Nick Mo
CEO and Co-founder
Nick Mo is an accomplished serial entrepreneur, currently leading Ridge Security as his second venture after a triumphant $1 billion IPO with Hillstone Networks. His multifaceted expertise is honed at Juniper, Netscreen, and Cisco Systems. Leading the engineering development of the first 100Gbps next-generation firewalls in 2010 with a team of 200 engineers, Nick has, over the past decade, seamlessly transitioned to excel in business. His strategic acumen enables him to steer companies towards growth, skillfully converting challenges into strategic opportunities. Nick revitalizes business operations with his innovative approach, influenced by his global outlook and rich international experience, positioning him as a visionary leader in the tech sector.
Nick’s academic journey, with a foundation in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the UC Santa Barbara, has been integral to his pursuit of innovation and operational excellence in his business endeavors.
Lydia Zhang
Lydia’s career in network and cyber security is distinguished by her entrepreneurial spirit and leadership. Her thought leadership and strategic insight in market strategy developed over seven years as a Senior Vice President at Hillstone Networks, and she has a proven record of evolving product concepts into successful businesses from her extensive experience in product management at Cisco Systems. Lydia’s professional excellence has earned her recognitions, including a specific Stevie award and the honor of being named a CRN Woman of the Channel.
Holding double master’s degrees in communication and engineering from the USC Annenberg and Viterbi Schools, respectively, Lydia combines her academic background with a commitment to advancing diversity and inclusivity in the cybersecurity field.
Hom Bahmanyar
Hom is a well-rounded technology leader with 20+ years of experience working with large enterprise customers as well as global engineering, marketing and sales teams, driving innovative technologies. He’s a cybersecurity veteran with 10+ years at RedSeal, where he drove the integration and modeling of Cloud infrastructure and traditional network devices, and 10+ years at Cisco where he led engineering teams for Cisco Security Manager and IP Solutions Center product lines. As the Engineering VP at RedSeal, he created a strong team culture with focus on execution, innovation, and customer care. He has a passion for strong customer relationship and turning customers into loyal advocates.
Advisors
Bret Hartman
Senior Advisor
Bret is a cybersecurity veteran with over 40 years of experience. He is currently a partner at Oak Seed Ventures and a lecturer at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. As the CTO of Cisco’s security business unit, he defined the security technology strategy for Cisco’s $3B+ security business. Prior to Cisco, he was CTO of RSA and an EMC Fellow, where he defined the security technology strategy and drove many acquisitions. He has also worked at several startups and began his career as a U.S. Air Force officer assigned to the U.S. National Security Agency. He holds a B.S. in computer science and engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.S. in computer science from the University of Maryland.
James Kawamoto
Senior Advisor
James is a cybersecurity expert, focused on investing and advising VC backed security start-ups and later-stage companies. He has extensive experience at Zscaler, Netskope and Juniper Networks over the past 20+ years in key senior Product Management roles. James has led Secure Web Gateway and Cloud Firewall product teams, developing the overall strategy and core product features leading to annual revenues over $300M. James holds a BS Electrical Engineering degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York and holds patents on several Cloud Firewall technologies.
Zheng Bu
Senior Advisor
Zheng held the pivotal role of Chief Security Officer at DIDI Global, managing an extensive portfolio encompassing security, safety, risk, and fraud mitigation strategies. His career trajectory includes a significant tenure as the creator and vice president of FireEye Labs. In this capacity, Zheng steered the division’s mission in pioneering threat intelligence research and advancing APT detection technologies across FireEye’s (NSDQ:FEYE) extensive product suite. Renowned in the cybersecurity field, Zheng is an influential figure who actively contributes to the security community. He is a seasoned speaker, sharing insights and advancements at premier security conferences around the world, including Blackhat, RSA, and Bluehat, among others. His leadership and expertise continue to shape the landscape of cybersecurity and defense mechanisms within the tech industry.