Ms. Sarah Ahmad Abedin is the Founder and CEO of Break the Tide, a 501c (3) nonprofit organization in the United States. Break the Tide provides a fundraising platform for nonprofit organizations to help raise funds for empowering women, children and underprivileged communities. She is a Board member of Sambhali U.S., a nonprofit organization in the United States. Sambhali U.S. is a volunteer organization for Girls and Women Empowerment in Jodhpur, India. She is an Advisor of SBK Foundation in Bangladesh. Sarah is also a Board member of Gultaz Memorial School and College in Doulatpur, Chattogram, Bangladesh. Ms. Abedin has been a long-time sponsor of Save the Children, Women for Women International, Doctors without Borders, and other organizations. She has been influenced by the great works of numerous humanitarians, some in her immediate family but many whose lifeworks she admired since early childhood. Her first introduction to the world of women empowerment work was in 1994 when she spent a short time in a village in Norshindi, Bangladesh to experience the great works of Grameen Bank (2006 Nobel Prize recipient along with its founder Dr. Mohammad Yunus). The experience left a lasting impression on her and made her a firm believer that with a little support everyone can realize their own potential. Ms. Abedin is an Information Technology and Cyber security expert by profession with extensive management and leadership experience on a broad range of complex, fast-paced environments including public and private sectors. She started her career as an IT Auditor for the State of Michigan Office of the Auditor General and over the next 30 years she has worked in various capacities for global companies like KPMG, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), NASDAQ Stock Market, IBM and others. Ms. Abedin specializes in IT Security, Cyber security, Enterprise Governance, Risk, Compliance and Privacy in addition to her audit experience (internal and external). Her expertise is in the US Federal Law (NIST, FISMA, Fed RAMP, US Data Privacy law, SOX, HIPAA), COBIT with an emphasis on Strategy, Governance, Risk, Compliance, Security and Privacy; and EU Data Protection Directive, General Data Protections Regulation (GDPR). Ms. Abedin has always been passionate to work in the developmental areas for empowering girls and women. She has been a mentor and a founding Advisory Council Member of ISACA’s She Leads Tech (2017-1018). She was also the first Bangladeshi American President (2013-2016) of the Greater Washington DC (GWDC) Chapter of ISACA, the second largest chapter in the world. She was a Member of Privacy Advisory Group of ISACA (2020-2021) and Governance Committee of ISACA (2019-2020). She was an Expert Reviewer of COBIT 2019 Framework (Introduction & Methodology; Governance & Management Objectives). She started the annual Women in Leadership & Technology conference for GWDC in 2016 and hosed this event every year since 2016 to present (the next conference is on March 10, 2022). She was an Adjunct professor at the University of Maryland University College (Fall 2012) and an Advisory Board Member of University of Maryland Global College, Graduate School of Management and Technology (Financial Management & Accounting). Ms. Abedin obtained her BBA in Accounting Information Systems from Eastern Michigan University and MBA in Electronic Business from Carey Business School of Johns Hopkins University.