1 - Key Persons
Ari Ghosal - Chief Legal Officer
Mr. Ghosal has diversified business practice experience, not only representing clients with a broad spectrum of general corporate legal matters, but also providing legal representation to clients in more specialized areas such as government contracts, employment law, and intellectual property and technology. He has served as outside general counsel to various corporations, small businesses, government contractors, technology professionals, and other business owners to assist them with corporate formation, joint ventures, contract review, corporate governance issues, sale of businesses, employment matters, compliance programs and regulatory concerns. Mr. Ghosal has represented clients on computer and internet law matters involving website audits, domain name and ecommerce issues. Equally significant, Mr. Ghosal has represented clients in a variety of legal disputes in all phases of civil litigation before state and federal courts, as well as in arbitration and mediation proceedings in state and federal courts and before the American Arbitration Association.
Mr. Ghosal is a "people's lawyer," not only in his unwavering commitment to support his clients and provide them with the most efficient and cost-effective solutions to their legal matters, but also in his commitment and dedication to give back to the community and legal profession. He is a recipient of the Montgomery County Bar Foundation's Andrew L. Sonner Excellence in Diversity Award in 2017. He is a member of the Bar Association of Montgomery County, Diversity Committee and the Summer Scholars Program and he also serves as President of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Maryland (APABA-MD) for the 2019-2020 term. Mr. Ghosal has served as a member of the Peer Review Committee of the Attorney Grievance Commission of Maryland from 2010 to the present. He serves on the Character Committee for the 7th Circuit of the Court of Appeals for the Maryland Bar. Finally, Mr. Ghosal serves as an At-Large Member on the MSBA's Business Law Section.
Mr. Ghosal has been named a CPA & ESQ Awards Finalist by Washington SmartCEO Magazine;
Mr. Francis is a skilled forensics analyst with over 20 years of both law enforcement and private corporate security experience. He specializes in physical, information, and cyber security and incident response as well as interrogation and investigative services for a wide range of matters. Mr. Francis is one of the few highly trained TSCM (technical service counter measures) professionals in the area and he has regularly assisted clients in ensuring absolute security and privacy for whatever they require. Thanks to his years of law enforcement and security training, he has become a regular guest speaker for legal classes at a local college.
As a police officer, Mr. Francis started his digital forensics career by taking classes with the National White Collar Crime (NW3C), focusing on basic data acquisition and data retrieval. Mr. Francis went on apply these techniques at not only his own agency but eventually even assisted other agencies with their own digital investigations.
After his retirement from law enforcement, Mr. Francis started working for a fortune 50 company as a digital forensic investigator, where he focused on company specific digital cyber investigations, inside threats, and E-Discovery services. Thanks to his law enforcement history and the connections he had built in that community, Mr. Francis was offered a position as a physical security investigator and became a liaison to the digital forensic teams. Here, he assisted the company with investigations as someone who understood both the importance of physical and digital evidence. He was able to utilize his interrogation skills in many investigations which led to eventual state and federal prosecution for the incidents he investigated. Mr. Francis was also trained for executive transportation and protection, armed protection details, and as a first responder for terrorism and workplace violence situations as well as emergency management.
Mr. Francis was also an instructor, offering training course for employees that taught them street awareness, protecting against workplace violence, and best practices for cyber security.
Mr. Francis has continued his digital forensics career at System 1 by bringing his years of knowledge and experience in digital and physical security to the forensics team here by expanding his skillset to include PC and mobile forensics as well as piloting a vehicle forensics division.
Ms. Abeles is an experienced Director of Operations with a demonstrated history of working in the Information Security, especially serving the Critical Infrastructure sector. Skilled in Business Management, Corporate Finance, Human Resources, Risk Management, Information Technology, and Business Process Engineering. Ms. Abeles is a strong Business Operations Manager with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and Asian Studies from Mount Holyoke College.
In her current position, Ms. Abeles has digitized and automated multiple previously manual process at System 1, Inc. to both increase productivity and security. Notably, transitioning the company from the Google G Suite cloud and ad hoc software as needed to the Microsoft 365 Enterprise solutions with remote Device Management and integrated advanced Endpoint Security. Additionally, to support the financial growth of the business, Ms. Abeles has digitized and found solutions to further integrate payroll, bookkeeping, Human Resources, and contract management. The systems Ms. Abeles implemented allow for a scalable business on multiple fronts, and compliance with a wider range of contracts. Ms. Abeles is also knowledgeable in the use and application of multiple security frameworks, maturity models, and best practices, using them not only to strengthen client's operational and security structure, but increase internal company resilience as well.
Mr. John Abeles is a management and technology visionary, specializing in infrastructure security, cybersecurity, and process engineering. He has over 30 years of experience in the commercial and Federal energy sector, both domestically and internationally. He is the Founder, President, and CEO of System 1, Inc., and a leader in management, critical infrastructure, and security consulting.
Mr. Abeles' Federal support has ranged from executive levels at the White House to various Cabinet level agencies, National laboratories, and academic institutions. He has built multi-state solutions linking the Government, law enforcement, first responders, and the private sector. Mr. Abeles is an author and speaker, and has been featured in the media, developing industry standards, and publications. He implements processes and educates at the executive level to reduce organization risk and increase intra-organizational communication.
As the CEO of System 1, Inc., Mr. Abeles developed policy-level best practices for Federal organizations such as the National Institute of Standards, Department of Energy, Department of the Treasury, Department of Interior, and Department of Commerce. His seamless integration of risk management leads to more cost-effective solutions. In today's environment, Mr. Abeles emphasizes the integration of cybersecurity as a foundational cornerstone of organizational risk at the CEO or executive leadership level.
Prior to founding System 1, Inc., Mr. Abeles provide management and technical services to the utility sector. He brought his expertise on energy and utilities to the public sector. He has helped global consultancies such as Impell (ABB) and NuTech with clients domestically, in Europe, and the Pacific Rim. He then worked for a number of smaller firms where he improved the performance of electric utilities. Mr. Abeles has a Masters from Cornell University and is a Certified Chief Information Security Officer (C|CISO).