Our Team
Sam Glines
Co-Founder and CEO
Sam is the CEO and co-founder of Norse. With CTO Tommy Stiansen, Sam co-founded Norse with the mission of transforming and disrupting the traditionally reactive IT security industry. Since its founding in 2010, Sam has managed corporate strategy, operations, and multi-million dollar investment financings while leading the company through the development and launch of its DarkMatter live attack intelligence platform, DarkViking and DarkList APIs, and its DarkWatch live attack intelligence appliance.
Sam is an IT industry veteran and innovator. He worked as senior manager at Accenture, where he led the multi-million dollar SAP business and software change initiatives for Fortune 100 clients such as Kraft Foods, Caterpillar, and BMW North America where he was responsible for improving their bottom line through innovative technologies. A St. Louis native, Sam holds a B.S with a double major in Accounting and Management Information Systems from St. Louis University.
Tommy Stiansen
Co-Founder and CTO
Tommy is the co-founder and CTO of Norse and is also the architect and inventor of DarkViking, the company's patent pending technology and cloud security service. Born and raised in Norway, Tommy began his IT career working for Scandinavian Airlines Systems as a technical team leader, responsible for air traffic operational challenges throughout the multinational airline. He then left to pursue entrepreneurial interests, launching some of the pioneering Internet companies in Norway. During this time Tommy architected and built Charon, a telecom billing & OSS software that was nominated for the Most Innovative Product at the World Billing Awards in 2003. In 2004 Tommy came to the United States to consult for several Federal Government agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and was chief architect of a "black box" at a multinational corporation that was utilized for national security and other cyber warfare scenarios. As CTO, Tommy is responsible for ensuring the company's technology strategy serves its business strategy and is a recognized expert and thought leader in Internet protocols and their security. Tommy attended HiB, Norway, studying computer science.
Kurt R. Stammberger, CISSP PMC
Senior Vice President, Market Development
Perhaps best known as the "founder of the RSA Conference", Kurt Stammberger is a career startup marketer with special expertise in the crypto, security and threat intelligence markets. Stammberger joined RSA Security as employee #7 in 1990, leading their marketing organization, helped spin-off of VeriSign and created the brand for the technology that now protects virtually every electronic commerce transaction on the planet.
Mr. Stammberger is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and a Certified Product Manager (PMC). From 2008 to 2014, he served VP Marketing at Mocana, a company focused on security for mobile devices and the Internet of Things. He also served as VP of Content & Services for healthcare comparison-shopping site Vimo (now Getinsured.com), and VP Marketing for Proofspace, a trusted cryptographic timestamping firm that focused on high-speed trading markets. Stammberger founded Coda Creative, an award-winning technology marketing agency focusing on startups. Stammberger holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and an MS in Management from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow.
Jenko Hwong
Senior Vice President, Product
Jenko has 20 years of IT and security experience in product management, engineering, and executive management roles at companies such as Mirapoint, Cisco, nCircle, and TIBCO. At Mirapoint, he ran marketing for its anti-virus and anti-spam solutions and managed the email archiving business unit, leading to the successful merger of Mirapoint with Critical Path. Jenko created the business and development partner program for 3rd-party application integration with the Cisco Integrated Services Router. He led product management and development efforts at nCircle to create strategic business and risk reporting.
While at TIBCO, he successfully led a 2-year onsite reengineering effort for a leading European settlement/clearinghouse. Jenko has also successfully founded a startup in the enterprise monitoring and management markets, taking it to profitability and merger. He has personally implemented production solutions at enterprise customers including Walmart, Microsoft, Citibank, and AT&T. He holds a degree in Computer Systems Engineering from Stanford University.
Brian Peterson
Senior Vice President, Finance
Brian leads the Finance team for Norse. He spent 16 years in the Business Consulting Group at UHY Advisors, where he provided outsourced assistance with CFO, Controller, or Financial Analyst level accounting activities to companies ranging from start-ups to small public companies. Brian has extensive experience working with early stage companies and has assisted multiple private equity backed ventures. Brian is a CPA and he holds an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis and a B.S.B.A. with majors in Accounting and Corporate Finance from Drake University.
Brian Contos
Chief Security Strategist
Over the last two decades Brian Contos helped build some of the most successful and disruptive security companies in the world. After getting his start in security with the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and later Bell Labs, Brian began the process of building security startups and taking multiple companies through successful IPOs and acquisitions including: Riptech, ArcSight, Imperva, McAfee and Solera Networks. Brian has worked with Global 2000 companies and government organizations in over 50 countries across six continents. Brian has published two books including, Enemy at the Water Cooler—Real-Life Stories of Insider Threats, and Physical and Logical Security Convergence, which he co-authored with former NSA Deputy Director William Crowell. He is frequently interviewed by industry and business press and is an invited speaker at security conferences worldwide. Brian is a Distinguished Fellow with the Ponemon Institute and blogger for CSO Magazine. Contos holds a B.S.B.A majoring in Management Information Systems from the University of Arizona.
Jacinta Tobin
Senior Vice President Global Sales and Business Development
Jacinta has led global sales, business development and marketing for technology starts ups for over 20 years. Her main areas of focus are cyber security, mobile and big data. Prior to Norse, Jacinta was SVP Global Sales and CMO for Cloudmark, where she established the company as a leader in messaging security. She grew revenues by more than 10 times, built the customer base from zero to over 120 tier 1 mobile operators, service providers and social networks, covering over 3 Billion subscribers globally.
Jacinta has been a member of the Board of Directors for the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M3AAWG) from 2004 to 2011 and now serves as ambassador to the group. M3AAWG comprises of members such as Facebook, Google, Apple, PayPal, Comcast, ATT, T-Mobile, Verizon and TimeWarner, who focus on industry collaboration to fight cyber crime.
Jacinta has a double degree in Marketing and Languages from Dublin City University in Ireland and the University of Cologne in Germany.