Steve Chang is the founder and chairman at Trend Micro Inc. and was the company's original chief executive officer until the end of 2004. Trend Micro experienced tremendous growth under Chang's leadership, increasing revenues from US$10M in 1994 to US$454M by the end of 2003. Trend Micro grew to more than 2,000 employees with sales, operations, research, support and development in over 30 countries. As chairman of the board, Chang continues to be the voice for the company to customers and industry partners.

Recognizing the threat of computer viruses, Chang formed Trend Micro in California in 1988 with the mission of developing antivirus software for personal computers. As local networks proliferated and the Internet matured, the company's focus evolved to address antivirus and content security software and services.

Chang's management style and vision have resulted in innovative and timely antivirus strategies that have been recognised in industry-leading publications. He was named one of Asia's "25 Movers and Shakers" in 2001 by ZDNet Asia. Fortune Magazine has called him a "global force," and he was twice chosen for Business Week's "Stars of Asia" award, recognizing fifty Asian leaders at the forefront of change. Chang was named "Innovator of the Year" in 2004 by Asia Business Leader Awards.

Prior to launching Trend Micro, Chang worked as an engineer at Hewlett-Packard and later founded AsiaTek, Inc., a Taiwan-based UNIX software design company.

Chang holds a Bachelor of Science in applied mathematics from Fu-Jen Catholic University in Taiwan and a master's degree in computer science from Lehigh University, Pennsylvania.

Steve Chang is the founder and chairman at Trend Micro Inc. and was the company's original chief executive officer until the end of 2004. Trend Micro experienced tremendous growth under Chang's leadership, increasing revenues from US$10M in 1994 to US$454M by the end of 2003. Trend Micro grew to more than 2,000 employees with sales, operations, research, support and development in over 30 countries. As chairman of the board, Chang continues to be the voice for the company to customers and industry partners.

Recognizing the threat of computer viruses, Chang formed Trend Micro in California in 1988 with the mission of developing antivirus software for personal computers. As local networks proliferated and the Internet matured, the company's focus evolved to address antivirus and content security software and services.

Chang's management style and vision have resulted in innovative and timely antivirus strategies that have been recognised in industry-leading publications. He was named one of Asia's "25 Movers and Shakers" in 2001 by ZDNet Asia. Fortune Magazine has called him a "global force," and he was twice chosen for Business Week's "Stars of Asia" award, recognizing fifty Asian leaders at the forefront of change. Chang was named "Innovator of the Year" in 2004 by Asia Business Leader Awards.

Prior to launching Trend Micro, Chang worked as an engineer at Hewlett-Packard and later founded AsiaTek, Inc., a Taiwan-based UNIX software design company.

Chang holds a Bachelor of Science in applied mathematics from Fu-Jen Catholic University in Taiwan and a master's degree in computer science from Lehigh University, Pennsylvania.

Ayman Hariri is chairman of Oger Systems and a member of the Board of Directors of Saudi Oger Ltd. as well as chief executive officer of Epok, Inc., a US based Company specialising in the advancement of technology for the betterment of global communications. Hariri is also a board member of Cell C, a South African mobile telecom operator.

Hariri's successes began within the engineering ranks at the international satellite consortium, Intelsat. Today, he is known for being one of the rare chief executives who combine a deep, hands-on knowledge of complex technology concepts with an impressive history of entrepreneurial success.

Mikko Hypponen is chief research officer for F-Secure. He has worked with F-Secure since 1991. Hypponen led the team that took down the world-wide network used by the Sobig.F worm in 2003. Under his leadership, F-Secure research teams have also stopped several worldwide computer virus epidemics, and this has earned F-Secure an international reputation as a very fast and reliable antivirus company. Hypponen was the first to warn the world about the Sasser outbreak in 2004 and named the infamous Storm Worm in 2007.

Hypponen has assisted law enforcement in USA, Europe and Asia on cybercrime cases and has also been a visible IT security spokesperson in major media, including CNN, BBC, The Wall Street Journal and Newsweek. He has written for magazines such as Scientific American, Foreign Policy and Virus Bulletin.

Hypponen has addressed the most important security-related conferences worldwide. He is also an inventor for several patents, including US patent 6,577,920 "Computer virus screening". He has been the subject of dozens of interviews in global TV and print media, including a 9-page profile in Vanity Fair.

In March 2007, Hypponen, born in 1969, was nominated one of the 50 most important people on the web by the US-based PC World magazine.

Apart from computer security issues, Hypponen enjoys collecting and restoring classic arcade video games and pinball machines from past decades. He lives with his family, and a small deer community, in an island near Helsinki.

Born in Novorossiysk, Russia, Eugene Kaspersky graduated from the Institute of Cryptography, Telecommunications and Computer Science and worked at a multi-disciplinary scientific research institute until 1991. He began studying computer viruses in 1989, when the Cascade virus was detected on his computer. From 1991 to 1997 Kaspersky worked at the KAMI Information Technologies Center where he developed the AVP antivirus project with a group of associates (AVP was renamed Kaspersky Anti-Virus in November 2000). Eugene Kaspersky became a co-founder of Kaspersky Lab in 1997.

Today, Kaspersky is one of the world's leading experts in the information security field. He has written a large number of articles and reviews related to computer virology and speaks regularly at specialised seminars and conferences all over the world.

Prof. Fred Piper is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Royal Holloway, University of London and has worked in information security since 1979. In 1985, he formed a company, Codes & Ciphers Ltd, which offers consultancy advice in all aspects of information security.

Piper has acted as a consultant to over 80 companies including a number of financial institutions and major industrial companies in the UK, Europe, Asia, Australia, South Africa and the USA. The consultancy work has been varied and has included algorithm design and analysis, work on EFTPOS and ATM networks, data systems, security audits, risk analysis and the formulation of security policies. He has lectured worldwide on information security, both academically and commercially and has published more than 100 papers. He is also joint author of Cipher Systems (1982) - one of the first books to be published on the subject of protection of communications, Secure Speech Communications (1985), Digital Signatures - Security & Controls (1999) and Cryptography: A Very Short Introduction (2002). Piper has been a member of a number of DTI advisory groups.

He has also served on a number of Foresight Crime Prevention Panels and task forces concerned with fraud control, security and privacy. He is currently a member of the Scientific Council of the Smith Institute, the Board of Trustees for Bletchley Park and the Board of the Institute of Information Security Professionals. He is also a member of (ISC)²'s European Advisory Board, the steering group of the DTI's Cyber Security KTN, ISSA's advisory panel and the BCS's Information Security Forum.

In 2002, he was awarded an IMA Gold Medal for "services to mathematics" and received an honorary CISSP for "leadership in Information Security". In 2003, Piper received an honorary CISM for "globally recognised leadership" and "contribution to the Information Security Profession".

John W. Thompson is chairman of the board of directors of Symantec Corporation. Under Thompson's leadership, Symantec has grown from a small consumer software publisher to a global leader in infrastructure software, enabling businesses and consumers to have confidence in a connected world.

Thompson and his team have grown the company by building new solutions internally, making strategic acquisitions and establishing relationships with key technology partners. With global operations in 40 countries, the company helps customers protect their infrastructure, information and interactions by delivering software and services that address risks to security, availability, compliance and performance.

In September 2002, President George W. Bush appointed Thompson to the National Infrastructure Advisory Committee (NIAC), to make recommendations regarding the security of the critical infrastructure of the United States. In addition, Thompson has served as the chair of the Silicon Valley Blue Ribbon Task Force on Aviation Security and Technology to identify and evaluate technology-driven solutions to improve the security and efficiency of national and local aviation.

Today, Thompson is a member of the board of directors of UPS, Seagate and Teach for America. He also serves as the chairman of the board for the Cyber Security Industry Alliance, the only advocacy group dedicated exclusively to ensuring the privacy, reliability and integrity of information systems through public policy, technology, education and awareness.

Prior to joining Symantec, Thompson had a distinguished career with the IBM Corporation where he held senior executive positions in sales, marketing and software development. In his last assignment, he was general manager of IBM Americas and a member of the company's Worldwide Management Council.

Thompson completed his undergraduate studies at Florida A&M University and holds a master's degree in management science from MIT's Sloan School of Management.

Dr Hamadoun Touré was elected Secretary-General at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Antalya, Turkey, in November 2006 and took office on 1^st January 2007.

Dr Touré is committed to cultivate ITU as an innovative, forward-looking organisation adapted to meet the challenges created by the new ICT environment and to spearhead the Union towards implementing the resolutions of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

He served as Director of BDT from 1998 until 2006, where he played a significant role in the WSIS process by launching numerous projects based on partnership building with international organizations, governments, civil society and the private sector. From 1996 - 1998, Dr Touré was Africa's regional general manager for ICO Global Communications. He spearheaded the company's activities to lay the foundation that ensured the successful introduction and operation of ICO's regional activities including marketing and network distribution as well as co-ordination with service partners, regulators and operators of fixed, mobile and special services. Prior to ICO, Dr Touré joined the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (INTELSAT) where he occupied several important positions. From 1986 to 1990, he was Telecommunications Officer of INTELSAT Assistance and Development Programme

(IADP). He was involved in IADP projects including the design of earth stations, feasibility studies for domestic satellite communication systems and the implementation of technologies such as time division multiple access (TDMA) and demand assignment multiple access (DAMA) in several developing countries.

From 1990 to 1994, he was INTELSAT's Director for the Africa Region and later served as the Group Director for Africa and the Middle East from 1994 to 1996. During this time, he took an active part in the continental initiative launched by the Regional African Satellite Communications Organization (RASCOM) to pool transponders on the INTELSAT system. He pioneered studies for regional interconnectivity and worked closely with all African and the Middle East countries to enhance the development of their telecommunication infrastructure. In these positions he managed annual revenue budgets of more than USD 115 million.