass destruction.

He started his FBI career as a special agent in the New York field office in 1991 and was later assigned to the Philadelphia field office, where he helped establish and direct the organization’s field intelligence group.

In 2005, Giacalone became the bureau’s deputy on-scene commander in Iraq and coordinated with U.S. intelligence and military personnel in that role.

He also participated in the Attorney General Guidelines Task Force before he was selected to serve as chief of the domestic terrorism strategic operations section within the counterterrorism division at FBI headquarters in 2010.

He returned to New York in 2011 to serve as the counterterrorism division’s special agent in charge and then served as a deputy assistant director role in CTD until he was promoted to assistant director of the unit in January 2014.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in management and finance from Adelphi University and a master’s degree in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College.

Richard McKinney was appointed chief information officer of the Transportation Department in May 2013 following years of work in the private sector and in local and state government.

He is formerly a senior fellow at the Center for Digital Government, a government technology adviser for Microsoft‘s state and local government division and CIO of the Nashville and Davidson County consolidated government in Tennessee.

He led Nashville’s information technology services department to bring the city into the top 10 of CDG’s annual survey of digital cities from 2003 to 2009.

McKinney has also held other leadership roles within the Tennessee state government.

He earned his bachelor’s degree and public administration master’s degree from Tennessee State University.

Miranda  Ballentine serves as the assistant secretary of the U.S. Air Force, with responsibility in the oversight, formulation, review and execution of plans, policies, programs and budgets for installations, energy, environment, safety and occupational health.

She was previously the director of sustainability for global renewable energy and sustainable facilities at Walmart Stores Inc., where she helped to develop and execute global strategies to reduce operating expenses in various facilities worldwide.

Ballentine was vice president for investor analysis and chief operating officer at David Gardiner & Associates before she joined Walmart.

She also chaired the World Economic Forum’s global growth action alliance’s renewable energy working group; the Sustainability Consortium’s external relations committee; NetImpact Corporate Advisory Council and the George Washington University’s institute for sustainability research, education and policy advisory board.

Ballentine holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Colorado State University and a master’s degree in business administration from George Washington University.

Dr. Michaela Iorga is the senior security technical lead for cloud computing at the National Institute of Standards and Technology‘s computer security division.

She also serves as co-chair of the agency’s Cloud Computing Forensic Science Working Group and Cloud Computing Security Working Group.

Dr. Iorga works with government, academic and industrial organizations to develop cybersecurity guidelines and standards as well as to promote innovation and competition.

She has also held consulting roles in both public and private sectors and holds experience in information security and assurance, risk assessment, cloud and mobile ad hoc networks, identity and credential management, security architecture development and cyberspace privacy protection.

Her current research work focuses on cloud computing security, privacy and forensic issues.