Women bring a unique skill set and perspective to security as our industry continues to grow. This panel discussion, open to both men and women, is an opportunity to discuss how to hone those skills and leverage our differences to learn from each other and obtain superior results and maximum impact to their organization while maintaining a work life balance.
Diversity in the workplace and within leadership teams is imperative to ensure a robust and comprehensive global perspective is represented to match stakeholder and customer needs. This session explores the role that women currently play in security and how to support continued growth, how differences in gender strengthen a leadership team, and how both men and women can cultivate and embrace diversity to obtain superior results and maximum impact to their organization.
About PANEL
GAIL ESSEN, CPP, PSP, works for the Siemens Enterprise Security team and she supports the global Industry Affairs team. She is a 20+ year veteran, known for accelerating business development and process improvements. Her progressive growth and wide range of experience, including owning a WBE, MBE, DBE business, converged in her role at Siemens, where she has established herself as a trusted business advisor.
Gail is board certified as a Certified Protection Professional and as a Physical Security Professional. For ASIS International, Gail chairs both the Minnesota chapter Certification Committee and the global ASIS Women In Security (WIS) Council.
PETER CHRISTY is a Senior IT Security Manager for General Mills, one of the world’s largest food companies operating in over 100 countries. In his role, Peter is responsible for information protection, vendor assessments, application vulnerability management, threat intelligence, security awareness, and cyber risk mitigation. Peter joined General Mills through the acquisition of the Pillsbury Company back in 2001. His past experiences include being the Identity Access and Management Manger at Carlson Companies and an adjunct instructor at various local business and technical colleges. Peter also co-chairs the Minnesota CSO Executive Summit. Peter has been supporting, managing and/or teaching Information Technology and Security for over 20 years and is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).
HEATHER HANSCOM is the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for SUPERVALU INC. She is accountable for all aspects of Information and Cyber Security, including security governance, risk, and compliance, threat and vulnerability management, and security architecture, and integrating security into all aspects of the business.
Prior to SUPERVALU INC, she was the Vice President of Identity, Access, and Security Infrastructure Management and also previously the head of Cyber Security with Ameriprise Financial, specializing in developing security operations centers, security incident investigations, forensics, and security surveillance.
Heather also has held Security positions with Medica Health Plans, Digital River and Ernst and Young. She has a Bachelor of Science from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota and holds CISSP and CISM. She is married and has 3 kids.
