Intelligent CIO North America Issue 22 | Page 79

. . . GET TO KNOW . . . Michael Kleck , CISO , Alchemer
On the lighter side of things , we ask the industry experts what makes them tick . . . .

. . . GET TO KNOW . . . Michael Kleck , CISO , Alchemer

wWhat would you describe as your most memorable achievement ?

The fact that I have effectively transitioned back and forth between being an individual contributor and being in leadership situations many times over the years is very satisfying for me . I have enjoyed a successful technical career that spans a wide variety of disciplines where I have been fortunate enough to contribute to a lot of successful companies .
What first made you think of a career in technology ?
In high school , I really enjoyed electronics and the other industrial arts . I had a hard time focusing on college because I just wanted to be outdoors and be active all the time , so I dropped out and spent a few years teaching skiing , doing restaurant work and construction .
When I was 28 , I finally felt like I needed a real career and asked myself ‘ What am I best at ?’ My answer was , ‘ I was really good at the tech stuff .’ I enrolled in a tech school and nine months later had a job as a field technician for a software company working networks and servers .
What style of management philosophy do you employ with your current position ?
I like to hire great people and let them do their jobs . Then it ’ s easy for me to utilize the Modern
Management Theory with a Servant Leadership style . With Modern Management Theory , emphasizing the system and the individual is critical , but when you are focused on compliance and security you also need quantitative considerations in everything you do .
You need the numbers to prove that your approach is working . Of course , incorporating Contingency Theory is also very important when working with risk .
What do you think is the current hot technology talking point ?
For me , privacy laws and serverless code are the hot topics we need to keep in mind . Serverless code changes almost everything about infrastructure security and leaves lots of security technologies obsolete . We ’ re becoming more and more dependent on the protocols and communications between different pieces of code for security , rather than traditional firewalls .
Additionally , privacy laws are changing and growing at a pace that far out runs the technology to keep up right now .
Privacy laws and serverless code are the hot topics we need to keep in mind .
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