Mike Stead Email & Phone Number

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

I led the Information Security and Privacy department; consolidating data privacy, application security, security operations, security architecture and engineering, IT risk/compliance, and disaster recovery functions. The security and privacy programs were based on NIST CSF and GAPP. I devised and implemented a multi-year strategy to systematically eliminate, expand, or replace nearly every facet of security technology, with a focus on compliance, risk reduction, and improved user productivity. I participated in cybersecurity insurance planning, enterprise risk management, and presented to the board of directors no less than annually.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

Essential job functions included:- collaborating to develop and refine information security strategies, roadmaps, and change agendas that reflect information security “best practices”- assessing information security capability maturity and driving changes necessary to develop and mature the capability- documenting information security operational models and developing/maintaining operational procedures consistent with the organization’s information security policies and standards- providing technical oversight for multiple concurrent projects ensuring that technologies within the information security capability are properly leveraged- analyzing the current security technology product portfolio to identify gaps or weaknesses and working to identify opportunities for improvement (e.g., expanding capacity; reducing complexity, cost, and lifecycle time; increasing effectiveness)- prioritizing and hiring additional resources to grow the information security program

My role focused on managing multiple projects and resources while delivering quality results to our clients on time and within budget for attestation and audit engagements. These included SSAE16/SOC-1 Type II (formerly SAS70), SOC-2 Type II based on AICPA audit standards and guidance as well as working with clients to analyze their compliance with ISO 27001, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and various NIST standards in a consulting capacity. Other projects included risk assessment/analysis, threat identification and analysis, policy review and development, wireless, network, and application security assessments, IT technology planning, IT departmental assessments, and strategic plan development.Further it was required to manage both internal and client resources to achieve the stated objectives, from project planning and reporting activities to supervising and reviewing work performed by staff assigned to the project. This included, but was not limited to developing audit and test plans, establishing and maintaining budgets, coordinating and using manual and automated tools for analysis, preparing status reports for internal and client management, and performing quality reviews for work on my projects, and as an independent review for other projects.Internally to department operations I improved the overall departmental scheduling process to ensure that all staff have been assigned to projects and were achieving desired billable percentages, while balancing the needs of client scheduling, and maintaining travel equity among staff. I introduced numerous efficiencies to work processes and introduced new solutions which have increased our project realization and provided ways to measure and analyze root-cause problems in our bidding and execution processes.I was routinely sought out by clients after project completion to provide additional guidance and leadership regarding recommended project outcomes and assisting with reviewing implementation plans and staff selection.

As a recruiter my efforts wee to recruit top IT talent for contract and full-time job openings with clients in the Twin Cities.This involved quickly and accurately evaluating skills of project managers, business analysts, quality assurance testers, database, Java, and .NET developers initially through phone screening and then face-to-face interviews.Further this position thrived on managing and maintaining relationships with all individuals interviewed regardless of billing status to develop and grow my own book of business. This was done from scratch utilizing sales, marketing, and negotiating techniques inherent in myself and learned from senior recruiters.

Core responsibilities included enterprise management of the network infrastructure, Citrix Metaframe XP 3.0 server farm, IBM SAN, IBM BladeCenter, and security management in a 24x7 medical records based environment. Developed, implemented, monitored, and enforced network security standards/procedures taking into account HIPAA requirements.Provided leadership, direction, documentation, and training to other network staff. Established and maintained vendor relationships to provide SOS with the highest level of support. Network Infrastructure: Responsibilities included a Cisco based IP network infrastructure in a distributed WAN environment of nine core facilities and 30+ remote sites. Key functions of the role included configuration, implementation, maintenance, and troubleshooting of switches, routers, VPNs, Firewalls, WiFi access points, Secure ACS, MARS, and CiscoWorks. Provided diagnostics, troubleshooting using Fluke, Cisco and Symantec based software and hardware. Responsible as the local security contact for IDS/IPS installation, monitoring, tuning, and reporting to corporate collectors. Citrix Farm: Aspects included maintenance and administration of Metaframe XP 3.0 server farm. Lead project to re-engineer the Citrix solution to upgrade and expand all servers to Presentation Server 4.0 and implement load balancing, redundancy, and portions of the Access Suite including Secure Gateway and the Web Interface.IBM SAN & IBM BladeCenter: Designed, secured, and managed all aspects of an 8TB IBM based SAN and Brocade fiber infrastructure, including zone administration, maintenance, firmware, and hardware upgrades. Maintained the IBM BladeCenter infrastructure ensuring that redundant power, fiber, and copper networking were configured to provide uninterrupted service across the attached servers.