The Initial RSA Conference 2019 Keynote Line-Up

It’s still December and we’re already talking RSA Conference 2019 keynotes. That’s because we’re incredibly proud of our lineup and just couldn’t wait to tell you. Call it our holiday gift 😉 

As you may have heard, we’re doing things a little differently at this year’s Conference and that includes keynotes. New to 2019, we will have two keynote stages instead of the typical one. The West Stage keynotes will, as always, feature sponsored keynotes, panels and esteemed guest speakers. For 2019, we will take advantage of the gorgeous new Moscone Center South to deliver South Stage keynotes, which include highly coveted sessions from industry experts, to a wider audience. Both stages will be open to Full Conference and Discover passes on Tuesday, March 5 and to all badge types Wednesday, March 6 through Friday, March 8. 

We think this revamped and expanded approach to our keynotes allows us to bring to you more examples of people doing amazing things, more perspectives on what will move our industry forward, and more insights into the challenges that we face. 

Our team has been working hard over the past few months evaluating all speaking proposals, which is no small task given the 2,200+ submissions we saw this year. If one thing is clear, it’s that the cybersecurity world features no shortage of smart minds working on the most critical issues that face our industry, and we’re fortunate so many of you want to share your insights at Conference. 

Our 2019 keynotes have it all: CEOs and CTOs, political strategists and journalists, professors and entrepreneurs, private and public sector speakers…and Tina Fey. 

Here’s a quick look at some of the keynotes attendees will have access to on the West and South stages. Additional speakers and content to come soon. We’re thrilled to see you in San Francisco in March! 

West Stage

• Nikesh Arora, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, Palo Alto Networks; and Jayshree Ullal, Chief Executive Officer, Arista Networks
• Caleb Barlow, Vice President, IBM Security, X-Force Threat Intelligence; and Mary O’Brien, General Manager, IBM Security
• Donna Brazile, Veteran Democratic Political Strategist, Adjunct Professor, Author and Syndicated Columnist; and Mary Matalin, Celebrated Conservative Voice and Former Presidential Advisor
• John T. Chambers, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, JC2 Ventures and Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Cisco; interviewed by Diane Brady, Award-Winning Writer, Author and Consultant
• Liz Centoni, Senior Vice President and General Manager IoT; and Matt Watchinski, Vice President, Global Threat Intelligence Group, Talos, Cisco
• The Cryptographers’ Panel: Whitfield Diffie, Cryptographer and Security Expert, Cryptomathic; Shafi Goldwasser, Director, Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing; Ronald Rivest, Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Adi Shamir, Borman Professor of Computer Science, The Weizmann Institute, Israel; and Zulfikar Ramzan, Ph. D, Chief Technology Officer, RSA (Moderator)
• Tina Fey, Writer, Actress and Producer; interviewed by Dr. Hugh Thompson, security guru and RSA Conference Program Chair
• Dr. Celeste Fralick, Chief Data Scientist and Steve Grobman, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, McAfee, LLC
• Rohit Ghai, President, RSA and Niloofar Razi Howe, Cybersecurity Strategist and Entrepreneur
• Kyla Guru, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Bits N’ Bytes Cybersecurity Education
• Sandra Joyce, Vice President of Global Intelligence, FireEye; and Kevin Mandia, Chief Executive Officer and Board Director, FireEye
• The SANS Institute Panel: Heather Mahalik, Director of Forensics Engineering at ManTech and Mobile Forensics Course and Director at the SANS Institute; Ed Skoudis, Instructor, SANS Institute; Johannes Ullrich, Dean of Research, SANS Technology Institute; and Alan Paller, Research Director and Founder, SANS Institute (Moderator)
• Megan Smith, Chief Executive Officer, shift7 and Third Chief Technology Officer of the United States (2014-2017)

South Stage

• Sylvia Acevedo, Chief Executive Officer, Girl Scouts of the USA
• Dmitri Alperovitch, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer; and George Kurtz, Chief Executive Officer, CrowdStrike
• Josh Corman, Chief Security Officer, PTC; and Dr. Christina Maslach, Professor of Psychology, Emerita, University of California, Berkeley
• Amit Elazari, Doctoral Candidate and Lecturer, University of California, Berkeley School of Law, CLTC, MICS; and Keren Elazari, Analyst and Researcher, K3r3n3.com
• Emily Heath, Vice President and CISO, United Airlines
• Paula Januszkiewicz, Chief Executive Officer, CQURE
• Stuart McClure, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Cylance Inc.
• The Future of Data Protection: Adapting to the Privacy Imperative Panel: Kalinda Raina, Senior Director and Head of Global Privacy, LinkedIn; Ruby Zefo, Chief Privacy Officer, Uber; and J. Trevor Hughes, President and Chief Executive Officer, IAAP (Moderator)
• Mark Russinovich, Chief Technology Officer, Azure, Microsoft
• Bruce Schneier, Chief Technology Officer, IBM Resilient, IBM Security, Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School
• Ira Winkler, President, Secure Mentem