How Does Security Leadership Protect Economies?

TL;DR

Effective information security leadership combines a clear protective mission with practical impact, collaboration, innovation, execution, and the development of future leaders. Roland Cloutier credits his achievements to decades of experience, supportive colleagues and family, and a focused mandate at ADP: protect clients, protect shareholders, and serve the economies the company supports.

Transcript

Please welcome Senior Vice President, Chief Security and Trust Officer, Cisco, John Stewart. Oh, you don't need to clap for me. That's okay. Though it did make me feel better as I was coming up, that one person started and then the momentum swung. When I was standing here last year as the recipient of this award, I thought that would've been the mo... Read More

Key Insights

• Roland Cloutier is presented as a security leader guided by mission and focused on impact. John Stewart connects those qualities to a career spanning the US military, law enforcement, corporate executive leadership, nonprofit service, and the protection of a large and increasingly complicated business.
• The RSA Conference Award for Excellence in Information Security recognizes outstanding industry achievement. Its judging committee seeks a practitioner responsible for an outstanding security program or initiative, and Roland Cloutier received the award in 2016 while serving as ADP's Chief Security Officer.
• Security practitioners form a thin digital line that protects economies and society from chaos. Cloutier applies the law enforcement idea of the thin blue line to more than 40,000 conference attendees and millions of professionals performing protective work around the world.
• Leadership development is part of Cloutier's security mission. He views his training, experience, knowledge, and focus as gifts that should be passed to a new generation capable of advancing the fight further and moving the profession closer to winning.
• Family support is essential to sustaining a demanding security career. Cloutier credits his wife of 25 years, Laura, and his daughters for supporting the travel, unusual hours, heavy coffee consumption, and cautious mindset associated with his work.
• Progress in information security depends on sharing, innovating, executing, and maintaining a warrior spirit. Cloutier believes these behaviors can build momentum and produce strong results across a global ecosystem of people and industries dedicated to protecting the world.
• ADP's security mission is organized around three priorities: protecting clients, protecting shareholders, and serving the economies the company supports. Cloutier credits ADP's leaders, employees, and security, risk, and privacy practitioners with giving him room to think and act radically around those priorities.
• Recognition in security reflects collective effort rather than individual work alone. Cloutier thanks former mentors, current colleagues, law enforcement experts, security practitioners, ADP employees, conference organizers, and his family for creating the conditions that allowed him to lead and contribute.

Questions & Answers

Q: What does excellence in information security leadership require?

Excellence in information security leadership requires a clear mission, a commitment to meaningful impact, and the ability to protect the people and economies an organization serves. Cloutier also identifies sharing, innovation, execution, and a warrior spirit as sources of continued progress. His remarks emphasize recognizing collaborators and transferring training, experience, knowledge, and focus to future leaders.

Q: Who received the 2016 RSA information security award?

Roland Cloutier, then Chief Security Officer at ADP, received the 2016 RSA Conference Award for Excellence in Information Security. John N. Stewart, Cisco's Senior Vice President and Chief Security and Trust Officer, presented him. The award recognizes outstanding achievement in the industry and honors a practitioner responsible for an outstanding security program or initiative.

Q: Why was Roland Cloutier recognized as a security leader?

Roland Cloutier was presented as an accomplished, mission-driven practitioner with a career devoted to security. His background included more than 10 years in the US military and law enforcement, six corporate executive positions, and service to seven nonprofit organizations. Colleagues described him as an amazing, passionate, committed, and caring leader, mentor, friend, and dad.

Q: What is the thin digital line in information security?

The thin digital line is Cloutier's adaptation of the law enforcement concept called the thin blue line. It represents the security professionals whose daily work protects society, economies, and ways of life from chaos. He includes more than 40,000 people attending the conference and millions of other practitioners working around the globe in this protective community.

Q: How should security leaders develop the next generation?

Security leaders should pass their accumulated training, experience, knowledge, and focus to emerging practitioners. Cloutier treats this responsibility as part of his calling to protect, serve, and lead. He believes a new generation of leaders can take the profession deeper into the fight and closer to winning than earlier practitioners imagined when they began their careers.

Q: What were Roland Cloutier's three priorities at ADP?

Roland Cloutier identifies three priorities for his work at ADP: protect the company's clients, protect its shareholders, and serve the economies the organization supports. He credits ADP's leadership, employees, and security, risk, and privacy practitioners with allowing him to think radically, act radically, and maintain a disciplined focus on those three responsibilities.

Q: How does family support affect a security career?

Family support makes it possible to sustain the travel, unusual hours, constant vigilance, and other pressures of a demanding security career. Cloutier specifically thanks his wife of 25 years, Laura, and his daughters for supporting the career he calls his life's mission. He presents their effort as fundamental to his ability to pursue that work passionately every day.

Q: How can the global security community make progress?

The global security community can build momentum through sharing, innovating, executing, and maintaining a warrior spirit. Cloutier describes progress as a collective effort involving people and industries dedicated to protecting the world. He believes practitioners can achieve strong results by working as a global ecosystem and returning each day with the intention to make a difference.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• John Stewart presents Roland Cloutier as a mission-driven security leader whose career includes more than 10 years in the US military and law enforcement, six corporate executive positions, and work with seven nonprofit organizations. Colleagues describe Cloutier as a passionate, committed, and caring leader, mentor, friend, and dad.

• Accepting the 2016 RSA Conference Award for Excellence in Information Security, Cloutier says he feels honored, blessed, and excited about the future. He recognizes previous recipients, security and law enforcement practitioners, his colleagues, and the worldwide community whose daily work forms a thin digital line protecting economies from chaos.

• Cloutier treats protecting others and leading as a calling supported by training, experience, knowledge, and focus. He emphasizes passing those capabilities to future leaders while advancing security through sharing, innovation, execution, and a warrior spirit. He also credits ADP and his family for enabling his demanding, mission-centered career.