AI Privacy and Security Essentials for Private Equity

John Stecher is the Chief Technology Officer of Blackstone. Mr. Stecher is responsible for all aspects of technology across Blackstone and advises the firm’s investment teams as well as acts as a resource to portfolio companies on technology-related matters. Before joining Blackstone, Mr. Stecher was a Managing Director, the Chief Technology Officer and the Chief Innovation Officer at Barclays, based in New York, and he was also a member of the Barclays Technology Management Committee. Prior to joining Barclays in August 2017, Mr. Stecher worked for Goldman Sachs where he held a variety of senior management and engineering roles across the firm's capital markets and technology divisions, and most recently built their Marcus-branded consumer finance division. Mr. Stecher has had an extensive career in technology and engineering across industry sectors. Mr. Stecher was appointed as an IBM Master Inventor and led application development, architecture and strategy for IBM's WebSphere product line in the Software Group, and he delivered/created over 45 patents across several diverse problem spaces. Mr. Stecher holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and a MS in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota.

Eric is Ontra’s Senior Vice President of Engineering. He leads all technical functions at the company including software development, AI, quality, infrastructure, security, and IT. Prior to Ontra, Eric spent 10 years at AppFolio, starting as the first Director of Engineering and most recently as Vice President of Engineering for the Investment Management business unit. During his time there, Eric led engineering for many of AppFolio’s most significant efforts, including mobile, embedded payments, Investment Management, and AI. Eric previously spent seven years at Las Cumbres Observatory where he was the Director of Engineering, building the world’s first global network of robotic telescopes. Eric sits on the board of directors for Providence School and has been a director of Sage Trail Alliance. He also serves on the customer advisory boards of various prominent software companies including Vanta. Eric holds an M.S. in Computer Science and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo.

Michael Aguirre is Ontra’s Director of Security and IT Operations. Michael manages the IT Department and Ontra’s Information Security Management Systems (ISMS), including IT Security and Engineering Security. Prior to Ontra, Michael spent three years at Magnite as its lead security engineer, overseeing platform and corporate security for their global workforce and data centers. Before Magnite, Michael worked for Mandiant, supporting incident response investigations, deploying tooling, and integrating cybersecurity solutions for clients. Michael holds a B.S. in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance from Western Governors University.