Modern CISO Network: Board Book

Aaron Wurthmann has a diverse background with more than 25 years in information technology and cybersecurity, including founding his own security startup. With experience securing customer data and payment information at a Fortune 50 enterprise company, Aaron leverages a blend of his tactical and strategic knowledge to build executable visions. Aaron is currently an advisor, security and technology community leader, and board member serving on customer advisory and technology boards.

Amongst Aaron’s many accomplishments, he worked at the marketing automation pioneer Marketo throughout several stages of the company’s lifecycle—from its public listing, transition into private equity ownership, to its monumental acquisition by Adobe for $4.75 billion. This period honed Aaron’s leadership skill set and business acumen, leading him to join Navan (formerly known as TripActions) early in the company’s maturity journey. During the pandemic and related economic downturn, Aaron founded a security startup protecting endpoint devices from adversary-in-the-middle attacks. The outcome of this venture was a positive exit with the intellectual property being released to an undisclosed party. This experience brought Aaron newfound empathy for founders. In his former position as Head of Digital and Data Security at Albertsons Companies, Aaron was responsible for securing customer data, pharmacy patient information, payment information, mobile and web applications, and the cloud-based eCommerce platform. During this time, Albertsons increased software product delivery while maintaining and acting on security threats in record time. Upon receiving the call to rejoin former colleagues in leadership positions at PR software giant Cision, Aaron joined to fill the Chief Information Officer (CIO) role. In short order, Aaron hired a CISO to help execute his vision of how modern-day security and IT departments should partner with the business and development teams to deliver products within the company’s risk tolerance profile. Aaron’s leadership during this time led to an impactful reduction in cyber insurance premiums and greater board visibility to security and IT processes. He also launched the “Security Champions” program and helped increase the company’s service addressable market by way of certification, positioning the company to complete ISO 27001 certification in 2023.