Ivanti Blog: Ivanti Culture

Accelerating Action on Gender Equality: A Message from Ivanti’s Brooke Johnson on International Women’s Day

Sat, 08 Mar 2025 05:01:01 Z

International Women’s Day is March 8, 2025. This year’s theme is “Accelerate Action.” As things currently stand, data from the World Economic Forum indicate that it will be 2158 until we reach full gender parity. That’s roughly five generations from now. I believe that’s five – maybe even six or seven -- generations too long.

I also believe the generations that came before me would agree. Every day, but particularly on International Women's Day, I am so grateful to have grown up surrounded by strong female role models. Even if I didn't realize it at the time, these women shaped my understanding of leadership and possibility.

The influence of strong women in my life didn't stop after childhood. Far from it. My best friend Beth, whom I met in law school, helped define my approach to career and advocacy. Beth and I bonded initially over academics (and our shared love of shoes), but she quickly became my career counselor, personal advocate and sometimes therapist. Through her example as an exceptional attorney who effectively prioritizes what matters most, she taught me a crucial lesson that I’ve shared often. Still, it’s worth repeating: It’s okay to not always say you can “have it all.” Instead, do your best at whatever you choose to take on.

I want every girl and every woman to feel the support, encouragement and advocacy I felt. That’s not to say it was smooth sailing, particularly given my choice to enter male-dominated fields. It’s not enough to be aware of the gaps and lack of equality for women. We need action.

That’s why I’m so excited about this year's theme for International Women’s Day, "Accelerate Action.” This theme challenges us to move beyond awareness to create tangible change. According to the International Women’s Day site, this year’s theme “emphasizes the importance of taking swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality. It calls for increased momentum and urgency in addressing the systemic barriers and biases that women face in both personal and professional spheres.”

So, let’s talk about some of the ways we’re accelerating action.

Connecting to champion change

As the initial advocate for Ivanti's Women's Connection group, I've witnessed firsthand how creating spaces for authentic dialogue drives meaningful change. While our content focuses on helping women navigate their career journeys, our group welcomes everyone — regardless of gender identity. This inclusivity strengthens our ability to address the unique challenges women face in the workplace and create solutions that benefit all.

The objective of our Women's Connection group is straightforward yet powerful: to inspire and foster the growth and development of Ivantians. By connecting women with other women, as well as creating a safe space for men and women to have dialogue about important topics, we're creating a support network that helps group members navigate career challenges and opportunities with greater confidence and clarity.

Strength in numbers

Numbers tell part of our story of progress. In 2023, women represented 24% of our new hires at Ivanti — matching industry benchmarks. Through focused, intentional action, we've increased that to 31% in 2024. There is more work to be done, but this shows that our intentional actions are paying off. We implemented specific strategies, including:

Ensuring at least one female candidate appears on every shortlist when possible.
Revising job descriptions to use gender-neutral language, recognizing how certain terms like "aggressive" might discourage female applicants.
Highlighting benefits that appeal to diverse candidates such as flexible schedules and remote work options.

The impact of everyday excellence

What inspires me most about the women I work with is their incredible resilience and supportive nature. Each day, I witness the profound impact we can have on one another by uplifting each other, actively listening to one another's challenges and solving problems collaboratively. Our mutual support influences my approach to both leadership and advocacy.

The diverse perspectives and innovative solutions that arise from our discussions have taught me the invaluable lesson of inclusive dialogue. As a leader, this has reinforced the importance of not just taking input but genuinely understanding and integrating different viewpoints. It has made me more empathetic, reflective and adaptive in my decision-making process.

It takes all of us

Women should not be alone in the push for change. I’m grateful that, at Ivanti, we have the unwavering partnership of our male allies and our CEO, who consistently champion gender equality. Their advocacy, combined with the courage, wisdom and excellence of our women executives and team members throughout Ivanti, creates a powerful force for change.

I can’t emphasize enough that it takes all of us. That includes you, the person reading this. The path forward requires collective effort, sustained commitment and accelerated action. I invite you to consider: How will you contribute to creating a more equitable future for girls and women? Every action, every connection and every opportunity to support women's advancement brings us further on the path. This International Women’s Day, and every day, I’m taking on the challenge — and channeling my friend Beth by choosing to do my best.

Hiring Managers: Consider Hiring for Culture Add Instead of Culture Fit

Tue, 24 Sep 2024 14:52:06 Z

Thoughtfully growing a team is crucial for any hiring manager, but it can be a challenging task. A bad hire costs a company money, time, and resources. Businesses and leaders must be willing to do things differently to grow and expand successfully.

As a hiring manager, it’s easy to fall into the mindset of hiring for “culture fit”, however, I challenge you to reframe this thinking. Hiring solely for culture fit restricts a company’s potential. Businesses and leaders who continue to hire for fit and seek to maintain the status quo, are missing out on impactful contributors who bring unique and fresh perspectives, backgrounds, and skills.

It's time to say goodbye to cultural fit and embrace cultural add!

Candidates who are cultural additions offer these unique qualities that drive innovation and bridge business gaps. Embracing cultural adds can propel business growth, support the acquisition of new customers, and facilitate entry into diverse markets and industries.

Fay Wilberforce, Ivanti’s Director, Recruitment in EMEA began the journey of hiring for cultural addition rather than fit many years ago at a previous company when she had an enlightening experience that underscored the importance of considering cultural add candidates.

“I was working with a hiring manager who was looking to fill a critical role on their team. The initial tendency was to find someone who would seamlessly blend into the existing team dynamic and hit the ground running —essentially, a perfect culture fit. While these are valid considerations, I shared insights on how diverse perspectives and experiences can drive innovation and open new avenues for growth.

I presented a candidate who, on paper, might not have seemed like an immediate fit. They had taken an unusual path into our industry and had recently taken some time out of the workplace to raise a young family. They also had a unique approach to problem-solving, but I knew from our interview that this person had real potential. Initially, there was some hesitation from the hiring manager, but I encouraged them to consider how this candidate’s background could bring fresh ideas and new strategies to the team.

We decided to move forward with an interview, and throughout the interview process, it became clear that this candidate offered innovative solutions and had a track record of successfully navigating challenges that our team hadn’t yet faced.

In the end, the hiring manager recognized the immense value this candidate could bring and decided to offer them the position. Since joining, this new team member not only integrated well but introduced several new initiatives, processes, and expanded their market reach. The employee went on to be promoted within a year.

This experience reinforced my belief that hiring for cultural addition, rather than just for fit, truly enhances a team’s capabilities and drives our business forward.”

If a company's employees aren’t representative of our diverse society, how can they truly connect with and serve customers from various backgrounds? At Ivanti, we’re committed to hiring individuals who can enrich our culture and contribute to our vibrant and diverse workforce. We recognize that hiring for culture fit often means bringing in people with similar experiences and backgrounds, which can inadvertently limit overall diversity and innovation.

Instead of backfilling roles with replica hires, we’ve taken a different approach to hiring, designing positions with success in mind, focusing on how a person can add to our culture, and welcoming fresh ideas and new perspectives. We believe that this approach not only strengthens our company but also helps us better serve our diverse customer base.

Hiring for cultural add may feel like a risk at first, but don’t let that stop you from building a stronger, smarter, and more diverse team!

We Are Ivantians: Employees Earn Simpplr Award for Creative Use of Intranet

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 17:32:59 Z

The highly engaged and connected culture that drives Ivanti’s 3,000 employees to give their customers the best service possible has been recognized with the Best of Simpplr 2024 award for most creative use of the intranet.

After a spirited competition driven by weekly challenges shared on the Ivanti’s Simpplr-based intranet, three Ivanti employees were crowned Vision Pitch Champions:

Elja van de Stolpe, growth marketing manager.
Mohsin Bhanwadia, principal enterprise account director.
Jill Rabach, senior partner sales director

Fun competition demonstrates shared purpose

Ivanti’s winning campaign got its start from feedback gleaned through the 2023 annual employee engagement survey. Ivantians asked for a better understanding of their role in bringing Ivanti’s market vision to life – and that quickly turned into the companywide Ivanti Vision Competition.

Ivanti’s leadership team quickly embraced the competition, first by communicating Ivanti’s vision story to employees, then by taking part in the competition alongside their employees. To help Ivantians succeed in the competition, the intranet competition page was stocked with information and resources that included executive leaders’ video pitches, a study guide and Ivanti’s official vision PowerPoint deck.

The company then divided into five teams that undertook weekly team challenges to encourage friendly competition. They updated the team leaderboard on the Ivanti Everywhere site at the end of each day to motivate employee participation. The weekly team challenges included a scavenger hunt, a game of VisionLib, crossword puzzles and a knowledge quiz.

We recorded a participation rate of 41% – a stark contrast to our typical internal campaign engagement rate of around 18%.
In Q4 alone, Ivanti's Vision Intranet site received over 4,500 views and had an increase in usage by 14%.
Among 108 sites on Ivanti’s intranet, the Vision Competition site was the second most visited.

Our winners speak

Each of the three competition winners saw the challenge as a way to sharpen their ability to connect with Ivanti customers and address their unique needs.

“I jumped into the competition with two clear goals, firstly to dive headfirst into understanding Ivanti’s products and vision,” said van de Stolpe. “It was crucial to me to grab the essence of what Ivanti stood for. Secondly, I saw this as an opportunity to step out of my comfort zone ... and showcase my enthusiasm in an active and engaging way.”

Meanwhile, Bhanwadia “decided to be part of the Ivanti Vision Challenge because in my previous role I was just managing one particular product line of RBVM solutions, and this was a perfect platform to learn more about Ivanti.”

And for Rabach, the competition was a means to “write a pitch that was really relevant and would resonate with my customers. It helped me adapt to what our customers want and what our company’s role in the market is (and create) a message that will ring true and catch the attention of my partners so that they can communicate it to their customers.”

Hear the winners in their own words.

We Are Ivantians: Web Developer Travis Frazier Helps Users with Disabilities Access Information

Fri, 24 May 2024 15:39:25 Z

Ensuring that people with disabilities can connect with Ivanti to learn about its solutions is an important job. And that’s where Ivanti’s Travis Frazier comes in.

His work led to Ivanti's website earning accessibility compliance in May, graduating from “semi-compliant” to “compliant” using the webtool accessScan.

In Travis’s third year as a front-end web developer, he’s been instrumental in improving accessibility to Ivanti’s website for those with disabilities. Some of those improvements include:

Optimizing Ivanti’s website for keyboard navigation alongside mouse usage.
Enhancing accessibility for visually impaired users by adding descriptive alt attributes to images.
Incorporating the appropriate ARIA roles and attributes on HTML elements where necessary.

The culture of innovation at Ivanti “pushes me to think creatively and explore multiple approaches to accessibility,” Travis said. “This enables me to experiment with different strategies and tools to achieve optimal results across our site. Additionally, the trust and flexibility provided to me by my manager enables me to take a great sense of ownership in my work.”

Feedback about these improvements has been positive.

“We have received encouraging results from various outside resources that have tested our site,” Travis noted. “[Senior Director of Recruitment] Ron Fish has been our key point of contact regarding accessibility testing and has relayed good remarks from the Division of Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Utah (DSBVI).”

Following feedback from the Utah DSBVI, “we adjusted our careers and events pages to improve screen reader compatibility, braille display and keyboard navigation,” Travis continued. “Our work around this has even gotten us nominated for the Golden Key Award in Utah.”

In terms of measuring the success of those improvements, “We’ve just got the thumbs up from a third-party automated accessibility checker for some of our key pages. Those results are very encouraging to our efforts.”

Travis brings to Ivanti a keen sense of the power of collaboration and mentorship to achieve great outcomes.

“A defining moment that prepared me for my current role was when I was immersed in a complex development environment in a previous job. With the guidance of a skilled senior developer who also became a friend, I quickly adapted and honed my skills. This experience taught me resilience, adaptability, and the importance of mentorship in professional growth.”

Not only is Travis making Ivanti’s information more accessible to viewers with disabilities, he makes his Ivanti coworkers more efficient with his contributions to Ivanti’s project management application and online task request site.

“What inspires me each day is wanting to support my family, along with the satisfaction of working at a company I genuinely enjoy. Lastly, having good coworkers who create a positive work environment adds to my motivation.”

Embracing Diversity and Inclusion: Ivanti's Commitment to a Safe, Thriving Workplace

Mon, 23 Oct 2023 13:00:00 Z

At Ivanti, we believe in more than words — we're putting our commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) into meaningful action. We've launched our Global Diversity Recruiting Committee to drive positive change in recruitment practices. Why? Because we know that a diverse team isn't a box to check or a "nice-to-have" — it's the heart of innovation and success.

Creating a culture of empowerment

Our goal is simple: we want every Ivanti employee to feel valued, respected and free to bring their unique talents to the table. Diversity is a driving force behind our corporate culture and our operational achievements. That’s the bottom line, both literally and figuratively. We're working to further elevate Ivanti’s status as a destination employer that is a trailblazer in diversity and inclusion within the tech industry.

Building a brighter future together

This blog post might be all about the words, but our actions speak louder. Here are just a few of the initiatives we've undertaken to make sure our commitment to DEIB is infused throughout the company every day, at every step:

1. Pronoun and name pronunciation program

We want everyone to feel confident in how their identities are received and respected at Ivanti. Our new program lets all candidates specify their preferred pronouns and provide the correct pronunciation of their name. It's a simple change with a profound impact, creating a more inclusive experience for all.

2. Diverse candidate sourcing

We actively seek talent from a rich tapestry of backgrounds, identities and life experiences. Our committee collaborates with recruiting teams to tap into diverse sourcing channels and partner with organizations that champion diversity in tech.

3. Inclusive interview practices

Bias? Not here. We're constantly refining our interview processes to level the playing field. From inclusive interview training to structured formats, we ensure every candidate gets a fair evaluation. That also means enforcing policies that guarantee accommodations for candidates with disabilities.

4. DEIB Training

Every member of our Global Recruiting Group receives dedicated DEIB training to ensure we all uphold a commitment to these essential principles.

5. Accessibility at Ivanti

We're proud to introduce our Accessibility Club, CurbCuts. This community-driven group brings employees together from various departments to champion accessibility. It's all about collaboration, learning, and working together to enhance inclusivity.

Embracing diversity and driving change together

This is just a snapshot — there is more to come. At Ivanti, we believe that diversity isn't just good for our employees — it's good for our products, our services and the communities we serve.

For those of you who are already part of Ivanti, we’re glad you’re on this journey with us.

Not part of the team quite yet? Apply now to be part of a community that’s not just talking about change but driving it. Together, we can achieve amazing things.

We Care. Everywhere. Ivanti Celebrates Pride Month at the 2023 Utah Pride Festival

Thu, 01 Jun 2023 12:13:53 Z

We believe technology is best when it brings people together. We are all about facilitating connections, no matter who you are or where you are in the world.

We’re very accustomed to bringing people together in the virtual sense — and we live for it — but we also get pretty excited on those occasions when we can come together in person. Especially when it’s for a great cause.

Mark your calendars: We’ll be proudly representing Ivanti with a booth at the Utah Pride Festival on June 3rd and 4th. This is our second year in a row supporting this local event, taking place in downtown Salt Lake City.

Unapologetic pride

The theme of this year’s Utah Pride Festival is unapologetic, and we’re all for it. The festival’s aim is to fight shame, guilt and stigma with joy, celebration and confidence.

That aligns perfectly with Ivanti’s Pride theme this year, which is:

Authentic.
Accepted.
Empowered.

Come visit us!

On Saturday and Sunday of the festival, look for the Ivanti We Care. Everywhere. banner at our booth. We’d love to see you and celebrate with you!

This year’s festival will also be packed full of incredible artistry, with concerts and events taking place throughout the festival.

Locking arms, everywhere

While we can’t wait to see as many of you as possible at the Utah Pride Festival, we know we have an amazingly global workforce and since this is a local event, we won’t see all of you. The good news is that our participation in the Utah Pride Festival is one of many ways we’re locking arms to celebrate Pride Month.

Work Where it Matters: Promoting Accessibility and Purpose at Ivanti

Mon, 10 Apr 2023 11:01:00 Z

At Ivanti, we talk about living our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) statement. It’s not enough to write it down or have the intentions of doing our part. Authentic CSR is how you show up every day.

Gianna Biocca Mackenzie is the Lead UX Designer for the Supply Chain Business Unit at Ivanti. A self-described “accessibility nerd,” she strives to make technology more accessible for everyone. As a person with dyslexia, Gianna was afforded accessibility support in college that made a positive impact on her education. This experience sparked a desire to make a difference for those who are “differently abled.” Gianna became a Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies through the International Association of Accessibility Professionals.

Now, she leads CurbCuts sessions, the Ivanti UX accessibility club. During a CurbCuts meeting, the team evaluated Ivanti’s website and identified an accessibility gap that precluded users from leveraging keyboard navigation. Gianna brought this issue to the attention of HR and met with Ron Fish, a Global Recruiting Leader at Ivanti, to review site accessibility and the diminished user experience for those with disabilities.

Ron contacted Ivanti's web team, who took immediate action by building a two-stage plan to enhance website accessibility. Within a few weeks, the web team unlocked accessibility functionality on Ivanti’s website, dramatically enhancing keyboard navigation.

Gianna was impressed by the internal partnership and embodiment of our core value of ‘Locking Arms’. “I am so wildly proud to work at Ivanti with such talented, kind and hardworking people,” says Gianna.

We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished so far. With the passion and expertise of people like Gianna, Ron and the web team, we know we’re headed in the right direction. We also know there’s more work ahead.

We’re excited to highlight how many areas of opportunity we’ve identified, not only accessibility, through our CSR strengths. We have clear goals identified in the areas of environment, labor and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement. We believe a CSR statement should always be a work in progress, evolving as we evolve.

Our latest iteration reinforces our commitment to elevate and secure the Everywhere Workplace, allowing people and organizations to thrive. It highlights our mission and values, including our core principles of Locking Arms, Fighting the Good Fight, Champion for our Customers and Outcomes Matter Most.

It's crystal clear on our equitable hiring practices and our anti-slavery and human trafficking policies. It enhances our commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging. It discusses our Volunteer Time-Off program and our dedication to creating a more sustainable future. It reinforces that prioritizing employee health means not only assiduously adhering to physical health and safety standards, but also delivering practical support to enhance mental health and wellbeing.

We’re locking arms and taking action together. And we’re inspired by the passion and purpose exhibited by our people every day.

Employees can expect to be updated on CSR status directly from our CEO in all hands meetings. And if you want to be part of this journey, join us today. You’re welcome here.

Walking the Walk: Corporate Social Responsibility at Ivanti

Fri, 24 Mar 2023 20:35:03 Z

Work has increasingly become more than something you clock into, clock out of and try to forget. If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s the importance of how, where and with whom we spend our time.

Many people emerged from lockdowns having shed jobs, habits or other things that didn’t serve them anymore. So many people changed jobs that it triggered a Great Resignation. Why? Because people are looking for work to matter more. They’re looking for purpose.

We think everyone should feel like they work where it matters. That’s why we at Ivanti have a renewed focus on not just producing leading end-to-end cybersecurity programs that keep people, data and businesses safe, but also investing in, enhancing and showcasing our Corporate Social Responsibility efforts.

Corporate Social Responsibility has always been important to Ivanti – and we have the legacy of initiatives to prove it – but we refuse to be complacent. We’re leveling up, and we’re more committed than ever.

Our refreshed CSR statement opens with these words:

“At Ivanti, we strive to create an environment where all perspectives are heard, respected and valued so that everyone can bring their authentic self with full range of talents and views to work with them every day. Additionally, we are committed to a more sustainable future for our customers, partners and employees and we are focused on projects that will protect our planet and all our futures.”

We put a lot of thought into these words. And yet, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) isn’t something you can simply write down. It’s not something you can just read or memorize. And it’s definitely not something that you can etch in stone and leave as-is.

To be authentic, CSR needs to be lived every day. It’s in the details of how people show up – for their company, for their colleagues and for their communities. It’s in the ways they demonstrate inclusivity and create safe spaces. It’s in the ways they give back. Because we believe CSR must be lived, not just talked about. Here’s a sneak peek of a few of the things we’re working on:

Inclusive hiring practices and an elevated focus on DEI&B.
Investment in employee wellness, including extra attention and resources dedicated to mental health.
Time off for volunteering.
Engaging with and supporting our (many) local communities.
Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and waste.
Sustainability and protection of natural resources.

This list will grow and evolve as we grow and evolve. I don’t believe you can claim to be an innovative, forward-thinking company and claim to have a static, unchanging commitment to CSR. We’re in a rapidly changing industry in a rapidly changing world – and we want to be on the leading edge. We’re going to keep learning, listening and elevating our standards as we elevate those around us.

Celebrating International Women’s Day

Tue, 07 Mar 2023 18:29:30 Z

I’m incredibly fortunate to have grown up in an environment where every day felt like International Women’s Day – a day where women were recognized for their contributions and strength. My mother was a high-powered marketing professional, and that meant I was immersed in the idea that women’s decisions, ideas and talent mattered. I recognize the value of that upbringing and I don’t take it for granted.

Now, I, too, am a senior marketing executive – proof, to me, that witnessing women doing great things inspires others to aim higher. I want to use my platform to encourage other women to expand their idea of what’s possible. I’m certainly committed to instilling this in my own three daughters. Whatever path they choose, the point is that they will be empowered to choose it – and I’ll cheer them on every step of the way.

While I work in a traditionally male-dominated field, I’m thrilled to say that I’m surrounded by people who empower and elevate women every day. My colleagues, regardless of gender, share a belief that when women succeed, we all succeed.

I’m lucky to be in such a supportive space. I know that this isn’t the case everywhere and there are still inequities between women and men in professional spaces – especially in STEM-related fields. I truly believe that visibility matters. Seeing women succeed matters. Celebrating women matters.

This International Women’s Day, I’m here to celebrate. I want to celebrate the women who work with me in the executive leadership team who encourage and inspire me constantly. I want to celebrate every woman at Ivanti who pour their time, talent and energy into this amazing company. I want to applaud our CEO Jeff Abbott and the other men of Ivanti, who truly celebrate and value the contributions of their women colleagues.

I opened this blog post by talking about my mother, who has had an indelible impact on me. I’m not the only one who is where I am today because of a woman who went before her and laid a path of inspiration and encouragement.

In celebration of International Women’s Day, and as part of Ivanti’s commitment to embracing equity, several of my colleagues on the executive leadership team – both men and women – told us a little about a woman who had an impact on them. I’m honored to share those stories here.

Kristen Kamp, SVP, Global HR

An influential woman who had an impact on my life from the moment that I met her was my grandmother-in-law Muriel Weingrow. She was as confident, intelligent and worldly as she was graceful, thoughtful and caring. Born in the 1920s, she was a bold and strong woman, ahead of her time. From her I learned that the best way to be is unapologetically who you are.

Al Arun, Chief Customer Officer

One of my earliest role models was my grandmother – Valliammai – who was the CEO of my family. My grandpa was a very successful businessman in India, but my grandmother was the person who everything revolved around. She was one of the first women in India to drive a car by herself and was referred to as the Car Driving Valliammai.

She taught me to understand how to bring people together, be decisive when needed and to be collaborative in order to win people’s support.

She truly cared for the people around her. She commanded a lot of respect from some of the most powerful people in India just based on her ability to plan, coordinate and execute on any activity / event. I attribute every trait that I have built up over the years using her as a role model.

Michelle Hodges, SVP, Global Channels & Alliances

While in graduate school, I interned for two summers in France for a woman, Marie-Josephe D'Argent. At that point in her career, she was a Business & Strategy consultant for large CPG, Manufacturing, Utilities and PubSec companies in France. Earlier in life, she had an amazing career from the late 70s-90s in Marketing & Sales within the Oil & Gas Industry; and had traveled all over the world including the Middle East and Africa.

I learned from her the hard lessons of self-reliance, authenticity, open-mindedness, investing in your job with passion and balancing work and motherhood. I now consider her family and she has been a role model, mentor and huge supporter for my entire career.

Helen Masters, EVP International Sales

There are so many women who made an impact on my life and career. Family members, former colleagues and women in technology who blazed the path before me. My current peers at Ivanti and in the industry inspire me every day.

I am inspired to see my daughter, Alex Masters, grow into a strong leader in her own right and is now also mentoring other young women joining the IT industry. I am proud to see that our values and ethics continue on through generations and will help drive diversity for many years to come.

In order to create and ignite more innovative ideas, we need to continue to foster inclusivity in the tech industry – whether that’s encouraging STEM education for girls or other non-traditional groups. All members of the technology community hold a collective responsibility for making this a reality.

Brooke Johnson, SVP, Chief Legal Officer

One woman who has made a tremendous impact on my life is my best friend, Beth Ranschau. Beth and I met in law school and quickly bonded over academics and our love of shoes. After we graduated and started at law firms, Beth became my career counselor, personal advocate and sometimes therapist.

Beth is an exceptional attorney and advocate for her clients while making time for her family and friends. She is smart, driven, self-aware, a fashion icon and able to effectively prioritize what is most important in her day, every day.

She has taught me that it’s okay to occasionally not say that I can have it all, but do my best at what I decide to take on.

Jeff Abbott, CEO

For me, my mom – Irene – is one of my heroes. She raised the four of us, my three sisters and me, to be strong, independent, hardworking and honest. In our early years my dad, who worked for General Motors, often worked 2nd or 3rd shift so we didn’t see him very much. Mom was a warrior. She herself was one of nine kids – and my Irish grandmother taught my mom and all of her children the power of family. That’s my mom’s superpower: “In all that you do, don’t forget the importance of family.” I haven’t and will never forget that, Mom!

Happy International Women’s Day to all of you. Let’s celebrate each other!

Women in Cybersecurity: Personal Experiences and Progress | Security Insights Podcast, Episode 29

Thu, 24 Nov 2022 10:01:00 Z

Amanda and Ashley talk about their experiences as women in the cybersecurity and technology industries. (Spoiler alert: it’s on the up-and-up!)

In this episode:

“When did you stop taking notes and start to actively participate?” [01:35]
The ‘average’ woman’s experience in traditional industries and decision making [05:45]
Communication is a two-way street [10:10]
Qualifiers and comfort while being wrong [18:32]
Ashley and Amanda accidentally stereotype themselves! [22:13]
A reminder of why DEI is worth fighting for at your organization. [27:10]

Additional Resources:

See Yourself in Cybersecurity: How 3 Experts Transitioned into InfoSec | Security Insights Podcast, Episode 27 (Show Notes)
A Candid Conversation About a Career in Cybersecurity: Q&A With Amanda Wittern (Blog)
More about Amanda Wittern, Deputy Chief Security Officer (LinkedIn)
Meet your host, Ashley Stryker
Join the conversation!
- Ivanti Twitter
- Ivanti LinkedIn

Ivanti Security Insights podcast - S2E29

“When did you stop taking notes and start to actively participate?” [01:35]

Ashley Stryker [00:00:06] Welcome back to Ivanti's Security Insights: where best-practice cybersecurity meets real-world workplaces and roadblocks.

Ashley Stryker [00:00:14] I'm your host, Ashley Stryker, and with us today is the lovely and charming deputy CSO Amanda Wittern. Amanda – hi! Welcome back.

Amanda Wittern [00:00:24] Thank you for having me.

Ashley Stryker [00:00:26] I think it's just going to be you and me on today's episode.

Amanda Wittern [00:00:30] You know, we've got the really important people here.

Ashley Stryker [00:00:34] We do, you know! And, I think this does give us a lovely opportunity to dive into some of the conversation [that] we kind of started, then had to drop with one of our previous episodes – where we're talking about hiring and in InfoSec in cybersecurity, and how your own journey kind of made its way there.

Ashley Stryker [00:00:54] We touched on [it] briefly and promised to bookmark talking about the woman experience in cybersecurity. And you know what? I guess today, that it might be a pretty good day to start that off, don't you think?

Amanda Wittern [00:01:09] I remember that part of our conversation. I think I made the comment that, as part of my journey into information security, I would not ask questions and scribble down notes in some of my meetings, because I felt as a woman, it might come across poorly to ask questions. I believe that was the starting point?

Ashley Stryker [00:01:34] That was, so... Let's start there, then. At what point did you just decide to say, "Screw it, I belong here? I'm going to not only take notes, but also participate?" Was there a moment, or a...?

Amanda Wittern [00:01:47] Yeah, I'm really excited about this. I'm really excited about this conversation. I'm excited to start telling that story.

Amanda Wittern [00:01:54] I think that, you know, as we're talking about this, I want to point out that some of these struggles that I went through are struggles that a lot of people go through – not just women, but unrepresented people in the workplace.

Amanda Wittern [00:02:13] And really, I hope that while we [Amanda and Ashley] have come in as the "all important people" – as women – certainly, I want to have a message out to really everyone, including the men, that this conversation is for everyone. Because, I don't believe I've ever come in contact with anyone in my professional career that has purposefully treated me poorly.

Amanda Wittern [00:02:39] So, yeah, honestly, I think what the moment that we're talking about here, where... I realized that I could be respected – or rather, I would be respected as a woman, despite my reservations of appearing as a stereotype...

Amanda Wittern [00:03:06] Can I back it up a little bit, right? A women in tech – originally, I worked in the finance industry, and fintech startups, and that kind of thing.

Amanda Wittern [00:03:17] There's always a lot of pressure in being part of those industries – or any industry where it's the case, to be as successful [as others] – to have the same amount of respect, to contribute as much, to make a statement or a place for yourself.

Amanda Wittern [00:03:35] As a woman, that pressure is always on. It might be self-inflicted, right? And, I guess, that's really where the journey is.

Amanda Wittern [00:03:46] So, I had this mentality through my academic career – through my professional career. It was always, "Got to look smart. I've got to look capable. I've got to keep a cool head about things." Right? And then there was this situation, the "aha moment."

Amanda Wittern [00:04:03] I'm sitting in this room – myself, running this consulting project. It was myself and 11 men – very intelligent, knowledgeable, competent professionals. They were talking about something that I did not understand, but I needed to.

Amanda Wittern [00:04:28] And I... At some point I realized, we're all very passionate about what we do, and we enjoy telling people about our passions, whether it's work or your hobbies, right? And so, in my mind, I'm like, "I bet this person would actually like to tell me this stuff."

Amanda Wittern [00:04:48] So I asked, "Roll this back a little bit. I actually don't know what that is. So help me with that!"

[00:04:56] And, the entire room became animated! It was no longer like the consultant, the auditor grilling questions. It was, "Wow, somebody wants to know this!"

Amanda Wittern [00:05:10] And after we had spent two days, 10 hours in this room together, one of them reached back out to me a few days later and said, "You know what? We have never had someone come in and show true interest in what we were doing."

Amanda Wittern [00:05:27] And it hit me that actually I earned more respect. I was more a part of the conversation, [and] I had a bigger impact by just asking the question. Why was I so hesitant for years?

The ‘average’ woman’s experience in traditional industries and decision making [05:45]

Ashley Stryker [00:05:45] Well, yeah! And that was about to be my next question to you – do you think that was a "you" thing, or do you think that was representative of similar issues from other women in those kind of situations?

Amanda Wittern [00:06:01] I do not think that my situation, my experiences are unique. This is a... You know, I mentioned the word "stereotype." It really is a stereotypical view that women kind of impose on themselves, right? We do feel like... I had mentioned this extra pressure, but that can come from all kinds of places.

Amanda Wittern [00:06:28] There are certainly parts of the evolution of our society, the sort of entrenched kind of mental frameworks that we have progressed so rapidly from – you know, 20, 30, 50 years ago. The transition, it's rapid! So, society has had very little time to make very impressive... Make these huge strides towards equality and inclusiveness. So, I'm sure some of it is that mentality.

Amanda Wittern [00:07:04] I don't know if you've gone back and seen some of the cartoons from our childhood. But, let me just tell you, sometimes it's a little jaw dropping that even many years ago, there was sort of this entrenched view of the stereotypical relationship between men and women. So, maybe that's part of it.

Amanda Wittern [00:07:25] Another part of it is that, women – for a reason that someone smarter than me would have to explain – are very hesitant to be wrong. That's a pretty common characteristic across women. Men seem more likely to say something that they're not sure of and then own when they get it wrong, than a woman is, who would rather....

Amanda Wittern [00:07:52] And again, we're talking in generalization, right? But, women prefer to take in all of the information and then make a decision, so that our need to digest everything before contributing, before saying something means that we are unsure of ourselves, until we feel comfortable with knowing everything we have.

Amanda Wittern [00:08:20] Parts of it is communication, too. At least for me personally, I was aware that I could say things that were disadvantageous to my position. And so, I'm always cautious about that. These are common themes that women face in the workplace.

Amanda Wittern [00:08:42] So, I would absolutely say... and underrepresented people, right? This spans a wide variety of common characteristics that we really got to figure out the way around.

Ashley Stryker [00:08:56] Right. And as I was thinking through some of my own personal experiences in that – I, too, have seen people's eyes light up when you just ask them, and you're willing to just... You're willing to be the student for a moment, instead of constantly having to prove, "Yes, I belong here. Yes, I know what I'm doing."

Ashley Stryker [00:09:14] And, if you just go to people and say, "Yes, can you tell me more about this thing that you clearly find so interesting [that] you're willing to spend your career doing it," [then] it's amazing [to see] the doors that open, when you do take that initiative and kind of own that. It's really remarkable.

Ashley Stryker [00:09:36] But I'm wondering more... This is my first time working at a large tech company. In general, we serve cybersecurity and I.T. operations, and those traditionally male-dominated end users.

Communication is a two-way street [10:10]

Ashley Stryker [00:09:55] As somebody who has seen both sides of the coin within a... traditional, male-dominated sector outside of tech – and then one that's in tech – have you noticed that there are any differences in stereotypes of women that either hold especially true, or are a different subconscious way of approaching things for women in technology, particularly in cyber and I.T., than is [present] in other industries?

Amanda Wittern [00:10:30] I think that... the mentality of women remains consistent regardless of the industry. We have certain characteristics and tendencies; we carry those with us. We're challenging ourselves to overcome them, no matter where we're at. However, there was a difference in the mentality of the opposite sex and –

Amanda Wittern [00:11:00] Again, I'd like to reiterate, I think people are good. I don't think that I was intentionally slighted in any way.

Amanda Wittern [00:11:07] But when you have... For example, the financial industry – it is very established. There is not always a push for change – for new, improved, cutting edge, that kind of thing. When you have those types of institutions in place, there are traditions that have been passed forward from times where we maybe were not as progressive.

Amanda Wittern [00:11:38] So, for example, the a board of a bank has traditionally been white male, between a certain age, right? And you have to make active steps... You have to put in effort to break out of that mold. So the financial industry has more of a challenge with that than the technology industry.

Amanda Wittern [00:12:09] When you're in technology, it's the next best thing. It's new; It's exciting. There's change. You have to be open to adapt to every scenario that comes up. I found that that sort of mentality – that forward-thinking – seems to foster an environment where it doesn't matter your background.

Amanda Wittern [00:12:39] Do you have the idea? Do you have the capability? Are you excited? Are you enthusiastic? Are you curious?

Amanda Wittern [00:12:48] It doesn't matter who has that idea. Everyone can, because technology is so new. Some of the things that we're pushing into space and... All of the stuff. Because of that, there aren't those entrenched traditional structures of people – and that, I feel, gives more opportunity.

Ashley Stryker [00:13:12] I have noticed that there is a willingness to.... experiment, to try new things, to try different approaches that has been lacking in other industries that are much more traditional. I worked in legal for a time, and introducing new concepts and new ways of doing things was more challenging than I had expected – to be tactful there for a moment.

Ashley Stryker [00:13:41] That's really encouraging to hear, though, that that [mentality] creates this open opportunity for women to really break through into this truly developing and cutting edge industry.

Ashley Stryker [00:13:53] So what do you think – let's start with ourselves, then. How do we, as women or as previously disenfranchized groups, attempt to break into an industry as powerful as technology, even as it is accepting? What can we do to better facilitate and find the places where we can grow and then advocate for ourselves, and then find the advocates who can help us?

Amanda Wittern [00:14:23] Yes, that is a really good question. I have been involved in women's initiatives in the past. I'm still actively an advocate, so I'll share some of the things that I have been taught and that have really been insightful, and then some of the things that I've learned.

Amanda Wittern [00:14:43] Communication is a huge factor in how we [as women] are able to present ourselves to other people, and there are big differences in how men and women communicate.

Amanda Wittern [00:15:02] For example, when a male receives a compliment or recognition – "Hey, you did a good job!" – they accept it. "Oh, thank you. I appreciate that."

Amanda Wittern [00:15:17] When a woman is given the same kind of recognition, we will have a tendency to say, "Thank you; I had an excellent team" – and transition the focus from themselves.

Amanda Wittern [00:15:31] Now, there is no right way. In fact, they're both completely acceptable ways of responding. We need to be aware, however, that they are perceived differently.

Amanda Wittern [00:15:48] I'll keep giving you a couple of examples, but I do want to pause for just a moment. It is... I do not have the answer on who is responsible, in that scenario, for doing... for recognizing that those are both equal responses.

Amanda Wittern [00:16:08] So, in that scenario, the woman is no longer the focus – and thus elicits less respect – than the man who owns it, who claim that.

Amanda Wittern [00:16:25] So from the root, to give her communicator of the recognition the compliment if they are male, it is often perceived that the woman was... [that she] earns less respect. It was a "weaker" response, [one] that we would consider that a weaker response. And so, it can be perceived differently. Right.

Amanda Wittern [00:16:54] The reason I want to pause is because I don't know who in that scenario is ultimately the responsible party for making that exchange more equal.

Amanda Wittern [00:17:06] Is it the woman who should say it, in such a way as the man did, because we realize that that's what makes us... That's how we get equal footing?

Amanda Wittern [00:17:17] Or is it the giver of the recognition, who realizes that what the woman said was not an indicator, or that it's...

Ashley Stryker [00:17:26] Not a weak response? Yeah.

Amanda Wittern [00:17:28] Right – I don't know that answer.

Amanda Wittern [00:17:31] Let me give you a couple more examples, and let me just tell you that I cannot speak to who would be the person to make the change, to make the shift.

Ashley Stryker [00:17:44] That was part of why I framed the question to you the way I did, was because I recognized while there are some things that we ourselves can do to take ownership, there are other things outside of our control, in the environment that we are in, in the workplace that we're in, in the industry that we're in – that they have to shift as well. It's kind of a meeting-halfway.

Ashley Stryker [00:18:02] So just with that general recognition of, what can everybody do here?

Amanda Wittern [00:18:09] Okay, and I apologize for leaping forward there. It's just... it's just such an important thing to express, so that when you and I are talking, I would never want to say that this perception or this conversation is, "Men are bad; men should be doing this differently."

Qualifiers and comfort while being wrong [18:32]

Amanda Wittern [00:18:32] I also want to make the point that women are not in any way bad for doing these things. That response is perfectly acceptable by the woman, right? This is exactly right. It's a communication... It's a collaborative effort.

Amanda Wittern [00:18:50] So like I said, I apologize for jumping forward, but I really want to make sure that this community, this conversation with us fosters a positive environment. So thank you – a constructive environment. Yeah, absolutely.

Amanda Wittern [00:19:09] So another example, I sort of brought up, where we [as women in general] are not confident in being wrong. We're not comfortable with being wrong – that's a hard one! I don't –

Ashley Stryker [00:19:31] We're back to, "Is this a woman thing, or is this a me thing?" Because I personally am not comfortable being wrong, but...

Ashley Stryker [00:19:39] But, if I'm starting to think about it, it's not so much a discomfort of being wrong, so much as it is a reluctance to speak until you're sure.

Ashley Stryker [00:19:48] Oftentimes, men are more comfortable giving answers and responses when they're not as certain of an answer. Women tend to wait until they have more of the information before being certain of the answer.

Ashley Stryker [00:20:04] So, it has been my experience that in those kind of situations – because the woman in question needs more time to respond with confidence – they, in the meantime...

Ashley Stryker [00:20:18] The team runs with the initial response from the one, so that by the time the other woman participant is ready to contribute and is like, "No, guys, this is actually the correct response!" – they've already carried it off halfway through, because the man was willing to put forward his idea first.

Ashley Stryker [00:20:34] And that's, that has been... Again, this is grossly generalized, but that has been an ongoing and recurring theme in my own professional career. That was what I was thinking of when you brought up that situation.

Amanda Wittern [00:20:46] Well, let me make a comment on that before I give you maybe one final example. There's actually two parts to what you're talking about, and they both contribute.

Amanda Wittern [00:20:56] There is a hesitation to be wrong. There's a hesitation to be wrong that is separate from a woman's tendency to be less vocal.

Amanda Wittern [00:21:08] That doesn't mean that they don't come into play at the same time.

Amanda Wittern [00:21:11] An example of being wrong, and then women being afraid to being wrong is, "Does that make sense?" – right at the end of what we say.

Ashley Stryker [00:21:23] Oh, I say that all the time!

Amanda Wittern [00:21:25] "Is that...Oh, did I communicate that? Did you, did I say something wrong? Does that make sense?" Right?

Amanda Wittern [00:21:32] That what I'm talking about, an example of where women don't want to be wrong. We were uncomfortable with it. Whereas, you're also absolutely right. We prefer to...Typically, we like to absorb all of the information and speak when there is an appropriate time, to not cut people off –those types of things that contribute [to communication perceptions]. So there's two parts there.

Amanda Wittern [00:21:58] But, let me give you one one last example, and this is from personal experience. Women can be self-deprecating, and sometimes not even realize that they're doing it.

Ashley Stryker [00:22:09] You and I have talked about this, in fact! Yes, yes, we can.

Ashley and Amanda accidentally stereotype themselves! [22:13]

Amanda Wittern [00:22:13] Our conversation was actually pretty funny, because we both... we've both done it in different ways. You have made active comments – and I'll let you share those – versus me, who was unaware I was doing the exact same thing.

Amanda Wittern [00:22:32] So in my particular case, I would ask... Daniel [Spicer], he's the more technical one – versus me, which is more risk compliance. That is perpetuating a stereotype that is absolutely untrue.

Amanda Wittern [00:22:50] It framed him – as the man – as the more technical [person], versus me – the woman – who has more soft skills. It's absolutely not that way.

Amanda Wittern [00:23:00] My technical expertise is in fintech and blockchain and digital assets. His expertise is networking infrastructure – more infosec-oriented kind of thing.

Amanda Wittern [00:23:14] So, while I was good intentioned with what I was saying – trying to express how he and I complement each other – I was reinforcing a stereotype without even realizing it! There was self-deprecation there, completely unintentionally.

Amanda Wittern [00:23:30] But when you brought it up in our conversation, it was a jaw-dropping moment. It was an aha moment – that even after all of these efforts that I've been making over the years for that equality, I was still… I still have things to learn!

Ashley Stryker [00:23:46] And it was a beautiful moment, too, of the.... It's a perfect example, I think, of acknowledging that these things run deep and it's often not intentional.

Ashley Stryker [00:23:59] I did not intend – by any means! – to belittle my deputy CSO! That was a, "Oh, holy crap. You're absolutely correct. I am so sorry" [moment].

Ashley Stryker [00:24:10] So I was... there were lots of apologies, and Amanda, you were like, "No, no, no, no, it's fine! This is – I can completely see how you got there!"

Ashley Stryker [00:24:22] That was an interesting conversation that you and I both had, to kind of unpack how we got to that point. Then, that was the genesis of several of our conversations on how you accommodate and account for these sorts of things within a modern environment, even with the best of intentions. So, that was... I thought that was... That was why I was snorting earlier, because that was a perfect example.

Ashley Stryker [00:24:48] And then, I actually have a habit of self-deprecating humor.

Ashley Stryker [00:24:54] I tend to put people... That's my default for putting people at ease, because nobody can get mad if I'm the one who's getting the the joke made of them, right? It's something that's cross-cultural, that nobody can possibly feel offended if it's me who's the butt of the joke, first of all.

Ashley Stryker [00:25:11] Second of all, it makes people feel more comfortable and less intimidated, because if I can admit to fault – if I can admit to being wrong – then that means that they're also comfortable taking shouldering blame in certain situations where it may be appropriate for them to do so.

Ashley Stryker [00:25:29] Or, you know, it's a great icebreaker, too, because it makes people realize that I'm not going to be that... "auditor at the table" kind of moment. It's going to be a, "Hey, we're all in this together. We're all partners in this. Let's just go to town" [philosophy] and break the ice that way.

Ashley Stryker [00:25:47] But, in recent months, my boss and I have been discussing this. And while I'm in marketing – I'm not directly in cybersecurity – it's, to mention your point earlier, it's a woman issue.

Ashley Stryker [00:26:01] We think... We suspect...

Ashley Stryker [00:26:03] We worry that people who don't know me already – so a thought leader, [or rather] not thought leaders [but] internal executives and hire-ups and "the Powers That Be" as I so lovingly refer to them...

Ashley Stryker [00:26:15] [Those internal leaders] might not understand that this is my.... not a defense mechanism, but it's just a quirk. I'm just as capable and competent and confident as someone who doesn't do that. I know exactly what I'm talking about in my arena and what to do and where to go.

Ashley Stryker [00:26:32] But the self-deprecation is is...is an accommodating mechanism. We [my boss and I] worry that I could be seen as... I could be taken less seriously; my proposals could be subject to flaws.

Ashley Stryker [00:26:45] Am I trying to mitigate what I'm worried about as a critical response right off the bat? If I start off with that – as opposed to letting someone bring critique to it – am I just trying to head the pain off at the pass and assume that there's flaws in it by presenting it first?

Ashley Stryker [00:27:01] Is it... And is it a "me" thing, or is it a woman thing? So, self-deprecation is, I know... That's been my professional theme of the last month or so, I think.

A reminder of why DEI is worth fighting for at your organization. [27:10]

Ashley Stryker [00:27:11] I wanted to close with a question to you which is been asked on messaging boards everywhere, [with] the subtext [that] everybody recognizes that DEI [Diversity, Equity and Inclusion] initiatives – [it] seems to be the buzzword. Everybody wants to invest in companies that can show this.

Ashley Stryker [00:27:37] But there's hard... You're often asked to show, "What is the business case like [for DEI]?" There's this underlying subtext of, "Well, why should we even bother? Besides it being the right thing to do, why? What does it bring to the table?"

Ashley Stryker [00:27:50] So I wanted to put it to you, Amanda. What do you think? Inclusion and explicit, intentional inclusion of women and other underrepresented voices, traditionally underrepresented voices. What does that bring to InfoSec specifically?

Amanda Wittern [00:28:06] I do not have to give my opinion on this, because there are endless statistics about how much more how much more efficient, creative.... more ingenuity that teams from any profession are, when there are women, when there is more inclusion. I don't have to give my opinion.

Amanda Wittern [00:28:37] Statistically, there is a higher return on investment: companies make more money; companies save more money; companies are more agile, in that they are able to pivot faster in the market and identify market trends more quickly.

Amanda Wittern [00:28:58] Now, this is stuff that I would encourage everyone to just look up. There's so much information out there that I don't even... It's not opinion. This is statistically the case. There's so much out there.

Amanda Wittern [00:29:14] This is not just because women have all of this stuff; it's because together, in an inclusive environment, we all have strengths that can be brought to the table, and that makes a difference.

Amanda Wittern [00:29:31] Women have strengths, they have characteristics. They have ways of looking at things, perspective. They have things to bring to a team. They have things to bring to leadership that... A business needs a group, needs a team, needs to make things as effective as possible.

Amanda Wittern [00:29:56] So, yeah, I like this question, because it's a really easy answer. What benefit is there to having women there? And really, the question is, "When is there not?"

Amanda Wittern [00:30:15] There are absolutely limitless reasons that it's a benefit – and we have a great sense of humor, in my opinion.

Ashley Stryker [00:30:27] Yes. I mean, yeah. I mean, you and I definitely do. Well, if we can get Daniel to crack a smile [while recording]. If we can get him to actually laugh on recording next time – you guys should really hear our pre-recording sessions! They're pretty.... But, well, we'll. Well, we'll bring our baller sense of humor.

Ashley Stryker [00:30:48] And with that, thank you, Amanda, so much for taking the time to talk with us about this. I've been really excited for this one.

Amanda Wittern [00:30:58] And I appreciate. I appreciate you having me. I mean – I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Thanks for that, Ashley.

Ashley Stryker [00:31:09] No, of course!

Ashley Stryker [00:31:10] And thank you, guys, so much for tuning in today. We really appreciate it.

Ashley Stryker [00:31:17] We'd love to hear about your experience, particularly working with women and other underrepresented voices in cybersecurity. If you'd like, we'd love to hear about it. Please join the conversation online. You can follow us @GoIvanti. Check the show notes on your podcasting platform of choice for all of the resources that we have, including, I think, a blog that you wrote explicitly for October 2022 in Cybersecurity Awareness Month. So please do take a moment to check that out.

Ashley Stryker [00:31:56] And if you found today's conversation remotely interesting, entertaining, insightful – even a little bit! – please share it with your friends, your colleagues, your coworkers. The more times you share this, the more the algorithm loves us, and the more we can talk to other InfoSec folks like yourself.

Ashley Stryker [00:32:15] So with that, we're signing off. Stay safe, and we'll talk soon!

See Yourself in Cybersecurity: How 3 Experts Transitioned into InfoSec | Security Insights Podcast, Episode 27

Mon, 07 Nov 2022 22:21:46 Z

Want to work in cybersecurity, but not sure what you need? Ashley and Chris talk to three current cybersecurity experts on how they entered the industry – including Ivanti deputy CSO Amanda Wittern. (Also, bonus update on how Ashley pulled off her social engineering assignment from last episode!)

In this episode:

Social engineering in the wild: Ashley reports back on her social engineering assignment at a conference [00:30]
Deputy CSO Amanda Wittern’s journey to InfoSec from an accounting degree and her first role at Ernst & Young [05:07]
Threat Operations Analyst Kameron Hansen’s transition to security from earth science teacher in Granite School District [09:43]
- (Yes, "Granite" really was the name of the school district for the former earth science teacher with a geology degree.)
Cybersecurity Engineer Joshua Randall’s move to cybersecurity architecture after a career in sales and retail management [14:05]
How to transition your non-InfoSec “soft skills” into a cybersecurity career [19:26]

Additional resources:

Ashley’s Social Engineering Book List
More about our guests:
- Amanda Wittern, Deputy Chief Security Officer (LinkedIn)
- More about Kameron Hansen, Security Analyst (LinkedIn)
- More about Josh Randall, Cybersecurity Engineer (LinkedIn)
Find the latest cybersecurity job openings at Ivanti
Meet your hosts, Chris Goettl and Ashley Stryker
Join the conversation!
- Ivanti Twitter
- Ivanti LinkedIn

Social engineering in the wild: Ashley reports back on her social engineering assignment at a conference [00:30]

Ashley Stryker [00:00:07] Welcome back to Ivanti's Security Insights: where best practice security meets the real world workplaces we all have to protect. I'm your host, Ashley Stryker. And with us today is the O.G. host extraordinaire Chris Goettl, along with a new series regular and a couple special guests. I'm super excited to get to introduce them here later. Chris?

Chris Goettl [00:00:30] Yeah, it's going to be a fun episode, so if you all remember the last episode, we were talking about how the marketing brain is ideally suited for social engineering. And if you guys remember where.

Ashley Stryker [00:00:42] Wait, I was trying to dodge that!

Chris Goettl [00:00:43] I never let you dodge things like that, Ashley, you know that.

Chris Goettl [00:00:46] So one of the things we talked about was actually sending Ashley out into the real world to an event and trying to put some of these tactics to use. And she did!

Chris Goettl [00:00:57] So, Ashley, you didn't get arrested. First of all, you know, props to you for that. Not getting arrested is a definite bonus. We gave you some you know, I personally gave you kind of a few like tiers of achievements. Call them badges, if you will.

Ashley Stryker [00:01:12] I got to beginner. So I did novice and I got to beginner. So the first tier...

Ashley Stryker [00:01:20] What I have decided is that marketers are, in fact, natural social engineers, and I have been accidentally doing this for my entire life. And, after reading some of the resources you guys have given me, I now have words to put why good things happen to me in social situations and apparently at a higher rate than they do for the average person.

Ashley Stryker [00:01:38] To wit: my very first night, there were... I was going to a, "Hey, meet the team if you're here early" [event]. I drag myself out of bed – was literally in pajamas, got dressed back into normal clothes to go meet these people, because I'm an honest groupie; I just love this conference.

Ashley Stryker [00:01:53] And, I'm just talking with a couple of people. I didn't realize they were bigwigs in the organization. They say, "Hey, you want to go to the secret staff-only meet and greet of the really bigwig keynote speaker that nobody knows is happening?"

Ashley Stryker [00:02:08] And I went, "Well, that's the get invited to an event you weren't supposed to be" [novice tier] off my list, and I had been in the city for about 5 hours.

Ashley Stryker [00:02:18] So that – and so that was, that was that one off the list. I have picture evidence that that happened, which was really exciting and it was really generous of them to do so.

Ashley Stryker [00:02:29] And then the other [beginner tier] was get swag, the really good swag underneath the table.

Chris Goettl [00:02:34] So for those of you who have been to events, every vendor you go to, they've got the regular swag, they've got kind of the middle tier swag that they're going to give out to a lot of people, but they keep it... Like it's the coveted things, and then they've got the super cool swag that they're really holding on to for the handful of customers that they really want to hand out, the more expensive things too. So her goal was to try to get one of the more expensive swag items.

Ashley Stryker [00:02:59] Yes. And it's not like you can go up and be like, "Hey, give me your stuff." So I was just going up to a table. I happened to be a casual customer of theirs, but they never verified anything. And I certainly didn't talk about it, as, like, it was so superficial. Anyone could have used this conversation, not just me.

Ashley Stryker [00:03:21] And then they went, "Hey, do you want to come to this dinner thing?" And she reaches under the table into her purse for a little postcard giveaway. And I still have the postcard as proof – to go and get invited to this dinner because I had been mirroring her, and I had been giving her a nice time when – right before me – there was a butthead who wasn't being very nice to her.

Ashley Stryker [00:03:45] So I was kind and had nice things to say to her. And through reciprocity, she gave me something of like value, which is a social engineering thing.

Ashley Stryker [00:03:54] So lesson learned: kindness breeds kindness. And, I'm mildly terrified of people who are going to weaponize this.

Chris Goettl [00:04:02] So yes, and that's really kind of the segue into our guest speakers for today is, we've got a few people here that have come to the security world from a few different walks of life.

Chris Goettl [00:04:15] So for those of you out there who are either thinking about breaking into the security side of the technology world and maybe interested in – yeah, figuratively, yeah, don't... We don't condone actually breaking in to know that... The experiment with actually was just an experiment, please don't try that at all.

Chris Goettl [00:04:35] But you know, we did want to introduce one of our new cast members. You'll be seeing her as a regular on the show going forward, our deputy CSO, Amanda Wittern.

Chris Goettl [00:04:47] And we've got two of our security team members who are also going to be on here as guest speakers today. And each of them have kind of an interesting background. They're going to tell us a little bit about how they broke into the InfoSec or cybersecurity world.

Chris Goettl [00:05:00] So with that, let's bring in our first guest.

Deputy CSO Amanda Wittern’s journey to InfoSec from an accounting degree and her first role at Ernst & Young [05:07]

Ashley Stryker [00:05:03] Hi, Amanda.

Amanda Wittern [00:05:04] Hello. Thank you for having me here.

Ashley Stryker [00:05:08] Of course, I'm super excited – I'm going to get to talk with you on a regular basis!

Amanda Wittern [00:05:13] I'm going to try to match your energy. I'm so excited to be here.

Ashley Stryker [00:05:17] For all of our listeners at home who may just be listening and not simply frantically searching Amanda Wittern into LinkedIn. How did you get into cybersecurity? Let's start with this because I think this is an interesting story. What's your degree?

Amanda Wittern [00:05:31] Yes, actually, my bachelor's and master's is in accounting.

Ashley Stryker [00:05:38] Your master's is in accounting, too?

Amanda Wittern [00:05:39] Yes, my master's is in accounting, too. And, it has been an adventure moving into cybersecurity.

Amanda Wittern [00:05:48] I realized that there is an underutilization in academics – collegiate academics – for technology. We teach this subject or that subject, when really the medium for affecting whatever that is, is technology. And so I argued that point a little bit. I went to the University of Utah and they decided to roll out an information security branch of accounting.

Ashley Stryker [00:06:15] Oh, cool!

Amanda Wittern [00:06:16] Yes. And because I was the first one in the program, I said, "I don't need any of these accounting classes," and took my entire masters in computer science or other types of classes. I've just had, I've had a passion for it ever since. It's really what gets me up in the morning.

Ashley Stryker [00:06:32] That's a really... So, I social engineered my way into a free dinner; you social engineered your way into the fun part of your accounting degree.

Amanda Wittern [00:06:40] That is correct. And I told everyone that I ran into – I was like, "Did you know they have a new information security program in accounting? You should look into it."

Ashley Stryker [00:06:49] That's awesome. But that's info – that's [information]... That's I.T. and the technology behind it! So which part of your degree did you end up using to start your your journey into security – accounting?

Amanda Wittern [00:07:02] I did! I used my accounting degree. So I actually started my career with one of the big four accounting firms, Ernst and Young. And they told us, you know, early on in our master's degree that that's where you start. But it's so difficult because it is such a sought-after starting place, a launching pad for your career.

Amanda Wittern [00:07:25] And so after talking to some people, they were like, "You know, we kind of do this technology consulting and –"

Amanda Wittern [00:07:33] "What?! You have to tell me more!"

Amanda Wittern [00:07:34] And the moment they put a name to it, I put that on every email that I sent: "Oh, I'm interested in technology consulting!" Technology consulting. And because I was so focused, they were like, "Well, we don't have anybody else looking into technology consulting, so you can have the internship." And then – but even then it was very, very audit focused.

Amanda Wittern [00:07:56] And so it has been really a passion for... A passion for learning and curiosity in all things technology that I think has sort of wound my road here.

Ashley Stryker [00:08:10] Was it during your audit that you ended up experiencing and seeing people doing things they shouldn't and getting to catch them? Was that what got you interested in the security space?

Amanda Wittern [00:08:21] Kind of. It was a lot of running into things I didn't know or understand.

Amanda Wittern [00:08:28] And actually, being a woman, it's not always as easy to say, "I don't know what you're talking about." So I made this habit of frantically writing down notes as fast as I could, and then going and researching it later and then coming back with the questions that, that really...

Amanda Wittern [00:08:49] Okay, now, that being said, sometimes my questions were, "How are you getting away with this?".

Amanda Wittern [00:08:57] But the point is that really, it was just – it's just my love for all things different and new and exciting and learning, really. It's really about learning.

Ashley Stryker [00:09:12] Awesome. And, I think on a future episode, we're going to dig into that women in tech moment. But I'll let you – I'll let that skate for a second because I want to move on.

Threat Operations Analyst Kameron Hansen’s transition to security from earth science teacher in Granite School District [09:43]

Ashley Stryker [00:09:21] Kameron! Hi.

Ashley Stryker [00:09:24] Kameron Hanson. Welcome to the show.

Kameron Hansen [00:09:27] Thank you. It's good to be here.

Ashley Stryker [00:09:31] Do you want to tell everybody how we managed to pull you in today? Like, where do you work and what do you do? Yeah.

Kameron Hansen [00:09:37] So I actually work on the threat operations side of things and the InfoSec team. And so my day to day stuff is more related with incidents and alerts and things like that, as opposed to operations.

Ashley Stryker [00:09:51] Does your – This is a totally random aside, but does your computer end up looking like a Christmas tree, with all the random alerts that just pop on it on a daily basis?

Kameron Hansen [00:10:00] It can. I try not to turn it off when it looks like that, but yeah, it definitely can.

Ashley Stryker [00:10:08] I hear there's something called alarm fatigue, and I imagine somebody in your position would probably know that very well. So. So I guess I'll start with the first question I asked Amanda: what's your degree in, if you have one?

Kameron Hansen [00:10:21] Yeah. So I actually started my degree also at the University of Utah in geology, and I got all the way to student teaching. I started at Granite School District to start my student teaching and earth science education.

Kameron Hansen [00:10:37] So I got my geology degree – earth science education – passed that Praxis test, and then went to student teach, and we ended up having a child during that time. And I realized, unfortunately, Utah teachers don't make very much money. And so, I started looking for a new job.

Ashley Stryker [00:10:57] So. you were going to teach Earth Science. You were a rock dude. How did you end up in the server room?

Kameron Hansen [00:11:04] So I actually had another job for four years in between in sales, and part of what I did during calls was I moved more towards the sales engineer role. So I worked with a lot of the people who were on the tech side, and my entire time at the University of Utah, I worked in entry level I.T. roles. And so it just seemed like I kept coming back to it over and over and over again.

Kameron Hansen [00:11:30] And so once I decided I couldn't handle sales anymore, I decided I actually did enjoy I.T., and tried to make it back into that world.

Ashley Stryker [00:11:38] So you made it back into I.T., then? That seems like a hop, skip and a jump away from security. But how did you end up making that transition?

Kameron Hansen [00:11:47] I kind of already had an introduction into the security world. My family – my dad and his brother – had started a digital forensics company in Utah. And so, while I was going to college and growing up, I kind of watched them build that company and was introduced into some of those areas.

Kameron Hansen [00:12:15] I kept, I always wanted to go back and do that. I just never really thought I was smart enough until I went back to college and realized, "Hey, none of us are smart. I could totally do this."

Kameron Hansen [00:12:25] And so, I wanted to go into digital forensics. So, I started to get into the security world, and then I realized there was so much more than forensics. It's not just forensics. There's a whole different – there's so many different areas you can go into.

Ashley Stryker [00:12:40] What part of it do you like most, then, that keeps you in the job?

Kameron Hansen [00:12:45] Like I had mentioned before, I'm kind of on what you would call the blue team. You have the red team, with the penetration testing and hackers, I guess you would say, and I'm more on the defense side – I like that more. It might just be because most of my friends have moved into this world. So, I know a lot of people who do it and can share a lot of stories. It's just something that I enjoy doing. It was interesting to me, I guess.

Ashley Stryker [00:13:12] And it pays better than teaching about earth science in Utah.

Kameron Hansen [00:13:15] I won't even tell you how much – I don't want to make people sad.

Ashley Stryker [00:13:21] If you get nothing else from this episode today, everybody, please, let's all pay our teachers more in the United States. Just... exactly, let's just all agree that that should just be a thing. But we're glad that that forced you to come to us, though, because we really appreciate having you as part of the team. And I know you were invited on because you are!

Cybersecurity Engineer Joshua Randall’s move to cybersecurity architecture after a career in sales and retail management [14:05]

Ashley Stryker [00:13:38] And that brings me to another valued member of the team that we wanted to feature today: Josh Randall! Hey, Josh.

Josh Randall [00:13:47] Hey. Thanks for having me.

Ashley Stryker [00:13:48] Yeah, absolutely. So, I guess we'll start the same with you, then: your name, your position, and whether or not you have a degree and what it's in.

Josh Randall [00:13:58] Definitely. My name is Joshua Randall. I'm a cybersecurity engineer. I'm actually on the architecture team here [at Ivanti], so we make sure systems are designed with security in mind: run tests on them and audits on them to ensure that they do have the patch and they're compliant with what our goals are.

Josh Randall [00:14:21] And, my degree is actually in history that I got a long time ago from the University of Northern Colorado.

Ashley Stryker [00:14:28] History. Now that's a fluffy liberal arts degree. How did you end up in something so technical, sir?

Josh Randall [00:14:36] That is a long story. I'll keep it short, though.

Josh Randall [00:14:42] In a nutshell, I went to college. I loved history, so I took my history degree. And, when I graduated, it didn't take me long to realize the opportunities that come with a history degree are few and far between. So I did end up starting working in retail.

Josh Randall [00:15:02] Originally, it was just a job afterwards, but I did like it – especially logistics and systems – so I was enjoying that part of it. I worked my way up, and I was in store management in a major retailer. I would run teams 5 to 50 people, things like that. I met my wife there and we have four amazing kids now.

Josh Randall [00:15:27] But, a couple of years back, there is an incident that kind of affected our lives – probably everybody's life! – with COVID coming and all our kids had to be taught from home. Both me and my wife worked in retail. And so, we had to sit down and figure out who was going to stay home with the kids.

Josh Randall [00:15:50] And my wife said, "I think it's time for you to go after your path." And so, with her support, I was able to leave retail, and I started educating myself and taking some classes in tech while helping the kids do school learning as well.

Ashley Stryker [00:16:07] So you went back to school [at] the same time [as] you were helping the kiddos stay in school?

Josh Randall [00:16:12] Yes. That was... That was fun. We had a kindergartner doing e-learning at the time – which having a kindergartner focused on a screen for hours a day is very hard.

Ashley Stryker [00:16:27] Oh, man... I can't get my gremlin to do it right before bedtime as a treat, and he's three. So I guess that's another three years, but... Attention. Holy cow. How do you get homework done?

Josh Randall [00:16:39] Oh, mine was generally late at night afterwards. I quickly realized that I had to do mine after a while, after they were in bed, and to make sure that everything got in.

Josh Randall [00:16:50] But yeah, a little after – I actually took a boot camp course. So, it's where you partnered with a university here and did some deep dive into tech.

Josh Randall [00:16:59] [It] worked really well to get me freshened up on some tech stuff and landed my first tech support role at a company working with Arcsight [ECM] SIEM right there, which is just another company. And then I – [a] few months into [working] there, I was working with Lennox a lot, which is a great intro.

Josh Randall [00:17:24] But then Ivanti reached out for tech support for me, so then I jumped in with Ivanti.

Ashley Stryker [00:17:28] And then how did you make the move then? Because Ivanti recruited you for tech support and you got an internal promotion transition to the security team. So how did that come about?

Josh Randall [00:17:40] Yeah, well, while I was in tech support, I continued to educate myself. I got my first certification, so my security plus, there. And then, honestly, just when I was looking around at LinkedIn and I saw there is a cybersecurity position open with Ivanti and I put my hat in!

Josh Randall [00:18:04] I didn't really expect it to go far. There is always a running joke when you're looking for a cybersecurity job intro position: "Five years experience required."

Josh Randall [00:18:17] So, I put in and what was great was in the interview, you know, I was very honest [in my] lack of professional cybersecurity experience. But, I've got a passion to learn. I've got skills that can be beneficial and I can do it. And, they felt I would be a good fit for the team.

Josh Randall [00:18:38] So they brought me on, and I really respect them for that.

Ashley Stryker [00:18:42] So, is it what you expected?

Josh Randall [00:18:45] Cybersecurity as a whole – and Kameron kind of alluded to this – is bigger than I realized. I kind of came in knowing about, you know, pen testers or hackers, the red team and the blue team. But, once you get involved in it and you see that there's architecture in there, there's analysts going through there, there's auditors doing it, there's people doing worrying about governance and compliance and all sorts of things and positions in there that a lot of people don't know about.

Josh Randall [00:19:21] So it's a lot bigger and even cooler than I realized.

How to transition your non-InfoSec “soft skills” into a cybersecurity career [19:26]

Ashley Stryker [00:19:26] And a lot more opportunity to use other types of skills instead of just the leet hacker. (Sorry, #CoolKid moment there.) But, it's not just writing code that can do crazy things. It's other skills too, right?

Josh Randall [00:19:43] Yeah, definitely. Some of the things I learned working in retail management have come off great. Being able to communicate, manage projects – these kind of things that people will call "soft skills," you'll hear that term – they do wonders for you when you're working as a team and figuring things out. When I have to design a system for Kameron to make sure he can use it correctly or help anybody out, those kind of skills go a long way in a career here.

Ashley Stryker [00:20:20] Kameron, then – have you found that some of your previous career iterations or expectations and some of those skills that you had at previous expectations in your career? Have they served you well in cyber, in ways you weren't expecting?

Kameron Hansen [00:20:34] Yeah, I think it's a lot like Josh just said. I never thought getting into cybersecurity that my sales job or my teaching job would have any impact at all. But that's, I mean, that cybersecurity is – it's always changing. There's different things that we have to continue to learn and learn and learn.

Kameron Hansen [00:20:54] And as you're learning this, you're going to be working with people where you have to... When I was teaching, you have to be able to teach them why this happened, how it happened, what's going on.

Kameron Hansen [00:21:03] And, depending on what the incident is or the vulnerability or the actors that are coming after you, you have to pull in people from different departments. It's not always the same people. It may be people who might not be as experienced in technology.

Kameron Hansen [00:21:18] And so, just being able to work with anybody at any level is really useful, especially because I've been there at the level where I didn't know what I was talking about... To the level where I still don't know what I'm talking about, but at least I know a little bit more. But yeah, there's so much that we do every single day that it's impossible to come into this job not using skills that you've had previously.

Ashley Stryker [00:21:44] So, Amanda, as somebody who is the bigwig – one of them anyway, at Ivanti – you are one of the people who is at the top of the ladder. You do see people and candidates and have an influence in building a team and the kind of skills you expect and the kind of culture and those kind of soft skill applications.

Ashley Stryker [00:22:09] What do you think cybersecurity needs more of, and what have you tried to build or have been excited to see built at Ivanti's team?

Amanda Wittern [00:22:16] Frequently, it has been soft skills that I think every industry everywhere has been looking for. There was such a strong emphasis on specialization and know the most about one thing and that that would be your "in."

Amanda Wittern [00:22:35] But anymore, there is an opportunity to learn many things about all kinds of different things. It can be a lot more about applying what you know. So, I would echo with both what Joshua and Kameron said, that the biggest component of cybersecurity is a desire to learn, to continue learning.

Amanda Wittern [00:22:55] And on top of that, be curious, have that be your motivator to continue learning, because the skills that you need to be able to do this job – the hard skills – are out there, they're available. You can learn them through boot camps. You can learn them through connections. You can learn them through Googling. I would be careful at some of the websites you might search for hacking...!

Amanda Wittern [00:23:18] But, what really matters is being curious and wanting to learn.

Ashley Stryker [00:23:26] So how can – and this will be the last question, I think because because we're coming up on time here – but in your opinion, how can you best... how can employers best identify the candidates who are willing and eager to learn?

Amanda Wittern [00:23:42] That is the golden question, isn't it? If I knew the answer to that, I would be doing something much different and being paid much more.

Amanda Wittern [00:23:52] But I think I think our our CSO, Daniel [Spicer], has done an incredible job with assembling a team of individuals from various backgrounds. It's become very clear from this conversation, right? I think he is focused much more on asking the practical questions that make people stop, think, assess and then respond.

Amanda Wittern [00:24:21] So sometimes it's about... You have to have the background knowledge, right? Even though you might be a history major, you still have to have progressed to the point where Joshua did become passionate, you know, with I.T.

Amanda Wittern [00:24:34] And then, ultimately, you do have to have the technical background, but what you really need to be successful in this career is a critical thinking set. So when someone presents you with a problem or you're able to see a problem – which is even better! – you can stop, think and apply that knowledge-driven ambition, that curiosity that you have.

Ashley Stryker [00:24:57] Oh, man. Now I kind of want to apply because it sounds like fun.

Amanda Wittern [00:25:06] I would say that it is!

Ashley Stryker [00:25:09] Well, thank you, Amanda, Kameron and Josh for joining us. Thank you, Chris, for lurking in the shadows for most of –

Chris Goettl [00:25:17] Before we before we wrap up, I came up with this great new joke–

Ashley Stryker [00:25:20] Oh, God.

Chris Goettl [00:25:21] – based on today's episode –

Amanda Wittern [00:25:22] Oh no.

Chris Goettl [00:25:23] An accountant, a geologist and a historian walked into the SOC... that is all the farther I got.

Chris Goettl [00:25:31] But it sounds like the start of a really good show. We're gonna have to finish that one somehow. But that's all right. That's our mission now. Doesn't that sound great?

Ashley Stryker [00:25:38] That is....

Amanda Wittern [00:25:39] I mean, I understand this... This podcast is recurring, right? So, Chris, you have now committed yourself to finishing that joke for next time.

Chris Goettl [00:25:49] All right. Fair enough. I'll see if I can pull that off.

Ashley Stryker [00:25:52] You made me go break into places at the conference. You can at least finish a silly joke.

Ashley Stryker [00:25:58] So – and with that tantalizing nugget for next time – thanks everybody so much again for tuning in today. Thanks again to Amanda, Kameron and Josh for joining us. Thank you, Chris, for contributing, as well.

Ashley Stryker [00:26:15] If you'd like to continue today's conversation – and I would be especially curious, because I was not expecting any of those degrees from any three of you, how... Do you want to get into security? What is your degree?

Ashley Stryker [00:26:30] Please follow us at Twitter @GoIvanti. And links for today's materials and shownotes will, of course, be on your podcasting platform of choice. So please feel free to peruse there.

Ashley Stryker [00:26:48] And as always, if you found our conversation amusing, interesting, or at least mildly entertaining, please share this with your teammates and friends. The more you share and the more people who listen, the more the algorithm likes us. As your token marketer, I must remind.

Ashley Stryker [00:27:05] And with that, we're signing off for this episode. Stay safe, everybody. We'll talk soon. Bye!

A Candid Conversation About a Career in Cybersecurity: Q&A With Amanda Wittern

Thu, 20 Oct 2022 20:35:54 Z

October 17-22 is Cybersecurity Career Awareness Week, which is part of October’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month. We sat down with Amanda Wittern, Deputy Chief Security Officer at Ivanti, to learn more about what it’s like to work in the cybersecurity world.

Q. How would you describe your role as Deputy Chief Security Officer at Ivanti?

It's my role to partner with Daniel Spicer, our CSO, and our entire information security team to ensure that we are the most effective and secure organization possible. I'm often the liaison between our team and other teams across Ivanti to enhance our company’s overall cybersecurity infrastructure and the security of our products.

Q. What do you enjoy the most about working at Ivanti?

Hands down – it’s the people! They are incredibly knowledgeable and have so much integrity and passion. There's a shared vision for the future that’s just incredible. I've experienced nothing like it and Ivanti is special that way. Also, I am constantly challenged and continually learning, so I'm never bored.

Q. What does a typical day look like for you?

There is no such thing as a typical day in information security. Some days, a cybersecurity threat is identified that requires all hands on deck. It's very exciting to work with agencies worldwide to coordinate and collaborate on cybercrime. And other days, it's about improving Ivanti and our cybersecurity controls.

Some of that is pen testing and some is improving coordination across teams. For example, I’ll sit down with engineering and have them tell me about what they do in a day and how we can improve.

Q. Why did you decide to pursue a career in cybersecurity?

Interestingly, my bachelor’s and master’s degrees are in accounting, but I became passionate and interested in technology early on. While I was in my master’s program, they introduced a Master’s of Information Systems, and I was the Guinea pig for that and basically received an information security degree.

During my early career in technology consulting, I decided that what I was really excited about was being on the solution side rather than being a third-party consultant. Now I'm helping to create solutions for the company and our customers, sharing our knowledge worldwide.

Q. What is an important lesson you’ve learned throughout your career?

From early on, my goal was to change the world, so initially, even though I didn’t know what I wanted to do, I was thinking of pursuing a physics-type, technology-oriented degree. As I talked to my mentors, they said that the people who change the world are people who make money and directed me to go into accounting, which made sense.

But as I matured, I realized there is no one way to change the world. We impact the world significantly. Whether it’s a person sweeping the streets, or the CEO of a large company, we all have a unique impact on the shaping of our society.

You don't have to do what other people say to make a difference. What makes a difference is being happy with who you are and what you're doing. That's when you really accomplish your goals and contribute to the amazing group of cultures and societies we have in the world.

Q. What cybersecurity trend are you most excited about?

A topic that fascinates me is how we will secure space. As countries, and now individuals and organizations, are expanding farther into the cosmos, we face some of the same security challenges there as we do here, but it's a totally different environment.

New AI technology and sensing and maneuvering capabilities could be hacked. What are the repercussions of that? How do we protect those devices?

It's exciting to be moving outward, but we will have to stop and determine the safety precautions we need to have in place. If we send people to Mars, what does communication look like? If we must send super critical data, what will the encryption be like?

There’s just so much new technology and exciting things going on in outer space, especially with AI technology. And there's a lot of scary stuff too. We're going to have to see what happens from a vulnerability standpoint and then try to be on top of it. We don't want something to be taken over and not respond correctly.

Q. What advice do you have for women entering or thinking of entering the cybersecurity field?

It's super, super important that we as women realize it's okay if we don't know the answers. Speak up and ask questions – it's okay to be unsure. You don't have to know everything, and the moment that you realize that you expand your capacity to influence the world around you.

Early in my career I would take furious notes because I didn't want to ask the questions. And then when I realized people didn't think I was dumb because I was asking questions, I accelerated my learning and quickly was able to become the expert. But as women, we tend to shy away from that.

Whether we're self-conscious or whether we are worried about being wrong or whether we don't want to appear inferior, that’s how we limit ourselves. And in cybersecurity, you don't have to know everything. Just ask questions. Have a passion for technology and a passion for learning. And that's it.

Q. Any thoughts on how we can close the gender gap in cybersecurity?

We need to provide education on bias and equity. Some of the barriers that are in place for women and other genders in the workplace are systemic and not necessarily nefarious, but something that we may not be aware of.

For example, when someone congratulates someone for doing a good job, men will often say “thanks, I worked really hard for this,” where women will say “thanks, I had a really great team.”

Those are both great answers, but one is perceived as weaker. If we just provide education to these conscious and unconscious biases, we’ll be better equipped as coworkers, bosses, employees and society to be more understanding, accepting and respecting of different ideas.

Q. What is one security tip that you’d like to offer readers for Cybersecurity Awareness Month?

Understanding how much information you give away can help you make better decisions on what you share. We give away a lot of our information all the time, not always actively, and it’s scary. But if you don’t know, you can't make informed decisions.

I would highly recommend everybody take a few minutes and protect yourself a little better, especially with your cell phone. A good rule of thumb is to turn off GPS when not in use. Think of GPS as giving people your home address and don't share it with anyone you wouldn't give directions to your house. Try to only connect to secure Wi-Fi networks.

When using public Wi-Fi, like at a coffee shop, don't enable the ability to automatically connect. Public networks are notoriously unsecure, so take extra precautions whenever possible. Always be wary of the apps you download, the links you click and how you interact with information online.

Q. Anything else you’d like to add?

Don’t let a lack of a formal technical degree stop you from pursuing a career in cybersecurity. A cybersecurity expert is not a single kind of person with a finite set of abilities. We need different perspectives and people with various backgrounds.

While having a technical aptitude or a strong technical background is important, you can get into cybersecurity in lots of different ways; it's not just one path that gets you here.

So, if you are passionate about it and you have a passion for learning and have that curiosity, there are ways that you can apply your skills that are not necessarily technical in such a way that could contribute or benefit a cybersecurity team or an information security team.

Employees Confirm that Ivanti Is a "Great Place to Work," Earning Ivanti the Prestigious Great Place to Work® Certification™

Tue, 16 Aug 2022 16:20:25 Z

We are thrilled to announce that Ivanti is now Certified™ by Great Place to Work®. The prestigious certification is determined entirely by what current employees have to say about their experiences working here at Ivanti. A resounding 88% of Ivanti employees said our company is a great place to work — the national average is 57%. We take our employee experience seriously, and the Great Place to Work® certification shows our leadership’s dedication to providing a positive workplace culture.

Great Place to Work® is the world's leading authority on workplace culture, employee experience and the leadership behaviors that have been proven to deliver market-leading revenue, employee retention and increased innovation. It is the only recognition based solely on what employees report about their workplace experience — specifically, how consistently they experience a high-trust workplace. Great Place to Work® Certification is the global benchmark for identifying and recognizing outstanding employee experience. Every year, more than 10,000 companies across 60 countries apply to get Great Place to Work®-Certified, and Ivanti is proud to be among the elite organizations selected.

At Ivanti, we all work daily to foster a sense of collaboration and enhance the employee experience. Our quarterly Employee Engagement Survey is distributed to ensure that we have our finger on the pulse of what employees feel and can make improvements accordingly. Survey results indicate tremendous recent improvement across many areas, and these findings give us even more insight into opportunities to keep leveling up. The overwhelming 78% response rate to our most recent survey gives us a strong sense of where we stand and where we need to go.

What makes Ivanti’s culture so great?

Our company, because of our foundation through acquisition, is made up of a diverse set of companies, backgrounds and cultures. As an acquisitive company, we know our whole is greater than the sum of our parts, so we strive to spread the culture of inclusion. In fact, our diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging policy (DEIB) has been completely revitalized to make sure it truly represents who we are as Ivanti. We recognize that our differences contribute to the richness of our culture and the success we achieve for our customers.

That’s why we’re committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment where all perspectives are heard, respected and valued – and we’re taking action. I’m happy to share that we’ve successfully increased the representation of women in our executive leadership team to 50%. We also recently placed renewed emphasis on our partnership with Circa, a diversity recruitment service. This is an important partnership that enables us to hire a diverse workforce for the future. Our goal is to attract, develop and retain the best and brightest from all backgrounds. Additionally, Ivanti recently sponsored the Utah Pride Festival for the first time ever.

Ivanti’s core values

Overall, our commitment to creating a winning, diverse and inclusive culture is deeply rooted in our core values. We defined our core values by and for our employees: Locking Arms, Fight the Good Fight, Champions for our Customers, and Outcomes Matter Most. Every day, our employees do an outstanding job of demonstrating each and every one of these core values.

Locking Arms refers to how teamwork is intrinsic to what we do and why we do it. We encourage locking arms across all departments of business, because success comes from cross-functional collaboration that elevates everyone on the team. One example: Michael Mills, Ivanti's newly appointed Chief Experience Officer, established the Office of CXO to bridge the gap between Ivanti's employee experience (EX) and the Ivanti customer experience (CX). Locking Arms is embracing the link between customer experience, employee experience and our culture. We are accountable to each other and support one another. We provide opportunities to grow, learn, add value and thrive — while also achieving new levels of performance. In our effort to enable and secure the Everywhere Workplace, it is important for employees to work together, lending a helping hand whenever possible.

Fighting the Good Fight can be defined as our commitment to enable, prepare and protect our customers so they can drive their own business success. We are grateful to our Security team for waking up every day to fight the good fight against cyberterrorism. The Security team’s main goal is to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of Ivanti information systems and data. It is through the Security team’s vigilant and strenuous efforts that we can operate at the leading edge of cybersecurity. When our customers, our governments and our people are safe and protected from threats, we are winning.

Being Champions for our Customers is more than just excellent customer service. We aim to always anticipate our customers’ needs and deliver innovative solutions that exceed their expectations. We’re highly responsive in answering all customer inquiries while consistently developing new innovative solutions for our customers. Our Sales and Product teams have been exceptional in bridging the gap between customer needs and Ivanti solution offerings. Ivanti Neurons is just one example of how we innovate to deliver excellence, both for our customers and — as Customer Zero — for ourselves. With the power to continuously sense, discover and remediate security threats even before users know about them, Ivanti Neurons makes it possible for our company to enable and secure the Everywhere Workplace.

Our fourth core value, Outcomes Matter Most, is tailored to our mentality of starting with the end goal in mind — for our customers, employees, partners and investors. We are dedicated to not only reaching but exceeding our expectations. If our solutions do not deliver the appropriate expectation, we cannot succeed in our mission.

We are committed to demonstrating our values through not only words, but also actions, and each of our employees embodies our values every day.

It is a great honor to receive the Great Place to Work® Certification, which was only made possible by our wonderful Ivantians. More importantly, we’re beyond happy about what this certification reflects — that we are creating positive experiences for our employees. We aren’t complacent, and we will continue to be diligent in our efforts to provide employees with a great place to work.

Looking to join our amazing team? Visit our career page!

Introducing Ivanti Everyone: Renewed Focus on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 11:01:08 Z

Fostering and supporting a diverse and inclusive workforce has always been a priority for me throughout my career. Shortly after I took over at Ivanti as CEO, I pulled together a taskforce to look at our diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) policy and make sure it truly represented who we are as Ivanti. Our company, because of our foundation through acquisition, was made up of a diverse set of companies, backgrounds and cultures. As an acquisitive company, by our very nature we know that our whole is greater than the sum of our parts, so we want the mindset of inclusion – and the Ivanti Everyone principles – to proliferate.

It has been proven that diversity enhances innovation and better decision making within an organization. Making sure that we have diversity of thought at Ivanti will help us reach new markets, increase performance, and will help us improve our business by being more innovative, creative, flexible and equitable.

I’m proud of our new DEIB policy presented below, and to share a few ways that we are supporting this important program. Because actions speak louder than words.

Ivanti Everyone in Action:

Ivanti is sponsoring the Utah Pride Festival for the first time ever.
- We hope to see our customers and partners based in and around Salt Lake City at our booth at the festival.
In honor of Juneteenth, we are placing renewed emphasis on our partnership with Circa, a diversity recruitment service. This is an important partnership that enables us to hire a diverse workforce of the future. Our goal is to attract, develop and retain the best and brightest from all backgrounds.

I hope everyone will celebrate these days and events.

At Ivanti, a core value is creating a diverse and inclusive environment where all perspectives are heard, respected and valued. We enable and secure the Everywhere Workplace by ensuring that everyone at Ivanti can bring a full range of views and talents to work with them every day. Through inclusive practices and diversity Ivanti will be increasingly capable of solving complex challenges, locking arms with one another, and providing unique insight and support to customers and partners. To meet increasingly global and complex challenges, Ivanti must attract, develop and retain a diverse workforce that will enhance organizational success.

Happy Administrative Professionals' Day to Ivanti Executive Partners

Wed, 27 Apr 2022 14:22:55 Z

Today I send a heartfelt thanks to all Ivanti Executive Partners on Administrative Professionals' Day. Upon becoming CEO, I realized quickly that the employees that we then called “Executive Assistants” held much more importance than their title described. It was important for me to change the role to “Executive Partners” to accurately describe just how large of a contribution they make. Our administration professionals are partners. They partner with us to execute, grow and change our company. Administrative Professionals’ Day gives us an opportunity to acknowledge and appreciate the phenomenal work done by our special professionals. Each of our Executive Partners fights the good fight each day by locking arms with us to accomplish company goals. Without the dedication of these individuals, our path to success would be a tough one.

To celebrate the commitment of our Ivanti Executive Partners, our leadership team has provided some insight into the things that make our partners so amazing. We can’t thank our Administrative Professional team enough for all they have done to make our lives easier. Happy Administrative Professionals' Day to all those at Ivanti and across the globe for your daily efforts towards success.

“For those of you familiar with the 1970s TV show, M*A*S*H — Stacy is my Radar O'Reilly. If you are not familiar with the show — Stacy is two steps ahead of me in keeping me on track. She is the traffic controller who makes sure I see the things I need to see, when I need to see them. That is a very challenging task — and she does it all with professionalism. I am tremendously grateful for Stacy and her leadership of the other Executive Professionals!” - Jeff Abbott, CEO

“I only started yesterday, but…Stacy Murdock has been truly awesome to work with these last two days and the period prior to joining. I am sure that’s just a leading indicator of how important she will be to me at Ivanti!” - Dennis Kozak, Chief Operating Officer

“I really feel like one day a year to celebrate the people that make all the magic happen, in front of and behind the scenes, just isn’t enough! There are so many great examples of locking arms, fighting the good fight and a better place to work, it would be impossible to narrow it down to one or quantify it into a singular thing. Our Executive Partners are force multipliers in everything; there is no way my team or I would be half as productive without their partnership. Simply put, no Executive Partner Team…no success! Thank you all for everything you do, all day, every day!” - Mike Mills, SVP Chief Experience Officer

“I greatly appreciate how my executive partner Kim Thayne efficiently manages critical meetings; coordinating busy team members that are spread across multiple time zones is truly a challenge. Your positive attitude to provide support and a multitude of work streams is very much appreciated and invaluable.” - Rick Martin, Chief Financial Officer

“Belinda Bennett has been instrumental in helping me rebuild the International structure and bringing back the normality in business as we come out of the pandemic. I greatly appreciate her focus and support in these very interesting times! Angelica Barthel has been critical to maintaining support for the Central team, which has been operating without a leader for the past four months. Her continuous enthusiasm and positive attitude is infectious to the team and has helped stabilize the Regional Leadership and bring them support when needed.” - Helen Masters, EVP and General Manager of International Sales

“Joey Hamada is a fantastic executive partner, and she truly is a partner in helping the legal and privacy teams run smoothly. She assists with essential operational issues, is always the first to volunteer for difficult assignments and thinks three steps ahead of the rest of us. We love working with Joey and are lucky to have her on our team!” - Brooke Johnson, Sr. VP and Chief Legal Counsel

“So, this is one of the many reasons our EA’s rock. This story is from Kristine tonight — her husband is a pilot and said hello to this guy at the hotel breakfast buffet and the man happened to work at Ivanti! The passion and energy Kristine brings every day is second to none, never a 'no' and always 'I’ll make it happen.' I couldn’t do every day without her efforts as traffic controller. It seems to run in the family. Sending from a flawlessly executed Monday of logistics heading to SLC for another week of QBRs. Kristine rocks!” - Cyrus Hatfield, EVP and General Manager, US Sales

“Yesenia offers structure where there may otherwise be chaos. Her reliability and responsiveness are unmatched.” - Kristen Kamp, SVP, Human Resources

“Anne is a true partner who understands the purpose and mission. She is always there for me and the team.” - Srinivas Mukkamala, Senior Vice President, Security Products

“Running four business units at Ivanti certainly takes its toll on getting the day-to-day tasks done and done on time. Thanks to her positive get-it-done attitude, as well as the skill set to get it right, Kristine Wang brings a ray of light into each day. Communication is key in identifying the needs of these demanding teams and Kristine is the GREAT COMMUNICATOR. I can’t thank you enough, Kristine, for staying on top of all things Andy Byrne and the teams I support. Have a great day and I look forward to all the collaboration in the future.” - Andy Byrne, SVP and General Manager

“Carlie, thank you for everything you do. You have been the best of the best in supporting me and our entire team in being phenomenally successful!! Look forward to many, many more years of partnership!” - Nayaki Nayyar, President and Chief Product Officer

“If it wasn't for Rosa, my calendar wouldn't give me time to think. I appreciate how she protects my time better than me and generally enables me to operate at my best.” - Daniel Spicer, VP Security and Chief Security Officer

“Jessica Ratter is a true partner in every sense of the word. She takes the initiative to take on important strategic projects. She is always one step ahead of us. Her positive energy is contagious. We are truly blessed to have Jess as our executive partner.” - Melissa Puls, Chief Marketing Officer

“The role of a good Executive Partner is so important in helping execs manage their sanity. I know that Rosa is coming up to speed on a variety of topics at Ivanti, but I always like how calm and collected she is in all the different asks that I throw at her and she always comes through. She has been great at aligning with my work routine and helping to execute. Thank you, Rosa!” - Al Arun, Chief Customer Officer

“Anitha has been a quick learner and it was amazing to see her pick up the NSG EA activities in no time. She comes with lots of positive energy and can-do attitude. Happy to see Anitha build on this and have greater success in coming quarters as she scales to take on Ivanti India Site Initiatives.” - Nagesh Ayyagari, Vice President, Engineering

“Brandi — thanks for all you do for Ivanti! We appreciate you!” - Bob Grazioli, SVP, Saas Operations & CIO

Ivanti Employees Are Making the Everywhere Workplace a Success!

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 19:01:56 Z

It’s been three weeks since Ivanti released The 2022 Everywhere Workplace Report and we’ve taken the Everywhere Workplace by storm! From top tier elite stories to broadcast radio segments, the Ivanti Everywhere Workplace Report has made more than just a splash. The report reveals interesting insights into employee preferences in the Everywhere Workplace. We surveyed over 6,100 office workers and IT professionals in the US, UK, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Australia and worked with leading “future of work” experts to uncover employee sentiments related to the future of work.

The survey provided a massive volume of thoughtful, candid responses:

71% of employees would choose to work from anywhere over being promoted
And 64% of employees would even take a pay cut to be able to work from anywhere
Only 13% of employees would like to permanently return to the office full-time.

The monumental success we are seeing with this report is all due to Ivanti employees continuously working passionately together always championing our customers. We are still receiving outstanding coverage and global reach, while also creating momentum internally as well. Over the month of March, we asked Ivanti employees to participate in The Everywhere Workplace Challenge with activities to complement the Everywhere Workplace Report...and WOW! The participation was amazing. I am thrilled to recognize and announce the winners of the challenge.

Everywhere Workplace internal contest

To celebrate the report, we asked our employees to share photos of their workplace and their interests in the report. After weeks of friendly competition, we finally have our Everywhere Workplace Challenge winners! It was a close race but only a few came out on top. Drumroll please...

The department winners

A big congratulations to the Sales, Engineering, and Customer & Employee Experience teams. We paired departments who might not usually work day-to-day with each other. This team is the epitome of teamwork!

Individual winners

1st Place: Graham Plumb, Customer Experience Advocate

We asked Graham how he felt taking home first place: “I entered the Everywhere Workplace Challenge with my Ivanti Momentum User Group (IMUG) hat fully on! I have firmly believed, for a long time, that work can be effective, not to mention productive in a relaxed environment, exactly the type our team believe in creating. That means whether being with people in an office, sat in my spare bedroom with the dogs or overlooking Pike’s Peak from a veranda in Colorado!

So, I didn’t really see the challenge as a challenge at all – it was great to see what everyone is thinking and, even more, to get a glimpse into the imaginative world of my colleagues – those I know and those I am yet to meet. Anyone reading this will already know that I’m a dog lover, so seeing the pictures in week two made my March!

What I found particularly interesting were the facts and figures in the Everywhere Workplace Report. That folk would rather work “from anywhere” than have a promotion was a revelation and, of course, the flexibility of a hybrid solution, which is very close to my heart with our user group meetings starting to be held that way! That means no one has to miss out on the IMUG experience.”

2^nd Place: Corinna Fulton, Senior Director, Product Marketing EXM

“I found the Everywhere Workplace report to be a comprehensive tour de force detailing how our workplace has changed forever. There are so many fantastic stats and insightful nuggets that we’ll be able to pull into Ivanti’s messaging and content. For a product marketer, it’s GOLD. I also really enjoyed the Everywhere Workplace Challenge that was used to promote the report internally at Ivanti. I love seeing everyone’s Everywhere Workplaces!” - Corinna Fulton

3rd Place: Allie Brandon, HR Business Partner, & Oindrila Mukhopadhyay, HR Business Partner

"Throughout my Everywhere Workplace Challenge I had engagement front of mind. Consistently being able to connect with my colleagues globally made this challenge worthwhile, knowing we are all over the globe and working/doing common things. It truly helps to know we are working toward the same end goals!" - Allie Brandon

Bragging rights: photo contest winners

1^st Place: Corinna Fulton, Senior Director, Product Marketing EXM

2^nd Place: Jeff Reilly, Field CTO

3^rd Place: Leslie Alore, Vice President, Growth Marketing

The participation in the challenges was phenomenal. Thank you to all of our employees and teams who have helped make this a huge success. So, where do we go from here? We’ll continue to evolve with the Everywhere Workplace so our employees and customers can continue to thrive.

Meet Greg Berger: Supply Chain "Pros to Know"

Thu, 31 Mar 2022 12:46:12 Z

We’re thrilled to announce that Greg Berger, Manager, Sales Engineering – Americas has been awarded as one of this year’s “Pros to Know” by Supply & Demand Chain Executive. The award recognizes outstanding executives whose accomplishments offer a roadmap for other leaders looking to leverage supply chain for competitive advantage.

It’s exciting – but not surprising – that Greg received this prestigious award, for which he was chosen from more than 360 nominations, the most Supply & Demand Chain Executive has ever received. We know Greg to be an absolute superstar, and we’re proud that he’s receiving this well-deserved recognition. Greg joined Ivanti Wavelink in 2006, where he began as a Field Sales Engineer, focusing on partner and channel sales in the Eastern US, Mexico and Canada. He currently serves as the SE Manager of the Americas at Ivanti Wavelink and has achieved President’s Club an incredible five out of eight times since he joined the Ivanti Wavelink team.

Greg’s background in systems integration allows him to fully understand the challenges of a product, as opposed to simply selling the product, and help customers integrate a product into their ecosystem of solutions. Greg consults with customers to help them see the bigger picture of their supply chain ecosystem and is a trusted advisor to all the customers with whom he works.

Greg joined NACO Electronics in 1987 where he began his career in systems integration as an Area Field Service Manager. Fast forward to today, and he now has more than 30 years of experience in the supply chain industry. He has not only established a reputation as a great person to work with, for both colleagues and customers, but continually finds new ways to push the envelope and redefine what it means to be a supply chain professional. He has a diverse set of experiences in leadership roles including presales integration, service and solutions, and presales systems integration and design; he also holds numerous manufacturer and warehouse management certifications.

As part of the nomination, Greg was asked to share some of his insights on the supply chain industry and its challenges. His responses offer a wealth of actionable information that can help other supply chain professionals benefit from his depth and breadth of experience.

What do you believe to be the key challenges facing your customers and their supply chains in the year ahead, and how are you working to meet those challenges?

Customers, regardless of industry, are facing a constant demand for greater efficiency and accuracy from consumers, despite a diminished supply chain, labor shortages and a reduced budget. In the year ahead, customers will be tasked with continuing to provide pre-pandemic levels of production to adjust for disruptions with supply and increased demand. Additionally, customers will need to keep up with evolving technologies to make the supply chain more efficient, while accounting for a limited budget.

To help alleviate these challenges, my team works directly with our customers to review their current supply chain processes and technologies to point out process improvements to improve efficiency and productivity. For example, I recently worked with a retail warehouse customer who received notice of a decreased budget of 15% over three years. Despite the reduced budget, the customer still needed to upgrade systems to achieve the company’s warehouse initiatives. To prove Ivanti Wavelink’s return on investment with their customer, our team reviewed and pointed out specific process improvements to accommodate a lowered budget — this included pointing out process improvements that no longer required Ivanti Wavelink. These improvements helped customers achieve greater savings by cutting costs where possible. My team was able to strengthen our business relationship and demonstrate our value as supply chain consultants to a valuable customer.

What are some things you have done in the last year that have helped shape the supply chain?

In the past year, I worked with a wide variety of over 250 customers and partners in industries ranging from transportation and logistics to retail. I provide daily consultations on all of Ivanti Wavelink’s products and the customers’ ecosystem of solutions, logging more than 600 calls since the start of the year. Ivanti Wavelink products are productivity-focused; however, they are designed in a way to integrate with other solutions. I consult with customers on how Wavelink products increase productivity, accuracy and safety, as well as how they integrate with existing solutions to reduce costs.

My team and I provide valuable insights for our customers in the supply chain industry and have been asked by companies such as Zebra and Barcoding, Inc. to offer advice on customer approach. I participated in Zebra’s on-location interview series to share my expertise when it comes to customers, as well as learn from other supply chain experts. I also participated in Barcoding, Inc.’s Geek Tank series at their customer-facing event to promote solutions for industry-wide challenges in the supply chain.

In your opinion, what is your role in helping customers better align with a company's broader supply chain strategy?

With my background in systems integration, I’m able to help customers better understand their supply chain ecosystem and align with their own company’s broader supply chain strategy. I aim to become my customers’ most trusted advisor when it comes to supply chain technology. On top of helping customers globally understand Ivanti Wavelink’s products, my team and I also help 7,500+ of Ivanti’s customers to better understand their entire ecosystem of technology and solutions through daily consultations. This allows customers to fully understand their networks and systems to improve efficiency and reliability. I help customers become comfortable and familiar with their myriad solutions and help them build a best-of-breed system, empowering them to enhance their broader supply chain strategy.

What is your favorite part of your job?

When I worked in systems integration, my favorite part of my job was being involved in every aspect of discovery, design, proof of concept, implementation, training and support. I particularly enjoy seeing a concept grow from an idea to being successfully implemented. As an SE Manager, my favorite part of the job is being part of the larger Ivanti Wavelink team and seeing the fruits of the team’s labor pay off. The broader team has worked with more than 30,000 customers globally, including top supply chain companies and retailers, to help them execute their supply chain initiatives. I still enjoy seeing an idea go from ideation to execution and being a part of the process to streamline the supply chain for customers.

Please join us in congratulating Greg on being named one of the “Pros to Know.”

The Gender Gap is Hurting the Tech Industry: It’s Time to #BreaktheBias Now

Tue, 08 Mar 2022 15:06:47 Z

The gender gap in the technology sector is narrowing, but not nearly as fast as it should be. Women in tech have a long way to go for equal representation, especially in leadership positions. Several of the leading companies in the United States still have only one woman for every four tech roles.

The current landscape demands better representation. As our lives become increasingly intertwined with technology, the gaps in representation become increasingly apparent. Case in point: early developments of vehicle air bags were tailored for male bodies, which resulted in avoidable loss of lives among women in car crashes. That’s one example among countless, and the takeaway is clear: Women need a voice in the technological advancements of today and tomorrow.

Of course, increasing representation is not only about making the world safer and more user-friendly for all. Equal representation also brings diversity of thought and perspective to business decisions, which is, unquestionably, a competitive advantage.

STEM Education

One of the big barriers to women in tech is at the education level. Historically, more men than women have chosen to pursue degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). More than half of bachelors degrees are awarded to women, but the majority of these are still in areas outside of STEM. Research indicates that only around 20% women pursue degrees in the fields of computer sciences, engineering and physical sciences.

To be clear, this is not for a lack of skill. Mathematics is seen as key for success in the STEM fields, and girls in high schools, on average, are matching or exceeding the achievements of their male counterparts. Girls are earning credits in math and sciences at the same rate as boys, and even earning higher grades. Girls in high schools also tend to hold themselves to a higher standard than boys with similar achievements, as they believe they must be exceptional to succeed in a male-dominated field.

Statistically, the change occurs at the college level. The implicit bias that science and math fields are for people who identify as males and humanities and arts fields are for people who identify as females persists to this day, even among those who would like to think they reject gendered stereotypes.

What needs to happen

Even the smallest of changes at the college level can help alter this perception. Introductory courses that give a broader perspective of the field are more likely to attract female students. Similarly, an increase in female faculty in the STEM fields can also attract higher rates of female students, for the powerfully simple reason that representation matters. To that end, colleges should make efforts to attract and retain female academics. Historically, female academics have higher rates of attrition due to a variety of reasons, including unsatisfactory workplaces, unfair pay or treatment, and imbalanced pressures of familial obligations.

Women entering the workplace would also benefit from mentors who can help them navigate pitfalls. Having women in leadership positions who have successfully treaded that path can help motivate other young women to follow in their footsteps.

There has been a noticeable change in perception with respect to women in tech, but that needs to convert into an increase in the actual hiring of female workers. Even at the first opportunity for a promotion, there is a gender gap, with only 38% of women making up first-level managers. Organizations also need to hire women to leadership roles early, as that allows for diversity and inclusion in the company’s culture. Tech companies also need to refrain from restricting women to routine and mundane tasks that show they’re diligent but do not help them express their strategic skills.

As President and Chief Product Officer of a leading technology company, I understand the impact women can have, despite myriad barriers. Removing those barriers means mitigating bias and viewing equal representation not as a PR stunt rather but as an investment in innovation, creativity, and positive business outcomes.

Women in leadership positions in science and engineering companies have only marginally grown in the last two decades, but the pace of change must ramp up dramatically. If not, it could take more than a decade – or even far longer – for equal representation and pay parity, and neither women – nor the sector itself – can afford to wait.

Employee Center Stage: Liam Ryan, Ivanti’s New Vice President of Sales, APAC

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 13:01:01 Z

I am thrilled to announce Ivanti’s new Vice President of Sales in the APAC region, Liam Ryan. Liam brings a wealth of experience to Team Ivanti with over 20 years working in various positions in the IT industry. Liam was previously the Vice President of Ecosystem for Infor Global Solutions in Asia Pacific and India. Sydney, Australia is Liam’s Everywhere Workplace where he enjoys playing golf, football and listening to live music.

I am so excited to welcome Liam to the Ivanti team!

What is Liam’s vision as VP of Sales in APAC? Let’s find out.

Tell us about your past roles and experience.

Liam: Most recently, I ran the Ecosystem business at Infor across the Pacific, South East Asia, India, Greater China and Japan Asia Pacific regions, driving a very successful alliance and channel partner strategy and growth business. Prior to Infor I headed up my own business, selling and implementing financial software applications to various sectors.

Over the course of my career, I have worked in executive leadership positions in the IT industry, but also periods of my career have been as a user, in implementation services, as a channel partner, presales (solutions consulting) and sales. This broad and diversified experience gives me deep insight into how together, as “One Ivanti”, we will collaborate to create superior value for the company, our customers and our people.

What is a typical day for a VP of Sales?

Liam: Ideally? Lots of face time with our people - customers, partners and the Ivanti team. With Covid and the ongoing lock downs across most of APAC, this has been challenging these last eighteen months. But the great news is that the borders are now opening, and I very much look forward to meeting each of you over the coming months.

What excites you most about joining Ivanti as the new VP of Sales in APAC?

Liam: I am so excited to join Ivanti. The opportunity to grow our revenues, grow market share with net new customers, and add superior value to our customers is what exhilarates me. I look forward to working with each of you on our vision to deliver on our core values – to lock arms, fight the good fight, be champions for our customers and deliver outcomes.

How should our sales and marketing functions work together?

Liam: The key to winning will be to create our shared path to success for APAC. Sales and marketing are co-dependent areas of the business and need to be perfectly aligned on our strategy and go to market plans. We will be a team, working together with open doors, aligning, sharing knowledge and ideas to succeed and celebrate success together.

What is your idea of a winning environment and how do you create one?

Liam: The absolute aim for the APAC region is to work as “One Ivanti”. Our key is to have strong working relationships, built on mutual benefit, collaboration, and transparency.

Together we will build our strategy, we will build our organization, develop capabilities and plans. Together we will execute and be accountable to drive enterprise value, deliver on our growth projections and ensure success for our customers.

How do you overcome fear, uncertainty and doubt in prospects?

Liam: We need to focus our time on understanding our prospects. We must ask questions and learn what is important to them and what they are looking to achieve. In order to deliver success to our customers our value proposition must be aligned to their priorities and perspectives. We need to clearly articulate a value case that sees Ivanti solving their issues, improving their business landscape and delivering strong outcomes.