Announcing Our 2024 Impact Award Recipients

Last week, Forgepoint Capital held our Fall 2024 Advisory Council Meeting and Dinner, the annual gathering of key members of our inner circle of CISOs/CxOs, entrepreneurs, limited partners, and industry partners. In addition to a full program of presentations, networking, cocktails, and dinner- more to come here, so stay tuned- we announced the winners of this year’s Impact Awards:  

🌟 Aaron Hughes: Catalyst Award
🌟 Elena Kvochko: Trailblazer Award
🌟 Jerry Kowalski: All-star Award

Congratulations to Aaron, Elena, and Jerry!  

We’d like to take a moment to recognize our award winners’ outstanding backgrounds and accomplishments. While they all deeply understand modern enterprise needs, emerging technologies and threats, and the cybersecurity startup landscape, they each bring unique experience and expertise along with powerful personal stories of achievement. As members of our Global Advisory Council, they contribute valuable insight and perspective to our team, portfolio, and community in a multitude of ways.  

Catalyst Award: Aaron Hughes, Chief Information Security Officer, Albertsons Companies 

Aaron Hughes is a visionary cybersecurity leader whose impact extends across public and private sectors. His career is a testament to the power of building a coalition of collaborators across sectors and industries to tackle complex challenges. Aaron’s unwavering dedication to enterprise cybersecurity, national defense, and public-private partnerships make him a worthy recipient of the Catalyst Award. 

An Enterprise Cybersecurity Leader 

Aaron is also an accomplished leader in enterprise security. As the Chief Information Security Officer at Albertsons Companies, Aaron leads a team dedicated to enabling a company with $70B in annual revenue by securing the infrastructure, digital assets, and payments driving the business. Under his guidance, Aaron’s team has implemented innovative security solutions to safeguard sensitive customer data and ensure business continuity in a complex retail sector. His commitment to leverage emerging technologies such as generative AI to enable operational efficiencies is also noteworthy and has helped position Albertsons as a cybersecurity leader among retailers and enterprises worldwide. 

Catalyzing Public-Private Partnerships 

Aaron has held numerous leadership roles which demonstrate his commitment to cultivating public-private partnerships and serving the nation’s cyber defense efforts. During his time as VP of Intelligence Community Support at In-Q-Tel, Aaron led customer outreach and management while supporting the technology side of the business, fostering public-private partnerships and introducing innovative technologies to the Intelligence Community. At the U.S. Department of Defense, where he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy, Aaron was the senior DoD cyber official and the primary interface with the broader US Government, Congress, the public, and foreign governments for all defense-related cyber policy matters. There, he quickly solidified his reputation as a strategic thinker and policy expert while playing a pivotal role in shaping the nation’s cyber defense strategy. 

In addition, Aaron currently serves as a Colonel in the US Air Force Reserve and is the Senior Advisor to the Commander for USCYBERCOM. He is also the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors for Advanced Technology International (ATI), a leading provider of consortium services to the largest departments and agencies in the US Government.  

Trailblazer Award: Elena Kvochko, Founder of TrustGuardAI and Adjunct Professor, Cornell SC Johnson School of Business

Elena Kvochko is a true pioneer whose groundbreaking work in trust, transparency, privacy, cybersecurity, and AI are shaping the future of technology for the better.  

Throughout her career, Elena has led organizations and spearheaded research and development efforts to push the boundaries of technology. She has paved the way for countless others with her impactful leadership and innovation, making her a deserving recipient of this year’s Trailblazer Award.  

A Trailblazer, Inventor, and Innovator 

Most recently, Elena served as the first Chief Trust Officer at enterprise software firm SAP and led the company’s efforts to set new industry standards for transparency around security and privacy. Under Elena’s guidance, the company developed a deep-rooted culture of responsibility to drive trust and transparency among its customers. 

Elena’s work included establishing trust policies and frameworks, guiding sales processes, communicating how customer data and privacy are protected, and providing a team of subject matter experts to guide trust efforts across all SAP products and platforms. During her time with the firm, she also led oversight and compliance efforts across global frameworks and managed key relationships, acting as a liaison between the organization and external stakeholders.  

One of Elena’s most impactful innovations was to demonstrate how trust is more than just an idea- rather, it’s a competitive differentiator with measurable business impacts on growth, workforce engagement, partner relations, and various key metrics. For example, her team collaborated with Deloitte and MIT Technology Insights to generate cutting-edge research on the business impact and importance of trust, along with the defining features and best practices for the emerging Chief Trust Officer role.  

Earlier in her career, Elena was a data security leader in the financial services industry, serving as Senior Vice President and Technology Executive at Bank of America and Divisional Chief Information Officer at Barclays Bank in New York and London. A renowned subject matter expert, her innovation extended across organizational policies, security procedures, and emerging technologies. To date, Elena is the inventor of 30+ patent-pending and patented technologies in security, privacy, digital payments technology, and quantum computing. 

Ensuring Trust in AI 

Elena is currently leading the way to develop a trust framework for the responsible use of AI through her new AI governance and compliance startup TrustGuard AI. With Elena’s leadership, the company is developing AI solutions that prioritize transparency, accountability, and ethical considerations, addressing the critical need for trustworthy AI systems.  

All-star Award: Jerry Kowalski, Chief Information Security Officer, Jefferies

Jerry Kowalski is a committed security leader whose contributions to the industry are wide-ranging. He has demonstrated an impressive commitment to safeguarding digital infrastructure and data assets at the enterprise level. Jerry is also an essential supporter of emerging cybersecurity innovation and startups, leveraging his technical expertise to help research, evaluate, and cultivate new ideas and market entrants.  

Jerry’s dedication to advancing cybersecurity- as a CISO, a security expert, and an advocate for industry-wide innovation- make him a true all-star and an exemplary recipient of this year’s All-star Award. 

Security Leadership and Expertise 

Jerry’s career spans diverse roles, from leading cybersecurity programs as a CISO to heading security engineering and operations teams to conducting technical research and development. He currently serves as the CISO at Jefferies LLC, where he is responsible for designing, building and operating the cybersecurity program that enables the company’s core businesses. Jerry heads organization-wide Security Engineering, Operations Security, Access Identity Management, and Application Security practices, bridging gaps between security and business to position cybersecurity as a driver of success.  

Jerry has developed deep expertise in application security, risk management, and developer training through numerous security leadership roles during his career. Prior to his CISO role at Jefferies, Jerry was the head of Application Security Risk for Barclays Capital and Wealth where, during a 5-year tenure, he built a comprehensive Application Security practice which consisted of security assessments, architecture design, risk management, and developer training. 

Earlier in his career, Jerry was a Senior Security Engineer and Team Lead at the Ernst & Young Advanced Security Center, in addition to serving as a Computer Engineer Researcher at the Air Force Research Laboratory where he provided R&D services to the federal government and homeland security.  

Supporting Innovation 

Jerry is a key figure in fostering innovation and emerging technologies in cybersecurity, leveraging his perspective and experience as a security leader on the buyer side of the market. He has played an instrumental role in numerous investment diligence and market research endeavors as an Advisory Council member at Forgepoint Capital, helping to identify and support promising cybersecurity startups. 

In closing

Aaron, Elena, and Jerry- thank you for your continued industry leadership and support, and all you do for the Forgepoint portfolio, community, and beyond. We value your expertise and are honored to partner with you as we work together to fortify the present and build the digital future.