Leadership Team

Karen is President of the Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS) Ontario Affiliate, Principal at CyberSage Security consulting and a seasoned Cybersecurity Executive. Growing up in cybersecurity I had opportunities to lead and deliver cybersecurity policy, strategy, risk management, IAM and architecture for public and private sector organizations. In 2016 Karen transitioned to a private sector role building enterprise risk, business continuity, life sciences quality and compliance functions working to align technology with the software and cloud service company's business goals. Under her leadership, her team successfully developed and delivered a resilient emergency, crisis and business continuity program supporting the global cloud, software and managed services company and its Fortune 500 clients through COVID-19.

Karen launched the WiCyS Ontario Affiliate to meet the needs of Ontario women working in cybersecurity by growing and building a supportive cybercommunity. Karen is a champion of women in the cybersecurity field and passionate about the value their contributions and voices bring to security strategies and solutions. Karen is particularly interested in retention as she has the goal to to see women advance and stay in the field of cyber security given how much they have to offer.

Heather is Global Leader of IBM Security’s Academic Outreach Program, striving to address the skills gap through education. Heather is recognized as an expert on the cybersecurity talent shortage, and, serves as an advisor to several cybersecurity education programs, conferences and competition committees, including Durham College, University of Guelph, TechNation’s Cybersecurity Talent Alliance and ICTC’s Youth Leadership Council.

She is leader of IBM’s Women in Security Excelling (WISE) Business Resource Group. With 1000 members, WISE aims to bring awareness and change to the cybersecurity gender gap through education, events, industry outreach and youth outreach. Heather is particularly passionate about inspiring our youth to aspire to careers in STEM, and about driving awareness around the cybersecurity skills and gender gaps. She is a proud Founder of IBMCyberDay4Girls, a program designed to build cybersecurity awareness amongst pre-teen and teenage girls around the world. The IBMCyberDay4Girls program has touched the lives of 6500 girls across 6 continents since its launch in October 2016.

Heather strives to inspire others by sharing her passion for leadership and learning. She believes that if we are not learning, we are not growing. Her passions include workforce diversity and inclusion, the advancement of women, volunteering, continuous learning, travelling, and spending time with her family.

Heather was recently recognized with the 2020 WiCyS Advocacy Award.

Pat Antliff has been a leader in the cyber security space for over 34 years and brings a wealth of experience across all security domains. She initiated the first computer security program and trust model for the Ontario Government, and was instrumental in the development, delivery and operation of the largest PKI implementation in Canada.

Pat is experienced in developing, delivering and maturing Cyber Security Risk Management and Compliance programs and managing cyber risk across large organizations. Together with her teams, she delivered risk management services and assisted organizations in identifying, mitigating and managing cyber security risks throughout the service delivery life cycle. In 2015 her team and the Cyber Security Risk Management Service was nominated for 4 separate awards for service innovation and customer collaboration including the 2015 GTEC Award of Distinction Provincial nomination.

As part of the Senior Management Team, Pat was responsible for the development and operations of Identity Management, Forensics and the Cyber Security Operations Center. Over the past five years, Pat has consulted independently in the Health and Financial sectors. She joined WiCyS in 2018 with the goal of extending the WiCyS mandate and community to Ontario women working in Cyber. In her leisure time she enjoys adventure travel, photography, playing cello and spending time with her family and friends.

Cathy Ganios is a Senior Manager of Planning and Controllership for the Ontario Government. She is a seasoned innovative and transformative leader with over 23 years of experience in large, complex, customer-centric organizations in both the Public and Private Sectors. Cathy has a proven track record of transforming organizations while inspiring and motivating world-class teams. Cathy attained her MBA in Strategic and Financial Management and earned her Honours BA in Pure Mathematics and History. In addition, Cathy attained her Bachelor of Education and is certified by the Ontario College of Teachers.

Cathy’s passion for Cyber Security developed when she joined the provinces’ Cyber Security Branch as the Manager Education, Metrics and Situational Awareness. Her mandate was to lead the development and delivery of an enterprise-wide cyber security education program for the Province of Ontario. During her time there she spearheaded the delivery of customized cyber security education awareness sessions that reached over 65,000 employees across 27 ministries. She also established strategic partnerships with different levels of government in order to improve Cyber Security awareness across Canada. While part of the Cyber Security Branch, Cathy launched a Women in IT Cyber Security forum to attract talent and empower women in government to become active in the field. Cathy is excited to be part of the WiCyS Ontario Affiliate where she can continue to empower women in the Cyber Security field.

Dr. Ikjot Saini founded the first Canadian Student Chapter of WiCyS with the mission to provide opportunities for women to learn and get hands-on experience. She was awarded the WiCyS award for Student Chapter of the Year for her leadership. She brings an impressive cyber background in the area of automotive security.

Dr. Saini is an Assistant Professor at the University of Windsor in the School of Computer Science and Co-Director of SHIELD Automotive Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence. She is a dynamic Cybersecurity professional whose research is focused on the Connected and Autonomous Vehicles covering security and privacy of Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) and in-vehicle security. Her doctoral research was focused on the development of a privacy assessment framework for the Network of Connected Vehicles. She has published many research papers and journal articles including V2X privacy schemes, engineering privacy attacks for equitable assessment, DSRC network congestion and routing protocols. She is serving as the Academic Director of the Automotive Security Research Group and chapter lead at Windsor. She is currently serving as a member of the advisory committee of the APMA Cyber Security Committee and Project ARROW.

Dr. Saini is passionate about cybersecurity and is a leading voice promoting women’s participation and leadership women in cybersecurity. She was the winner of the cyber woman of the year award, one of the cyber mobility awards by apmaIAC, in 2020 and the inaugural WEtech Alliance Woman in Tech of the Year award in 2019. She has been featured in 2020 Canadians to Watch by Auto News Canada. In 2021, she received the outreach and engagement award of the Faculty of Science at the University of Windsor.

When it comes to recognizing talent and seeing the big picture, Helen has always been a visionary. That ability to look ahead and think outside the box fanned her entrepreneurial leanings, so she founded the Krissilas Group after first specializing in information technology and engineering.

Now, with over 18 years’ experience in recruiting, Helen has placed countless candidates in all kinds of organizations, from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Her experience extends to international dealings across Europe and North America, making her a global player in STEM talent.

With a master’s degree in education and a specialization in diversity and inclusion, Helen is an award-winning executive recruiter whose clients know her for her reliability, tenacity and ability to drive profitable growth.

Passionate about helping women to succeed in STEM roles and careers, Helen frequently speaks at local industry events and is a member of WiCyS, WiRE and the Artemis Project collective.

Gagandeep Kaur is a Penetration Tester and Vulnerability Assessment expert. She is actively contributing to local governments, non-profits and small businesses affected by COVID-19 via her voluntary services. She Won Volunteer of the Year 2020’ Award for impactful contributions. She is also involved in Converting clients’ businesses to e-businesses. She is an important part of WiCyS Ontario - Leading the planning, coordination and execution of all aspects of events in collaboration with the other team members.