Behnam Dayanim

Global Chair, Privacy and Cybersecurity Practice

Behnam Dayanim is based in Paul Hastings’ Washington, DC, office where he serves as global chair of the firm’s Privacy and Cybersecurity practice, chairs its Advertising & Gaming practice, and is a member of the firm’s Fintech & Payments and National Security practices. His work in cybersecurity and privacy includes regulatory counseling and compliance and breach and regulatory investigations. He regularly practices before the Federal Trade Commission, state attorneys general and financial services regulators on cybersecurity matters.

Aaron Charfoos

Partner, Litigation Department, Privacy and Cybersecurity Practice

Aaron Charfoos is an accomplished privacy and data protection trial lawyer. He regularly guides clients through high profile incident response, privacy litigation, regulatory enforcement actions, coordinates crisis communications and advises on Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosures. Aaron litigated his first privacy case in 2010, building on a decade of experience in patent and technology cases. Aaron also translates this experience into pre-breach preparation and consultation.

Phil Gardner

Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Having built IANS’ end-user research offering, Phil now oversees all strategic and operational decisions at IANS. Phil began his career in security with seven years with the U.S. Navy as a Strike Fighter Pilot & Ordnance Requirements Officer. After receiving a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School, he joined Goldman, Sachs & Co. in Mergers & Acquisitions and later became an associate with McKinsey & Company in Boston, MA. In 1996, Phil became one of the founders of Provant, Inc., a publicly traded training company serving the Fortune 1000 and Federal Government. He left Provant in 2000 to launch IANS. He graduated at the top of his class in US Navy Flight School.

Stephen Clark

Retired Major General, United States Air Force

Stephen is the COO of Summit Technology Laboratory (STL), a deep tech projection mapping start-up based out of Irvine CA. Stephen serves on the boards of Education Loan Finance (ELFi), a not-for-profit student loan financial holding company, Support Systems Associates INC (SSAI) a medium size defense contractor and the Jack and Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation (JAJF), a national charity. Stephen served 32 years in the United States Air Force Special Operations community retiring as a Major General. He is a combat pilot with multiple deployments in Bosnia, Somalia, Haiti, Afghanistan and Iraq with leadership tours at the squadron, group, wing and Task Force level.

Dave Kennedy

IANS Faculty

Dave is the Founder and Owner of TrustedSec, an information security consulting firm, and Binary Defense, a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) that detects attackers early to prevent large-scale invasions. In addition to creating several widely popular open-source tools, including 'The Social-Engineer Toolkit' (SET), PenTesters Framework (PTF), and Artillery. David has also released security advisories, including zero-days, with a focus on security research.

Prior to his work in the private sector, Dave served in the United States Marine Corps (USMC), focusing on cyber warfare and forensics analysis activities, including two tours to Iraq. He also served on the board of directors for (ISC)2, which is one of the largest security collectives and offers certifications such as the CISSP.

Steven Martano

The Caldwell Partners, Consultant, Cyber Security Practice

Steven Martano is a consultant in Caldwell Partners’ Cyber Security Practice. He recruits across the information security function, including CISOs, CSOs, cyber advisory board members, and cyber leaders in professional services.

Steven spent seven years at Russell Reynolds Associates, where he helped build the Cyber Security and Supply Chain functional practices, serving as a member of the global Corporate Officers practice.

Earlier in his career, Steven worked at Sikorsky Aircraft (then part of United Technologies Corporation), where he led operations and financial planning for multi-billion contracts for the U.S military and key international customers in the Middle East, Asia and South America.

In addition to his professional career, Steven serves as an editor and featured writer at Beyond the Box Score, SB Nation’s baseball analytics platform, and is a contributing columnist to FanGraphs’ The Hardball Times. He holds a BA from The Catholic University of America and a master’s degree in economics & finance from Trinity College.

Michael Piacente

Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Hitch Partners

Michael is the co-founder and Managing Partner for Hitch Partners. Michael brings over 23 years of combined Cloud and IT practitioner and executive search experience. Michael leads a focused portfolio of search projects focused in the CISO space with a particular emphasis on Engineering and Product oriented Security leaders (Security Engineering and DevSecOps). Prior to starting Hitch Partners, Michael was the Founder and Managing Technology Partner for CVPartners which focused on CIO and Head of IT search projects.. Prior to his executive search life, Michael was a leader in the managed cloud operations space; first as an early member of the SiteSmith (now AboveNet) and then as a co-founder of OpSource (now Dimension Data). Michael began his career with MTI, one of the pioneers in the managed storage space. He is a native of Maryland, he lives in San Francisco and holds a B.S. Degree from the University of Delaware.

Collin Snow

Area Vice President, IANS

Collin is an Area Vice President at IANS and currently responsible for overseeing, managing and growing IANS End User Business Practice in the Mid-west, Mid-Atlanta and Southern portions of the U.S. Collin obtained his Bachelor of Science from James Cook University in Australia and holds graduate certificates in Applied Project Management and Business Analysis from Boston University.