Staying Ahead of the Curve: How GCs and CIOs are Teaming Up to Prevent Becoming the Next Target of a High-Profile Breach

Alexander Niejelow serves as Senior Vice President of Cybersecurity Coordination & Advocacy at Mastercard Incorporated and served as its Senior Vice President of Public Policy since February 2016.

Prior to Mastercard, Alex served as director for cybersecurity policy on President Obama's National Security Council. He served as chief of staff to the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, where he helped coordinate the administration's efforts to develop and enforce intellectual property and patent policies.

Prior to joining the Obama administration, he served as a senior associate at the Pew Charitable Trusts, where he analyzed and provided recommendations on enhancing the security of the global pharmaceutical supply chain. He worked in the litigation department of Paul, Weiss, Rikind, Wharton & Garrison before joining the Department of Homeland Security in 2010 as a senior advisor on international trade policy and operations.

Alex holds a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Duke University.

Jordan Thompson is the General Counsel of Penn Foster Group, formerly Deputy General Counsel and Privacy Officer of New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) and its College of Medicine (NYITCOM). A non-profit independent, private institution of higher education, NYIT has 10,000 students in programs and campuses in New York (Manhattan and Old Westbury, Long Island) and Arkansas as well as China, Canada, and the United Arab Emirates. NYIT sponsors 13 NCAA Division II programs.

In addition to day to day duties as university legal counsel, Mr. Thompson negotiates technology agreements with an emphasis on protecting university assets and student data privacy. He serves as the university legal point of contact on major cloud-migration initiatives.

In his role as Privacy Officer, he participates in strategic decision making, developing policy and training staff and faculty on data loss prevention and privacy compliance with a focus on FERPA, HIPAA and the NY SHIELD Act.

A Certified Information Privacy Professional, Mr. Thompson is a frequent speaker on privacy and technology matters and enjoys sharing real world experience with others while striving to offer practical solutions to problems.

Mr. Thompson began his career as a litigator and has previously served in Associate General Counsel roles for a for-profit medical school and a nationally known commercial automobile insurance company.

David Kessler is the Public Sector Counsel for Verizon Enterprise Solutions.

Previously, David served as General Counsel, Director & Managing Attorney of McAfee Public Sector LLC, a subsidiary of McAfee LLC, one of the largest cybersecurity companies in the world. At McAfee, he managed a team that was responsible for all transactional and compliance matters in support of McAfee’s Public Sector business. He also recently served as McAfee’s Chief Compliance Officer, and managed a team that is responsible for all aspects of its ethics and compliance program, including anti-corruption, polices and training, export controls and internal investigations.

Prior to McAfee, David served as Group Corporate Counsel for the Public Sector business unit of Autodesk, Inc., a 2D and 3D software design manufacturer. He also served as Senior Corporate Counsel – Public Sector with Symantec Corporation, and was a senior associate with the international law firm of Greenberg Traurig, LLP.

He received his B.A. from the University of Florida and his J.D. from the American University Washington College of Law.