Episode 24

Val Mukherjee, CISSP, Chairman & Founder, Cyber Future Foundation & Servant Leader

Published on: 7th April, 2022

About Valmiki Mukherjee:

Valmiki (Val) is Chairman and Founder of Cyber Future Foundation and a globally recognized expert in the cyber and cloud security industry with a focus on innovation and collaboration to address the Information Security needs of the future. He previously served as an Executive Director in the Cyber Advisory Services at EY. For several years, Val has served as a trusted advisor to a number of the top Fortune 500 C-Level executives, public agency leaders and education institution management teams.

Val is considered as an original thought leader in the domain of Cyber Peace and in 2014 established the Cyber Peace Alliance, a global think/do tank of cybersecurity and policy experts advancing the concept of a secure and trusted Cyberspace. Val founded Cyber Future Foundation and its Constituents including the Cyber Peace Alliance to take the initiative forward.

Val is known for his Commitment to the information security professional community and is constantly engaged as a leader and contributor within many standards initiatives, security alliances and consortium. He also serves as the Global Co-chair of Cloud Security Alliance's IAM domain. Val is also the Founder and Current Chairman of CSA North Texas which in a couple of years has grown to be a significant contributor to the global Cloud Security domains. He also addresses graduate classes at leading schools on Information Security, Risk Management and Cloud Security.

Show Highlights:

  • Cyber is a complex issue, you cannot just solve for it with academic knowledge, you need to have hands-on experience.
  • Getting someone the hands-on experience is a problem, that’s why it’s a risk with entry level – this causes issues and problems.
  • We need a constructive way to get these people meaningful hands-on experience and work.
  • There has to be a pathway between academic learning, fundamental knowledge, so their base is strong.
  • We need to build this in as much 'Left Shift' as possible and make sure that the digital citizens of tomorrow and of today get this experience for the workforce.
  • To stand up a team like this in some organizations can be quite costly.
  • Why don’t we shift it towards the final years of education and community experience so that they get that experience then. This is what my new Cybersecurity Venture will focus on.
  • This is why Cyber Talent Week (April 22, 2022) is so imperative.
  • Apprenticeship is a great model. The way the system is set up now makes it very hard to set this up – this is what we are changing.
  • Social good can happen and commercial success can happen – they have to be together.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valmikim

Twitter: https://twitter.com/valmikim 

Cyber Future Foundation: https://cyberfuturefoundation.org/index.html

Cyber Talent Week: https://cybertalentweek22.eventbrite.com/

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About the Podcast

The CISO Diaries
The path to cybersecurity leadership is not a direct route and it's those divergent routes that create the amazing stories and histories of leaders who are driving security to keep businesses and people safe.

We’re Leah McLean and Syya Yasotornrat and we intend to give CISOs and cybersecurity professionals a place to be their authentic selves. These are the unedited stories told of how they got into cybersecurity, the real struggles they’ve persevered through, personal anecdotes that make them tick, and leadership advice based on experiences.

We aren't the kind of cybersecurity podcasts that focuses on the technologies, or recent incidents. We are the podcast that focuses on the people behind the headlines and the incredible diversity of experiences and backgrounds. (And it's not lost on us that we're two awesome female hosts)!

Let's face it: we are a cybersecurity tribe and we need all hands on deck!

We hope you enjoy our CISO diary entries.

After all, we're only human, right?

Special thanks to our sponsor, Cyber Future Foundation, a non-profit global cybersecurity executive leadership community, where leaders, thinkers, and futurists discuss and develop actionable guidance and frameworks for a trusted and safer world.

About your hosts

Syya Yasotornrat

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Syya is a tenured tech sales professional with her time at SonicWALL and Hewlett Packard (HPE) with some hospitality at the Walt Disney Company and IT recruitment experience in the mix. She is currently a podcast strategist and consultant, helping others to bring out their voice and legacy through podcasting. She loves to learn and talk about anything, so feel free to reach out!

Leah McLean

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Leah is Vice President, Cybersecurity Specialist at Mastercard. She is focused on implementing strategy and programs to evolve cybersecurity risk management approaches and cybersecurity awareness and training. She actively contributes in community working groups to advance cybersecurity risk management and third-party risk. Leah is also a mentor to candidates breaking into cybersecurity careers, and collaborates with employers to rethink their workforce and hiring strategies.
Leah is a co-founder at Whole Cyber Human Initiative, a non-profit focused on redefining how we identify, train, equip, advance knowledge, and build workforce development within IT and Cybersecurity. She also volunteers for Cyber Future Foundation, a non-profit driving workforce development initiatives and private and public sector collaboration.
Previously Leah held senior level roles as a cybersecurity practitioner at Armor, a cloud security company protecting data for SMB and mid-market customers, Apstra (acquired by Juniper Networks), A10 Networks and Cisco Systems. Leah serves on the Board of Advisors for Cloud Defense, Inc., a breach visibility cloud security startup and is on the board for the Cloud Security Alliance North Texas Chapter.
Leah holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, with an emphasis in International Relations from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is an active outdoor junkie always chasing adventure.