HMG Strategy finished 2023 on a high note, hosting its 2023 Global Innovation Summit and its 2023 Global CISO Executive Leadership Summit on December 12 at The Harvard Club of New York City. Both events were well-attended, and we received high accolades for the exceptional content and All-Star speakers who presented on timely topics.

The 2023 Global Innovation Summit, the industry’s #1 event for business technology executives in North America, was co-hosted by HMG Strategy Founder and CEO Hunter Muller with Mark Taylor, CEO of SIM International. The event kicked off with an Executive Fireside Chat with Tom Peck, EVP and Chief Information and Digital Officer at Sysco, a Fortune 60 company. Tom, who was the recipient of the 2023 MIT Sloan CIO of the Year Award, shared with us how Sysco’s “Recipe for Success” hinges on its strategic use of AI and machine learning. Tom also shared his recommendations for cutting through the hype of third-party Generative AI solutions along with why AI matters to the C-suite.

Tom then joined a panel discussion on ‘Visionary Global Leadership: Thriving in the Age of Secure Accelerated Innovation’ that was moderated by Tony Leng, Managing Partner, CIO & CTO Global Functional Head at H.I.E.C. The panel included Jamie Holcombe, CIO, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Patti Titus, Global CISO, Markel and Mark Troller, CIO at Tangoe who shared  how CIOs and business technology leaders need to be more creative than ever to drive new waves of innovation and revenue amid inflationary pressures and ongoing economic headwinds.

With so much focus on Generative AI these days, we were fortunate to have Ketan Shah, VP Product Management – Hybrid Multicloud Platform, Nutanix share with us how an AI-ready infrastructure can help speed the adoption of AI while protecting the value of the organization’s data.

We also heard from Florin Rotar, Chief AI Officer at Avanade, a title we can expect to see more of in our industry who shared his top five lessons for deploying Generative AI in the enterprise.

The 2023 Global Innovation Summit was highlighted by the presentation of our Global Leadership Institute Awards which recognizes the visionary, authentic and inclusive leadership demonstrated by world-class CIOs and business technology leaders in our industry. Recipients of our 2023 Global Leadership Institute Awards at our 2023 Global Innovation Summit included:

• Dr. David Bray, Distinguished Fellow, The Stimson Center
• Daphne Jones, Board of Directors, AMN Healthcare, Barnes Group and Masonite International
• Richard Martin, Senior IT Director, Global Commercial, Consumer, Customer, Communications & PEP Foundation, PepsiCo
• Laura Money, EVP & CIO, Sun Life Financial
• Harry Moseley, Former Global CIO, Zoom
• Steven Taylor, EVP & CIO, Cenlar FSB

Meanwhile, the 2023 Global CISO Executive Leadership Summit was co-hosted by HMG Strategy’s VP of Research Tom Hoffman and Cindy Finkelman, Managing Director at Alvarez & Marsal. The day kicked off with a fascinating presentation by Shamla Naidoo, Head of Cloud Strategy & Innovation at Netskope, who discussed what Directors & Officers (D&O) insurance policies cover – and what they don’t – which is top-of-mind for many CISOs, C-level executives and board members.

One of the top focus areas for business technology executives is how to continue to innovate in a demanding business environment and how to stay ahead of the curve with emerging technologies. At the 2023 Global CISO Summit, we featured the HMG Innovation Accelerator which is a forum for cybersecurity startup CEOs to share how they are differentiated in the market along with how they are delivering meaningful value to client companies.

The HMG Innovation Accelerator was moderated by Emily Heath, General Partner at Cyberstarts and featured Danny Brickman, Co-Founder and CEO, Oasis; Sriya Potham, Field CTO, Wiz; Raanan Raz, CEO and Co-Founder, Avalor; and Sanaz Yashar, Co-Founder and CEO, Zafran Security.

One of the highlights from the 2023 Global CISO Summit was an Executive Fireside Chat between Gary Meshell, AWS WW Leader, Global Partner Security Initiative, AWS and Jonathan Vlock, Global Partner Marketing Leader, AWS at Wipro. Gary and Jonathan explored the benefits of the recent launch of Continuous Compliance, a joint purpose-built solution built on Amazon Security Lake that delivers a single pane of glass view to manage, monitor and maintain compliance requirements seamlessly with compliance standards such as GDPR, CCPA and HIPAA.

At HMG Strategy, we pride ourselves on tracking the key leadership, business, geo-political, cultural, technology, and cybersecurity trends that matter most to CIOs, CISOs and business technology leaders. At the 2023 Global CISO Summit, Michael Coden, Senior Advisor at Boston Consulting Group, moderated back-to-back executive panel discussions focused on recommendations for navigating the risks associated with AI along with tracking SEC regulations for cybersecurity resilience.

We are gratified by the overwhelmingly positive response to our CIO & CISO Executive Leadership Summit series this past year which drew record attendance and revenue across 30+ markets. We look forward to riding this momentum into 2024 by continuing to deliver on the and interests of the CIOs, CISOs, business technology leaders, partners, industry experts and search executives in the 500,0000+-strong HMG community.