We are very excited to finally announce our keynote speaker for this year's event:

COL Matthew Vea

So there he was, wading knee deep through the dirty world of the global finance industry when the chance to fulfill a life goal presented itself. Seizing an opportunity for change lead to a new career, where for the past 14 years Matthew Vea has worked at the National Security Agency supporting the nation’s intelligence requirements with cyber in both civilian and military capacities. During that time span, he served as a reverse engineer, a developer, an exploit analyst, a technical director, a chief, and now as an operator. He’s also done the classic certifications like CEH, GXPN, and OSCP.

In his military capacity, COL Vea is 18 years clean from his mischievous days as an active duty S6 with the Infantry, finally seeing the light and converting to Military Intelligence and Cyber. Now a Reservist, he focuses on two priorities - pushing the Reserves down a better cyber path and showing his peers that leaders can accomplish more by following the Great Ones philosophy – “Be Excellent to Each Other.”

When he’s not nerding at work, he’s nerding at home on HAM radios, his astronomy gear, or trying to get his daughters to work on STEM projects.