In-Person

New Jersey CISO Community

Executive Summit

October 29, 2025 | Hilton Parsippany

October 29, 2025
Hilton Parsippany

Collaborate with your peers

Get together with New Jersey's top CISOs to tackle shared business challenges and critical priorities facing your role today. Participate in this one-day, local program with peer-driven topics and interactive discussions with your true C-level peers.

Join your peers to discuss the most critical issues impacting CISOs today:

Aligning IT and Security for Business Impact

Bridging Risk and Resilience at Scale

Leading with Purpose for Resilient and Empowered Organizations

New Jersey CISO Governing Body

The Governing Body Co-Chairs shape the summit agenda, ensuring that all content is driven By CISOs, For CISOs®.

Governing Body Co-Chairs

Roota Almeida

Kyowa Kirin
Global CISO

Lookman Fazal

NJ Transit
Chief Information & Digital Officer

Zouhair Guelzim

L'Oréal
VP & CISO

Hussein Syed

RWJBarnabas Health
CISO

What to Expect

Interactive Sessions

Hear from CISO practitioners and thought leaders on how they're solving critical challenges impacting your role today in Keynote sessions, and join smaller, interactive discussions with your peers in Breakout and Boardroom sessions.

Community Networking

Make new connections and catch up with old friends in casual conversations during dedicated time for networking designed to better acquaint you with your New Jersey CISO community.

Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Connect with like-minded peers in a private, one-on-one setting through Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.

Agenda

October 29, 2025

8:00am - 8:30am  Registration & Breakfast

8:30am - 9:15am  Keynote

Scaling Leadership — Lessons from Wyndham Hotels & Resorts

Scott Strickland headshot

Scott Strickland

EVP, Chief Commercial Officer

Wyndham Hotels and Resorts

Michael Mahar headshot

Michael Mahar

SVP, Head of Commercial Technology, Loyalty & Digital Products

Wyndham Hotels and Resorts

The most impactful leaders continually evolve their roles, pushing beyond traditional boundaries. At Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, elevating technology leadership has not only reshaped the business but also redefined career trajectories across the organization. Recent changes at the C-suite level demonstrate a powerful model for succession planning, strategic growth, and cross-functional collaboration.

Join this fireside chat to discover:

  • Strategically evolve leadership roles to amplify influence and drive business outcomes
  • Practical approaches to succession planning that foster growth and seamless transitions
  • Eliminating barriers between Business and IT to drive business innovation through technology

9:15am - 9:40am  Networking Break

9:40am - 10:25am  Executive Boardroom

Optimizing Data for Strategic Impact

Up to 80% of enterprise data remains unorganized—slowing decisions, inflating costs, and increasing risk. Data optimization isn’t just an IT priority; it’s a strategic advantage that drives trusted insights, AI readiness, and enterprise resilience. Are you unlocking the full value of your data—or falling behind?

Join this roundtable to explore how to:

  • Unlock value from untapped enterprise data assets
  • Strengthen decision-making through analytics utilizing clean, optimized data
  • Accelerate AI with trusted data foundations

10:25am - 11:10am  Networking Break

10:35am - 11:00am  Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Connect with like-minded peers in a one-on-one setting through Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.

11:10am - 11:55am  Breakout Session

Designed for People — Human Centered Approach to AI

Lookman Fazal headshot

Lookman Fazal

Chief Information & Digital Officer

NJ Transit

Technology is evolving rapidly, but the core of impactful leadership remains unchanged — people first. AI and automation can serve as powerful tools; but only when anchored in human needs, customer priorities, and strategic thinking. Technology works best when it’s built around people — not in place of them.

Join this session to discuss:

  • Prioritizing customer experience in every technology decision
  • Centering technology decision making around the roadmap and strategy
  • Identifying where technology can impact business value

11:55am - 12:30pm  Lunch Service

12:30pm - 1:05pm  Keynote

Zero Trust & AI — Strengthening Security, Reducing Complexity, and Driving Innovation

Jay Chaudhry headshot

Jay Chaudhry

CEO, Chairman & Founder

Zscaler

Businesses stand to benefit from AI in unprecedented ways, but only if IT and security leaders overcome transformation challenges. This includes implementing a modern zero trust architecture to protect data and users, embracing AI while managing its risks, and handling the technical and financial implications of ever-expanding environments. A risk-based approach to security ensures CIOs and CISOs deliver a secure, phased transformation.

Join this session to:

  • Understand how zero trust and AI together, unlike firewalls, provide the strongest cyber defense by stopping threat actors from lateral movement within networks
  • Learn strategies for protecting AI applications developed in data centers and the cloud, while preventing data leaks from public AI applications
  • Discover how eliminating costly legacy hardware simplifies environments while cutting network and security costs

1:05pm - 1:30pm  Break

2:15pm - 3:00pm  Networking Break

2:25pm - 2:50pm  Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Connect with like-minded peers in a one-on-one setting through Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.

3:00pm - 3:45pm  Executive Boardroom

Future-Proofing IAM — Strategies for Enhanced Security

As organizations advance their security strategies, they face increasing complexities in ensuring proper authorization for accessing systems and application resources. Security leaders must implement the right tools and processes to guarantee that the appropriate individuals have access. Identity-first strategies are focused equally on security and business enablement.

Join this boardroom to discuss:

  • Ensuring consistent access policies
  • Balancing innovation with security to protect organizational assets
  • Evolving strategies to address the growing sophistication of cyber threats

3:00pm - 3:45pm  Executive Boardroom

The Impact of Geopolitical Shifts

 IT and Security Leaders must play a pivotal role in assessing corporate risk and taking action as necessary. The current state of geopolitical uncertainty leaves many variables for enterprise risk, including vendor reliability, supply chain consistency, and cyber threats.

Join this roundtable session to discuss:

  • Understanding the latest geopolitical tensions and regulations affecting the threat landscape
  • Evaluating operations in high-risk geographies to strategize resiliency
  • Planning disaster recovery in the event of a geopolitical disruption

3:45pm - 4:00pm  Networking Break

4:00pm - 4:35pm  Keynote

Gartner Expert Keynote Session

Alvaro Mello headshot

Alvaro Mello

VP, Advisory

Gartner

Gain expert guidance from Gartner on the latest tech insights and the unfolding of the future through predictions, trends and evolving digital business cycles. Gartner Experts give you the clarity you need to move your priorities forward.

4:35pm - 4:45pm  Closing Comments and Prize Drawing

October 29, 2025

We look forward to seeing you at an upcoming in-person gathering

Gartner cares about the health and safety of our community. If you are feeling unwell, please refrain from attending the conference. At this time, Gartner does not have any health-related requirements in place for attendance. Should this change, we will follow up with updated guidance.

Location

Venue & Accommodation

Hilton Parsippany

Your Community Sponsors

Global Thought Leader

CIO Thought Leader

CISO Thought Leader

Key Sponsors

Program Sponsors

Community Program Manager

For inquiries related to this community, please reach out to your dedicated contact.

Ernest Hughes

Senior Territory Specialist

971-717-6611

ernest.hughes@gartner.com