The Heller Report: The Value of Today’s “Growth CISO”

The CISO role has evolved from a defensive gatekeeper to a strategic growth enabler. Growth CISOs not only stay ahead of the regulations that could slow them down. They give their sales teams the ability to assure customers that their data is secure. Growth CISOs help their companies communicate clearly how their data collection policies impact their customers. In this article, Heller Managing Director Jason Henninger explains why growth CISOs are so valuable, how to identify and attract the best candidates, and how job-seekers can find success.

With so many vendor-driven changes, it pays to assess the importance of each technology and provider when you make your IT plans, argues Niel Nickolaisen, an advisor, author, and IT executive at Utah State University. The assessment starts with a two-dimension analysis. First, consider how mission-critical a particular technology or provider is to your business. Second, evaluate the switching costs – time, effort and money – it would take to replace it.

Hoboken, N.J., last month celebrated nine years free of traffic fatalities. How did the city of 60,000 do it? Through action informed by data analysis, as Reasons to Be Cheerful reports. Data showed many traffic-related injuries or deaths between 2014 and 2018 involved bikers or pedestrians in crosswalks. The city redesigned streets near schools, parks and senior centers and extended sidewalk curbs into intersections, among other moves. City officials, who say there is more work to do, now integrate higher safety standards into routine roadwork, the online magazine notes.

Heller has been retained to recruit an experienced and highly qualified Director, Data and Enterprise Architecture responsible for designing and overseeing the architectural strategy for the American Lung Association’s enterprise technology systems. Reporting to the Chief Information and Technology Officer (CITO), this role provides vision, anticipates and solves complex problems, and ensures that technology initiatives align with organizational goals and mission. The Director collaborates with internal stakeholders to drive innovation, efficiency, and integration of systems. The ideal candidate will have a proven track record in architecting and deploying enterprise data solutions (data lakes, data warehouses, ETL pipelines) with 10+ years of experience in IT architecture, and at least 7 years in progressively responsible supervisory roles in large organizations. The role is based in Chicago.