As threats evolve in speed, complexity, & sophistication, SOC teams must enhance their defenses. Join us to explore the latest advancements in Microsoft’s unified security operations platform, combining Microsoft Sentinel SIEM with Microsoft Defender XDR, the broadest native XDR spanning endpoints, email, identities, and more. We are also excited to welcome Principal Analyst, Allie Mellen from Forrester to the Ignite stage, who will share insights on the top security trends shaping the industry.
Rob Lefferts
CVP, Microsoft Threat Protection
Rob Lefferts is corporate vice president of The Threat Protection Org at Microsoft. Lefferts leads the team responsible for M365 Defender and Sentinel products which ensures end-to end comprehensive and cohesive Microsoft security experiences and technology for all of our customers. Lefferts holds a BS and MS from Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, PA.
Scott Freitas
Principal Applied Scientist
Scott Freitas is a Principal Applied Scientist at Microsoft working at the intersection of applied and theoretical machine learning, with a focus on graph mining and deep learning. His goal is to develop explainable, robust, and efficient next-generation cybersecurity systems.
He completed his Machine Learning PhD at Georgia Tech where he worked with Polo Chau. He co-authored several winning research proposals, including a multi-million dollar DARPA grant; was awarded PhD fellowships from IBM Research, NSF GRFP and Raytheon; and was fortunate to work with amazing engineers and scientists at IBM Research, Amazon, Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection, Microsoft Research, Intel and the Naval Air Warfare Center.
He completed his Machine Learning PhD at Georgia Tech where he worked with Polo Chau. He co-authored several winning research proposals, including a multi-million dollar DARPA grant; was awarded PhD fellowships from IBM Research, NSF GRFP and Raytheon; and was fortunate to work with amazing engineers and scientists at IBM Research, Amazon, Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection, Microsoft Research, Intel and the Naval Air Warfare Center.
Brandon Koeller
Principal Product Manager
Brandon Koeller is a Product Manager working on security solutions for Microsoft 365 and Collaboration. He runs a team focused on keeping users safe from malicious and unwanted content. Brandon has worked for more than 25 years in technologies ranging from US Navy submarine weapon systems to LAMP stack development to .Net custom application development in dozens of different problem spaces. Security is the hardest problem space he's ever worked on, and also his favorite.
Allie Mellen
Principal Analyst
Allie Mellen is a Forrester analyst covering security operations, nation state threats, and the use of automation, machine learning, and AI in security tools. She has held various engineering roles, running her own engineering consultancy for a number of years before becoming a hacker, then security practitioner. She advises Fortune 500 CISOs on their security operations practice and is a frequent speaker at global industry-leading events and with the press.