Company

Management Team

 

Management Team

Biographies

	Brian M. Ahern President & CEO Brian M. Ahern is president and chief executive officer of Industrial Defender, Inc. Under Ahern's leadership, Industrial Defender has become the world's fastest growing SCADA security company, and the only global company positioned to offer a complete security lifecycle solution to mission critical industrial operations. With more than 18 years of executive management, international business and engineering experience, Ahern is responsible for ongoing strategic direction and business execution. He is a seasoned technology executive with strong operational skills, who has demonstrated a track record of success through his leadership, vision and understanding of strategic market issues. Prior to Industrial Defender, Ahern was president of Invensys Process Solutions, where he led consolidation and business growth activities for a portfolio of seven software and engineering services companies acquired by Invensys. During Ahern's seven-year tenure, he held several executive management positions including president and CEO, Simulation Sciences, Inc.and vice president, worldwide utility sales and marketing, and an international assignment in Saudi Arabia with responsibility for Middle East utility industry business development. In the five years prior to joining Invensys, Ahern honed his skills while at Parsons Main and Stone & Webster. At Parsons Main he worked as a control system design engineer. His work included a number of US power stations. At Stone & Webster Engineering Corporation Ahern worked in the nuclear power generation industry and had a field assignment at Commanche Peak Nuclear Station in Glen Rose, Texas. Ahern graduated from University of Vermont with a B.S. in electrical engineering as well as the Harvard Business School Executive Education Program.
	Donald Simoneau Senior Vice President, Worldwide Operations Donald Simoneau, senior vice president of worldwide operations is responsible for worldwide commercial sales, professional services, and managed security services for Industrial Defender, Inc. Simoneau brings more than 21 years experience in finance and operational leadership with global high-tech companies to Industrial Defender, Inc. Simoneau began his career in the technical workstation business at Apollo Computer and HP before becoming CFO of Intellution, where he was first introduced to SCADA software technology. Prior to joining Industrial Defender Inc., Simoneau was CEO at Longwatch, Inc., where he was responsible for raising venture capital, establishing company operations, building the brand and instituting a North American distribution channel. Simoneau has an MBA from Bentley College and a B.S. in finance and computer science from Boston College.
	Debra Griffith Senior Vice President, Corporate Development Debra Griffith, senior vice president of corporate development is responsible for all corporate G&A and business development functions for Industrial Defender. Griffith brings more than 21 years of high technology industry management experience including serving as CEO of Teltone Corporation where she was responsible for expanding the company's longstanding leadership position in secure substation communications with the introduction of the Gauntlet product offering. In addition, she oversaw Teltone's growth in the remote voice and telecom test equipment markets. During this time she led the transition from public company to private, and managed the streamlining of Teltone's operations. Prior to her term as CEO, Griffith served as Chief Financial Officer at Teltone as well as other public technology companies. Previously she worked in public accounting at Deloitte Haskins & Sells specializing in the high technology and financial industries. Ms. Griffith is a graduate of the University of Washington and is a CPA.
	Todd Nicholson Chief Marketing Officer Todd Nicholson, chief marketing officer, is responsible for leading Industrial Defender Inc.'s global marketing initiatives including branding, advertising, public relations, product marketing, and market positioning. Todd brings more than 17 years of experience in corporate and product marketing, product strategy, business development and sales working for emerging and mature technology companies including Digital Equipment, EMC, IBM and InfiniSwitch. Todd joined Industrial Defender from EMC, where he was responsible for directing product marketing and product management for the company's grid and utility computing business unit. At InfiniSwitch, Todd led the corporate marketing and product management efforts for the InfiniBand switching and host-channel adapter business. Prior to that, he oversaw worldwide product marketing for IBM's xSeries Intel-based server product portfolio. Lastly, at Digital Equipment, Todd was responsible for leading product management for the commercial desktop PC product line and monitor product lines. Todd holds a B.S. in business administration from Nichols College with a major in marketing.
	Andrew Ginter Chief Technology Officer Andrew Ginter, chief technology officer, is responsible for technology direction, product architecture and corporate IT. Ginter brings more than 25 years of security, systems software development and technical leadership to Industrial Defender, Inc. Ginter has held numerous roles at Industrial Defender including product architect, and development team manager leading the development effort for the Industrial Defender technology suite. Prior to that, Ginter held various technical management roles at Agilent and Hewlett-Packard. A central theme in Ginter's career has been the development of high quality, reliable, and secure systems software - including compilers, real-time operating systems, network software, industrial control systems, message-passing middleware and alert management systems. Ginter holds a B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics and a M.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Calgary. His professional background also includes an Information Systems Professional (ISP) accreditation from the Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS), and a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) from the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium (ISC2).
	James Blaschke Vice President, Worldwide Sales Jim Blaschke is responsible for product and service revenue generation worldwide, and manages Industrial Defender's sales and channels teams in North America and Europe. Blaschke brings 28 years of sales, business development, channels, OEM partner and marketing experience in technology companies ranging from startups to the Fortune 50. Blaschke's prior tenure in the SCADA market was as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Intellution / Emerson Process Control. More recently, Blaschke was Vice President for Corporate and International Clients at VFA, and served as the Head of Deutsche Bank's Strategic Asset Management Program in London. He has previously served in sales, business development, and marketing executive roles at Sun Microsystems, MatrixOne, Archer Consulting, and General Electric. Blaschke's early experience built a technical foundation in engineering and product development, and he earned his degree in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Southern California.
	TC Lau Vice President of Professional Services TC Lau is responsible for client services delivery and managed security operations for Industrial Defender. TC joins Industrial Defender with over 20 years of hi-tech industry experience in leading and growing sizable technology services business. Previously, TC has held vice president and director level positions at Norkom Technologies, Progress Software and Systinet. TC was also a founder of nationwide business system integrator - Context Integration which he developed and sold. During TC's 10 years with Context Integration, he served the role of founder, chairman of the board, vice president of business development and VP of Operations. TC started his career as a technical consultant and integration specialist at SQL Solutions (Sybase) and Cambridge Technology Group. TC graduated with engineering degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
	Walter Sikora Vice President, Security Solutions Walter Sikora, vice president security solutions, brings more than 27 years of experience in the industrial security field and leads the Industrial Defender Threat Services team. Sikora provides technical business leadership to the Industrial Defender sales and service teams assisting clients with developing, and implementing world class industrial security solutions for SCADA, DCS and PCS systems. Prior to joining Industrial Defender Inc., Sikora spent 21 years with Invensys Inc. as director of service engineering and development. In this position, Sikora's responsibilities ranged from developing services and tools to support UNIX and Windows NT control systems to providing security solutions to Foxboro's Intelligent Automation customers. Sikora holds an associate degree in engineering technology from Massasoit Community College, a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Northeastern University and is currently an MBA candidate at The Gordon Institute of Tufts University, concentrating in engineering management.
	Phil Dunbar Vice President, Research & Development Phil Dunbar, Vice President of Research & Development, is responsible for product engineering and development at Industrial Defender. Phil has over 31 years experience in the high technology market, focusing on engineering and development. Phil came to Industrial Defender from the General Electric Company, where he spent 5 years in advanced development of Manufacturing Intelligence products within the GE Fanuc Automation Division. Before GE, Phil was the Development Director for Intellution where he led advanced development of real-time control systems. Dunbar's development process competencies include ISO 9001, CMM, eXtreme Programming, and Six Sigma. Educated at Brown University, Phil gained a bachelor's of science degree concentrating in Physiology. His advanced studies include Mathematics from the University of Munich in Germany.
	Chris Martin Senior Director, Product Strategy Chris is responsible for setting the strategies for Industrial Defender's product and services portfolio and driving the roadmap through the organization. Chris has 21 years experience in the high technology market, including 17 years experience in senior marketing and engineering roles for industrial automation control systems vendors. At Intellution, then GE Fanuc, Chris developed and drove the business plan for the company's entry into process automation. Prior to Intellution Chris was instrumental in leading the Transparent Factory initiative at Schneider Electric and driving their web based strategies. At Honeywell, Chris was responsible for launching the company's compliance initiative into the pharmaceutical industry. Chris has earned an MBA in Marketing from The Fox School of Business at Temple University, and earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
	Jonathan Pollet Senior Security Consultant Jonathan Pollet, senior security consultant for Industrial Defender is responsible for providing technical consulting services and needs assessments to determine customer cyber security vulnerabilities, compliance and solution needs. As founder of PlantData Technologies which was acquired by Industrial Defender in 2006, Pollet brings over 13 years of industrial control and SCADA system cyber security experience to Industrial Defender. Pollet has helped lead industrial control and SCADA system vulnerability assessments for Industrial Defender including NERC CIP compliance assessment services for North American Bulk Electricity providers.