Derek Harp is excited to have Rob Garry joining him on the show today! Rob is currently the Executive Chief Engineer and VP of Product Security at GE Power. 

Rob is an experienced Chief Executive with a demonstrated history of working in the oil & energy industry. He is skilled in Power Plants, Root Cause Analysis, Power Systems, Renewable Energy, and Engineering. He is a strong finance professional with a BS focused in Electrical Engineering from Union College.

As well as being an engineer, Rob is also a father, husband, avid cyclist, master ski-racer, handy-around-the-house person, and an enthusiast in many different areas! In this episode of the (CS)²AI Podcast, he offers advice for people looking to enter the cybersecurity space and talks about his shift from control systems to cybersecurity, good leadership, inter-disciplinary team management, and why his job resonates so well with him.

Rob is passionate about discussing controls, how cyber plays into it, and the emerging role in the industry. You won’t want to miss this episode if you want to know more about cybersecurity from the perspective of a chief engineer. Stay tuned for more!

Show highlights:

• Growing up, Rob was always working on things and fixing farm equipment.
• As an engineer, Rob opted to go the electrical route. Throughout his career, he has developed and worked on control systems for heavy-duty gas, steam, and wind turbines for power generation. 
• How did cybersecurity intersect with Rob’s career?
• Rob describes the work he did with networks in the years before anyone was speaking about security. 
• A lesson he learned from cybersecurity helped him where he is in his career today.
• Why is risk in a power plant not binary?
• Knowing how to describe risk in a way that layers into the equation has helped Rob in his current role more than his networking background.
• Rob explains how a mature leader in his field enters discussions and makes judgment calls.
• How does cybersecurity intersect with the monitoring and diagnostics of heavy industrial equipment? 
• The importance of inter-disciplinary team building and team management.
• Rob talks about the career challenges people with technical minds sometimes face. 
• Rob’s approach to giving and getting mentorship. 
• Rob describes the best way to pass a chief engineer review.
• Which area should you focus on learning that would make you invaluable as an employee in the next few years?

Links:

(CS)²AI

Rob Garry on LinkedIn

GE Power