Cybersecurity's hardest problem isn't the tech. It's the humans using it. Erich Kron has spent three decades helping organizations close that gap, and he's kicking off Converge with the session that sets the tone for the entire event.

As CISO Advisor at KnowBe4, Kron works with security leaders to build defenses that account for how people actually behave, not how we wish they did. His experience spans the medical, aerospace, manufacturing, and defense sectors, including his role as security manager for the U.S. Army's 2nd Regional Cyber Center. He's an author, podcast host, and regular voice in cybersecurity publications, and holds CISSP and CISSP-ISSAP certifications.

Expect practical, human-centered guidance you can put to work Monday morning, and a strong reason to stick around for everything that follows.

You can't reduce risk by layering on more tools. At some point, complexity becomes the risk. Mike Strait helps organizations recognize when they've crossed that line.

As a Technology Advisor at Link Computer Corporation, Strait works with community banks and credit unions to simplify IT strategy, strengthen security, and stay aligned with regulatory expectations. With more than 18 years of experience, he focuses on a common challenge: how to make smarter technology decisions with limited internal resources, without increasing exposure or operational strain.

In his Converge session, Strait offers an executive-level framework for evaluating the systems you rely on every day. You'll leave with clear, actionable questions to reduce unnecessary complexity, prioritize the right investments, and improve alignment across teams, all without adding more tools to manage.

When regulators talk about cyber and financial crimes risk, Michael Benardo helped write the playbook. He spent 35 years at the FDIC, most recently as Associate Director of the Anti-Money Laundering and Cyber Fraud Branch, where he led the policy, guidance, and examiner training that shaped how the industry thinks about these threats.

Benardo's Converge sessions draw on that perspective: what three decades of technology risk supervision, from Y2K to AI, can tell us about the next wave of threats, and where boards are falling short on cyber governance now that regulators expect them to step up.

If you've ever wondered what examiners are really looking for, or how to brief your board with confidence, Benardo's sessions are worth blocking time for.

Brian Blodgett's central message is blunt: Technology amplifies process quality, good or bad. Skip the people and process work, and AI just helps you fail faster.

Founder and Executive Advisor at Next Generation Strategy, Blodgett has spent 25+ years helping organizations build AI and automation strategies that actually stick. His path is unusual: physics teacher, tech company builder, fire chief, board member for banks, schools, and nonprofits. The through-line is the same. Leadership and process come first.

In his Converge breakout, Blodgett shares the real-world (and genuinely funny) lessons of aligning people, process, and technology before you automate. Come for the strategy. Stay for the ongoing saga of his golden retriever versus the autonomous lawnmower.

Jon Waldman believes the most powerful security control is an educated organization, and he's spent his career proving it. As Co-Founder and President of SBS CyberSecurity, Waldman oversees the SBS service teams and the SBS Institute, the education arm he helped build to bring specialized cybersecurity training to the banking industry.

For more than 20 years, Waldman has worked alongside community banks and credit unions to help them identify, reduce, and stay ahead of cybersecurity risk in real terms — not abstract ones. He holds CISA, CRISC, and CDPSE certifications and earned his master's in information assurance from Dakota State University, an NSA-designated Center of Academic Excellence.

At Converge, Waldman covers the threats and gaps that matter most right now: how AI is reshaping identity attacks in a world where trust, not passwords, is the target; how leading institutions are turning culture into a real line of defense; and how to translate cybersecurity frameworks into something teams can actually execute.

Chad Knutson has spent two decades helping financial institutions move beyond compliance-driven cybersecurity to genuine risk understanding, and he's bringing three of Converge's most timely sessions to executive audiences.

As Co-Founder and CEO of SBS CyberSecurity, Knutson has shaped how community institutions think about cybersecurity at the leadership level. He holds CISSP, CISA, CRISC, and CDPSE certifications and earned his master's in information assurance from Dakota State University. He led the SBS Institute as its president and serves on the faculty at the Graduate School of Banking, University of Wisconsin–Madison.

His sessions cover the questions keeping leaders up at night: how to make the call during a live cyber incident when the playbook breaks, what deepfakes and voice-cloning fraud already look like at institutions your size, and how to build AI governance that doesn't slow innovation. If you set strategy, these are your sessions.

Vendor risk used to be a checklist. Now your vendors are running AI inside their products, and you're inheriting exposure you didn't sign up for. Laura Zannucci has spent her career helping organizations understand exactly that kind of shift.

As Audit Manager at SBS CyberSecurity, Zannucci translates cybersecurity risks into business decisions executives can actually make. She holds CISA, CISM, CRISC, and CDPSE certifications and is a frequent speaker, webinar host, and author on audit and risk topics.

Her Converge session digs into how vendor risk is evolving now that AI is embedded across the supply chain and what to rethink in your program before examiners do it for you.

Most security programs still assume attackers move at human speed. Hunter Cockrell is here to show you why that's a dangerous assumption.

As Principal Network Security Engineer at SBS CyberSecurity, Cockrell has spent nearly a decade running social engineering, penetration testing, and vulnerability assessments against real environments, and lately, building the agentic AI systems that automate large parts of that work.

He brings two sessions to Converge. One walks through a live, agent-assisted assessment so you can see what's actually getting automated today and where the agents still hit walls. The other is an honest field guide on when building AI internally is the right call and when it isn't.

Examiners are catching up to AI faster than most institutions are catching up to their own Microsoft 365 environments. Dylan Kreutzfeldt works on both ends of that gap.

As a Senior Information Security Consultant at SBS CyberSecurity and an instructor for the SBS Institute, Kreutzfeldt holds his CISM certification, leads the Certified Banking Security Technology Professional course, and regularly delivers training, webinars, and security awareness sessions for clients nationwide.

His two Converge sessions hit where most teams are exposed: what regulators will expect next as cyber and AI oversight converge, and the critical controls, configurations, and blind spots most M365 environments are missing. If you're running M365 or briefing a regulator, both are worth your time.

The gap between documented controls and what actually happens during an attack is where most organizations get into trouble. Dylan Smith works in that gap every day.

As a Senior Network Security Engineer at SBS CyberSecurity, Smith specializes in red team engagements, social engineering, and penetration testing across real-world environments. With more than a decade in IT and cybersecurity, he brings a practitioner's perspective shaped by hands-on experience, not theory. He focuses on helping organizations understand where their defenses hold and where they quietly break down.

At Converge, Smith brings that field experience to two sessions: how to design phishing scenarios that change behavior and the core controls that consistently stop attackers early. Expect practical examples and clear takeaways you can put to work immediately.