Last week, the Chargers Business Alliance presented by Pacific Premier Bank hosted our latest event at Hoag Performance Center in Costa Mesa, CA – "Build Your Defense: Assessing Risk through Strategic Leadership."

Guests in attendance enjoyed networking opportunities and a panel discussion moderated by Team Reporter, Chris Hayre. The panel featured: Tom Telesco, Los Angeles Chargers General Manager; Fred Maas, Los Angeles Chargers Chief of Staff; and Sean Hassett, Head Deputy DA, Cyber Crime Division – LA County District Attorney's Office. The panelists treated guests in attendance with a discussion on their career experiences and how they each approach risk management in their different roles.

"The Chargers (and the NFL) are dynamic enterprises and risks run the gamut from injury to HR to data breaches," Maas said. "Our job is to anticipate risks and mitigate them - - when you're a big target all events are significant."

"I am honored to participate in this business forum on Strategic Leadership and Risk Assessment," Telesco said. "As a General Manager, I am constantly assessing situations, gathering information, and making decisions in the best interest of the organization. Leadership and decision-making are two of the most critical elements in my job. This forum gives me a chance to talk about some of our organizational philosophies as well as hearing from other proven leaders like Fred Maas and Sean Hassett."

"To help mitigate risk, you need control access to your system, equipment, data and files, including access by contractors and prior employees," said Hassett. "Keep your operating system, firewall and anti-virus software updated and properly configured, and regularly backup your system and files, and keep these backups off-line in case of ransomware attack. Most importantly, verify all emails before you click on links or attachments, and verify the sender before acting on email instructions."

Pacific Premier Bank, Presenting Partner

Pacific Premier Bank is headquartered in Irvine, California, with approximately $11.8 billion in assets. Pacific Premier is a business bank primarily focused on serving small and middle market businesses. Through its more than 40 depository branches, Pacific Premier offers a diverse range of business banking products and solutions. Member FDIC. Visit https://www.ppbi.com/

ActivePDF, Participating Partner

Developers, Product Managers, CIOs, and CTOs partner with ActivePDF to embed digital transformation and powerful PDF tools into their enterprise applications that reliably scale for millions of users. Originally known for providing low-code .NET PDF APIs that create, convert, modify, and view files, ActivePDF has naturally evolved over the years to further provide OCR data capture and intelligent workflow automation solutions within existing business processes. While represented amongst 40% of Fortune 500 companies, the full suite of ActivePDF technologies are currently deployed in industries such as Banking, Financial Services, Government, Healthcare, Legal, Manufacturing, Utilities, and more. Explore everything PDF, visit https://www.activepdf.com/

Cal Southern University, Participating Partner

Take CHARGE and KICK-OFF your educational journey today! As an online university, CalSouthern offers regionally accredited degrees and professional certificate programs with affordable tuition to BOLT UP your career options. CalSouthern's DBA program was recently ranked number two among the Best Online Doctorate in Business Administration Programs for 2019. For more information, call 1-800-477-2254 or visit https://www.calsouthern.edu/

Code Four, Supporting Partner

Code Four is a highly diverse, interdisciplinary and international team of designers, artists, strategic thinkers and technicians who work together to bridge worlds and solve complex problems. We take on challenges that fall within and in-between: architectural design and interiors, graphic identity, contemporary art, media design, events and experiential, information technology, stagecraft, VR, audio, video, printmaking, scenography, signage, engineering and beyond. We are an expanding laboratory of creative and technical misfits, some with PhDs and some with DIYs who work together to define and realize clever solutions so that the brands and institutions we work with thrive. Visit https://www.codefour.com/code-four