Beyond the Firewall S1E5 - Fawad Butt

Beyond the Firewall S1E5 - Fawad Butt

Behind the Firewall: AI Zombies, Agent Wars, and the Reality of Enterprise AI with Fawad Butt, CEO of Penguin AI What happens when the generic AI hype ends and real enterprise execution begins? In this episode of Beyond the Firewall, host Shira Shamban sits down with Fawad Butt, co-founder and CEO of Penguin AI and former Chief Data Officer at Kaiser Permanente and UnitedHealthcare. Drawing on his experience managing data for over 60 million members, Fawad exposes the hidden friction of modernizing legacy infrastructure and shares his playbook for building a truly AI-native organization. From the rise of Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers and "AI Zombies" to the looming threat of autonomous "Agent Wars" between insurance payers and providers, this conversation cuts through the marketing noise to reveal the true future of cloud, cyber, and enterprise automation.

Beyond the Firewall S1E4 - Dave Lewis

The Identity Crash and the F1 of Cyber with Dave Lewis, Global Advisory CISO at 1Password   We’re currently seeing a massive shift in who, and what, is logging into our systems. AI agents are scaling faster than human oversight can track, and the old ways of managing "identity" are officially breaking. In this episode, Shira Shamban sits down with Dave Lewis to cut through the AI hype and address the "Beige Desktop" legacy still lurking in our modern clouds. Dave breaks down his "PaddockSec" philosophy, explaining why a security team should function like a Formula 1 pit crew: where brakes aren't just for stopping, they’re what allow you to take corners faster than the competition. We’re digging into the decline of the CS degree, why "Shadow AI" is actually a symptom of productive employees, and the very real psychological toll currently hitting the CISO community.

Beyond the Firewall S1E3 - Dave Schwed

From Wall Street Custody to Web3 Security: Dave Schwed on the Institutional Gap and the Future of Digital Assets   In this episode of Beyond the Firewall, we sit down with Dave Schwed, former COO of Halborn and veteran of BNY Mellon and Citigroup, to explore the collision of traditional finance and the decentralized frontier. Dave pulls back the curtain on the "institutional friction" preventing mass enterprise adoption of blockchain—explaining why traditional risk frameworks fail in a world of smart contracts, and how the next generation of custody will be defined by real-time AI defense rather than static vaults.

Beyond the Firewall S1E2 - Jaya Baloo

From CISO to Founder: Jaya Baloo on AI Remediation and the Supply Chain Crisis In this episode of Beyond the Firewall, we sit down with Jaya Baloo, former CISO of Avast and Rapid7, to discuss her high-stakes transition from defending global giants to co-founding the AI security startup AISLE. Jaya pulls back the curtain on the "expert’s dilemma" - why internal security pros are the hardest users to secure, and how geopolitical instability is permanently fracturing the global technology supply chain.

Beyond the Firewall S1E1 - Arve Kjoelen

Arve Kjoelen, former CISO of McAfee and now a cyber entrepreneur, joins Shira to bridge the divide between startups and security leaders. Arve shares invaluable lessons, revealing the biggest mistakes founders make when approaching CISOs and detailing the best strategies for forging effective partnerships in today's threat landscape.