Semperis Announces Additional Keynote for Hybrid Identity Protection Conference 2026

Sarah Gosler headlines HIP Conf 2026 with perceptive insights for hybrid identity protection practitioners seeking to redefine cyber resilience in the AI age.

HOBOKEN, N.J., June 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Semperis, the identity-driven cyber resilience and crisis response company, today announced that Sarah Gosler, Managing Director, Head of Cyber Resiliency and Human Defense, Wells Fargo, will keynote the 2026 Hybrid Identity Protection Conference (HIP Conf), which will take place September 8-10 in Nashville. HIP Conf is the world's premiere practitioner-led conference focused exclusively on securing hybrid identity environments.

Gosler will take the stage with previously announced keynote speakers Tim Brown, former SolarWinds Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), and Stuart McClure, a veteran cybersecurity industry entrepreneur and investor. Gosler's keynote, Why Cyber Conflict is a Human Problem, will explore how today's cyber incidents begin with people, not machines, and why human decisions under pressure are now the primary battleground.

"Modern cyber conflict is not just a battle of tools and technology. It is a human problem. Today's incidents begin with people under pressure, and attackers exploit trust, fatigue, and the conditions people work under at scale. As AI accelerates and amplifies these threats, organizations must stop treating people as the weakest link and start treating them as what they are: the primary attack surface and the most strategic layer of defense," said Gosler. "Technology provides armor. Human judgment, resilience, and adaptability decide whether an organization withstands an attack and recovers from it. I am excited to bring this conversation to the 2026 HIP Conference and engage with leaders who are rethinking the human side of cyber resilience."

Gosler's insights frame the core challenges that security teams face today as they strive to redefine cyber resilience built on an identity security foundation that can withstand disruption, adapt in real time, and emerge stronger across business, operational, and digital environments. The 2026 HIP Conf program directly addresses those challenges, featuring a robust lineup of timely technical sessions and strategic insights from dozens of leaders across industry, government, and academia. Key sessions include:

• CISO Panel – Barbee Mooneyhan, CISO at Uplight; Joy Mangrum, VP of Technology at Diversity Health; Roger Brotz, CISO at Acadia Health; and Elliott Franklin, CISO at Fortitude Re
• Identity in the Uncertain World of AI – Melissa Cronquist, Principal Engineer at Walmart
• Your Agents Don't Have Passwords: Governing Non-Human and Agentic AI Identities – David Lee, Field CTO at Saviynt
• Taming Permissions Gone Wild: Building an Entra ID Application Governance Framework – David Lundell, Founder/Architect at Identity Managed
• Age of Entitlement: Breaking and Securing Entra Access Packages – 
  Katie Knowles, Senior Security Researcher at Datadog
• Inside the Digital Mind: Cyber Psychology for Actionable Identity Security – Krista Arndt, Associate CISO at St Luke's University Health Network
• Be the Champ, Not the Chump: Crisis Management That Actually Works –
  Benjamin Cauwel, VP, Head of Cybersecurity at Capgemini

As Managing Director and Head of Cyber Resiliency & Human Defense at Wells Fargo, Sarah leads initiatives that strengthen how the firm prepares for and responds to cyber incidents. In her previous role at the Bank of New York, she built and scaled the firm's global Cyber Human Defense program and pioneered its first commercial cyber readiness product. She is a frequent keynote speaker, media contributor, and published author of white papers on the psychological and organizational dimensions of cyber risk. With more than two decades at the intersection of finance, technology, and organizational performance, Sarah continues to influence the global conversation on institutional resilience, crisis leadership, and the evolving human front line of cyber defense.

For more information and to register for HIP Conf 26, visit: https://www.hipconf.com/

About the Hybrid Identity Protection Conference
With the departure of original Active Directory experts and the rise of identity as the primary attack surface, the need for identity threat detection and response (ITDR) talent has never been greater. The Hybrid Identity Protection Conference (HIP Conf) is the premier educational forum for identity-centric practitioners. Whatever the industry sector or job function, the HIP Community strives to provide the insights and relationships needed to enable and protect today's digitally driven organizations. Learn more about HIP Conf 26 via our social media feeds:  X / LinkedIn / Facebook.

About Semperis
Semperis is the identity-driven cyber resilience and crisis management company trusted by the world's largest enterprises and government agencies to protect critical identity systems. Purpose-built for multi-cloud and hybrid identity environments—including Active Directory, Entra ID, Okta, and Ping Identity—Semperis helps organizations prevent, detect, respond to, and recover from identity-based cyberattacks.

Modern cyberattacks are won or lost at the identity layer, where failures now escalate into full-scale business crises. Semperis' AI-powered platform unifies identity lifecycle defense and crisis management—hardening identity infrastructure, detecting and containing active threats, enabling rapid, trusted recovery, and supporting secure, out-of-band coordination when core systems are disrupted—all reinforced by a world-class identity forensics and incident response team.

As part of its mission to help organizations achieve true cyber resilience, Semperis supports the broader cyber community through the award-winning Hybrid Identity Protection (HIP) Conference and Podcast, and free identity security tools including Purple Knight and Forest Druid. More than 1,200 organizations—including over 25% of the 100 largest U.S. companies—rely on Semperis. The company is privately held, headquartered in Hoboken, New Jersey, and serves customers in more than 40 countries.

Learn more: semperis.com
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Media Contact:
Bill Keeler
Semperis
Senior Director, PR & Comms
[email protected]

SOURCE Semperis