As The NPD Group’s Director of Industry Analysis for Commercial Technology, Michael Diamond offers expert analysis and commentary about the shifting commercial market. Through his focus on driving deeper insights with clients, Michael is improving core business-to-business (B2B) services and helping B2B clients navigate the channel more effectively.

Prior to joining NPD, Michael worked for Ingram Micro for 17 years in market and competitive intelligence, worldwide strategic planning, business intelligence, and North American strategic development. During his time at Ingram Micro, Michael was responsible for analyzing the competitive landscape, developing vendor and customer strategies, identifying trends in vertical and sub-vertical markets, and analyzing near-term and future technology trends. He also presented at vendor and customer-facing events to share industry insights.

Michael holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from the University of Phoenix.

Bojan Dusevic, senior director of Intermedia's File Management group has more than 14 years of experience in information technology, product management and strategy and cloud services. Dusevic has his finger on the pulse of cloud backup, storage, collaboration and file protection, with a focus on the needs of business users as well as the MSPs and VARs that serve them. 

Michael A. Echols is a senior cybersecurity executive and critical infrastructure protection strategist working with senior corporate leaders and government officials to make the nation more resilient. He is leading a revolution to stand-up and support Information Sharing and Analysis Organizations (ISAO). As such, Echols leads a global effort to harmonize cyber threat information sharing. Previously, Echols managed resiliency programs for the Department of Homeland Security while assisting in the advancement of information sharing. As the point person for the rollout of President Obama's EO 13691, he developed a national program for information sharing and analysis organizations. At DHS, Echols chaired activities optimizing national programs, cybersecurity strategy, interagency cordination, public safety and counterterrorism across federal agencies and the private sector. Echols' leadership has resulted in value creation and models for government and industry partnerships across the communications, IT, and other critical sectors. Prior to joining the government as a federal employee, Echols advised federal officials and served DHS as a consultant on matters related to outreach, threat information management, protection of national networks, national security, emergency communications, and disaster management.  Echols has co-authored studies on the vulnerability of GPS, the vulnerability of core network components, and a host of other at the Homeland Security Institute and beyond.

Matthew Hickey is a director of engineering, enterprise, at Sophos.  He got his start in the field of information security working for the Securities Industry Automation Corp., at the time, a subsidiary of the New York and American Stock Exchanges.  After working several years on Wall Street he continued honing his skills in this field at Lockheed Martin.  There he worked on several projects for the U.S. Defense Department. This work included conducting security audits, penetration testing and firewall deployments guides for high profile, security conscious customers.  Most recently, Hickey has been working for the leaders in tech industry which include Dell-SonicWall and Fortinet deploying network security solutions for their customers.

Michael Knight is the CTO at Encore Technology Group and responsible for company go-to-market strategies, technology and sales strategies, vendor relationships, technology partnerships, research and development, cloud building, enterprise architecture and consulting. Knight has been previously employed as the CTO and senior vice president at Computer Software Innovations, Inc. He has worked as the CTO of SDI Networks and as the CIO of American Control Systems, Inc., with over two decades of IT experience.

Laura Sankey is the senior director of product marketing for SecuriSync backup and file sharing at Intermedia. She has over 15 years of experience marketing technology services to businesses and channels. Prior to Intermedia, she held enterprise and SMB product and marketing roles at Verizon Wireless, Nokia and other technology services companies.

Mark Snyder is a security specialist at Juniper Networks aiding customers in reducing risk through solution-based security architectures.  Snyder has more than 20 years of industry experience having held IT executive, architect, systems engineering and security consulting services positions with Fortune 100, CRN 100, healthcare, financial, education and public sector organizations. Snyder is passionate in all things related to security and technology in addition to being an active participant in the Maker Community working on several security electronic projects, in addition to robotics, IoT and cloud integration.  Snyder currently holds the following certification and accreditations: CISSP, CISA, CISM, CEH,  MBA, MSM and computer engineering technology degrees.

With over 17 years in IT Security, Peter Streips has held primarily sales management roles for companies including RSA Security, Sophos and Oracle.  In 2005, Peter founded a solution provider focused on IT security solutions and services across a variety of markets.  His company grew into a top producing security integrator for numerous tech suppliers and helped secure more than  1,500 organizations including Burlington Coat Factory, Timex and Subway.  After successfully selling his business in 2016, he now heads North American channel operations for Contextual Security an IT security services organization based in Knoxville, Tenn.

Brian Weaver has over 10 years of experience in the cloud and managed services field. H was the No. 4 hire in 2006 in the newly formed Ingram Micro Managed Services business unit and helped it grow to over 200 associates in 8 years. He has experience in executive leadership roles in distribution as well as managed service providers and has successfully built thriving cloud and managed services business from the ground up. He currently serves as vice president of sales at NSA Computer Exchange in Hicksville, N.Y.  He is a frequent speaker at industry events as a subject matter expert on ransomware including TUG Connects 2017.