Alumni Leadership Council
Seeking to engage and strengthen the INI alumni network and help INI achieve its strategic goals.
Mission
Connecting alumni more closely with each other, the INI and CMU, their community and professional partners.
Creating sustainable strategies to engage INI alumni in meaningful ways.
Providing insight drawn from our careers and INI experience.
Meet the INI Alumni Leadership Council
Formed in 2009 as a group of valued advisors and passionate advocates.
Devika Yeragudipati Devarakond
Chair 1/2023-12/2024
2012 Graduate - Master of Science in Information Security Technology and Management (MSISTM)
Devika is currently a Security Engineer in Apple Media Services at Apple, where she works with engineers and product owners to understand risk and help with secure design, implemention and deployment of products. She is very interested in security (risk, validation, assurance, threat modeling, pen-testing, security awareness), as well as diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Archie Agrawal
2015 Graduate—Master of Science in Information Technology - Software Management (MSITSM)
Archie Agrawal is Product Lead at Amazon working on appropriately handling user-generated content via human-in-the-loop machine learning. She brings strong product management expertise in building consumer and enterprise products. She leads cross-functional teams, drives product strategy and vision, and shows thought leadership in grappling with markets, business, and customer needs. Previously, she has held key roles at Microsoft and Bank of America. In her free time, she loves to read books and mentors new product managers to create the next generation of product leaders.
Hao-Wei Chen
2013 Graduate - Master of Science in Information Technology - Information Security (MSIT-IS)
Hao-Wei is a Security Engineering Director at Audible, an Amazon subsidiary. He was a founding member of Incident Response, Red Team, Product Security, and Insider Threat Investigation functions under Amazon’s Information Security organization. During his tenure as the Head of Vulnerability Research and Product Security, Hao-Wei led a team of engineers and program managers in launching Amazon’s first public bug bounty program with direct sponsorship from Amazon Retail CEO. Beyond his professional endeavors, he actively drives multinational initiatives in technology and community building, with a particular focus on cybersecurity and nonprofit entrepreneurship. He founded the Seattle-based nonprofit NEX Foundation, aiming to connect and support young talents in their career development. He also established the Taiwan International Foundation (TWIF) in Washington DC, with the vision of building an online platform and physical museum to promote Taiwan’s culture and history. Additionally, Hao-Wei serves in advisory roles at educational NPOs that promote higher education, security education, and diversity inclusion.
Yen-Ming Chen
1999 Graduate – Master of Science in Information Networking (MSIN)
Yen-Ming is a Senior Program Manager at Apple, where he leads a team that focuses on managing regulatory compliance and security risk. He has over 15 years of technical and management experience in Risk, Security and Compliance covering various technologies, countries and industrial regulations. In fall 2017, he sponsored an INI practicum project to build a solution of trust management platform powered by Blockchain.
Chris Dorros
2012 Graduate - Master of Science in Information Technology - Information Security (MSIT-IS)
Chris is a security engineering leader, focused on solving security problems through secure systems development, allowing developers to create safe & secure products without needing to think about security. He currently leads the Security Infrastructure org at Stripe, and previously worked at Cisco, OpenDNS, NASA, and in aerospace & defense.
Ben Draffin
2017 Graduate—Master of Science in Information Technology-Information Security (MSIT-IS)
Ben is a Security and Compliance Lead based in the Bay Area. "I am fascinated by the human motivations for committing fraud and computer security attacks. I love how varied the responses are. Using a password manager is great, and also checking your credit report. Both prevention and reaction are effective and interesting!" His interests include live theatre, live music, minimalist extended travel, meditation, and running.
Alfredo Freyre
1994 Graduate—Master of Science in Information Networking (MSIN)
Alfredo Freyre is a Solution Architect Team Lead at Avertium, a full lifecycle information security service provider helping mid-to-enterprise organizations protect assets and manage risk against today’s cyber threats. Our mission is to make our customers’ world a safer place so that they may thrive in an always-on, connected world. He leads and supports Avertium sales teams with a problem-solving mindset and deep understanding of the service portfolio, assisting customer’s in applying the products/services to their needs. He supports business development with customer-facing discussion, best practices, and presentation of services, working closely with Account Executives, services and leadership to optimize customer solutions and revenue. With over 25 years of experience in the information security field, Freyre is a seasoned subject matter expert helping companies reduce their business risk and mature their security posture by acting as a trusted security advisor to the C-suite and decision makers in providing tactical and strategic solutions.
Previously, Freyre was a Director with British Telecom (BT), one of the world’s leading global telecommunications managed services and security providers. His responsibilities included driving and supporting sales activities, ensuring positive relationships with client organizations, and having liaison responsibility between the various business and operational units within BT. In this role, Freyre assisted Fortune 500 clients with securing their digital environments and improving the overall security posture of their networks and applications through the execution of BT’s Security Consulting, Ethical Hacking and Managed Security Services.
Freyre’s expertise includes attack and penetration techniques and defenses, computer privacy issues, and information security industry. His prior experience includes the identification, application, and prevention of computer crime. He has performed numerous attack and penetration assessments, security architecture analysis and design for large industry customers. His expertise has led to demonstrations to the U.S. Senate on hacker techniques and a first of its kind information security seminar in Japan. Freyre has contributed his knowledge in the past including in “E-Mail Bombs and Countermeasures: Cyber Attacks on Availability and Brand Integrity” which appeared in IEEE Network Magazine.
Previously, Freyre worked in different positions at Cyber Defense Labs, International Network Services, Predictive Systems, Global Integrity, SAIC, Bell Communications Research, and AT&T Bell Laboratories.
Freyre graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a Master of Science degree in Information Networking. He also holds a Bachelor of Science degree with Departmental Honors in Electrical Engineering from Brown University.
Hugrun Hannesdottir
2021 Graduate - Master of Science in Information Security (MSIS)
Hugrun Hannesdottir is a Senior Security Engineer I at the gaming company Electronic Arts Inc. Hugrun is with the Verification and Pentest team, where she performs security assessments on EA products to identify vulnerabilities and advise on remedies. Before this position, Hugrun completed her master's in Information Security, during which she actively participated in Women@INI, hosted a presentation at WiCyS, and partook in cybersecurity competitions such as CPTC.
Sin-Kuen Hawkins
1990 Graduate—Master of Science in Information Networking (MSIN)
Sin-Kuen Hawkins is a Program Director in IEEE Future Directions, which is responsible for bringing together multiple Societies and Councils to provide broad and deep perspectives on a particular topic, application, and technology. Prior to joining IEEE, she served as an engineering consultant on projects for the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Army. She also has 18 years of experience with Bell Communications Research and Telcordia Technologies, most recently serving as the Director of Network Engineering and Design.
Erye Hernandez
2014 Graduate—Master of Science in Information Security (MSIS)
Erye is a Senior Security Engineer on Google's Threat Analysis Group where she leads efforts on the analysis and disruption of threats, reverse engineering of malicious code samples, and understanding various threat actors to protect Google and its users. Prior to Google, she worked on malware research and detection at Palo Alto Networks and FireEye. Erye received her Bachelors in Computer Science from George Mason University. She also played in lots of Capture the Flag (CTF) competitions with CMU's Plaid Parliament of Pwning (PPP). In her spare time, she enjoys baking and playing video games.
Patty Huang
1992 Graduate—Master of Science in Information Networking (MSIN)
Patty is a Senior Manager at Verizon for the product development of Verizon Smart Family and Location Based Services. Previously, Patty led the product management and solution architecture for Apple devices on Verizon's cellular network and she launched an open API developers program. Prior to Verizon, she held key roles at Ericsson, Telcordia, and a start-up acquired by Cisco Systems.
Yasmine Kandissounon
2014 Graduate - Master of Science in Information Security (MSISTM)
I am Yasmine Kandissounon and I am passionate about securing software systems. I also have a huge interest in seeking solutions to challenges facing under-developed communities, especially issues in sub-saharan Africa.
Xinfeng Le
2014 Graduate - Master of Science in Information Technology-Mobility (MSIT-MOB)
Xinfeng is a Senior Product Manager at Uber Freight, where she leads the carrier experience product team. She first joined Uber in 2016 as part of the Global Growth team to help unlock growth internationally in key strategic regions like China and APAC. Prior to Uber, she led product strategy and execution around notification experience at eBay. Xinfeng earned her Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Southeast University in China.
Servio Fernando Lima Reina
2001 Graduate—Master of Science in Information Networking (MSIN)
Servio is a PhD candidate for the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. MSc in Information Networking from Carnegie Mellon University, MBA from University Santa Maria Chile and graduated from Programa de Alta Gerencia (PAG INCAE Costa Rica). In addition he has several Harvard, MIT and Cornell certifications in the customer centricity, operational/innovation excellence and strategic marketing respectively. Moreover he is an internal auditor for ISO9001 and ISO27001. Servio has 20+ years of international experience in the technical, marketing and commercial areas of the telecommunications industry, covering a broad spectrum of sectors: Operators (Tigo Guatemala, Columbus Jamaica), network manufacturers (Alcatel-Lucent USA) and global retailers (Samsung Electronics Panama) where he held VP or Director positions for several countries. Servio has served as chapter chair for the IEEE Communication Society and Cisco Networking Academies and has been speaker in several international summits such as Metro Ethernet Forum (Sao Paolo, Brazil 2010) Currently he is working as a global consultant for technology companies such as Cardano-IOHK Blockchain, Quarkse England and Telconet Ecuador. In the academic sector, he has taught Master level courses in PMP Project Management, strategic marketing, customer centric organizations, operations strategy, leadership and persuasion among others.
Dooyum Malu
2014 Graduate - Master of Science in Information Technology - Software Management (MSIT-SM)
Dooyum is a Software Engineer at Google, where he leads a cross-functional team concerned with bringing immersive business experiences to Search, YouTube and Ads. He first joined Google in 2014 where he has since become the architect of various products central to Google's assistive strategy. In his free time, Dooyum likes to play soccer and go for long distance rides. He loves to teach and enjoys being a mentor to aspiring Engineers.
Wayne Tung
1994 Graduate—Master of Science in Information Networking (MSIN)
Wayne’s a management consultant, and his 28-year career includes significant experience in technology strategy, technology assessment & implementation, business process transformation, outsourcing, cost analysis/optimization, global strategic sourcing, and procurement. He has successfully delivered several consulting engagements for electric utility, oil & gas, consumer packaged goods, manufacturing, aerospace, and government clients. These projects primarily focused on technology implementations & migrations, large outsourcing initiatives, software audits, contract negotiations, and cost optimization.
Adam Hunt
ALC Student Representative
Adam is a current INI student in the MS in Information Security program. He completed his undergraduate work at Utah Tech University in his hometown of Saint George, Utah, receiving a BS in Computer Science and a BA in Criminal Justice. Thereafter, he spent two years serving in France as a Missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints before joining CMU in the Fall of 2023. In his free time, he enjoys learning languages, Jiu Jitsu, and swimming.
Sahithi Maddula
ALC Student Representative
Sahithi is currently pursuing an MSMITE degree at CMU INI. She earned a Bachelor's degree in CCE in 2021 at Manipal Institute of Technology. She then worked in the finance industry with a two-year stint at Goldman Sachs before joining CMU in Spring 2024. Beyond her professional pursuits, Sahithi finds joy in exploring diverse literary realms, avidly following soccer matches and Formula 1.