Dr. Lukas Ruf

Dr. Lukas Ruf is founder and CEO of Consecom AG.

Consecom is specialized in Strategic ICT Security Consulting, and offers support by concept (design), implementation and review (security testing, reviewing and auditing) services.

Lukas completed his master and Ph.D. studies the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich in electrical engineering.

For more than two decades, he has been working as a consultant, architect and auditor in the areas of governance and organization, processes, and technology.

Among others, he is a well-known specialist for end-to-end security, identity and access management as well as information security management.

Dr. Philipp Hurni

Philipp Hurni has worked in the field of resilient low-power wireless communication for internet-of-things technologies while pursuing his PhD in Computer Science at University of Bern.

He then worked for several years as a cyber security officer for Switzerland’s major telecommunications and IT services provider Swisscom, where he led security projects in mobile communication, data leakage prevention, security management & governance.

In 2015, he joined Swiss Re’s Cyber Centre of Competence to tackle cyber risk from a (re)insurance perspective.

He currently works on quantifying the accumulation potential of cyber risk on specific cyber coverages but also on traditional lines of insurance business (property, engineering, casualty) for Swiss Re, and is furthermore active in modelling and calculating the technical costing of cyber covers.

Daniel Caduff

Daniel Caduff works for the Federal Office for National Economic Supply (FONES).

He started as a project manager for the National Swiss Cyber Strategy (NCS) and now acts as the vice branch manager of the ICT Department at FONES.

Before joining the Government, he worked for a major Swiss internet provider and as an IT consultant.

In his current role, Daniel is responsible for protecting Switzerland's critical infrastructures against cyber risks.

He co-authored the general FONES ICT- minimum standard as well as the minimum standard for the Swiss electricity sector.

Furthermore, Daniel Caduff represents Switzerland in the NATO-Partnership for peace program in the area of critical infrastructure protection against Cyber Risks.

Dr. Stephan Beirer

Dr. Stephan Beirer studied and received his PhD in physics. During his studies he worked several years as a freelance network administrator and security consultant, serving different institutions and companies in the life science- and internet media business.

Since 2006 Mr. Beirer has been employed with GAI NetConsult GmbH as a Principal Consultant and is the Head of “Industrial Control Systems Security” since 2012. He advises clients on the development and implementation of organizational and technical security policies and controls and on implementing an information security management system (ISMS) according to IEC 62443, ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 27019 and on business continuity planning. His professional focus is on securing process control and automation technology, especially in the field of energy supply. He gained his experience in more than 200 ICS security projects in the field of energy, transportation, critical infrastructures and industrial manufacturing.

He holds the certification as Lead Auditor ISO/IEC 27001 and is an active member of the national and international standardization organizations at DIN, DKE, IEC TC57 and ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC27. At SC 27, he is a domain expert for process control systems security and smart grids and the editor of ISO/IEC 27019 „Information security controls for the energy utility industry".

Daniel Schirato

Daniel is currently working as Operational Technology (OT) Security Manager with Axpo WZ-Systems, a subsidiary of Axpo Grid, and Axpo’s competence center in broadband communication for critical infrastructures and responsible for Axpo’s power generator and distribution grid communication & control systems.

In this role he’s responsible for ICS/SCADA security concepts for hydro power plants, the power distribution grid, a virtual power plant system and for the Swiss utility interconnected WAN telecommunications. Currently as well as in the past he’s implementing an Information Security Management System (ISMS) based on ISO 27001 / 27019.

For the “Association of Electricity Enterprises Switzerland” (VSE – Verband Schweiz. Energieunternehmen) he’s leading a Security Working Group which publishes a sector specific recommendation on OT Security for Swiss utilities (VSE Branchenempfehlung: “Grundschutz für ‘Operational Technology’ in der Stromversorgung”).

He started his career in the civil military service specialized in electronic warfare “command, control, communications & intelligence (C3I)” systems for the air force and air defense, worked for several financial institutions as ICT & Security Manager, holds a software engineering postgraduate and is certified as CISSP, CEH, CISA and others.

Ralf Haller

Ralf Haller's 20 year IT career has spanned various marketing and business development roles, based on his training as an electrical engineer and masters in Telecommunication Systems (Karlsruhe Technology Institute).

His career started while at university, when he took an assistant role in the USA. Later, he excelled as an IT project manager for large key account clients at CompuNet in Munich and also worked in Hong Kong supporting the Asian region.

This prompted his move to Silicon Valley where he lived for many years, working as a Product Manager for successful startups building datacommunication equipment.

Since 2001, Ralf provides product marketing support and has organised specialist IT events in Switzerland that explore current IT trends and introduce the Swiss market to new and pioneering technologies from Silicon Valley.

Owing to his strong links with Silicon Valley, the Swiss cantons rely on him as a valued advisor for fresh and exciting startup activities emerging from there.

Ralf is also the organizer of international high-tech, innovation, entrepreneurship and business events in Switzerland, among them:

• Silicon Valley meets Switzerland
• Startup-Nation Israel meets Switzerland

He is also founder of the first High-Tech Connect Suisse association encouraging high-tech business development.

Ralf teaches at the Swiss-American university in Lugano the course Global Innovation Ecosystems.

In his free time he loves spending high-quality time with his family, and doing fitness sports and intelligence training to keep fit physically and mentally. He is eager and open to always try out new things.