We caught up with Mike Wright, CampusGuard’s new President, to chat about his vision for the company, where he sees the cybersecurity and compliance space heading, how he plans to spark innovation within the team, and more. Get to know our new President and his forward-thinking approach.
1. What is your vision for CampusGuard in the next 5 years?
The cybersecurity landscape continues to become more complex, and our customers are faced with ever-increasing regulatory and compliance pressure, evolving threats, and rising client expectations. Today, CampusGuard already provides services that address all three of those aspects. During the next five years, I see us both refining our existing services and expanding into new areas, so that we can help our customers navigate their cybersecurity journeys.
2. How do you plan to differentiate CampusGuard from its competitors?
I might be a little biased, but I think we are already differentiated from our competitors. I’ve been in and around cybersecurity consulting for more than 15 years, and I can honestly say that CampusGuard sets itself apart in several aspects. One example – I’ve never seen such a dedicated and effective customer relationship management team that isn’t afraid to let a customer know that they DON’T need one of our services, or proactively help a customer reduce the scope (and therefore cost) of their compliance footprint.
3. What leadership qualities do you think are essential for success in this role?
First and foremost, a general quality: clarity of purpose. We aren’t in cybersecurity for the glamor and glory – we’re in cybersecurity because we’re passionate about it. It’s essential to remember each and every day that what we do is good. We are helping to protect information that, used in the wrong hands, can harm people. Many people can’t afford to have their identities stolen. Many people can’t afford to lose their jobs because their employer declared bankruptcy due to a particularly vicious ransomware variant.
Second, I think a healthy mix of discipline and wonder. Discipline because consulting companies thrive on rigor and efficiency. Wonder because consulting companies don’t succeed without creativity and innovation.
Third, but critically important, is integrity. Everything in cybersecurity is about trust. Sure, on a technical level, trust is embedded in traditional cybersecurity concepts like the CIA Triad, and it’s in the name of concepts like Zero Trust. But trust is key from a business perspective as well – we must continue to hold ourselves to a high standard of integrity so that our customers trust us to provide them with unbiased advice and high-quality work product.
4. What are the biggest challenges facing CampusGuard right now?
Right now, we’re kind of in the middle of our growth journey. We are no longer the size of a scrappy start-up worrying about making payroll, which is great! So, we’re navigating growing, but not for growth’s sake. One of the most difficult things for a company to do is grow beyond the “mom and pop” stage and into the “mature business” stage, but WITHOUT losing the spark that makes them special. So, how do we continue to grow, mature, and refine our business while also remaining innovative and flexible?
5. How do you plan to address these challenges?
Finding the next CampusGuardians. We provide white-glove, high-quality services that our customers love. As we grow, we need to bring in new blood with different experiences to keep us thinking about new and different ways of doing things. I believe that the cybersecurity job market has always been a little unusual (compared to other IT-related fields)—maybe it’s because cybersecurity and cyber-compliance are still necessary even during a recession or a pandemic. Maybe there are other reasons. But sometimes it’s tough for us the find the right individual that fits our culture; our customers have high standards with regard to the services that we provide, so we therefore have high standards for the team members that perform them!
6. How would you describe CampusGuard’s culture?
Two words come to mind: family and responsibility. Family because we share so much with each other – it’s not uncommon for us to share intensely personal moments (the good, the bad, and the ugly) with our co-workers. Harvey [Gannon, CEO] has really built a culture where people can trust each other to do so. And family because we love to have fun – for example, some of us thought it would be grand to wear crowns for a couple of meetings. Why? I’m not really sure how it came about, but it was fun (and funny 😊).
Responsibility because our customers trust us with some of their most difficult problems, and we have to work across teams to solve them. Rarely is only one person (or one team) involved in a project or service; it’s much more common, for example, that our Customer Relationship Management Team must work closely with our Security Advisory team. This would not be possible without a sense of responsibility and teamwork.
7. How do you plan to foster innovation and collaboration among employees?
This is a question that all leaders need to continually ask themselves! I subscribe to the “fail fast” philosophy and I plan to encourage my teammates to experiment! Don’t be afraid to try new things. But when you do, test your assumptions before over-investing, value data over opinions, and adjust quickly.
8. What trends do you think will shape the cybersecurity and compliance industry in the coming years?
AI is the obvious one, I think. Cybersecurity and compliance regulations tend to lag behind technological innovations, and AI is no exception. Cybersecurity professionals need to learn and understand AI as it evolves. They also need to learn how to safely use AI or they will fall behind their competitors, just like our customers do for their own businesses.
9. How is CampusGuard adapting to technological advancements?
I’ll answer in the context of AI again — without giving too much away, we are actively (safely) experimenting with ways we can utilize AI in our internal business processes as well as in our customer-facing service delivery processes. We have a cross-departmental group that meets every two weeks to discuss all things AI.
10. What inspired you to take on this role?
Two things: First, the mission. As I mentioned above, I’m in cybersecurity because I’m passionate about the good we do. Second, the people. I’ve been privileged enough to get to know the CampusGuard team over the past five years first from the perspective of a customer, then from the perspective of a board member, and finally from the perspective of a fellow team member.
11. How has your previous experience prepared you for this position?
I guess if you look at it from a checkbox perspective, I have checked all of the boxes. On the technical side, I have a deeply technical IT background, having done everything from Help Desk to System Administration to Network Engineering to Storage Architecture. On the information security side, I’ve done Security Engineering and Security Architecture. I have been a hands-on-keyboard cybersecurity consultant, conducting penetration tests and PCI assessments. On the business side, I have built, run, and managed a successful cybersecurity consulting firm. I have board and corporate executive leadership experience. I like to think that because of my career’s dual trajectory of tech and business, I am especially well-suited for this position.
12. What’s the best leadership lesson you’ve learned in your career?
Although focusing on financials is key to running and growing a business, if you focus solely on the financials, you can lose sight of your mission.
13. What activities do you enjoy outside of work?
In the winter, I love to snowboard. Board games with my family. Oh – and my kids are finally old enough that I’m able to introduce them to the computer games that I grew up playing – classics like Diablo, Heroes of Might & Magic, and Warcraft II.
14. What’s your favorite movie and why?
Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings. Okay, that’s three movies, but I’m sticking with it! There are scenes where imagery and score are just so poignant… the scene where the Fellowship is entering the Twenty-First Hall in Moria, and the camera and music both open up in a grand way. The Hardanger fiddle playing hauntingly in the desolate, windy scene that introduces the diminished kingdom of Rohan. King Elessar telling the Hobbits that they bow to no one. The final scene where the Fellowship finally and permanently breaks, with Frodo going to Into The West. OK, now I think I’m going to watch it again this weekend!
15. If you could listen to only one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
I asked my girls this question… and here’s what they told me: My youngest daughter said It’s Raining Tacos. My oldest daughter said Mirror Mirror by M2M. I should probably go with one of those because somehow they always end up being the ones controlling the music in the car, so I am stuck listening to them anyways! But if I had to answer for myself, I’d probably say The King of the Golden Hall by Howard Shore, from – you guessed it – Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings.
