Stephens is hosting a virtual fireside for institutional investors with a panel of Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs). During this call, we will gain CISO perspectives on the evolving cybersecurity threat landscape, the impact of AI on enterprise security, and the outlook for 2027 cybersecurity budgets and spending priorities. The panel will also discuss key trends shaping the cybersecurity market, including technology adoption, vendor consolidation, and the evolving competitive landscape.
Participants
Ryan Hammer, CISO at Ciena
Ryan Hammer currently serves as the Chief Information Security Officer and Vice President at Ciena since October 2021. In addition, Ryan holds the position of Advisory Board Member for the Citadel Department of Cyber and Computer Sciences and serves as Adjunct Faculty at both Carnegie Mellon University and The Citadel. Prior experience includes roles at Blackbaud as Deputy CISO and Senior Director, and at Asurion in various security and risk management positions.
Kyle Waggoner, CISO at Perdue
Kyle Waggoner is a seasoned cybersecurity professional with extensive experience in various roles, including Chief Information Security Officer at Perdue Farms since June 2019 and Advisory Board Member for Rubrik and Arctic Wolf. Waggoner also contributes to academia as an Adjunct Professor in Information Security at Salisbury University.
Carrie Mills, CISO at Southwest Airlines
Carrie Mills brings more than 15 years of cybersecurity experience to her role as Vice President & Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). Carrie is responsible for leading the Company's cybersecurity strategy and ensuring the protection of data and assets across Southwest Airlines' facilities, airports, and aircraft. Since joining Southwest in 2017, Carrie's cybersecurity domain expertise and Leadership talents have been invaluable in growing Southwest's cybersecurity capabilities.
Conference call date and time subject to change. To join the call or to obtain more information, please contact your Stephens sales representative.
Topics of Discussion
- Looking back at 2026 and the impact of increased awareness of AI-driven cybersecurity threats, including key developments involving Mythos, the Hugging Face attack, and the PHP2Shell vulnerability discovery.
- Perspectives on enterprise AI and agent adoption, emerging AI security requirements, and how security organizations are leveraging AI to improve security operations and effectiveness.
- Outlook for 2027 cybersecurity budgets, spending priorities, and areas of increasing or decreasing investment.
- Perspectives on key cybersecurity market trends, including identity security, data security, data protection/cyber resilience, endpoint and network security, exposure management, and security operations.
- Trends in cybersecurity vendor consolidation, adoption of strategic security platforms versus best-of-breed solutions, and the evolving competitive landscape, including the potential impact of frontier AI model capabilities.
--
This announcement has been prepared solely for informative purposes as of its stated date and is not a solicitation, or an offer, to buy or sell any security. It does not purport to be a complete description of the securities, markets or developments referred to in the material. The research analyst principally responsible for preparation of this announcement has received compensation that is based on the firm’s overall revenue which includes investment banking revenue. To access current disclosures for the companies in this announcement, clients should refer to https://stephens2.bluematrix.com/sellside/Disclosures.action or contact your Stephens Inc. representative for additional information. Please also note that the announcement may include one or more links to external or third-party websites. Stephens Inc. has not independently verified the information contained on such websites and can provide no assurance as to the reliability of such information, and there can be no assurance that any opinions expressed on such websites reflect the opinions of Stephens Inc. or its management. Additional information available upon request.
About the Host
