Max Solonski, Caesars Entertainment Claim Top Awards at ISE® West Ralph Johnson (King County, WA) named People’s Choice Award Winner

SAN FRANCISCO & ATLANTA (PRWEB) July 31, 2014

T.E.N., a technology and information security executive networking and relationship-marketing firm, honored finalists and winners Wednesday evening, July 30, at the 2014 ISE® West Executive Forum and Awards Gala at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco.

Max Solonski, director of information security for the BlackLine Systems, was selected as the Information Security Executive® of the Year Award winner for the ISE® West Region. As the software leader's first security-focused executive, Solonski built his team from the ground up, consistently balancing security and business needs while also remaining approachable and responsive at all times. He believes that InfoSec is an integral part of the overall business function and a responsibility of each of those involved. In just two years, he has expanded the company's controls register by 40% to cover SOC2 requirements and international regulations, and his team effectively maintains a secure and available environment for a large commercial website that processes financial information and serves millions of web pages each day.

Robert Rice, director of security services for St. Joseph Health, and William Worthington, director of security operations and engineering for Caesars Entertainment, were also honored during the event as finalists in the executive category. Ralph Johnson, chief information security and privacy officer for King County, WA, was named the 2014 ISE® West People's Choice Award Winner. This award represents the nominee who best exemplifies information security leadership as voted on by his peers in information security.

Caesars Entertainment's "Perimeter Redesign" project was selected as the ISE® West Project of the Year. Worthington accepted on behalf of the project, which completely redesigned the in/out bound internet traffic for all Caesars Entertainment, leveraging new next generation firewalls, load balancers utilizing SSL decryption, malware detection devices, forensics and logging devices, IDS/IPS's, and new web proxies all with high availability and redundancy.

"The 2014 winning executive and project epitomize the innovation and values for which the ISE® West Awards are known. Each has made a significant, positive impact for their organization's security posture, tackling complex challenges in a swift and effective manner," said T.E.N. CEO and President Marci McCarthy. "We are honored to have each and every one of our nominees join the ranks of our distinguished ISE® Alumni."

The ISE® West awards recognize both information security executives and projects for outstanding achievements in risk management, data asset protection, compliance, privacy and network security. Award winners were selected from the U.S. West region, which includes Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. The event is made possible by gigabyte sponsor, Adobe; kilobyte sponsors: , Agari, Axway, HP Enterprise Security, Intel Security, NetIQ, Symantec, and Tripwire; and display sponsors: BeyondTrust, Click Security, Intralinks, Invincea, Seculert, Solutionary and Tufin. Read more online: http://ten-inc.com/ise/west/default.asp

About T.E.N.
T.E.N., a national technology and security executive networking organization, facilitates peer-to-peer relationships between top executives, industry visionaries and solutions providers. Nominated for numerous industry awards, T.E.N.'s executive leadership programs enable information exchange, collaboration and decision-making. Its flagship program, the nationally-acclaimed Information Security Executive® (ISE®) of the Year Program Series and Awards, is North America's largest leadership recognition and networking program for security professionals. Other offerings include the T.E.N. Custom Programs and the ISE® Industry Expert Advisory Services, empowering IT solutions providers to gain access to highly credentialed IT business veterans' expertise. For information, visit http://www.ten-inc.com.

About ISE® Award Program Series
For more than a decade, the Information Security Executive® (ISE®) of the Year Award Program Series has empowered security executives and their project teams to Connect, Collaborate and Celebrate. Recognized as the industry's most prestigious IT Security award program, it has become the most anticipated award program for security executives and their project teams. Winners have included executives and project teams from leading organizations such as Nike, The Walt Disney Company, the United States Postal Service, Schlumberger, Texas Instruments, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Equifax, Comcast, PayPal, Northrop Grumman Corporation, and Nationwide.

Our distinguished ISE® Judges are past nominees representing a cross section of industries, including commercial, government, health care and academic sectors. For this reason, the ISE® Awards represent the best achievements of the year as evaluated by those regarded as the industry's most influential and successful thought leaders. Coupled with a one or two-day executive summits, the ISE® Awards are held across the U.S. and Canada in major cities including Atlanta, Dallas, New York, Toronto, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. The ISE® Awards Program Series has reached more than 10,000 executives across a broad range of industries and has been a major influence in executives' careers, knowledge sharing, and the development of peer-to-peer relationships.

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