Mentor Profile

Bio

Rick is VP, Information Security at Centene Corporation and CISO of their North Carolina Medicaid healthplan in Charlotte.

In his prior role, Rick worked as Virtual CISO supporting international companies. During that time Rick educated corporate boards, developed and matured security programs, and created the curriculum for a Cybersecurity Master’s degree program for an International University.

Rick is a frequent speaker at cybersecurity conferences such as RSA, Secureworld, Bsides, and FutureCon, and guest on numerous cybersecurity podcasts, including The CyberWire Hashtable, CISO Series, Google Cloud, Elevate Your Career, and The Rsnake Show. Rick talks about topics ranging from cybersecurity and risk, neurodiversity, leadership, and staffing.

He on the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) CXO Trust Advisory Council, and the Boards of his local Charlotte ISC2 and CSA Chapters. He works with several Venture Capital and go-to-market firms reviewing security technology, as well as on the Board of Advisors for several startups.

Rick is on the CIS Critical Security Controls editorial panel and was a lead author on Version 8 of the Controls. He was also on the committee to update Cloud Security Alliance CCSK v5 study guide. Rick has a Cybersecurity YouTube channel where he has videos on the 18 CIS CSC v8 Controls, and other videos on cybersecurity topics.

Rick has alternated between being a cybersecurity management consultant and CISO throughout his 27+ year cybersecurity career, and has led several ethical hacking, incident response and forensics, and risk management teams.

Prior Experience