CISO Dinner

Demi helped co-found Panorays in 2016 and serves as its CTO, responsible for managing the company’s technical infrastructure, responding to marketplace developments related to third-party security, and directing the company’s analyst relations program, among many other things. Demi brings to Panorays his expertise in building communities and networks—both online and offline. His technical background enables him to provide visibility into companies’ blind spots and build large systems to empower users through insight-sharing. Demi is a recognized Google Developers Expert, co-founder of “Big Things”—one of the largest Big Data communities—and of the local Google Developer Group Cloud. He is a renowned international speaker, presenting Big Data solutions and distributed and scalable systems to both technical and management teams. Previously, he worked as a Senior Data Engineer at Windward, where he migrated an on-premise solution to Amazon Web Services, transitioning it to a distributed microservices architecture using big data technologies. Demi started his military service in the IDF elite programming course in Mamram, afterwards serving in Ofek for seven years, the software unit of the IAF, where he developed a missile defense system and was in charge of various intelligence and security-related tasks during his service. Demi graduated from the The Academic College of Tel-Aviv, Yaffo with a bachelor of sciences degree in Computer Science. In his free time, he serves as an advisory board member to multiple startup companies in deep tech and cyber security such as badook AI and others.

Matan brings his entrepreneurial background addressing untapped markets with his experience in building enterprise-focused security solutions. In his role, he combines his technical background with business leadership and vision. Matan established his first startup at the age of 18, and others ranging from location-based systems to cyber-security. He started Panorays with the goal of improving the industry’s cyber-resilience.

Ray Austad began his IT and Information Security career in Higher Education and Non-Profit, and pivoted over to financial enterprise after 18 years. Commencing his career with Zurich Farmers Insurance’s Group Information Security as a Business Information Security Officer. In 2014 he joined the Farmers Insurance Group Business Unit to lead Cloud and Application Security, Vulnerability Management, and Incident Response. In 2020 Ray took a different view of Cybersecurity and risks to business by moving over to Farmers Risk Management team. As Director Information Security and Risk Management, the next chapter started with being able to evaluate the organization with a new and intriguing lens. The first quarter was allocated to learning more about Enterprise Risk Management and adjusting to a role of business assurance, opposed to operational execution. The second quarter changed the organization and our personal lives with the pandemic, and provided new, unforeseen challenges. However this offered new opportunities to calculate organization and supplier risks, and view business resiliency differently. Heading into the third quarter, the focus will be on continued improvements with information security risk baselines, collaboration with our operational and business partners to monitor pandemic impacts, and evaluate new and emerging risks.

Brian Nmezi is Director of Risk and Security at TaxBit. He has over a decade of experience in technical security and GRC where he has built operational security teams, implemented effective detection and response programs, managed risk management teams, and operationalized incident response procedures. Brian has a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science, and Masters of Science in Cybersecurity and Data Assurance.