Jake Kouns
Director of Cyber Security & Technology Risks Underwriting

Markel

Jake Kouns is a business-focused technology and information security executive with an extensive knowledge base and international experience. He holds both a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Information Security from James Madison University. In addition, he holds a number of certifications including ISC2’s CISSP, and ISACA’s CISM, CISA and CGEIT. Mr. Kouns is currently the Director of Cyber Security and Technology Risks Underwriting for Markel Corporation. Previously he was Senior Network Security Manager for Capital One Financial where he was responsible for the day-to-day global security management of a large complex firewall environment, intrusion detection and risk assessment. Mr. Kouns has presented for Check Point Software Technologies as an expert in global firewall management and intrusion detection. He has presented at many well-known security conferences including the RSA Conference, CISO Executive Summit, EntNet IEEE GlobeCom, CanSecWest and SyScan. He is the co-author of the book Security in an IPv6 Environment, Francis and Taylor, 2009, and Information Technology Risk Management in Enterprise Environments, Wiley, 2010. He has also been interviewed as an expert in the security industry by Information Week, eWeek, Processor.com, Federal Computer Week, Government Computer News and SC Magazine. He was featured on the cover of the April 2010 issue of SCMagazine. Mr. Kouns is the co-founder, CEO, and CFO of the Open Security Foundation (OSF), a non-profit organization that oversees the operations of the Open Source Vulnerability Database (OSVDB.org) and the DataLossDB. Both projects are independent and open source databases that provide detailed and unbiased technical information on security vulnerabilities and data loss incidents world-wide. Mr. Kouns has also has participated in Google's Summer of Code and volunteered time to mentor students during the 2006, 2007 and 2008 programs.

Ridge Muhly
Second Vice President

Gen Re

Ridge Muhly is a Second Vice President, Senior Underwriting Specialist with Gen Re. He joined Gen Re in the Philadelphia Branch as a casualty facultative underwriter in 2002. He is responsible for marketing and underwriting casualty business in the Mid Atlantic Region for various stock , mutual and excess and surplus line companies. Prior to joining Gen Re he attended The Pennsylvania State University where he received a Bachelor of Science in Insurance. Ridge holds the CPCU, ARe, ARM, ASLI and RPLU designations. Ridge resides in Berwyn, Pennsylvania with his wife Erin and daughters Alden and Taylor.

Douglas Palais
Attorney

Eckert Seamans

Doug Palais focuses his practice on litigation, arbitration and counseling on behalf of brokers and agents in the securities and insurance industries and on behalf of the legal profession. In addition to appearing as lead counsel in broker/dealer cases and arbitrations throughout the southeastern United States, he has also defended hundreds of insurance agent/broker and legal errors and omissions cases. Doug also handles multi-district litigation matters and has extensive federal and state court jury trial and appellate experience. His expertise includes the defense of a broad range of professional liability and directors & officers liability claims. Doug served as law clerk for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from 1978-80.