Mel has spent his career in finance and accounting, and for the past sixteen years has served as the Chief Financial Officer for both publicly traded and private technology companies. In the last seven years, Mel was instrumental in the sale of three companies for a total of $2.5 billion. During this time, Mel was also involved in the purchase and integration of several companies totaling over $900 million. As Chief Financial Officer, Mel has managed investor relations, directed IPO-readiness efforts, raised debt and equity, and partnered with both internal and external stakeholders to support fast-growing organizations.
Since February of 2017, Mel has served as the Chief Financial Officer of Cofense, Inc. (formerly PhishMe). His initial focus was supporting the Company’s growth initiatives. In the fall of 2017, Mel became involved in a market check process due to in-bound strategic interest. The process resulted in the sale of the Company to a group of private equity firms for $400 million. Mel’s focus continues to be supporting the Company’s growth initiatives.
Prior to his current role, Mel served for two years as the Chief Financial Officer of comScore, Inc., a publicly traded company. During his tenure, Mel’s focus included merging with another publicly traded company to strengthen customer offerings in the media measurement space.
Starting in January of 2013, Mel served as the Chief Financial Officer of Mandiant Corporation. His initial focus included IPO-readiness efforts. In the summer of 2013 his focus shifted to reviewing strategic alternatives, which ended with a sale of the company to FireEye, Inc. in December of 2013 for over $1 billion. Mel remained at FireEye as Chief Financial Officer of Global Services and Cloud Solutions until August of 2014.
Prior to joining Mandiant, Mel served as the Chief Financial Officer of OPNET Technologies, a publicly traded company, for eight years. During Mel’s tenure as CFO, OPNET’s revenue grew from approximately $50 million to $175 million before it was sold for over $1 billion in December of 2012.
Prior to joining OPNET, Mel held positions with increasing responsibility at various public and private technology companies where his focus included partnering with stakeholders, building teams, and implementing systems to support growth. Mel began his career as an auditor in public accounting.
Mel holds a B.S. in Accounting and an MBA from George Mason University. He is also licensed as a Certified Public Accountant in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Co-founder and CTO of Cofense, Aaron has more than 20 years of cybersecurity and senior management leadership. His prior experience includes senior security and consulting roles at McAfee Foundstone, Lucent, and Time Warner Cable. Aaron pioneered the best practice of phishing simulations, now embraced by security teams in every major industry. He has driven research and development for the Cofense phishing defense platform. Under his guidance, Cofense has become the global leader in intelligent phishing defense, instructing millions of end users to recognize and report phishing threats and providing security operations teams with actionable phishing intelligence. He is named as an inventor on 19 granted US patents, as well as other pending US and international patent applications.
Aaron has been a featured speaker at RSA Conference, Black Hat, DefCon, SecTor and other major industry events. His expert opinion is sought by national media outlets and he has been a guest lecturer for the Information Security Technology and Management graduate program at Carnegie Mellon University and has mentored over 2500 students in various Ultimate Hackingtm courses.
He serves on the Forbes Technology Council, board of directors for ThreatQuotient and was named a 2017 and 2021 Tech Titan by the Washingtonian, and a CTO of the Year in the 2018 Info Security PG Global Excellence Awards. Under his leadership, Cofense has been recognized with several Cybersecurity excellence awards in 2019, Gartner Peer insights choice in 2018 and 2019, and a Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader 2017 and 2018. Also, in 2018 Cofense solutions was honored as a CSO Best Security Software, and a SC Magazine Award Winner, 2016 and 2017.
This event is full, but we will be planning similar events in the future. If you are interested in learning more, please email events@cofense.com
Samir Menon
Samir Menon is a Director at BlackRock Private Equity Partners, where he is responsible for private equity investments across a range of sectors, including technology and consumer.
Prior to joining BlackRock, Mr. Menon was previously a Vice President at Firelight Capital Partners, where he was responsible for sourcing, evaluating, and executing leveraged buyout and growth equity investments in consumer & retail companies. Mr. Menon was previously an investment professional at BlackRock Private Equity Partners, working in both the firm’s US and European businesses.
Mr. Menon currently serves on the Board of Directors of Vesta Corporation, Qumulo, and PLNTF Holdings, a Planet Fitness franchisee.
Rohyt Belani
Rohyt Belani is an industry veteran with over 16 years of experience in technical and senior management roles at leading cyber security companies. Prior to founding Cofense (formerly PhishMe), Rohyt served as the CEO of Intrepidus Group (acquired by NCC Group PLC), Managing Director at Mandiant (acquired by FireEye, Inc.) and Principal Consultant at Foundstone (acquired by McAfee).
At Cofense, Rohyt has led the company’s growth from concept to a company with over 400 employees, serving half of the Fortune 100. During his tenure, Cofense has established itself as a global leader in phishing defense and secured $60 million in equity capital from reputed investors like Paladin Capital Group, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Aldrich Capital Partners. The company has also been honored with several accolades including being featured on the Deloitte Fast500, Inc. 5000, and the Washington Business Journal’s best places to work in the Washington DC area lists. Rohyt, personally, has been a recipient of the coveted EY Entrepreneur of Year award 2017 and cited on Washington Business Journal’s 40 under 40 list.
He has also served as an Adjunct Professor at Carnegie Mellon University and is a regular speaker at various industry conferences including the RSA Conference, Black Hat, and several forums catering to the FBI, US Secret Service, and US Military. He is also often called upon to provide commentary and analysis on cybersecurity issues for national print and broadcast media including CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, BBC World News, The Washington Post, and The Harvard Business Review.
Rohyt holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Bombay University, and a Master of Science from Carnegie Mellon University.
Tom McDonough
Tom McDonough is an experienced board member and operating executive with more than 35 years of management experience in the IT / Cybersecurity Industry. During his career, he has managed private (early stage) and public companies through rapid revenue growth, market transitions, international expansion, venture financing, IPO’s, acquisitions, and integration. Tom’s experience and leadership skills have contributed to the creation of more than $5B in shareholder wealth through two IPO’s and four acquisitions at four different companies.
Tom spent the last six years at Cisco Systems where he served as an Advisor for Corporate Development and Integration to Cisco’s $4.0B Security Business Group. Tom played a significant role in the acquisition / integration of six cybersecurity companies valued at more than $6B. He also served as the Integration Executive responsible for the successful integration of Sourcefire into Cisco following it’s $2.7B acquisition in October 2013. Tom joined Sourcefire in September of 2002 and served as its President / COO until its acquisition by Cisco. During his tenure, revenues increased from approximately $1M in 2002 to nearly $300M in 2013. In March of 2007, the company completed its IPO raising more than $86M. The company was recognized by Forbes Magazine as one of the 25 fastest growing public technology companies in the U.S. three years in a row.
Before joining Sourcefire, Tom was the CEO of Mountain Wave, Inc., an information security company, acquired by Symantec in July of 2002; SVP of Worldwide Sales for Riverbed Technologies, acquired by Aether Systems in March of 2000 for approximately $1.4B; and VP of North American Sales for Axent Technologies, which completed its IPO in April of 1996 and was subsequently acquired by Symantec in December of 2000 for $960M. He has served on the Board of Directors of Trust Digital, acquired by McAfee; ScienceLogic; and as an advisor to the CEO of Opower, acquired by Oracle, as well as an advisor to several venture capital firms. Tom holds a B.A. in Economics and an M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Notre Dame.
Fred Wang (Observer)
Fred is a Partner with the Venture/Growth Team at Adams Street Partners, where he invests in venture and growth-oriented companies with a focus on the information technology space.
Fred led Adams Street’s investment in ThreatQuotient and is responsible for the firm’s investments in ThreatMetrix, Skybox Security, and Matrixx Software. Fred’s past investments include: Aruba Networks (ARUN), Aryaka Networks,ClearLeap (acquired by IBM), Digital Shadows, Harvest.ai (acquired by AMZN), Infoblox (BLOX), Speedera Networks (acquired by AKAM). Fred’s previous experience includes: Trinity Ventures, Spectrum Equity Investors, Mindscape Inc., The Boston Consulting Group, Intuit. Academic: Stanford University, BS, MS, Harvard University, MBA.
Nick Lantuh
Nick Lantuh joined the Cofense (formerly PhishMe) Board of Directors in February 2013. He was the Founder & President of NetWitness Corporation (sold to EMC in 2011) where he raised funding, built a management team and ran day to day operations from inception to sale (2006 – 2011), culminating in a #21 overall ranking on the 2010 Inc. 500 List of Fastest Growing Private Companies in the US and a #1 ranking for Inc.’s Fastest Growing Software Company in the US.
Gene Riechers
Gene has a broad range of operating and investment experience spanning a career in both technology companies and venture capital. Most recently, he spent 5 years as a director and executive at EverFi, a leading education technology company.
Prior to this, he spent 16 years in the venture capital industry where he co-founded 2 firms and raised a total of $660 million across 4 funds, while serving on a number of boards. Before his venture capital career, he was CFO, General Manager, and Chief Operating Officer in several successful high growth companies.
Gene has been the Chairman of the Audit Committee on several private and public company boards, most recently on a NYSE-registered company. He has also served twice as the CFO for an IPO.
Darren Battistoni
Darren Battistoni is a Partner at Pamplona Capital Management. He currently co-manages Pamplona TMT, a $1.0 billion private equity fund dedicated to investments in the Technology, Media, and Telecom sectors. Prior to joining Pamplona, Darren worked at Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe (“WCAS”), where he spent over 12 years investing in technology companies. He also worked in investment banking in the Media and Telecom Group at Credit Suisse.
Muhammad Mian
Muhammad Mian, Managing Director, is a member of BlackRock Private Equity Partners (PEP) within BlackRock Alternative Investors. He is responsible for sourcing, performing due diligence on, and monitoring private equity investments. Mr. Mian currently serves on the Board of Directors of WoundTech and AIM Aerospace, the Executive Board of the One Team Collective, and is an observer to the Board of Directors of Convene and Stonefire Grill.
Prior to joining BlackRock in 2010, Mr. Mian spent two and a half years with Salesforce.com, including time in Marketing Strategy and Corporate Financial Planning & Analysis. From 2004 to 2005, Mr. Mian worked at TiVo. He began his career in 2002 with the Private Equity Partners group at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers.
Mr. Mian is a Kauffman Fellow and earned a BBA degree, Phi Beta Kappa, with high distinction from The Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.
Jim Hansen
Jim has over twenty-two years’ experience in sales, operations and executive management primarily focused in information security. His eleven years as a federal agent provided the opportunity to work a variety of highly publicized cases both in the United States and globally. Jim specializes in helping early to mid-stage companies develop revenue though services and product sales, build effective sales organizations and manage explosive growth.
Most recently, Jim was one of the founders and the Chief Operating Officer of Mandiant (acquired by FireEye, Inc.), an information security start-up focused on incident response and computer forensics. He drove corporate strategy, initial revenue development and delivery, as well as building the sales program, which resulted in an average of 90% annual revenue growth over four years.
Previously, Jim held executive and management positions in both sales and consulting organizations to include Trident Data Systems (acquired by Veridian), Veritect (acquired by General Dynamics), Foundstone (acquired by McAfee) and Oakley Networks (acquired by Raytheon). Jim’s last Law Enforcement position was serving as the Deputy Director of Computer Crime Investigations for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. In this role, he provided oversight and onsite investigation into the penetration of the Department of Defense’s systems around the globe. He appeared as an expert witness in both the United States and the United Kingdom on highly publicized cases. Jim’s field experience includes numerous undercover operations in counter-narcotics and specialized operations as a part of the national surveillance team.
Jim holds a B.S. in Computer Science from St. Michael’s College and is a regular presenter and guest lecturer on proactive information security and incident response. Jim authored a chapter in Hacker Challenge and numerous articles in IT security publications.
Alex Ferrara
Alex Ferrara is a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, where he focuses on investments in the software and consumer Internet sectors. Technology is a personal passion; Alex is a former developer with a background in electrical engineering, and he still enjoys coding classic games. He follows the consumer and enterprise security markets closely. He is passionate about the intersection of financial services and technology, where he specializes in market structure-related investments and capital market technologies.
Alex lives in Larchmont, NY with his wife and daughter. Outside of work, he enjoys competing in triathlons, a hobby he picked up from the CEO of New Voice Media, a BVP portfolio company. He is also an avid cyclist. Alex holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a B.S. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
Bessemer Venture Partners
Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP), is a $4B venture capital firm, investing in startups at every stage, in every corner of the globe. Many of today’s most exciting category leaders are BVP funded, including Pinterest (BVP is the largest shareholder and first invested in 2011), Blue Apron (BVP first funded with a seed investment), Fuze (BVP first invested in 2012) and Snapdeal (2011 marked BVP first investment). BVP track record of outstanding investments includes 117 IPOs (most recently Twilio, Shopify, Box, Mindbody and Wix) Along the way, we’ve seen a number of our most exciting and innovative startups become part of something larger. Recent examples include: Periscope (seed funded by Bessemer) which sold to Twitter before even launching a product and is now industry-standard for streaming live-video, Twitch, which was acquired by Amazon for ~$1B, and Skybox Imaging, which was bought by Google in 2014, marking the first big acquisition in the new race for Space.
Kevin Mandia
Kevin is the CEO of security software company FireEye. He previously held the role of senior vice president and chief operating officer since December 2013 when FireEye acquired Mandiant, the company Kevin founded in 2004 and had served as chief executive officer. Prior to Mandiant, Kevin served as the director of computer forensics at Foundstone (acquired by McAfee Corporation) from 2000 to 2003, and as the director of information security for Sytex (later acquired by Lockheed Martin) from 1998 to 2000.
Paladin Group
Paladin Capital Group is a leading multi-stage private equity firm comprised of individuals with a proven track record of financial expertise, and national security experience.
We provide capital and strategic guidance to growing companies in the IT, telecommunications and alternative energy sectors. The firm focuses on companies with products and services that are “dual use” in nature, serving both commercial and government customers.Paladin has over $950 million dollars of committed capital across multiple funds and has invested in over 50 portfolio companies.
For more information, visit www.paladincapgroup.com.
Aldrich Capital
Based in Bethesda, MD, Aldrich Capital Partners was formed by experienced investors and operators who are successful entrepreneurs in their own right. The firm was started with the philosophy of “being the entrepreneurs behind the entrepreneur,” helping private, entrepreneur-run companies attain their growth objectives by tapping into the resources, knowledgebase and network of relationships of the ACP organization, a team that has been responsible for over $1B+ in technology investments over the past decade, resulting in multiple $1B+ outcomes. For more information, visit www.aldrichcap.com.
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