Rob Velasco
- President
- CIP Global Ventures, USA
Rob Velasco is the founder and President of CIP Global Ventures located in Gilbert, AZ (USA) and he brings extensive experience in IT and technical leadership to the critical infrastructure protection space. His career began with foundational roles at IBM and the Mayo Clinic. In 2015, Rob was selected to lead the technical response to the historic PG&E Metcalf sniper attack, overseeing the development of PG&E’s primary Security Operations Center and the deployment of advanced physical security technologies to safeguard PG&E’s critical assets across California. In 2018, he led a pivotal U.S. Homeland Security initiative to protect the City of Los Angeles from a staggering one billion daily cyber-attack attempts. By 2020, Rob was tapped to establish and head the Robotics and Innovation Program for the Corporate Security Division of one of the nation’s top five utility companies, focusing on fortifying the U.S. power grid and other essential assets against terrorist threats. CIP Global Ventures has a certified UL 752 Level 8 solution that weighs less than 4 pounds per square foot and a UL 752 Level 10 solution – designed to stop a .50 caliber bullet – and it weighs less than 10 pounds per square foot.
Sessions
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Power & Energy (Grid Resiliency) Sector Symposium
The energy sector has become the most critical of sectors. Without power, driven by oil, gas and renewable energies, all other CI stops. Recent cyber attacks on the energy sector, as well as natural hazards, from hurricanes in the Gulf to fires in California, gives much room for thought on how we best protect our most vital assets, including IT/OT and SCADA systems. How can we mitigate the impact of an attack or outage on the wider community and society, and build greater grid resilience?