Talent First

SEASON FOUR: In this episode, I chat to Luz Angeles, Security SE at SHI International Corporation about her views on leading remote teams, on-prem versus remote SOCs, as well as her predictions for security in 2025.

We also discuss Luz's career to date, how she finds time to complete qualifications and certs to keep up to date and about her passion for supporting women in this industry through her work with WiCyS and for women leaders through EWF.

About Our Guest:

Luz is a Security Engineer with a decade of experience in Cybersecurity with a specialty in SecOps (MDR, XDR, SIEM). She serves as a national consultant to organizations in aligning to their business outcomes and optimally securing their environment by reducing risk and unnecessary redundancy. She is an avid speaker on technical, leadership, and DEI subject matter and is passionate about promoting women and people of color into cybersecurity.

Within SHI, she serves as a Board Member of the Women in Technology Committee where she has implemented Mentorship Programs, curates a Speaker Series, leads Volunteer initiatives, etc.

She is an Emerging Leaders Forum Chair and has achieved a master mentor designation in EWF where she has further promoted her leadership skillset through the Leader Within Program. She also serves as President of the Austin Affiliate chapter of WiCyS (Women in Cybersecurity) where she brings her local community together in creating inclusive spaces to share experiences and insights.

BONUS EPISODE - In this episode of Talent First, I chat to Andy Ellis, author, CSO Hall of Famer and Partner at YL Ventures. We discuss his label of the 'idealized' CISO, what this means and how they are vanishing. We also talk about how to attract and retain talent, how CISOs can bridge the C Suite gap and how CISOs effect change successfully in their first few weeks.

Another advice-laden episode and as ever, hope you enjoy.

ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Andy Ellis is a seasoned technology and business executive with deep expertise in cybersecurity, managing risk, and leading an inclusive culture. He is the author of 1% Leadership, Partner at YL Ventures, and is an advisor to cyber security startups. He is the founder and CEO of Duha, a boutique advisory firm focused on providing strategic consulting in the areas of Leadership, Management, Cybersecurity, Technology Risk, and Enterprise Risk Management.

Widely respected across the cybersecurity industry for his pragmatic approach to aligning security and business needs, Andy regularly speaks and writes on cybersecurity, leadership, diversity & inclusion, and decision-making. Ellis previously served as the Chief Security Officer of Akamai Technologies, where he was responsible for the company’s cybersecurity strategy, including leading its initial forays into the cybersecurity market. In his twenty-year tenure at Akamai, Andy led the information security organization from a single individual to a 90+ person team, over 40% of whom were women.

Andy has received a wide variety of accolades, including the CSO Compass Award, Air Force Commendation Medal, Spirit of Disneyland Award, Wine Spectator Award of Excellence (for The Arlington Inn), the SANS DMA Podcast of the Year (for Cloud Security Reinvented), and was the winner of the Sherman Oaks Galleria Spelling Bee. He was inducted into the CSO Hall of Fame in 2021.

After receiving a degree in computer science from MIT, Andy served as an officer in the United States Air Force with the 609th Information Warfare Squadron and the Electronic Systems Center.

State of The Cyber Nation report: https://www.ylventures.com/magazine/insights/state-of-the-cyber-nation-2024-report/

How to CISO: https://www.howtociso.com/

Idealized CISO Job Description: https://www.howtociso.com/how-to-ciso-volume-0-the-ciso-job-description/

CISO First 91 Day Guide: https://www.howtociso.com/how-to-ciso-volume-1-the-first-91-days/

1% Leadership: https://www.csoandy.com/book/, https://amzn.to/3JOhLzD

SEASON FOUR: This week's episode is a bonus episode with Joshua Copeland, Field CISO, Cybersecurity Director and LinkedIn's self proclaimed 'Unpopular Opinions Guy'. We chat about what being a business enabler really means, how to alter the view of the cybersecurity department from cost centre to value add as well as that most contentious of subjects - the distinction between a technical vs a non-technical CISO.

BIO:

Joshua Copeland is a cybersecurity leader and engineer with 25 years of experience, with a focus on holistic cloud and on-prem security approaches and specific expertise in building and operating security stacks, SOC operations, and cybersecurity governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) processes. His key focus areas are building multi-faceted and diverse teams that translate the "bits and bytes" into "business capabilities and requirements."

In his previous positions, he managed cybersecurity teams from 1 to 100+, oversaw physical, personnel, and cyber security programs, as well as traditional operational IT functions. In these roles, he directed the organizational-level security and long-term compliance processes.

Since 2021, he has been the purveyor of #unpopularopinions as the "Unpopular Opinion Guy" SM or "UOG" on LinkedIn, covering topics like hiring, mentoring, and cybersecurity.

SEASON FOUR: In this episode of Talent First, I speak to Melinda Stallings, Founder of The Positive Consultant and another fabulous woman who is securing Texas through her leadership and positivity consultancy. We talk about what makes a good leader, how to deal with conflict and how leaders can be empathetic and benevolent without being a pushover.

About Our Guest:

Melinda Stallings is an internationally recognized organizational development psychologist, CEO of The Positive Consultant®, and best-selling author of The Power of Positive Conflict Resolution. With over 25 years of experience, Melinda is a trusted authority in leadership development, conflict resolution, and positive psychology.

As a global keynote speaker and thought leader, Melinda has delivered transformative insights to audiences across Europe, Asia, and Australia, and has graced the stages of Harvard, Carnegie Hall, NASDAQ, and New York’s World Trade Center. She has been featured on major media networks and in leading business and niche-specific publications, sharing her expertise in organizational strategy, women’s leadership, and her proprietary POSITIVE Approach© to Conflict Resolution.

Her latest program, The Positive Approach to Personal Leadership and Conflict Resolution, empowers leaders and employees alike to develop shared language and skills for conflict resolution, communication, and personal growth.

Her mission is clear: to positively impact the world, one individual at a time, by helping clients uncover their greatness and model leadership that inspires others.

Season Four - In this episode of Talent First, I talk cybersecurity leadership with Sonja Hammond, ORBIE finalist and CISO at National Veterinary Associates. Sonja offers fantastic advice on how to build a cohesive security team and the rewards and challenges of doing this remotely, as well as how to resolve conflicts between team members. We also talk interviewing for fit, and how to identify the right time to move into management.

About Our Guest:

Sonja Hammond is the Chief Information Security Officer and Vice President of IT Architecture and Engineering at National Veterinary Associates (NVA). With 16 years in risk and cybersecurity, Sonja recently expanded her role to include architecture and engineering. A strong advocate of "defense in depth," she is passionate about safeguarding companies from cyber threats. Sonja has held key infrastructure, security and privacy positions at EssilorLuxottica (maker of Ray-Ban and Oakley), Hewlett-Packard, and Callaway Golf Company. Sonja is one of the authors in The CISO Mentor and is a board member of several Dallas area CISO groups.

Season Four - In this first episode of our new season of Talent First, I chat to Susanne Senoff, CISO for PROS about her views of the issue of allyship. We focus on allyship between women in corporate America, how we can support each other and the benefits of mentorship. We also have a quick chat about CISO/Board relationships, so this is an episode not to be missed!

About Our Guest:

Susanne Senoff is the CISO at PROS, an AI-powered revenue and profit optimization platform. Prior to PROS, she served in various roles in risk management and cybersecurity for over 20 years, including serving as Deputy CISO at McAfee and Director level positions at Arm, Microsoft and Morgan Stanley. Susanne is a business partner integrating and aligning security strategy and practice with business objectives and process. She builds high performing teams who have fun while delivering innovative, effective solutions. 

Susanne graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and received a Masters degree from Columbia University. She currently lives in Austin with her husband, 2 daughters, ages 7 and 14 and 2 dogs. In her spare time, Susanne enjoys swimming, reading science fiction and watching movies. 

In this episode of Talent First, I return to the EdTech theme with my guest Martin Saunders, CEO and Co-Founder of EdShed.

We discuss the fantastic range of products and services that EdShed offers Primary-aged children to support their learning and their wellbeing and sense of achievement.

We discuss a range of topics including neurodiversity in schools, how the system is potentially failing pupils, and the possible solutions.

Bio:

Martin is co-founder and CEO at EdShed, a leading UK based provider of primary education resources and technology products. EdShed is a team of around 50 including regular contractors and the online games are enjoyed by approximately 2.5 million children a month across ~180 countries.

Martin started in the tech world, running a couple of digital agencies and working as a freelance app developer. Within that, he built a wide range of MVPs for startups and worked with investors to support potential and existing portfolio companies. Martin has been chair of governors at a primary school for ~12 years but found himself enjoying the school environment more so retrained as a primary school teacher. Those two things came together in the Spelling Shed game, which later became EdShed and has rapidly escalated since!

Martin also has a PhD in medicine (hyperpolarised NMR spectroscopy) and runs a BJJ / Muay Thai gym.

In this week's episode, I chat to Christophe Foulon, vCISO at Quisitive and Adjunct Professor at Bellevue University.

We discuss a range of current issues in cybersecurity, from the so called talent gap to what entry level really means, and we chat about Chris's career journey so far. His work with Whole Human Cyber Initiative and his books on nailing the cybersecurity interview will be of huge interest to all of those looking for advice from someone who is really in the know.

In this episode I speak to Professor Sarah Jones, Pro Vice Chancellor for Education at Solent University. We talk about passions that we share - how to enhance learning and teaching through technology, digital equity and accessibility and the future of education.

We also discuss Sarah's work on AI literacy and her development of AI literacy frameworks for Higher Education students with a key focus on bias, privacy, verification, transparency and ownership.

A definite listen for anyone concerned about our young people and their future in this increasingly digital world.

In this episode of Talent First, we return to those leading the way in education technology - and this week I talk to Estelle Lloyd, Co-Founder and COO of Macademia, an edutainment platform whose mission is to help parents raise exceptional humans with their focus on being kinder, smarter and with a keen sense of social values.

I loved this chat with Estelle - her views on digital literacy, accessibility and how we keep our young people safe whilst preparing them for the digitial world aligns with our thoughts here at Talent First.