Organizational Cybersecurity and Digital Risk

Alex Dow, Chief Innovation Officer, Mirai Security Inc.

Over the past two decades, Alex has worked within three mission-critical security operation centres (SOC), including the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics SOC, has established Vancouver’s cyber security community and in 2017 co-founded one of Western Canada’s largest cyber security consultancy.

Alex is a community builder. In 2013 he established Vancouver’s cyber security community through the founding of the BSides Vancouver cyber security conference. In 2017, frustrated with how broken cyber security consulting had become, forged Mirai Security from within the community. Mirai Security has quickly become the centre for cyber security excellence in Western Canada by attracting cyber security professionals who want to do cyber security better.

Brian Monks, VP & Chief Security Officer at UL, LLC.

Brian Monks started his career with UL in 1983. Brian was the driving force behind the creation of UL’s internationally distinguished Anti-Counterfeiting Operations. In 2015 Brian was appointed as UL's Chief Security Officer and took over all aspects of the company's Enterprise Security Program. In 2020 Brian assumed a new role reporting directly to the President and CEO working on strategic planning and special projects.

Brian works closely with agencies such as US Customs and Border Protection, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, FBI, INTERPOL, Europol, and other law enforcement agencies. Brian is a frequent keynote speaker at anti-counterfeiting conferences around the world. In addition to these activities, he has written numerous articles that have appeared in prestigious publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Reader’s Digest, The Washington Post, and other various publications. Brian also belongs to many different professional memberships and affiliations.

Barbara Porter (BS CS '00), Chief Operating Officer / Chief Technology Officer, Fragrancenet.com Inc.

Barbara joined FragranceNet.com in January 2010 as the Chief Technology Officer and in April 2021 was also made the company’s Chief Operating Officer. She oversees all operations and technology within the organization, including warehouse management, order management, shipping and logistics, retail operations, application development, hardware, handheld, network, telephony, and virtual and cloud environments. She also oversees business intelligence, data engineering (machine learning), and PMO functions.

Prior to joining FragranceNet.com she worked for 1800flowers.com for 10 years, initially as the Manager of Web Development, then as the Director of Customer Application Development (managing 13 e-commerce websites, a retail point of sale application, and a multi-brand call center application) before transitioning to the operations side of the organization as the Director of Enterprise Initiatives—chartered with identifying and sponsoring projects for operational improvements throughout the organization that would reduce costs and/or increase customer satisfaction.