About Mike
I started working construction at 12, paid in cash, because my family needed it. By 16 I'd poured concrete, roofed houses, framed walls, and run plumbing. That work taught me that things only hold up if the foundation is right.
At 17, I wanted my first "real" job, so I became an assistant manager at a Domino's. It was my first time leading people, and I learned that a team runs on trust as much as on process.
Then came the hardest two years of my life. I lost my brother at 18 and my dad at 19. I didn't have a family roadmap after that, so I learned from the crews, managers, and leaders who gave me a shot and pushed me to be better.
That carried me through my mission and back home, where I kept building. I led a 21-person sales team, automated analytics at The Home Depot, and analyzed workforce data for Cisco's veteran talent initiatives. At BYU, I researched adversarial machine learning and application security, which is where security went from interest to calling.
For nearly seven years, I've served as a cyber officer in the U.S. Army. I've led cyber defense, threat intelligence, and security engineering teams, run multi-year security programs as a technical program manager, and now lead a 20+ person cyber operations and engineering organization. I also teach adversary methodology and offensive and defensive strategy to other cybersecurity professionals.
Now I'm bringing that experience into security leadership and engineering: building strong foundations, leading with trust, and showing up for the people around me.