Google Cloud CISO Phil Venables to Keynote Cloud Security Alliance’s SECtember

Targeted sessions and state-of-the-art educational activities at this year's event provide a deep awareness of today’s most pressing strategic cloud, cybersecurity issues

SEATTLE – May 12, 2022 – The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), the world’s leading organization dedicated to defining standards, certifications and best practices to help ensure a secure cloud computing environment, announced today that Phil Venables, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for Google Cloud, will keynote this year’s SECtember to be held Sept. 26-30 at the Meydenbauer Center (Bellevue, Wash.). Venables will draw on his unique expertise gleaned from years serving as a top cybersecurity executive for some of the world’s most recognized companies.

“Phil is an innovative thinker and a leader in the cyber risk space so it’s with great pleasure that we announce him as a keynote speaker for this year’s event. He understands what organizations must do to protect themselves, regardless of their size or market, and we can all look forward to a thought-provoking discussion borne out of his time spent on the frontlines of cybersecurity and risk management and governance,” said Jim Reavis, co-founder and CEO, Cloud Security Alliance.

Venables leads the risk, security, compliance, and privacy teams for Google Cloud. Before joining Google, he was a partner at Goldman Sachs where he held multiple roles over a long career, initially as their first Chief Information Security Officer, a role he held for 17 years.

In subsequent roles, Venables was the firm’s Chief Operational Risk Officer, an operating partner in their private equity business, and a Senior Advisor to the firm’s clients and executive leadership on cybersecurity, technology risk, digital business risk, and operational resilience. In addition, he served on the Board of Directors of Goldman Sachs Bank. Before Goldman Sachs, Venables held multiple CISO and senior engineering roles across a range of finance, energy, and technology companies.

Outside of Google, Venables is a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. He also serves on the boards of the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, the NYU Stern Business School Volatility and Risk Institute, the Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board of NIST, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

The SECtember event will feature leaders from government, cloud, cybersecurity, and Global 2000 enterprises, who will share critical insights into board oversight of cybersecurity, CISO strategies, emerging threats, and best practices, all against the backdrop of cloud and related leading-edge technologies. Attendees will learn from both a main conference of industry thought leaders, as well as deep-dive training into Zero Trust, cloud auditing and advanced cloud security topics.

SECtember is the conference to attend in 2022 to obtain the tools for managing cyber risk in the modern enterprise. Those interested in attending are encouraged to register now and take advantage of early registration pricing of $499 through June 10. Afterward, rates will increase to $699. The registration rate is $250 for students and government employees.

About Cloud Security Alliance
The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) is the world’s leading organization dedicated to defining and raising awareness of best practices to help ensure a secure cloud computing environment. CSA harnesses the subject matter expertise of industry practitioners, associations, governments, and its corporate and individual members to offer cloud security-specific research, education, training, certification, events, and products. CSA's activities, knowledge, and extensive network benefit the entire community impacted by cloud — from providers and customers to governments, entrepreneurs, and the assurance industry — and provide a forum through which different parties can work together to create and maintain a trusted cloud ecosystem. For further information, visit us at www.cloudsecurityalliance.org, and follow us on Twitter @cloudsa.