Christopher Burgess

Christopher (@burgessct on Twitter) is the senior security advisor to the chief security officer of a Fortune 100. Prior to that he served as a senior national security executive for more than 30 years. He has lived and worked in South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Central Europe, and Latin America where he acquired understanding of people, cultures, and societal issues. Christopher addresses threats to intellectual property, security aspects of social media, security strategy, security education and awareness and prevention of industrial espionage.  Additionally, he is the co-author of Secrets Stolen, Fortune Lost: Preventing Intellectual Property Theft and Economic Espionage in the 21st Century, and a regular contributor to The Huffington Post which began with his piece, “A common sense approach to social media.” He also focuses on a number of societal issues such as, hunger, slavery, health, as well as how to keep ones family safe online via his personal blogs: BurgessCT and Veritate et Virtute. Christopher is a member of the advisory board to the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media.

Timothy C. Morris, PhD

Tim (@operations_phd on Twitter) is the Chief Operating Officer at Go2coo. Tim offers full-time or interim Chief Operating Officer (COO) services and senior operations consulting to Chief Executive Officers, Chief Operating Officers and Chief Financial Officers.

Prior to that, Tim held executive positions with a medical university, Fortune 500 hospital facility and a real estate brokerage.  Tim was also a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a member of the FBI Special Weapons and Tactics team and a defensive tactics instructor. Assigned with a primary focus on violent crime, Tim was also a member of the FBI Special Operations Unit. In this role he was tasked with surveillance, counter surveillance and dignitary protection. Assignments also included international drug trafficking investigations and interdiction. In addition, Tim served as a Patrol Sergeant with a large Washington State police agency, where he was tasked with establishing the agency’s Crime Analysis Unit. Tim earned his Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership at Gonzaga University.

Mark Mansfield

Mark offers extensive hands-on experience in company start-ups, expansions, and business continuity planning. He successfully co-founded a boutique investment bank, which was subsequently purchased by E*OFFERING, the investment bank of E*TRADE Corp. In the capacity of the bank’s President, he managed corporate finance, sales/trading and actively oversaw a broad portfolio of investment companies for which over $100 million in equity financing was secured.   Concurrently, he led strategic Business War Games throughout the world for the senior management of companies such as Bell Canada, Dow Corning, Kodak, Casa Cuervo, Covance and Pep Boys.  He has been a guest lecturer at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Webster University and Santa Ana College and is a member of the advisory board for the Center of Unconventional Security Affairs (CUSA), University of California, Irvine (UCI) where he has been an active contributor to published CUSA protocols addressing the protection of human assets in such cases as a school shooting and pandemic planning.

Mark received an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business and a BA (Top Honors) from the Royal Military College of Canada; after graduation he was commissioned and served four years as a Naval Officer. He is on the Board of the Harvard Business School Association of Orange County.

Alison Whitmire

Alison has 20 years of leadership in strategic planning, accounting, finance, sales and marketing in a variety of corporate settings. Alison has consulted with multiple companies to include those in the Fortune 500, on a broad range of challenging issues. She holds undergraduate degrees in Accounting and Finance from Texas Tech University, an MBA with concentrations in Finance and Business Strategy from University of Chicago, a CPA from the state of Texas and is a certified professional coach. Alison is a group chairman for Vistage International, the world’s largest CEO membership organization. She’s been on the board of a number of non-profits including Direct Marketing Association of Seattle, the Seattle Marathon Association, the Charlotte Komen Race for the Cure and the Charlotte Uptown YMCA. Alison has a passion for running and is a past co-program director for the Jeff Galloway Marathon Training program in Charlotte NC.