Dear GWDC Officers, Board of Directors, Volunteers, Members and extended community,
I will open with my sincere appreciation and Thank you to everyone in the GWDC team. Your dedication and hard work year-round for GWDC is well noticed.
This year was full of accomplishments for GWDC. We set up a new organizational structure of GWDC to grow more and focus on a variety of new programs and learning events. As of today, we are five thousand plus members in our chapter. Now we/GWDC is the world’s largest ISACA chapter and I take pride in it & its reflection of consistent hard work by putting new learning programs, members outreach and delivering quality training events. It doesn’t matter which position you hold and how you assist, everyone is contributing to a successful organization. Many of the programs which did really well are “Cybersecurity Workshop Series” lead by Babur Kohy, Director GWDC Academics and “Half day conferences & Panels” lead by Jose Torres, Director GWDC Conferences & Panels. The Cybersecurity Workshop Series program got recognized by ISACA Global and was selected as the recipient of the 2021 ISACA Innovative Chapter Program Award – Use of Technology.
There is no doubt COVID19 hit our strategy and plans but we came out of it strong by placing more virtual events. As of COVID19 environment & challenges, GWDC built a strong virtual platform for our training events. We will consistently work on new virtual programs and perhaps after full vaccine distribution we will start our in-person training events and networking socials.
I along with the GWDC Board thank GWDC sponsors, partners and alliances for their continuous support and participation in our chapter events. Your contributions and efforts are much appreciated.
All the hard work in place remember that during the holiday season, family and friends come first. I will encourage everyone to enjoy the holidays without thinking too much about work. And workplaces where the load is extremely high like our cybersecurity or healthcare or retail or critical infrastructure member community or many more, I acknowledge everyone who is working hard right now, things will calm down after the holidays and you will get a time to relax.
I wish everyone a Happy New Year.
Respectfully,
Alok Kakker
GWDC President
CISA, CRISC
@alokkakker
PS: I hope you and yours are safe and sound.
Alok joined ISACA in 2006 and presently serves as ISACA GWDC President. He’s served on the Chapter Board of Directors since 2008. Alok is CEO/President at Annuk Incorporated delivering Cybersecurity, Corporate Compliance, Technology Risk Management, and Information technology solutions and services. Alok holds the CISA and CRISC certifications.
