Our Team

Thomas delicately slices open mobile apps like a fine cheese. When he’s not experimenting with cloud orchestration and web frameworks, he’s running marathons and riding the wakeboard.

Amanda has been a senior executive at oil and gas companies for the last 18 years before transitioning into cybersecurity. She started her career in Calgary, Canada, and has worked throughout North America, the Middle East, and North Africa. During her career, she has been a founding member of numerous oil and gas companies specializing in finance and operations. She is a great paper pusher, mother of two fur babies, and a crazy Canadian who has traveled and worked around the world.

Anton is a BSides Toronto speaker, C3X volunteer, and an OSCE, OSCP, CISSP, CSSP certificate holder. Anton enjoys the defensive aspects of cybersecurity and loves logs and queries.

Mike has 10 years of application security experience with the last several being purely offensive. When he is abusing someone’s web application, he is cooking or playing music.

Tim started his IT career in desktop support in the late 90s and worked his way into systems and network administration. In the early 2000s, he rode the wave of internet worms into security, primarily performing incident response and forensics. His degrees are in electronics/chemistry and an MS in digital forensics. Defense paid the bills but he enjoyed offensive more, so he joined Lares® in 2016. He’s been involved with DEFCON since 2002 and competed in the main CTF, organized the wireless contests, and led teams for the conference. In his free time, Tim enjoys taking things apart to figure out how they work and fix them, whether it’s electronics, machines, or cars.

Lee started in IT and security world in 2010 in Toronto, Canada. When Lee isn’t tip-toeing through enterprise’s Active Directory environments he’s running the DerbyCon Toronto Community Chapter, the Canadian Collegiate Cyber Exercise (C3X), and as an instructor teaching Canadian offensive and defensive professionals ways to up their game. Lee has spoken at multiple events and conferences such as BSides and SecTor. In his spare time, Lee is an executive chef at a restaurant in his mind.

For the past 20 yrs, Rick has been involved in Web Application security penetration testing and mentoring colleagues. His extensive experience in general network design, implementation, and maintenance, along with his testing within the financial and healthcare sectors has proved to be valuable to our clients.

In his free time, Rick enjoys taking his kids to NHL hockey games.

Daralyn joined Lares in August of 2020 after working in Oil & Gas since 2004. Her work experience includes laboratory R&D, engineering design & capital equipment project management for large construction projects. While she is new to the Information Security industry, she has been adjacent to the hacker community since the late 90s and has been a DEF CON Goon off and on since DC14. She has worn many hats and enjoys being a client-facing resource and a general force multiplier.

Mark Arnold has a 15+ cybersecurity career, serving 8 of those years in leadership roles. As a transformational leader, Mark has built security teams and programs, authored maturity model blueprints to optimize risk management processes, and implemented security domain practices at large enterprises and service providers. Mark’s areas of interest include cloud security, threat intelligence, and vulnerability research, nation-state attack methods and related activities (e.g. information operations and disinformation campaigns) and their collective impact on nations and society. Mark recently completed an executive education cohort on the intersection of cybersecurity and technology at Harvard’s Kennedy School.

Mark also commits time to the security community as an OWASP chapter and InfoSecWorld board member, among others. He holds industry certifications and has satisfied his intellectual curiosity with earned degrees from Stanford (BSEE), Princeton Seminary (Mdiv), and Harvard University (AM, Ph.D.). He is a former competitive gymnast and an ordained minister but, most importantly, cherishes his role as a husband and dad who thrives on hugs.

Jessica Archer has 22 years of combined experience working in telecommunications and technology, including 18 years working within the information security industry. Jessica helped create the National Collegiate Cyber Defense competition, holds several advisory and board positions including BSides Las Vegas Conference and ISC2 NAAC, and is an avid volunteer both inside and outside the information security community. In her spare time, Jessica enjoys hanging out with her family, outdoor adventures, and tabletop or video games.

Chris’ work centers on applications, process control, and radio security. Outside of Lares® his hobbies include building combat robots and all sorts of other weird things, outdoor activities, and consuming all the media he can.

Interested in pursuing application security since beginning his Computer Science education, Luke made the conscious choice to spend the initial part of his career living life as a software engineer to gain an appreciation for the “maker” side of the process. He also holds GWAPT and CSSLP certifications.

Outside of work, Luke is typically associated with his passion for all things bicycle-related, and more generally non-motorized transportation, be it walking, running, skating, or the most recently added, sea kayaking.

Andy is a hacker at heart, a penetration tester, and consultant who has always been interested in taking things apart and sometimes even putting them together again (in-fact he spent a good few years in computer repair and data recovery). With a passion for offensive security, he specializes in red teaming and simulated attacks. He also is striving to further defensive technologies to better assist clients with their technological and strategic issues. Andy has a bachelor’s degree in Digital Security, Forensics, and Ethical hacking as well as CRTO, OSCP, and Crest Certified Tester Infrastructure (CCT Inf) certifications. He also helps out at DEF CON as a SOC Goon too each year (since DC25) assisting the SOC with operations and people flow.

Ian is an Information Systems Security graduate with an advantageous enthusiasm for security. He holds multiple certificates with Offensive Security and is currently working towards others. His professional career has spanned different industries, but his focus has always been fixated on security and breaking things. Ian is known to enjoy breaking both physical and digital security implementations, working previously as a metal fabricator and CNC programmer. This has created a passion for cracking locks and popping shells. These days, if he does not have his hood up and a ski mask on sitting in front of a terminal, you will find him riding his motorcycles or playing with his wife and dog.

Teresa joined Lares in February 2018, as a certified project manager and brings with her more than 12 years’ experience in the IT/IS and healthcare industries.

She excels in establishing excellent working relationships with clients, employees, vendors, and contractors. Teresa is highly adaptable and focused on results, with a proven record of achieving successful projects that meet budget, schedule, and scope.

A big believer in giving back to the community, she volunteers for Whiz Kids Tutoring, Denver Rescue Mission, and Cornerstone Church.

Connor is a Computer Engineering Technology graduate and has worked in Information Technology since the mid-2000s. He started his information security career in 2010 and instantly had a taste for the offensive side of security. While not to be confused with an efficient coder, Connor enjoys writing payloads and trying to find offensive applications to everyday information technology solutions. When Connor isn’t living in memory (hopefully), he is probably entertaining his two Samoyed pups who are constantly reminding him that they are the number one priority and not hacking.

Will has a passion for information security. His career started from pulling data cable to working in network defense and IT management. It is through these experiences, Will strives for bringing a real-world perspective to his offensive security engagements. Will holds a plethora of certifications.

During his free time, he enjoys participating in capture the flag competitions and attending information security conferences. Away from the keyboard, Will spends his time with his family and nerding over brewing coffee.

Samuel’s background is in systems and network administration though he’s always focused on security. Due to a wide range of security consulting roles, Samuel has experience working with stakeholders in a variety of industries. His primary focus is on offensive security and penetration testing. Samuel has experience conducting penetration tests against internal and external networks and services, as well as web and mobile applications. Samuel has a MS degree in information assurance and computer security. In his free time, Samuel enjoys hanging out with his family.

Alex is an Information Systems Security Graduate and knew he would end up in a penetration testing or Red Team role ever since the concepts were introduced to him. He has experience with a variety of assessments and adversary scenarios. When he isn’t in someone else’s network, he enjoys learning and preparing for the next engagement by researching the latest and greatest techniques and loves nothing more than a practical attack that he can put to good use. Outside of security, he enjoys traveling and restoring old cars.

Eric has been doing consultative selling and account management for 22 years, with 12 of those years in the information
technology sector. He is experienced in data center managed services, internet service, managed security services, and IT security audit services and creating sound business continuity and resilience strategies for mid-market and small businesses.

He is also experienced in compliance frameworks, network testing, policy and procedure oversight, pillars of security program development, and security risk management. Eric’s Early background includes account management, inside sales support, help desk support, scheduling/service coordination, analyst and project management, product/services management, and quality assurance.

Eric holds a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Environmental Management Systems from Louisiana State University.

Brendan got his beginning in desktop support before making the move over to security, first as defense before switching sides for offensive security. His current focus is malware development and payload delivery, as well as scouring enterprise networks for vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and loot. Brendan has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, as well as CISSP, OSCP, and OSCE certifications. He has presented at DefCon416, BsidesTO, and has participated in C3X. In his spare time, Brendan enjoys practicing a variety of martial arts, reading comic books, playing video games, and gardening

Albert joined the Lares team in February 2021 after spending the first 6 years of his career in analyst roles with a focus on accounting, business process, and software implementation. His work experience includes multiple industries – including supply chain and logistics, real estate development and construction, and SaaS. In each role, there was always a gravitational pull that connected Albert to optimizing systems and processes. In his free time, he can be found in the outdoors or with loved ones.

Zach helps secure organizations through offensive security—whether that’s penetration testing, application security, or red teaming. He spent the first few years of his career in administration and application development, and the last ten in information security. In his information security career, Zach has primarily performed penetration testing but has also performed AWS security engineering and architecture, and built application security and red team programs from the ground up. He currently holds the OSCP, GREM, and CISSP certifications.

Zach enjoys researching information security topics and publishing his research. His projects include red team telemetry, the changeme default password scanner, and Sticky Keys Hunter. He gives back to the security community through open source contributions, presentations, and volunteering for the Wisconsin CCDC red team. Zach has presented at security conferences including DerbyCon, BSides Chicago, and Milwaukee OWASP.

In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his family and playing guitar