Ramona Ratiu is a distinguished cybersecurity leader with over 15 years of global experience in cyber resilience, governance, risk, and compliance. As Head of Cyber Resilience Testing at Zurich Insurance, she drives strategic initiatives to prepare organizations for AI-driven threats and emerging digital risks.

Ramona is the U.S. Ambassador for the Global Council for Responsible AI and serves as an adjunct professor at DePaul University, where she shapes the next generation of It risk professionals. She has held multiple leadership roles with ISACA, including two terms as President of the Chicago Chapter, and currently serves as Strategic Advisor.

Widely recognized for her contributions to the field, Ramona is the recipient of ISACA's 2025 Technology for Humanity Award, among other global accolades. A vocal advocate for inclusive innovation and women in tech, she champions global collaboration, mentorship, and ethical AI practices to build a resilient digital future.

With over 19 years of experience, Alex Islamov is a seasoned cybersecurity leader known for helping organizations successfully navigate complex regulatory and compliance landscapes. He specializes in delivering end-to-end operational, IT, and information security risk management solutions across both private and public sectors, including federal, state, and local government agencies. Throughout his career, Alex has held leadership and management roles at top global accounting firms, financial institutions, and technology companies, where he has built a strong track record of driving enterprise-wide risk and compliance programs for multinational organizations. His expertise lies in bridging technical execution with strategic oversight, ensuring cybersecurity programs not only meet regulatory mandates but also align with broader business objectives.

Alex brings extensive cross-industry experience, having advised clients in software and technology, healthcare, manufacturing and distribution, financial services, and the public sector. His core areas of specialization include IT audit, SOX compliance, IT/IS governance, regulatory readiness, data privacy, cybersecurity, enterprise risk management (ERM), third-party risk management (TPRM), and finance and accounting. 

He has in-depth subject matter expertise in aligning business processes with regulatory frameworks, including COSO, SOX, NIST 800-53/171, NIST CSP, HIPAA, CSA CCM, FISMA, FedRAMP, CIS CSC, PCI-DSS, HITRUST, CMMC, ISO 27001, SOC 1/2/3, GDPR, and CCPA.

We are thrilled to introduce our third guest speaker, Robert Duncan | LinkedIn! With his valuable insights and experience, this is a session you won’t want to miss.

Robert Duncan serves as the Group Chief Information Security Officer for Ardagh Group, a global supplier of sustainable, infinitely recyclable metal and glass packaging for brand owners worldwide. Ardagh operates 65 metal and glass production facilities in 16 countries, employing approximately 20,000 people and generating sales of around $10 billion, producing over 35 billion containers annually. He is also very active on the European speaking circuit, attending and speaking at events such as the Financial Times Cyber Security Summit, the e-Crimes congress, EU-focused conferences in Brussels, and various others.

He has extensive international experience, having been based in New York, London, Hong Kong, and Australia. Prior to Ardagh, he was CISO of Direct Line Group, a large UK Insurance firm, for over six years. Additional experience includes being CISO of the Euronext Stock Exchange, which lists roughly 7 trillion euros of financial products, along with past experience in Cyber Security and Technology at ANZ, Prudential plc, and Maersk.

Robert holds a BA from Florida State University, an L.L.B. in Law (London), M.B.A. (Cranfield, UK), and a postgraduate qualification in Executive IT Management from Columbia University in New York.

We are excited to introduce our fourth speaker, Matthew Whale | LinkedIn, whose insights promise to elevate our discussions and inspire our audience. 

Matthew Whale has been working in Information Security for over 12 years, leading specialist teams for more than 15 years, and has been a Global Head of Function for around 7 years. Before moving into Information Security, he spent around 10 years in technical roles across infrastructure and development.

Much of his experience has been gained in medium to large-sized financial service organizations (Hargreaves Lansdown, AXA, Computershare). He has been in this role as Group Head of Information Security at FNZ since August 2023 and became the Group Deputy CISO in October 2024.

Matthew has a degree in Computing & Information Systems, as well as having a myriad of technology and security professional qualifications (including from ISACA, CompTIA, Microsoft, SANS, and the Cloud Security Alliance). Most recently, he completed an Oxford Artificial Intelligence Programme with the University of Oxford.

In his role at FNZ, he manages Group and Regional teams. An example of the services covered includes security consultancy, security risk, audit (i.e., SOC2, ISO27001, PCI DSS, Swift), security engagement (i.e., client, regulator), and security assurance (internal & external).