Co-Chair Bios

Martha Gschneidner

Director, Compliance & Continuous Improvement | General Mills, Inc.

As IT Director; Compliance & Continuous Improvement, Martha is currently responsible for Information Assurance, Project and Portfolio Management, and Continuous Improvement for General Mills.

In previous roles at General Mills/Pillsbury, she managed Data Center operations, plant IS infrastructure, SAP HR systems integration, SAP Basis/ABAP, and Wide Area Network design.  She developed recommendations for global infrastructure support after General Mills’ acquisition of the Pillsbury Company in 2001.  Prior to joining Pillsbury, Martha spent 9 years at Chevron where she held a variety of Network Infrastructure positions.

Chad came to Cargill from JPMorgan Chase & Co. where he was global head of infrastructure security.  Chad was responsible for operations, engineering, support, regulatory and business functions – including responsibility for mainframe, large mid-range, distributed, network, client and data protection.  He managed staff and facilities around the globe.

Prior to the merger between Bank One and JPMorgan Chase & Co., Chad was responsible for the creation and leadership of Bank One’s key incident-response organization called Priority One Management.  He has also held multiple, senior technology risk and controls positions at TEKsystems and CompuServe.

Chad attended Connecticut College and Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.  Chad, his wife and three daughters now reside in Minnesota.

Deborah Dixson

Senior Vice President, Security Solutions | Ingenico

Deborah Dixson, Senior Vice President, Security Solutions, is responsible for driving Ingenico’s security solutions and PCI-Compliance security architecture for retail and banking clients.

As the former Chief Information Security Officer for Best Buy Co., Inc., Deb Dixson oversaw the formal creation of the company’s Global Information Security Department. Her extensive knowledge of the organization, business processes and IT systems allowed her to take a business minded approach to the challenge of ensuring that shareholder, employee, and customer data across the globe was secure. She was a member of the PCI Council and is a founding member of the Minneapolis CSO Executive Summit.

A nine-year company veteran, Dixson was previously in the role of Vice President; Business Information Officer, overseeing all information technology systems for the U.S. retail stores and the eCommerce site. In this role, Dixson successfully managed a software and hardware update in the stores that signif- icantly decreased the wait time for customers to check out during the holiday shopping season. Dixson earned a Pinnacle of Leadership Award for her contributions. In 2007, Dixson was named one of the 10 Influentials (visionaries driving retail success) by Retail Info Systems News magazine. Previously at Best Buy, Dixson also held roles as an IS Leader with responsibility for the retail systems including point of sale, sales reporting, tender authorization, gift cards, and subscription services. She has worked across multiple Best Buy brands.
Before joining Best Buy, Dixson held positions with increasing responsibility at a number of organizations, including National Computer Systems, Profit Solutions, Novartis Seeds, Norstan Consulting, and Imation.

Dixson earned her bachelor’s of science in education from the University of Wisconsin-Stout. She holds an IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) certification, and is a Dale Carnegie Sales Course Champion. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Minneapolis Heart Institute; Freedom Initiatives; and is very active with the MS Society.

Dixson is married and has three children and one grandchild.

Kathy Orner

Vice President & Chief Information Security Officer | Carlson Companies

Kathy Orner joined Carlson in 2006 as the Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer.  She is responsible for supporting the Information Security strategies and programs that enable Carlson’s business lines.  She’s also in charge of creating and maintaining the policies and environment that safeguards the assets, confidential information and intellectual property of Carlson.  Kathy chairs the Information Security Council.
Before joining Carlson, Kathy held numerous positions at United Health Group.  Most recently, she was Vice President of Recovery Services and Business Risk Management.  Prior to that, she was Chief Information Security Officer and Director of Information Security.  Kathy also spent many years with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, as well as Deluxe Corporation.

Kathy has extensive IT leadership experience in IT Operations and quality areas: Change Management, Service Management, Configuration Management, Help Desk Management, Desktop Services, Voice and Data Networks, Security Operations, Disaster Recovery, and Software Quality Assurance.
Kathy holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Mankato State University, is a certified Information Systems Auditor, a certified Information Security Manager, and is certified in IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Foundations.

Tony Heredia

Vice President, Corporate Risk & Responsibility | Target Corporation

Tony Heredia is the Vice President of Corporate Risk & Responsibility for Target.  His areas of responsibility include business conduct, corporate compliance, public/private partnership development, and information security.  Prior to Target, Tony spent 5 years as a management consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton in McLean, Virginia, and 13 years in California Law Enforcement as an officer, sergeant, and lieutenant.

Tony has a Bachelor’s degree in Management from Saint Mary’s College of California, and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.