Modern CISO Network: Board Book

Paresh Patel is a solutions-oriented technology and cybersecurity executive with over 20 years of progressive experience in security services and directing complex IT projects. He possesses optimal strategy, hands-on leadership, and culture awareness for national and international operations. Paresh has a proven track record of aligning security with business strategies and delivering world-class cybersecurity capabilities across products and enterprises. He is highly respected for his ability to direct risk management initiatives, security, business development, systems security, compliance, architecture, and infrastructure with a specific focus on cybersecurity management.

Paresh has a deep understanding of standardization, policy/procedure development, and data protection laws and regulations. He is responsible for determining cybersecurity initiatives, assessing information risk, and developing a comprehensive cybersecurity training program. With his adeptness at directing multi-national teams and administering million-dollar budgets, Paresh effectively leads diverse teams in executing critical projects within strict timelines. His achievements include a successful five-year tenure serving in a leadership role, preparing IT/security for a successful funding of over $100 million. During his tenure, he developed a comprehensive information security strategy that supported the organization’s growth. He also achieved and maintained FedRAMP, SOC 1/SOC 2 Type 1 and 2 ISO 27001, ISO 27017, PCI-DSS, IRAP, HIPAA, and HITRUST compliance. He played a pivotal role as a co-founder of a business that provided design, implementation, and daily network/security support to clients in the financial, legal, and technology sectors. He effectively managed an information security risk management system and ensured that risks were consistently and promptly reported and responded to, improving response time by 90%. He skillfully planned and managed the budget for a comprehensive and effective cybersecurity program, advocating for and ensuring a spend of 20%–30% of the total IT budget specifically allocated to security. Notably, he successfully managed a budget of $1.5 million and was instrumental in creating the first security program for a global company with a workforce of 15,000 employees and a revenue of $12 billion.