ICC 2026 Speakers
Chief Guest
Building Confidence in the Cognitive Era
About the Session
As AI, automation, and machine-led decisions reshape the enterprise, governance must extend beyond systems to the identities that act, the data that informs, and the algorithms that decide.
This session explores “Build, Assure, Trust” as a practical model for the cognitive intelligence era, where emerging capabilities such as Mythos may discover and exploit weaknesses at machine speed.
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Sunil VarkeyChief Guest and Inaugural Address About the Speaker With more than 30 years of leadership experience, Sunil Varkey has held senior roles across the banking, telecommunications, IT services, and manufacturing sectors in the Middle East, the United States, and India. He currently serves as the CISO of Hexaware. Previously, he held CISO roles at Wipro and Idea Cellular, served as CTO at Symantec and Forescout, and was Managing Director at HSBC. He was also recognised as a Wipro Fellow. |
Keynote
Shaping a Quantum Future and Securing a Smarter Tomorrow
Conference Day 2 · 8 August
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Mr. Sridhar CVValedictory Chief Guest and Keynote Speaker About the Speaker Mr. Sridhar CV is the Mission Director of the Andhra Pradesh State Quantum Mission and leads the Amaravati Quantum Valley, India’s flagship initiative to establish a globally recognized quantum technology ecosystem. He is spearheading efforts to position Amaravati among the world’s top five quantum hubs by fostering collaborations across industry, academia, and government, overseeing the deployment of an IBM quantum system, and driving quantum education initiatives that have reached over 100,000 students across India. With over 25 years of leadership experience at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Mr. Sridhar has been at the forefront of emerging technologies, including quantum computing, artificial intelligence, IoT, and advanced research collaborations. He played a pivotal role in establishing India’s first 6-qubit quantum machine in partnership with TIFR and DRDO, while also leading strategic collaborations with premier institutions such as IIT Bombay and IIT Kanpur to advance quantum sensing, imaging, and security research. Mr. Sridhar serves on several national and international strategic bodies, including as India’s representative to the QUAD Quantum Computing Task Force, Vice Chair of the TSDSI Study Group for Software & Solutions (Security), and Expert Member for both the Post Quantum Security Taskforce and AICTE’s Quantum initiatives. A sought-after keynote speaker, he actively contributes to global forums and standards organizations, helping shape the future of quantum technologies and secure digital innovation. |
Keynote
Governing Cognitive Intelligence – Law, Ethics and Leadership in the Age of Agentic AI
Conference Day 2 · 8 August
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Adv. (Dr.) Prashant MaliKeynote Speaker About the Speaker Adv. (Dr.) Prashant Mali is one of India’s leading experts in Cyber Law, Artificial Intelligence, Data Protection, and Cybersecurity. A practicing advocate at the Bombay High Court, he brings over 25 years of experience at the intersection of technology and law, advising corporates, government agencies, law enforcement, and high-profile individuals on complex cybercrime, privacy, AI governance, and digital evidence matters. He holds advanced qualifications including an M.Sc. in Computer Science, LL.M., Ph.D. in Cyber Law, and is a Chevening Cyber Security Fellow (UK). Dr. Mali has served as Chairman of the Cyber & Law Foundation, former Chair of the Cyber Law & Cyber Security Committee of the Indian National Bar Association and has been a visiting faculty at premier institutions including the National Law School of India University (NLSIU). He is also the creator of DPDPA.com, India’s dedicated knowledge platform on the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA). A prolific author, researcher, and international keynote speaker, Dr. Mali has authored multiple books and research papers on cyber law, privacy, AI, and cybersecurity. He has addressed global conferences, presented at the University of Oxford, and regularly appears in national media as a trusted voice on cyber law, digital governance, and emerging technologies. His contributions to the field have earned him several prestigious recognitions, including Data Protection Law Influential Leader (2023) and Best Cyber & Privacy Lawyer (2022). |
Cognitive Equilibrium Between Human Judgment and AI
About the Session
AI is becoming a participant in professional cognition, not merely a productivity tool. This session introduces The Cognitive Atrophy Project™, a governance-oriented initiative exploring how sustained AI-assisted delegation may reshape professional judgment, validation, reasoning and human oversight. Bruno Horta Soares will present the concepts of Cognitive Atrophy, Cognitive Elasticity and Cognitive Equilibrium, and explain why meaningful human oversight depends on capabilities that organizations often assume but rarely govern. The session offers a balanced, non-alarmist perspective on how professionals and institutions can benefit from AI while preserving the cognitive practices on which accountability depends.
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Bruno Horta SoaresPresident, ISACA Lisbon Chapter About the Speaker Bruno Horta Soares is a university professor and executive advisor specializing in corporate governance, digital transformation, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. Over more than 25 years, he has worked with boards, executives and institutions to strengthen decision-making, accountability and digital resilience. He is President of the ISACA Lisbon Chapter and research steward of The Cognitive Atrophy Project™, an independent, research-informed initiative examining professional cognition and human judgment in AI-assisted environments. Bruno is also the author of the forthcoming book “The Boardroom After AI”, focused on governing AI, cybersecurity and digital risk with confidence. |
Autonomous Defence in Frontier AI Era
About the Session
Artificial Intelligence, particularly Frontier AI, is transforming business, governance, critical infrastructure, and cybersecurity. While it is driving unprecedented innovation and operational efficiency, it is also introducing a new generation of cyber risks that demand proactive and adaptive security approaches. At the same time, AI offers powerful opportunities to strengthen cybersecurity, automate audits, and enhance resilience. This talk explores the evolving frontier AI threat landscape, CERT-In’s initiatives and strategic approach, and practical recommendations for AI-assisted cybersecurity audits and autonomous security operations in the frontier AI era.
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Ashutosh BahugunaScientist / Additional Director, Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) About the Speaker Having experience of 2 decades in the field of cyber security, his area of work is focused on Cyber Security assurance, impact of AI and emerging technologies in cybersecurity, benchmarking, international & national cyber security exercises, National Cyber Crisis Management, behavioural aspects of cyber security, ICS/OT security, application of data science in cyber security, and security assessments. He leads the team of Cybersecurity Assurance and AI Cyber Defence Centre at CERT-In. He actively contributes to regional & global initiatives such as the Quad Cyber Working Group, the Asia Pacific CERT (APCERT), BRICS, and bilateral exercises with partner nations. |
From Compliance to Cyberculture: Building Human Resilience in the Age of AI
About the Session
As organizations adopt AI across more business functions, while cyberattacks today are getting smarter and more destructive, governance and security issues must keep pace with the way people actually work. Policies alone are not enough. Modern working environments require employees to understand AI-specific risks and apply security best practices consistently every day.
In this session, we’ll explore how to reduce human-related risk with a security awareness platform that helps organizations equip everyone, from developers to executives, with the knowledge and skills to recognize AI-driven threats and use AI tools securely — and move beyond training completion metrics to measure real behavioural change.
Join us to discover practical ways to strengthen AI governance, build employee accountability and foster a more resilient cybersecurity culture.
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Arun GantayatHead of Presales About the Speaker Arun Gantayat is the Head of Presales at Kaspersky India with over 25 years of experience in cybersecurity, enterprise IT, and security consulting. He leads the Presales organization, helping enterprises and government organizations strengthen their cyber resilience through strategic security solutions and technical leadership. Arun specializes in XDR, Security Operations, Threat Intelligence, Endpoint Security, and Cloud Security. A frequent speaker at industry forums, he is passionate about sharing practical insights on emerging cyber threats, security best practices, and strategies that help organizations build resilient and future-ready cybersecurity programs. |
Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs): Myth or Reality?
About the Session
Are Privacy-Enhancing Technologies myth or reality? This session is an honest attempt at looking past the hype around five distinct approaches — differential privacy, homomorphic encryption, zero-knowledge proofs, federated learning, and confidential computing — to ask, plainly, which are genuinely production-ready and which are still finding their footing. Drawing on experience securing large-scale financial services environments, the talk tries to separate what’s actually deployed today from what remains promising but unproven, with a look at how India’s DPDP Rules are pushing this from a technical curiosity toward a compliance necessity.
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Chethan S. IyengarStandard Chartered Global Business Services About the Speaker Chethan S. Iyengar is a cybersecurity and risk management professional with over 23 years across financial services and technology, including roles at Standard Chartered, Verizon, and Aztecsoft. His work has covered enterprise risk management, security engineering, and data protection across large, multi-jurisdictional environments. He holds CRISC certification, is an alumnus of executive cybersecurity leadership programmes at ISB Executive Education and the Cyber Leadership Institute, and has spoken at CIO100 and other industry conferences. He has served on the Advisory Council for IDC conferences, and has been recognised as IDC’s Game Changer (2025) and AVAR’s Best Cybersecurity Leader (2024). |
How Internal Audit Should Evolve in the Cognitive Intelligence Era
About the Session
As organizations rapidly transition from deterministic systems to autonomous, probabilistic Cognitive Intelligence, Internal Audit faces a dual imperative: governing complex AI risks while modernizing its own operations. This session explores the evolution and enterprise-wide prevalence of AI, offering practical, framework-based strategies to audit non-deterministic models (Audit OF AI). Furthermore, it demonstrates how audit functions can harness Cognitive AI (Audit WITH AI) to move from sample-based testing to 100% continuous coverage, transforming Internal Audit into a real-time, predictive assurance partner.
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Babu MTechnology Audit Director About the Speaker Babu M is a seasoned technology leader with 27 years of experience in Avionics, Automotive Systems, and Enterprise IT, currently serving as Technology Audit Director at Ford Motor Company. With a background extending from real-time embedded systems for fighter aircraft and automotive ECUs to cloud platforms, Babu combines technical engineering expertise with robust risk governance. He holds a Masters degree in Computer Science along with CISA, CRisP and IAP professional certifications. |
Why AI Transformations Fail: A Leadership Review
About the Session
This talk explores why AI transformations fail — not because of technology, but because of leadership and organizational decisions. Through some real-world case studies, it uncovers the common pitfalls behind failed AI initiatives and introduces the AI Leadership Review, a practical framework for evaluating AI through strategy, data, people, organizational readiness, and business value. It challenges leaders to shift the question from “Can AI do this?” to “What must change in our organization for AI to succeed?”
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Nithya SubramanianData, AI & Digital Transformation Executive About the Speaker Nithya Subramanian is a global Data, Analytics & AI leader with over two decades of experience driving enterprise-wide digital transformation. She has built and scaled data and AI capabilities that improve operational efficiency, optimize costs, accelerate growth, and enhance customer experiences. She is passionate about driving change adoption, digital literacy, data culture, and human-centric innovation. As an Independent Director, she champions responsible AI, strong governance, and ethical innovation to create sustainable business value. |
Governing the Ungoverned: Defending Trust in the Age of Intelligent Systems
About the Session
Would you trust a system you cannot govern? Most organisations already do. AI is writing code, reviewing contracts and influencing decisions faster than anyone can put controls around it. This session examines that gap through real incidents where trust broke — not always caused by attackers, but often by good intentions and no governance. It closes with five questions every organisation should be able to answer about the AI it is already using.
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Raghuraman RSenior Manager – Security Operations About the Speaker Raghuraman R is Senior Manager – Security Operations at SQ1 Security Technology Pvt. Ltd., with over 10 years of experience in cybersecurity. His expertise spans SOC leadership, Vulnerability Assessment & Penetration Testing, threat intelligence, incident response, cloud security and AI-driven security operations. At SQ1 Security, he leads security operations, offensive security programmes and consulting engagements, helping organisations strengthen their posture against evolving threats. His areas of interest include AI security, cyber resilience and security governance. Raghuraman is passionate about sharing practical insights that bridge security strategy with real-world implementation, enabling organisations to build trust and resilience in an AI-driven world. |
From Business Need to Best-Fit GRC Solution
About the Session
The growing GRC technology market makes it difficult for organizations to identify the right platform. This session explores common buyer challenges, including overlapping capabilities, generic vendor claims, implementation complexity, and limited comparability. It presents a structured approach to evaluating and shortlisting GRC platforms across functional, technical, security, implementation, analytics, and commercial criteria — helping organizations make more confident technology decisions.
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Vaishali MoitraResearch and Advisory Specialist About the Speaker Vaishali Moitra is a Research and Advisory Specialist at GRCxperts with experience in GRC market research, vendor assessment, competitive intelligence, and industry analysis. She focuses on evaluating GRC platforms, understanding market developments, and translating buyer requirements into structured assessment criteria. Her work helps organizations compare vendors across functional, technical, operational, and commercial considerations and make more informed GRC technology decisions. |
Building Trust at the Speed of AI, Assuring It at Human Pace
About the Session
AI can now verify compliance evidence in seconds — work that once took audit teams weeks. But speed raises new questions. When compliance evidence itself contains personal data, AI-driven verification becomes a DPDPA consideration in its own right. When a machine validates a control, who validates the machine? Drawing on live GRC and privacy implementations across banking, insurance and fintech, this session offers a practical framework for building AI-driven compliance capability, assuring it through human-in-the-loop controls and DPDPA-aligned accountability, and choosing between cloud, hybrid and air-gapped architectures based on data classification.
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Vignesh ChandrasekaranFounder & CEO About the Speaker Vignesh Chandrasekaran is the Founder and CEO of WhizzC, an IIT-incubated GRC and cybersecurity compliance SaaS platform serving 100+ customers across India, the US, UAE, Australia and the Caribbean. WhizzC enables compliance across frameworks including ISO 27001, SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, DPDPA and ISO 42001, with cloud and on-premise deployment models for regulated industries. A long-standing member of the ISACA Chennai community, Vignesh writes and speaks regularly on AI governance, data protection and the future of the GRC profession. |
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Ramya PurushothamanFounding Team About the Speaker Ramya is part of the founding team at WhizzC, where she leads delivery for enterprise GRC and data-privacy programs. She is currently driving a DPDPA implementation at a large insurance enterprise, covering personal-data discovery, purpose mapping, consent and grievance workflows, and operating models that combine AI-assisted classification with human accountability. With hands-on experience across ISO 27001, SOC 2 and privacy engagements, Ramya brings a practitioner’s view of what compliance frameworks look like when they meet real organisations, real data and real deadlines. |
Inclusive AI — Are We Designing for Everyone or Just the Majority?
About the Session
AI systems are only as fair as the data and assumptions behind them, yet most are built, tested, and validated for the “majority” user, quietly excluding those at the margins. This talk examines how bias creeps into AI through skewed datasets, narrow design assumptions, and gaps in privacy-by-design practices, and what it really takes to build systems that work for everyone. Drawing on real-world privacy and AI governance experience, Devika will unpack practical frameworks organizations can use to identify blind spots, embed fairness checks into their AI lifecycle, and move inclusive design from a checkbox exercise to an operational discipline.
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Devika SubbaiahSenior Manager, Privacy About the Speaker Devika Subbaiah is a seasoned Privacy and AI Governance Leader with close to 15 years of experience spanning GRC, information security, and privacy, currently serving as Senior Manager of Privacy at Freshworks, where she sits at the intersection of Security and Legal. Holding a Fellowship in Privacy, CIPP/E, CIPM, CISA, CISM, AAISM and AIGP certifications, she combines deep technical grounding with a practical, operational approach to embedding privacy into products and AI systems. Devika is passionate about making privacy knowledge accessible, especially for women entering the field, championing the shift from compliance theatre to operational reality. |
The AI Workforce Revolution — Is Your Next Employee Human or AI?
About the Session
Workforce Revolution will be the culmination of AI disruptions across the globe. There are myriad dimensions to this subject. This discussion will extend beyond technology into governance, accountability, workforce strategy, succession planning and trust. With AI, organisations are not merely procuring technology — they are onboarding cognitive capability. Our task today is not only to govern that capability responsibly, but also to facilitate winning collaborations that harmonize Human and AI Workforce.
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Mr. ManikandanGRCxperts About the Speaker Mani comes with about 20 years of professional cybersecurity career including Big4, M&M etc, with a double post-graduation and industry certifications (past/current) including CISA, CEH, ABCP, ITIL, COBIT, ISO 27001 LA, CDPSE, and ISO 42001 (AIMS). An avid speaker, writer and hands-on consultant with experience in hands-on implementing large-scale GRC, information and cybersecurity projects globally in BFSI, healthcare and manufacturing. He has set up cybersecurity practice lines including GRC, application security, cloud security and OT security. An acknowledged thought leader, his philosophy of “Live Local, Think Global” led him to liaise with leading research entities such as Gartner’s, contributing to many success stories at client engagements. He has presented at several national and international conferences on sessions related to GRC, information and cyber security, and risk management, including the CIO Summit, Gartner, GRC Summit, CII Connect and the ISACA Annual Conference. His current focus is on “Derisking AI”, with focus on ‘AI for GRC’ and ‘GRC in AI’ programs. |
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CA. Sangeetha N SathishDVP – Internal Audit, Equitas Bank About the Speaker Sangeetha N Sathish is a Chartered Accountant for over 2 decades and an Information Systems Auditor for a decade, with audit being her core expertise cutting across finance, taxation, information security and privacy. Her experience spans 4 to 5 year stints each, across the World Bank Trust Funds Financial Reporting, practice of the CA profession, external Infosec audits at a CERT-In empanelled firm and internal Infosec audits at the Murugappa Group, Chola MS General Insurance. She is currently working at Equitas Bank HO as an Internal Auditor. She is the Hon. Treasurer of the ISACA Chennai Chapter. She contributed to the Information Systems Audit Standards (ISAS) developed by the ICAI, released earlier this year. She is also a passionate speaker at multiple forums including ISACA, ICAI, ISC2 and EWIT. |
