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Cybersecurity: Its Importance & the Impact of AI E51

July 2, 2024 by Karen

AZ TechCast

Cybersecurity: Its Importance & the Impact of AI E51

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Cybersecurity: Its Importance & the Impact of AI E51

This episode of AZ TechCast explores cybersecurity’s pivotal role and AI’s transformative impact, hosted by Steve Zylstra and Karen Nowicki. Guests Mark Dallmeier, JR Garcia, and Helen Patton emphasize proactive cybersecurity strategies and the dual nature of AI in enhancing threat detection while posing governance challenges. They also discuss AI’s influence on education, stressing ethical guidelines and the need for continuous adaptation in evolving job markets.

Overall, the episode urges organizations to integrate robust cybersecurity measures and embrace AI innovation responsibly across sectors.

MARS is a Huntsville Alabama based technology company and developer of MARS Suite, an integrated suite of modern cyber technologies designed to combat the latest cyber-attacks and preserve businesses’ ability to operate in regulated industries. The company partners with a national network of MSPs, MSSPs, and various Platform and Industry partners to provide security and compliance as-a-service and solutions to organizations operating in heavily regulated industries.

Over the last 27 years Mark Dallmeier has co-founded multiple technology and consulting companies, and has held various Senior Executive, C Level, and Advisory Board positions within cyber, risk, compliance technology and consulting services companies.

He is currently the President and CEO of MARS Suite, Inc. and is responsible for launching their innovative MARS Suite platform into the market. Over the last 15 years Mr. Dallmeier has held SVP and CSO/CMO roles at BishopFox, Vertek, MSS BTA, and Avertium (formerly Terra Verde Security).

Previously Mr. Dallmeier was the CEO of The ROBB Group, an innovative provider of corporate revenue growth and transformation management consulting services to early stage and Fortune 500 companies. During that time, he also co-founded Channel Savvy a technology channel consulting company that was purchased by Avnet in 2010.

Today Mr. Dallmeier actively publishes research, speaks and facilitates workshops and panels on cybersecurity, risk, compliance, and corporate transformation topics.

Connect with Mark on LinkedIn, Facebook, X and Instagram.

A technology company, Cisco powers an inclusive future for all.

Helen Patton is a strategic cybersecurity advisor at Cisco. Previously she served as a CISO for the Cisco Security Business Group, and an Advisory CISO, providing strategic insights to the security community. She was the CISO at The Ohio State University and spent ten years in risk and resiliency at JPMorganChase.

Helen actively encourages cybersecurity collaboration across and within industries, to enable better information security and privacy practices. She believes in improving diversity and inclusion in the cyber workforce, and mentors people interested in pursuing careers in security, privacy and risk management. She advocates for more naps and is anti-bagpipes.

Helen has a Master’s degree in Public Policy. She serves on various cybersecurity advisory boards, and is faculty for the Educause Leadership Institute, a committee member for the Cybersecurity Canon, and a cyber risk instructor at the Ohio State University. Helen is a blogger and the author of “Navigating the Cybersecurity Career Path”.

Connect with Helen on LinkedIn and X.

One of the fastest-growing IT consultancies in the USA. ANM provides innovative solutions and expert engineering to large and mid-sized organizations. Their dedicated team designs, implements, and supports IT solutions in risk mitigation, enterprise infrastructure and digital transformation.

ANM is headquartered in Albuquerque, NM and has offices in Casper, WY; Denver, CO; El Paso, TX; and Scottsdale, AZ. They enjoy a 98.6% customer satisfaction rating, as well as excellent employee and customer retention rates.

JR Garcia, Director of Solutions Engineering at ANM leads the solutions engineering teams in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, focusing on core network, data center, and security architectures.

His expertise lies in managing technical design, strategy, presales, and resource planning for network and security solutions. JR has received several accolades for his exceptional leadership, including the Excellence in Leadership Award, being recognized as the CRN Next-Gen Solutions Provider Leader in 2022, and part of the President’s Club in 2023.

Follow ANM on LinkedIn, Facebook and X.

About Your Hosts

Steve Zylstra serves as president and CEO of the Arizona Technology Council, a role he assumed in 2007. He is responsible for strategy, operations, finance and policy development. Zylstra is a vocal spokesman for the value technology can provide in raising social and economic standards in Arizona.

Zylstra serves on numerous councils, committees and boards, was named “Leader of the Year, Technology,” by the Arizona Capitol Times, and “Most Admired Leader” by the Phoenix Business Journal. In addition, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of science in technology from the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, Ariz.

Zylstra earned a bachelor’s degree in automotive engineering technology from Western Michigan University.

Karen Nowicki is a successful author, speaker and the creator of Deep Impact Leadership™ and SoulMarks Coaching™. She is a two-time recipient of the prestigious national Choice Award® for her book and personal development retreat. Karen was crowned the first-ever “Mompreneur of the Year” Award in 2010 for the southwestern states. She was recognized for her leadership, business acumen, and work-life balance.

Karen has been an expert guest on regional TV and radio shows, including Fox Phoenix Morning Show, Sonoran Living, Good Morning Arizona, The Chat Room, and Mid-Day Arizona. She has been a regular contributor to many print and online magazines – publishing articles and blogs for business and education.

In addition to working with private coaching clients, Karen is also the Owner & President of Phoenix Business RadioX. The Business RadioX Network amplifies the voice of business – serving the Fortune 500,000, not just the Fortune 500. Phoenix Business RadioX helps local businesses and professional associations get the word out about the important work they’re doing to serve their market, profession, and community.

Of all the experiences Karen has had the privilege of participating in over her vast career, she shares that Phoenix Business RadioX is a pinnacle adventure!

Connect with Karen on LinkedIn and follow Phoenix Business RadioX on Facebook and Instagram.

Leslie Cooper Marquez is a dynamic marketing professional with over 17 years of broad-based marketing, public relations and advertising experience in both in-house and agency environments.

Originally from Birmingham, AL, Leslie has honed her expertise across diverse sectors, including non-profit performing arts, legal marketing, mortgage technology, and residential mortgage marketing.

Leslie has been an integral part of the Arizona community for the past 5 years. Most recently, she served as the Marketing Director for Scottsdale-based mortgage technology firm, focusIT, Inc., and previously as the Director of Marketing for Ballet Arizona.

Beyond her professional commitments, Leslie is an active member of the community. She serves as a Sustainer with the Junior League of Phoenix, volunteers with the Distinguished Young Women of Arizona scholarship program and is an alumna of the esteemed Valley Leadership Accelerate class of 2019.

In her spare time, Leslie shares her passion for fitness as a dedicated barre instructor at TenPoint5 Central. Above all, she cherishes her roles as a devoted mother to a young son and a loving wife to her husband, David.

About Our Sponsor

The Arizona Technology Council, Arizona’s only statewide organization serving the technology sector, fosters a climate of innovation to enhance technology in Arizona.

A trusted resource in strengthening Arizona’s technology industry, the Council proactively eliminates impediments that companies face, accelerates the entrepreneurial mindset in the state’s expanding innovation ecosystem, and works to create a destination for companies to be, thrive and stay.

Follow Arizona Technology Council on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

E17 Thor Thomsen and Jim Watkinson from THORFeed and Jeanne Barry from RGP

October 22, 2018 by Karen

PROJECT-MANAGEMENT-OFFICE-HOURS-Operations-Leader-Jim-Watkinson-with-THOR-Feed-and-Jeanne-Barry-with-RGP1

Phoenix Business Radio

E17 Thor Thomsen and Jim Watkinson from THORFeed and Jeanne Barry from RGP

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E17 Thor Thomsen and Jim Watkinson from THORFeed and Jeanne Barry from RGP

In this episode of Project Management Office Hours, Joe Pusz, PMO Joe has a great discussion with special guests Thor Thomsen and Jim Watkinson from THORFeed and Jeanne Barry from RGP.

We don’t often think about Project Management within the Farming industry. However, in this episode we get insights from Thor and Jim about the benefits, challenges, and growth opportunities farmers are experiencing through use of project management principles. Jeanne shares her experiences within traditional project management and compares those to the stories shared by Thor and Jim.

Requirements gathering, planning, monitoring and execution are discussed, but when working with farmers who haven’t been exposed to project management principles unique challenges are identified. This is a fantastic episode to understand the wide reach and benefits project management provides to business across all industries.

Tune in for upcoming shows with Project Management leaders discussing a wide range of current topics and events! Our next show will be November 1st.

THOR Feed’s purpose is to simplify and transform. We help organizations improve operations and reduce costs. Our current focus market is farming and we have established the THOR Feed solution as the leading farm inventory solution provider starting with farm feed inventory. Cattle and dairy farms single largest expense is feed. This expense is approximately 50% of operating cost. Unfortunately, feed loss (called ‘feed shrink’) occurs from feed planting to storage to feeding The University of Wisconsin, Kansas and other leading universities show an average 18%. Lowering shrink a few percentage points can reduce costs on improving farm profitability. THOR Feed provides the farmer with the following key operating metrics using smart devices on Windows, iOS and Android platforms:

Accurate inventory for all feed.
Near real time inventory status.
Precise feed utilization rates
Projected depletion dates for each feed and feed class.
Dynamic reporting

The THOR Feed solution provides benefits to farms in the following areas:

Reduced ‘backup’ feed is purchased, due to improved feed accuracy
Wise purchase based upon true need(s).
Improved negotiating power (lower costs) due to a longer lead times on future depletion dates
Less time to gather and report information (improved people productivity) with smart devices
Lower interest rates on feed loans from lending institutions due to detailed monthly reports
Reduced feed shrink due to improved planning with THOR Feed team regarding harvest, storage and herd feeding processes

Thor Thomsen grew up on a farm in Wisconsin, served in the United States Marine Corps’ special operations unit, married and entered the family entrepreneurial occupation.

Thor’s first business, Risk Management Planning, LLC, involved responding to hazardous chemical accidents around the globe using a unique subscription and consulting model. The service grew predominantly from companies and involved emergency management, first responders, schools, hospitals and even major sporting venues. Risk Management Planning expanded into another product line and simplified emergency response between first responders and various venues.

Stepping away from the family and businesses, Thor worked for Versar Inc. and eventually Thomsen Security. Services included security and safety in the water and food industry. The major program was establishing and building the United States DoD Food defense program which entailed securing the food supply chain from Field-to- Fork® around the globe. Thor conducted over 2,729 risk and vulnerability assessments, hundreds of reports and consulted with military and civilian food supply chain entities.

Thor established ThroughPoint Solutions which developed an assessment and reporting tool for the United Stated DoD and has been most recently adapted as a farm inventory solution, utilized by over 13 farms with over 32,000 head of cattle and in excess over $80 million dollars in feed inventory.

Jim Watkinson is a widely-traveled IT and project management mentor with experience in large (IBM, Unisys, Ports America) and several start-up tech companies, as well as non-tech companies seeking tech improvement. A key strength is introducing new IT functionality to industries (such as: ATMs to banks, Point-of-Sale to retail, satellite networking to energy companies, remote office communication to insurance, scheduling systems in supply chain & logistics.)

Much of Jim’s work involved process improvement in the above-mentioned industries. As a PMP and ACP, Jim enjoys thoroughly evaluating an ongoing organization, then (if needed) developing and presenting a plan to improve operations. Once, given the approval, Jim would lead the desired changes in a project management capacity.

Jim’s main purpose is to help individuals and organizations reach their top level of potential. As a team player, working along-side teams, Jim will coach, critique, appraise and recommend. Once a team finds a pace and rhythm toward reaching their potential, he moves on to the next adventure needing IT technology.

Follow THOR Feed on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

RGP (NASDAQ: RECN), Resources Global Professionals is a multinational professional services firm that helps business leaders execute internal initiatives. Partnering with business leaders, RGP drives internal change across all parts of a global enterprise – accounting, finance, risk management and internal audit, corporate advisory, strategic communications and restructuring, information management, human capital, supply chain management, healthcare solutions, and legal and regulatory services.

Jeanne Barry is a seasoned Project Manager with 20+ years experience in the IT field with PMP, CSM, and MBA credentials. She has worked mainly on multi-million dollar infrastructure and information security projects and programs with a smattering of Development/SCRUM PM projects under her belt. She’s also worked as a Business Analyst and QA Test Lead, giving her a well rounded background in the IT field.

Before joining RGP (a former division of Deloitte and Touche) in 2017 as an IT Project Management consultant, she worked in the banking industry for 18 years, mainly on Information Security projects. She’s currently one of the PM’s managing projects in a PCI Program for a large client in Scottsdale who is in the process of obtaining their much coveted PCI AOC (Payment Card Industry Attestation of Compliance). Her PMO background is vast; fortuitously helping with the creation of PMOs in highly successful organizations, namely KeyBank and Data Management, Inc.

In her spare time, Jeanne is a semi-professional singer (she used to perform in a popular pop/rock covers band in town called Superhero), as well as a volunteer at Feed My Starving Children in Mesa (one of her most favorite charitable organizations). She loves to travel locally – especially to San Diego and Sedona). She attends holistic events around town and enjoys working on her new house she just purchased in May. As a Reiki Master, she also offers energy work clearings and healings to balance and harmonize herself and those around her.

Connect with Jeanne on LinkedIn, and follow RGP on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

ABOUT PROJECT MANAGEMENT OFFICE HOURS SERIES

Project Management Office Hours is intended to provide Project Management professionals a place to drop in and discuss Success Stories, Best Practices, and Lessons Learned. Project Management Consultant Joy Gumz has shared with us, “Operations keep the lights on, strategy provides the light at the end of the tunnel, but project management is the train engine that moves the organization forward.”

Each of us has a unique story to tell, but collectively we share a message that organizations who embrace Project Management Best Practices perform better than those which don’t. Organizations which align Projects to Strategy perform better. Organizations with Engage Executive Sponsors deliver better results. Organizations which measure Project Management performance outperform those which don’t.

During our Project Management Office Hours, we hear directly from Industry leaders how to make an impact in our profession. How we, collectively, will Advance Project Management Best Practices, One Listener at a time!

Project Management Office Hours is powered by The PMO SQUAD.

ABOUT YOUR HOST

Joe Pusz started THE PMO SQUAD to bring real world PMO Leadership experience to the consulting space and to advocate for Project Management through his blog PMOJOE.com. The old saying is “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Following this mindset Joe left Corporate America in 2013 to start THE PMO SQUAD and work with fellow Natural Born Project Managers to advance Project Management Best Practices.

THE PMO SQUAD focuses exclusively on PMO and Project Management consulting. Corporate America is full of Accidental Project Managers running projects who haven’t been trained to be PMs. To help solve this problem THE PMO SQUAD is on the Leading Edge with PMO As a Service. PMO As a Service allows our clients to focus on their respective core competencies while THE PMO SQUAD delivers Project Management expertise. Contact Joe at 678-591-7868. Follow The PMO Squad on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.