Rick’s information security journey started in a corporate boardroom for a 38 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 almost 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 previous experience with global IT field operations and my exposure to important areas like fraud, GRC, data science and machine learning, security architecture reviews, and corporate and business unit security strategies definitely laid a solid base for building a full-service information technology, privacy and AI consultancy.”
Most difficult part of my job: Advisory CISOs take on the burden of certifying enterprise trust and mitigating risk, but many do so without outright buying power. Without the ability to guarantee outright prevention, CISOs need to become masters of response. An interesting part of my role is to serve as a collaborator across business lines, advising on best practices but with zero buying power for those departmental budgets.
Most important part of my job: In a rapidly advancing technology landscape, Digital Velocity helps clients improve their cybersecurity staff performance, and how they build resilience into the company’s information security DNA. To us, cybersecurity is not a cost center; it’s an investment in digital trust, the currency of the future. To stay competitive, it’s crucial for us to foster this trust and remain focused on emerging cyber trends, threats, and AI fluency while we evolve our staff.
“The key for us, number one, has always been hiring very smart people.” – Bill Gates
Dan left his career in television as a CBS Sports Producer in Chicago in his mid-twenties and decided that utilizing his love of technology and people was where he belonged. While working in a technical support role Dan took to project management immediately, as it leveraged his organizational abilities, strong interpersonal skills and his natural leadership in technology.
Dan evolved into a Project Manager, Program Manager, PMO Director, and a Senior Project and Program Manager. He has successfully led a variety of projects and programs specializing in: AI, Mergers and Acquisitions, Cybersecurity, IT Security, Infrastructure, Corporate Apps SDLC, Cloud Migrations, Risk Management and Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity projects. Dan has thrived working with a wide range of clients and is equally comfortable adapting to each client and driving successful outcomes.
His passion for Project and Program Management has only strengthened. Dan finds great satisfaction in helping clients and their resources to improve processes, communication, and management. He also works with our recruiters and salespeople to build out plans for all of our clients’ resourcing needs, regardless of the area of technology.
Demonstrate value and drive continuous improvement
Rick feels many CISOs dive into detailed technology discussions when outlining the responsibilities of the security team or requesting budget. But he feels 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 third-party partners.
“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
