Christian Taillon / Mike Manrod

Threat Response Engineer (Chris) / CISO (Mike) of Grand Canyon Education

Christian serves as a Threat Response Engineer at Grand Canyon Education and leads the Global Watch Center of the Arizona Cyber Threat Response Alliance. Christian leads threat intel teams and mentors aspiring cyber practitioners through the Cyber Mentor Dojo. He also presents and runs workshops on topics such as Threat Hunting, current malware or adversaries, and the role of Generative AI in cybersecurity. Beyond his Information Security passions, he loves sipping coffee while studying the Bible and treasures time with his wife. Mike serves as the Chief Information Security Officer for Grand Canyon Education, responsible for leading the security team and formulating the vision and strategy for protecting students, staff, and information assets across the enterprise. Previous experiences include serving as a threat prevention engineer for Check Point and working as a consultant and analyst for other organizations. He is also a co-author/contributor for the joint book project, Understanding New Security Threats, published by Routledge in 2019, along with several articles. When not working, he spends time playing video games and doing random projects with his kids.