Boston Speakers
Meet Richard F. Rossi
Cybersecurity Advisor, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Rick Rossi is the Cybersecurity Advisor (CSA) for New Hampshire (Region 1), within the Integrated Operations Division, Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). CISA established ten regional offices across the country to improve the delivery of the department’s services to critical infrastructure owners and operators and state, local, tribal, and territorial partners. CSAs are the front-facing cyber experts supporting regional operations capabilities. Region 1 includes Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
Mr. Rossi transitioned to CISA in 2021 as the first Cybersecurity Advisor for New Hampshire. In this capacity, he has leveraged his many previous federal, state, local, and private sector relationships within the state and region to further develop cyber risk mitigation efforts in New Hampshire.
Mr. Rossi earned a bachelor’s degree (summa cum laude) from the University of Massachusetts Boston, a Master of Science of Strategic Intelligence from the National Intelligence University, and also holds a Certificate in Legislative Studies from the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University. He currently maintains active GCIH, GCTI, and CEH industry certifications, and is a member of the GIAC Advisory Board and InfraGard New Hampshire Advisory Committee.
Meet James McQuiggan, CISSP, SACP
Security Awareness Advocate at KnowBe4
James McQuiggan has over 20 years of experience in cybersecurity. He is currently a Security Awareness Advocate for KnowBe4, where he is responsible for amplifying the organization’s messaging related to the importance of, effectiveness of and the need for new-school security awareness. McQuiggan is a part-time Faculty Professor at Valencia College in the Engineering, Computer Programming & Technology division.
Additionally, he is the President of the Central Florida (ISC)2 Chapter and a Trustee Board member with the Center for Cyber Safety and Education. McQuiggan previously worked as a product & solution security officer, information security analyst and a network security engineer for Siemens.
Meet Emilee Tellez
Technologist for Product Strategy at Veeam Software
Emilee Tellez is a Technologist for Product Strategy at Veeam Software. She has 10 years of IT experience with over eight years working directly for Veeam®. Based in Mesa, AZ, she supported both commercial and public sector customers in the desert region, spanning from New Mexico to Hawaii. She helps customers work on their data protection and disaster recovery strategies for the ever-changing modern datacenter. She is a graduate of Arizona State University, and holds certifications in AWS, VMware and Veeam.
Meet Ed Koehler
Distinguished Principal Engineer, Office of the CTO, Extreme Networks
Ed Koehler has been in the communications and networking industry for more than 20 years. He served as a Senior Technology Architect for R&D within the CTO division of Nortel. His area specialties are IPv6, Multicast, Digital Identity and Network Security, as well as voice and video communications and data Science. He has several patents in these areas. Ed joined Extreme in August of 2010 as a Senior Data Solutions Architect specializing in virtualized data centers and associated technologies including compute and storage. Ed was instrumental in the development of some of the core technology used in IEEE 802.1aq “Shortest Path Bridging.”
Meet Aaron Sawchuk
Senior Vice President of Data Center and Cloud
Aaron D. Sawchuk is the Senior Vice President of Data Center and Cloud BD at FirstLight. In this role Aaron is focused on continuing to grow FirstLight’s Data Center and Cloud business in all of the markets we operate. Prior to joining FirstLight Aaron was the co-founder and chairman of ColoSpace, a leading provider of data center and cloud services in New England. At ColoSpace Aaron set and helped implement the overall technology and product development strategy at ColoSpace, focusing on building highly-available IT services that add significant value to customer operations. Aaron brings extensive experience in the IT-services and Internet Networking space, having spent more than twenty-five years founding and leading technology firms in New England. Aaron earned a degree in Economics from Middlebury College.
