Rick’s information security journey started in a corporate boardroom for a 35 billion multinational financial services company. “We were designing the architecture for a financial transfer application and needed a security framework for the app. When the CIO asked for someone to take the lead, I raised my hand, knowing I was jumping into new territory at that time.”
His lifelong ability as an autonomous problem solver coupled with a borderline obsessive technical curiosity has led Rick to nearly two decades of experience in the information security industry, progressing from hands-on research to engineering to securing large-scale enterprise environments and eventually to multi-year CISO roles and engagements. “My experience with global IT field operations and my exposure to areas like online fraud and pattern detection, anti-money laundering, machine learning, and corporate and business unit security strategies definitely laid a solid base for my risk management and cybersecurity evolution.”
Industry Experience: travel and hospitality; gaming and casino; industrial and manufacturing; energy; financial markets and services; cable/telecommunications/internet and wireless; transportation; construction; automotive, semiconductor
Senior Advisory Roles
CISO:
- Construction- North America
- Manufacturing- Global
- Nuclear Energy- North America
- Semiconductor- Global
- Digital Marketing- U.S.
Interim CIO
- Insurance- North America
- Manufacturing & Distribution- Europe
Growth Operations: Two domestic and three foreign M&A due diligence assessments; Managing Director U.S. Operations for a European SaaS Organization
Demonstrate value and drive continuous improvement
We feel that many CISOs dive into technology discussions when outlining the responsibilities of the security team or requesting budget. We also believe Boards and C-level execs more often want the CISO to be a business peer who looks at information risk as just another business challenge and who describes it in terms of winning, serving, and retaining customers and business partners, not implementing extended detection and response.
“No single improvement will enable a true transformation of your security practice. You will need to continually reexamine the way you discover opportunities, develop your plan of attack, implement your security solutions, and optimize your performance.”
-Rick Rowley, CISO and Principal Architect, Digital Velocity
