Verdecanna has more than 30 years of experience working with various technology companies and a public accounting firm. He has been a Chief Financial Officer for more than 14 years with two different public and two different private companies. Since retiring in early 2023, he has been providing advisory services and is on the board of three technology companies.

Prior to his retirement in February 2023, he was Executive Vice President and CFO of Mandiant until the sale of Mandiant for over $5 billion to Google.

As a Ballistic advisor, Verdecanna helps the firm’s portfolio companies navigate fundraising and financial strategies, including helping portfolio executives make sure financial models, projections and due diligence materials are investor-ready. His deep financial and cybersecurity expertise also help portfolio executives drive efficient capital allocation, budgeting, and resource management, as well as provide guidance on burn-rate management and cash-flow optimization.

Backstory

Karen Correa is a CISO-in-Residence at Ballistic Ventures. She brings two decades of cybersecurity experience to the advisory role and currently serves as head of cyber governance, policy and risk management at fintech company FIS. Before FIS, she spent 18 years at EY, most recently serving as a principal in charge of information security initiatives for numerous multi-billion dollar organizations. Throughout her career, Correa has collaborated closely with CISOs and security executives to identify innovative solutions to address emerging threats and develop cybersecurity programs focused on strong foundational capabilities that can scale and mature.

Backstory

Gregory Crabb is a CISO-in-Residence at Ballistic Ventures. Widely respected as a leader in the cybersecurity industry, he previously served as the CISO of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). During his 25 years of law enforcement service, he transformed the USPS’s cybersecurity program to defend against nation-state threats and safeguard critical infrastructure. As founder and principal of cybersecurity consultant firm 10-8, Crabb now advises leading organizations on building resilience against cyber adversaries and offers practical strategies for securing networks and digital assets. Throughout his career, he has remained dedicated to driving successful cybersecurity initiatives for government agencies, financial institutions, startups and global organizations.

Backstory

Jim Routh is a known icon in cybersecurity. His previous Fortune 500 CISO roles and cybersecurity leadership at companies like American Express, CVS Health, JPMorgan Chase, KPMG, and MassMutual, make him an expert advisor to Ballistic Ventures and the portfolio.

A board member, advisor and investor in the cybersecurity industry, Jim has a demonstrated track record of designing security control using innovation and data science to align senior executives to deliver world-class security capabilities that drive positive business results in a digital world.

Jim is the former Board Chair for the Health Information Sharing & Analysis Center (H-ISAC) where he served for five years and former Board member for the Financial Services Information Sharing & Analysis Center (FS-ISAC). While at Aetna, he developed one of the most mature converged security programs in the private sector.

Jim has received many industry accolades, including the Santa Fe Group / Shared Assessments Lifetime Achievement Award, CSO Hall of Fame, ISE Luminary Award, SINET Impact Award, Evanta Break Away Leadership Award, Information Security Executive of the Year Award (twice), and BITS Leadership Award. He is also an ICIT Fellow and an Adjunct Faculty member for NYU Tandon School of Engineering.

Backstory

General Paul M. Nakasone, U.S. Army (Retired) is one of the nation’s top experts in cybersecurity. Paul is from an Army family whose three generations of service dates back to World War II. His father served with the famed Military Intelligence Service during the Occupation of Japan. He spent nearly four decades in the United States Army, serving within the U.S., the Republic of Korea, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Paul concluded his career as the Director of the National Security Agency and Commander, U.S. Cyber Command. This final assignment — spanning nearly six years — allowed him to lead the largest element of the U.S. Intelligence Community and Defense Department’s cyber forces during three national elections, a global pandemic, and increased threats to our homeland. Throughout his career, Paul brought innovative and transformative leadership to solve complex challenges.

In addition to his advisory role at Ballistic, Paul is the founding director of Vanderbilt University’s Institute for National Defense and Global Security and serves on the OpenAI board of directors.

Paul and his wife, Susan, are the proud parents of four children, who form the nucleus of “Team Nakasone.”

Backstory

From 2021 to 2023, Inglis served in the White House as the inaugural, Senate-confirmed U.S. National Cyber Director, building on his service as a Commissioner on the U.S. Cyberspace Solarium Commission (2019-2020) and eight years as the Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer of the National Security Agency (2006-2014).

During the period 2014 – 2021, he served as the Looker Professor of Cyber Studies at the U.S. Naval Academy, as a managing director at Paladin Capital, as a member of the Department of Defense Science Board, as a member of the U.S. Strategic Command Advisory Board, as a member of the Penn State Advanced Research Lab advisory board, as a Trustee of the National Intelligence University, and as a member of several private and public Boards of Directors, to include ANSER, FedEx, Huntington Bank, SECURONIX, Trinity Cyber Solutions, Blackpoint, and ELBIT.

Inglis holds advanced degrees in engineering and computer science from Columbia University, the Johns Hopkins University, and the George Washington University and has served on the faculties of both the U.S. Naval and Military (West Point) Academies. Inglis’ military career includes 30 years of service in the US Air Force and Air National Guard — from which he retired as a Brigadier General. He holds the rating of USAF Command Pilot and has been designated as a Distinguished Eagle Scout (2010) and a Distinguished Graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy (2019).

Backstory

Phil Venables is specialist in information and cybersecurity, cloud services, enterprise risk, technology risk and business resilience with significant experience in multiple industries and multiple geographies – from in-depth engineering to board-level management.

Venables leads the Ballistic Security Leaders Network, the VC firm’s network of cybersecurity leaders.

Backstory

Kiersten E. Todt is the former Chief of Staff of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). As the Chief of Staff, she was responsible for the planning, allocation of resources, and development of long-range objectives in support of the department’s goals and milestones. She oversaw the management and execution of an almost $3B budget and over 3,000 employees and contractors.

She currently serves in an advisory role to CISA’s Director. She is also a strategic advisor to venture capital firms and technology companies, focused on open source software, memory safe language, and neurodiversity, and to the Data and Trust Alliance, which is a CEO-led cross-sector industry effort to create standards for data provenance and high-risk use of artificial intelligence.

Prior to her role at CISA, Kiersten was the Managing Director of the Cyber Readiness Institute (CRI), a non-profit initiative that develops free cybersecurity tools and resources for small businesses, worldwide. She co-founded CRI with the CEOs of Mastercard, Microsoft, PSP Partners, and the retired CEO of IBM. She has worked extensively with senior leaders in industry on cyber risk management, including senior executive and Board education and briefings on threats.

Her wide-ranging service to the Federal Government includes serving as a professional staff member in the U.S. Senate, where she co-drafted the legislation to create the Department of Homeland Security, and as Executive Director of President Obama’s independent, bipartisan Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity.

Ms. Todt’s commentary is featured frequently in national television and print media.

Kiersten graduated from Princeton University, with a degree in public policy and a certificate in African-American studies. She holds a master’s degree in public policy and a certificate in negotiation and conflict resolution from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Backstory

John Spiliotis has over 35 years of technology sales operating leadership experience, most recently as an independent-sales and GTM advisor to venture-backed cybersecurity companies. Previously, he spearheaded much of Palo Alto Networks’ hyper-growth and was responsible for driving all of its direct and indirect sales in the Americas ($1.8B or 70% of all sales). Before Palo Alto Networks, he was VP of Avaya’s global channel organization and led GTM strategy. He has also held senior-level positions at Cisco, Extreme Networks and Redback Networks (acquired by Ericsson). Spiliotis currently serves on the boards at NetSPI, Reliaquest and Theatro.

Backstory

Derek Smith is the definition of a visionary leader and serial entrepreneur. After founding his first technology company while in college, he went on to deliver a total of four successful technology startups including the market-defining cybersecurity companies Oakley Networks (acquired by Raytheon) and Shape Security (acquired by F5 for more than $1B). Derek has been a mentor and advisor, and also served as Senior Advisor for Cyber-Policy at the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Backstory

Holly Rollo brings three decades of leadership and deep-rooted cybersecurity experience, including at RSA, Fortinet, FireEye, Cisco and SAP. She serves on multiple boards and is currently the CEO of Surge Strategies, a strategic marketing firm helping cybersecurity companies quickly build modern marketing engines and position themselves for successful outcomes.

Backstory

Raffael Marty has worked in all areas of cybersecurity across research, engineering, investing, advising and corporate strategy. Currently, he is EVP and General Manager of Cybersecurity Management at ConnectWise, responsible for all aspects of the cybersecurity business, and is an industry expert on managed security service providers (MSSP). Previously, he was head of research and intelligence at Forcepoint. At Sophos, he ran security analytics and oversaw the big data strategy, which he helped pioneer as the founder of analytics companies PixlCloud and Loggly. Additionally, Marty held key roles at IBM Research, ArcSight and Splunk.