Dr. Ehud Ganani, Vice President for Strategic Programs, EIS Council, Israel

Dr. Ehud (Udi) Ganani, as Vice President for Strategic Programs, is responsible for the development, coordination, and management of several key programs: GINOM AI, BSX, Digital Transformation, EIS Academy, and EMP Consulting. All these programs are International.

Udi Ganani is a co-founder of Contguard Ltd., a global maritime container tracking startup. He is also a member of the SPECTRUM Group in Alexandria, VA and a Research Associate in ICT International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at IDC Herzliya.

Previously, Dr. Ganani served in senior management roles in a number of corporations providing high technology solutions for security applications. He was Chief Executive Officer and President of Rabintex Industries Ltd., served as CEO and chairman of TraceGuard Technologies Inc. and chairman of Bird Aerosystems Ltd. He also chaired the public advisory committee for Aerospace, Defense and Homeland Security for the Israeli Export Institute.
Prior to that, Dr. Ganani served as a senior manager in some of Israel’s largest and most important aerospace companies: He served as Chief Executive Officer of Israel Military Industries, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Rafael, and headed Rafael’s rocket motors development group.
Dr. Ganani holds a Doctorate of Science in Chemical Engineering from Washington University, St. Louis, MO and a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel.

Esti Peshin, VP & General Manager, Cyber Division, Israel Aerospace Industries

Esti Peshin is the General Manager of the Cyber Division at the Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. At the beginning of 2017, under Ms. Peshin’s management IAI’s cyber activity was expended from a Directorate to a Division. She serves also as the Director General (pro bono) of the Israeli Hi-Tech Caucus at the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament. Prior to assuming these roles, Ms Peshin was the Managing Partner of ENP Solutions Ltd., a strategic management consulting firm; a Partner at Destino Ventures LLC, a private equity firm; and a Partner at Hope Ventures Ltd, a Distributor and Business Development house. Previously, Ms. Peshin was the CEO of Waterfall Security Solutions, a provider of a foolproof physical security gateway for homeland security and mission-critical installations. Before joining Waterfall, she held an Account Director position in the Lawful Interception division of Verint Systems, Inc. She served 11 years in the Israeli Defense Forces, in an elite technology unit, where she was Deputy Director.

Craig Haggard, State Representative Indiana House Republicans

State Rep. Craig Haggard was elected to the Indiana House of Representatives in 2022. He represents House District 57, which includes portions of Hendricks, Johnson and Morgan counties.

Haggard works as a commercial broker and is a small business owner. He formerly served as the Indiana field representative for the National Rifle Association for six years. Haggard also served in the U.S. Marines as an AV8B Harrier Aviator for 11 years. He was honorably discharged in 2000 and transitioned to the Indiana Air National Guard, serving as an active guard reserve member for 11 more years. Haggard flew the Fl6 Viper and was commander of Headquarters Detachment One at Camp Atterbury. He retired as a lieutenant colonel in 2013. Haggard is a graduate of Hanover College and Mooresville High School.

Haggard resides in his hometown of Mooresville with his wife, Brooke, and children, Isabella, Eleyna, Aidan, and Ian. His memberships include Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, and the NRA.

Naomi Etzion, Head of Power System Dynamics Dept. NOGA - Israeli Independent System Operator

Naomi Etzion works in the Planning and Development division at NOGA – the Israeli
Independent System Operator company.
She worked at Israel Electric Corporation for more than 30 years, until NOGA was established by the Israeli government at 2020.
Her fields of expertise are power system dynamics and transient phenomena studies, power system survivability, increasing power system efficiency under system development constrains. In this role she also analyzes system resilience after multiple component outages that can cause extensive regional blackouts, using advanced computational methods.
Naomi Etzion is involved in preparing the Israeli system to massive absorption of renewable energy projects. In this context, she is in charge of the dynamic studies regarding the influence of connecting new generation units, and defines the requirements that will ensure the continuity and survivability of the future electric
supply. By leading the resilience team in the planning division she is responsible for planning
the electric system such it will withstand diverse events that can widely affect it. Naomi Etzion holds B.Sc. Degree and M.Sc. Degree in Electrical Engineering, both from the Technion, Haifa, Israel.

Avi Schnurr, CEO, EIS Council, Israel

Avi Schnurr is CEO and President of the Electric Infrastructure Security (EIS) Council.
Mr. Schnurr has reviewed severe “Black Sky” hazards to lifeline utilities for a number of state and federal government departments and agencies, including the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, the National Security Council, Congress, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Homeland Security, among others. He has been a leader in development and coordination of protection strategies for critical national infrastructures, working with senior executives of the nation’s largest power, water, and fuel companies, with other corporate sectors, and with key government and NGO stakeholders.

Mr. Schnurr has provided invited briefings for NATO, the European Union, Parliamentary Committees, government science advisors and energy ministries. He has reviewed U.S. defense policies for the Department of Defense, the White House Homeland Security Council, the National Academy of Sciences, Congress, NATO and a variety of other venues. Until the end of 2004, Avi Schnurr worked for Northrop Grumman’s Space Technology Sector in California, where he had system responsibilities for space payloads and other advanced systems and instruments, and also managed U.S. and international defense programs. He holds a number of patents in laser and optical systems and twice received the corporate Chairman’s Award for Innovation. Avi Schnurr received his M.Sc. Degree in Physics from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of California, San Diego.

Lihi Rotem Ganani, Director of Digital Transformation, EIS Council, Spain

Lihi joined EIS Council’s leadership team in 2020, serving as the Director of Digital Transformation. She is responsible for managing all the Council’s digital initiatives with the aim of building and growing the international online community, supporting new programs and initiatives. Lihi leads EIS projects related to marketing and branding, is in charge of social content, CRM implementation and the EIS academy.
Prior to joining the Council, Lihi conducted industry analysis and data strategy projects for FANS-LEAGUE, an Israeli mobile gaming start-up.
While living in Madrid, Spain, Lihi worked at the IE Business School, one of the world’s top business schools. With a skill for creating partnerships and focusing on innovation, she was involved in organizing yearly programs, designing the startup Lab – a startup acceleration program and the Business Impact Lab – an open innovation program. She ran “Challenge weeks”, one week Design Thinking programs with leading corporates and built a marketplace involving SMEs, corporates, and students for innovation-related consulting projects focused on growth.
In Israel, Lihi served as a judicial advisor in the Israeli circuit court and worked for boutique law firms. Lihi holds a BA in Business, an LLB in Law, a Master of Laws (LLM), and an MA in Digital Transformation and Innovation Leadership.

Yosi Shneck, Energy and Security Lead, EIS Council, Israel

Yosi Shneck, YSICONS Founder & CEO, Former SVP, CIO & CISO at Isreal Electric.

Consulting Boards and C-Level management in cyber, IT & OT systems, Critical Infrastructures, and electric utilities. Active in the Cyber entrepreneurship and business development unit at IEC, including R&D, cyber products and services development, support of the IEC’s cyber unit, marketing, and deployment worldwide. Leading the R&D projects and activities in the European research programs for more than ten years, including the FP7 and Horizon 2020 programs. Energy and Security Coordinator at EIS Council. 

More than 49 years of experience in computer systems & technologies in utilities, including information systems, scientific applications, supper computing & communication, control systems, infrastructures & architectures, and cyber.  In addition to his duties as ITC leader, he was responsible for readying the company against cyber-attack threats, including IT/OT environments. Being accountable for the cyber activity of supercritical infrastructure, Mr. Shneck is involved in many nationwide and international initiatives in this field.  

His previous functions in the IEC include SVP Information and Communications and Chief Cyber Officer; Head of Information Systems and Communication Division, CIO; Member of the selection committee for an investor in the new communication infrastructure company; Head of the National Communications and Electronics unit and Deputy of the Information Systems and Teleprocessing Division; Head of R&D computer department. Head of Cybergym steering committee.

Mr. Shneck has an M.A. in Business Administration and a B.A. in Computer Sciences.  

Paul Williams, President, EIS Council, UK

Paul Williams is President of the Electric Infrastructure Security (EIS) Council.  Mr Williams is a Globally recognised leader in technology and operations resilience, with exceptional experience, insight, and expertise in developing operationally robust and regulatorily compliant resilience strategies, operations, and organisations.  He has leadership experience in technology and technology risk, within international banking.  As well as regulatory experience including leadership of UK domestic regulation development, specialist supervision of non-financial risks, and coordination of several international initiatives.  Mr Williams has participated in NATO,  RUSI  and various other domestic and international conferences, and is a Commissioner on the UK’s National Preparedness Commission.

Mr Williams led development of operational resilience regulations in UK Financial Services, which substantively informed International Financial Services Regulations, and British Standard 65000 on organisational resilience.  He has led development of public/private partnership initiatives from inception, through to delivery of robust operational frameworks, based on public/private cooperation.  These include sector-wide exercising and crisis response capabilities.  Mr Williams was founding chair of several cyber collaboration groups, focused on public/private collaboration on cyber threat intelligence, as well as leading a group of European Regulators to collectively author a key paper exploring the potential for systemic cyber risk and the appropriate responses.  Mr Williams was founding member of the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governor’s Cyber Experts Group, latterly taking on the role of co-Chair with the US Treasury Department.

During Mr Williams extensive career in Technology Infrastructure leadership, he led global technology infrastructure teams in London, USA and Asia, to deliver efficient and resilient infrastructure strategies, to satisfy divergent business demands.  His career included leadership of a wide-scale infrastructure resilience delivery project with a value running to £000m’s.

Yitzhak (Itzik) Balmas, former Deputy CEO and Senior Vice President in major executive roles at the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC)

Yitzhak (Itzik) Balmas is the former Deputy CEO and Senior Vice President in major executive roles at the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC), Israel’s government-owned electrical utility.

During his long career at IEC for more than 3 decades, Itzik served as SVP of the Grid Services (2024), Customers (2019), Generation and Energy (2014) and the Engineering Projects (2013) Groups, where he led the core business units of IEC, during the global energy transition and the electricity sector reform in Israel.

Itzik gather a wide and extensive knowledge and experience in power systems planning, O&M, development, and strategic leadership, during routine and emergency times.

Itzik hold a B.Sc degree in Electrical Engineering and Computers from Ben Gurion University Of The Negev (1990), ME in Mechanical Engineering from the Technion- Israel Institute Of Technology (1998) and SFMBA degree in Business Administration from MIT- Massachusetts Institute Of Technology (2022).

Together with his wife Osnat, they live in Pardes Hanna (Israel) and have four grownup children and two granddaughters.

Bob Flores, Former CTO, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), USA

Bob Flores is the Founder and CTO of Applicology Incorporated, which specializes in cybersecurity risk assessments, cloud migration strategies, and technology due diligence. Flores is also a Senior Partner with OODA LLC, a global strategic advisory firm with deep DNA in global security, technology, and intelligence issues. He is a board-qualified technical executive (QTE) and an advisor to several early-stage technology companies, as well as co-chair of the Cloud Security Alliance Software-Defined Perimeter Working Group.
Before joining Applicology, Flores spent 31 years at the Central Intelligence Agency where he held various positions in the Directorate of Intelligence, Directorate of Support, and the Directorate of Operations. Toward the end of his CIA career, Flores spent three years as the CIA’s first enterprise Chief Technology Officer. Florea holds both a Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in statistics from Virginia Tech.