Look at all these wonderful people coming in Don't stare at them. Here we go. They're coming down. This is awesome It's been a great day Not just because of the leadership conference, but because it's is it's still 67 degrees outside Which as we know about two weeks ago was not 67. I hear it's going to be 80 degrees on Friday, which means that you can all go to the president's house and hang out on this front lawn Is he here? No So I was just joking the commandant's house. You can go to the commandant's house and Hang out.  All right. Here's coming. Here he is. All right 10-4. All right, copy All right, we're getting the last people seated But no, this is a fantastic day. I before I actually Give my written remarks here to introduce our speaker. Everybody knows that the First week I was here. I've only been here about a year. It's been fantastic academic year and the first week And anybody I start saying we we need to get marrying Allison here. We need to be in our busy Okay, who's marrying Allison, but you're gonna find out today Who Mary and Allison is and so then when we had our you know start talking about the inaugural leadership Conference, but this is this is the moment. This is a great thing And I'm so happy that we could fit into your schedule because tomorrow you're going to the White House So we're kind of getting penciled in here, but no, this is absolutely fantastic moment for us We've had great speakers throughout today. So without any further ado I want to welcome you to the Norwich University inaugural leadership conference and Todd lecture series keynote address The road less traveled Well, we're thrilled to have Marine here vice president chief information security officer of Johnson and Johnson Recently retired Here with us this evening and Ms. Allison is an accomplished executive and leader who's applied her talents in both the military and corporate sectors She's also a trailblazer having been part of the first female cohort to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point After graduating from West Point Ms. Allison served in the US Army where she held several leadership positions Her military service taught her many valuable lessons about leadership Teamwork and resilience that have served her well throughout her career After leaving the military but before joining the corporate world She served as a special agent in the FBI working on undercover drug operations in Newark, New Jersey wonderful place to visit and Also working on terrorist bombings in San Diego, California She developed and participated in the nuclear terrorism exercise compass rose in 1988 the largest mock terrorism incident exercised by the federal government Ms. Allison's most recent corporate post has been the CISO for Johnson and Johnson with the primary responsibility for protecting their information Technology systems and business data worldwide. This includes ensuring that the company's Information security posture supports business growth objectives protects public trust in Johnson Johnson brand and meets legal and Regulatory requirements. I met Ms. Allison during the COVID crisis and Remarkable job bringing Johnson and Johnson through that era, but prior to joining J&J Marine was chief security officer and VP of Medco the largest pharmacy benefit manager in the US Marine was responsible for all aspects of the company's security regulatory Compliance including physical and logistic security executive protection as well as HIPAA payment card industry medicare and prescription frauds and IT controls in short Ms. Allison is widely recognized as an expert in the field of cybersecurity and risk management She had been featured in numerous publications including the Wall Street Journal Forbes and Fortune and has been a guest on several national news Programs as a keynote speaker at today's leadership conference Mary and Allison will share her insights and experiences on leadership Cybersecurity and risk management. She will draw upon her experiences in both the military and private sector to provide Valuable advice and inspiration to all of us who are striving to become better leaders Please join me in giving a warm welcome to Mary and Allison our tarred lecture series keynote speaker You have to be my timer Everyone It's wonderful to be here First of all, it was actually warmer in Burlington when I landed At 67 degrees then it was when I left Jacksonville, Florida this morning at 9 30 in the morning So on you guys for actually having better weather in Vermont because I was fearful for the entire trip Oh my god, what if they have a snowstorm? And it's real, you know, April is a good time for snowstorms in Vermont like last week It was 20 degrees. I was looking at the weather and I'm like, okay. I don't have those clothes anymore. I have completely transformed I'm at General Gangs at Embry Riddle a couple of years ago We're both bored out of our tears You know, what the heck are we doing sitting here and she's down the road a couple hours So I got my son and we got in the car and we drove down there now my son is he works at J&J also and he's an IT works in our supply chain for our contact lenses on Programming and running the technology that ships those contacts worldwide But where he wanted to go to school in the beginning Was Embry Riddle and so we thought it would be a great road trip, especially in the middle of pandemic We're in Florida. We didn't really know about COVID. Okay, because we had a completely different experience down there than the Wingland did went down there and We just Karen and I hit it off We just started chit-chatting about this thing that thing and the other thing and What it told me is is in the middle of a pandemic you can find new friends and That's what we did is we became very fast friends Now Norwich University Everybody's told me how wonderful it is today. I want you to know I already know that I Love this school Okay It is the one of the most amazing schools in my mind. You know why I love cyber talent You are one of the very first universities to have a cyber master's degree program information assurance You're awesome. You also have a core cadets That's awesome. I could not be any prouder to actually have been asked to come here The other thing that why I love Norwich and I love Vermont so much It's where I used to summer when I was a little girl so when I got off of 89 and To go into Montpelier and it said st. John's Berry It brought back a very warm feeling to my heart It's where I saw my first stuffed moose and to this day. I haven't seen a real moose Okay, there's signs everywhere on the highways here, but I have not seen that real moose. I am sure one day I will Hopefully I'll be in Vermont and I used to go up to Willoughby Lake and In the Northeast Kingdom and absolutely loved it So when I was in high school and I was on speech and debate One of the pellets that I most was enthralled with and I loved his poems was Robert Frost and on my saber when I graduated From West Point and I gave to my parents that now sits in my office. It says two roads diverged in the woods and I took the one less traveled and it made the made all the difference and I didn't put this slide up The slide deck was originally created in about 2016 and so I've been using that since then so the spirit of Vermont Has been with me for all these years. So thank you for that. All right. Now. Here's the work Plan B. So that's me feel talking. We were talking today at dinner about field hockey and I played field hockey. It was a state championship team being a top-level athlete and What you need to give to a team Became a very very important Fundamental core value that I had is that it's not about just me It's not about law as defender. So I was never going to score unless I scored on myself and thank God I never did that But it was making sure that we were defended we won our state championship Because little-known facts in the field hockey in the defensive zone if you're at a tied game It's who's less Time in one side of the goal becomes how you win the game. That's how we won the championship So I'm good for all my defenders out there. Hey, here's on you. I Was class president. I won by two votes. I was in the race And I won by two votes Doesn't matter. I won. I was a class president The other guy laughed and went to a private school because he was so ashamed of being a woman becoming the class president Eventually inducted into the Hall of Fame Which was pretty amazing every other woman on that that team actually played on a D1 School for field hockey Now the story here is the very first school that I really was interested in going to Was was Wellesley All female school just outside of Boston That was my number one school When I realized that wasn't going to happen My number two school was I would go to the Air Force Academy I because they just opened November 1975 they opened up the military Academy for admissions for women and my dad said hey Marine You could go to the Air Force Academy. So I applied to go to the Air Force Academy the second What I didn't know Was I also received while I knew it did know it I received a four year ROTC scholarship to MIT What no one ever told me was I could go to MIT for free and I would be accepted No one ever told me that ROTC people didn't tell me they just gave me the scholarship and I did not know what to do with it There is only one person in my life or my very first sponsor in my life at that time Was the congresswoman that I applied to go to the Air Force Academy with she decided She didn't want me to go to the Air Force Academy She gave me her principal nomination to West Point So sight unseen didn't know what the MIT thing was about you know you talk about being 17 and not knowing what's going on in life Okay, so I go Can't I don't know what this MIT thing. I'm not getting into Wellesley I'm not getting the Air Force Academy Margaret Heckler gives me this principal nomination on July 7th 1976 sight unseen I show up at West Point Had never been on the campus Never had talked to any instructor and I showed up and went to West Point kind of crazy But you can do it you can do it I showed up with a hundred and nineteen women and there were forty four hundred men at West Point and 4,399 of them didn't want us there They did not want us there. We were changing history There are hall. There are academic halls at West Point that still have latrines in the women's bathrooms 45 years later They took the tails on the full dress coat and there was there was a woman who had a full dress coat on and The tails with the buttons right in the back They decided that the women's butts were a little bigger So they were going to cut the tails off. They cut the tails off of Those full-dress jackets that they issued to the women Which told me they never intended us to graduate because where do the first these stand? and information and Full dress gray over white was really gonna look bad with white butts in the back But that's they if there was no concept that we would make it all the way through What has been found out over those years? Oh, and the other story was We were allowed to wear skirts in formation. You you're allowed to wear skirts information right here right you were skirts I was pulled off the mess hall steps by my skirt as a plebe and Yell that that I wasn't allowed to wear the skirt in formation and because of that That resolve I decided at that point in time that I Would no longer allow to be people to be told that they couldn't do something that they were allowed to do and I was going to make it better and My voice was no longer going to be quiet Now I decided that I didn't take any action on that till after I graduated. Okay, because I did want to graduate It was competent constant competition against men But I found a sport. Oh, yeah, the field hockey thing. This is what you should know So the recruiter somebody did talk to me and they did say You know Marine We're gonna have field hockey at West Point. So you'll be great here. I'm like, okay 43 years later, there's still no field hockey at West Point. Okay. I'm still waiting. So I had to find another sport But I got the thinking sport. So I became an orientier There are a few things that women have to do well in the military To even be seen as successful. You have to be able to run You have to be able to run and you have to think while you're running Because you've got all sorts of other things that are gonna happen that day But one of the things I found out was I was really good at orienteering so good at orienteering not only part of our training my roommate and I Did a marathon together But we made the US orienteering team and we're able to go to St. Gallon, Switzerland and in 1980 the US boycotted the Olympics and we're one of very few people who actually got to compete on the international stage at this orienteering championship and represent the United States and It was absolutely amazing How much fun it was now couple Two weeks from now. I'm having 25 of my female classmates at my house. I'm setting up an orienteering course We have a 219 acre farm and so we plan to have some fun so after I graduated I got to go to St. Gallon, Switzerland and orientier Then I went to Fort McClellan, Alabama where I met my husband And married 42 years and we were both military police officers Now I had an electrical engineering degree from West Point You get to choose your branch at West Point by your class rank well shoes are chosen One will have to debate what those are so I got Voluntold and At the time we didn't know they weren't sure about women in ADA or FAA and there were no women in infantry or armor none and So I got the very last slot in military police and because I got that slot I met my husband who knows I may have met him otherwise But I met him there. It's a long hot summer at Fort McClellan, Alabama So anybody who's been there knows what I'm talking about and from there. I went to Fort Hood, Texas and I went to aerosol school at aerosol school I After I got through with aerosol school I found out that I actually was pregnant with my son when I went to aerosol school And he's always been demanding that he should have aerosol wings because he also went through But I tell him hey, he's a helicopter pilot I should have helicopter wings and so we end with that I went to poor chaffy, Arkansas when they brought in the The cuban mario letos that were let out of Castro's prison and learned very early About civil disruption civil disobedience there were riots there while we were there and Learning how to deal with that situation became extremely important. It's also when I started realizing government policy can impact and I make a difference. How can I make a difference in this world? By managing some of these situations So what did I do? Well, actually it was Donald Rumsfeld Decided that he didn't want women to get shot at he didn't want women's in harm's way We were in the military, but he didn't want us in harm's way We're probably what three four percent of the force at that point in time. So I got out of The army where half the time you didn't have bullets in your gun anyway And I went to the FBI and I wore a gun with bullets every single day part of what I did Was in San Diego this I did background check. Oh, I guess that's not wrong The Supreme Court judge that we look we did his background check and then we had Captain Rogers Bombing anybody know what the Captain Rogers bombing was any of my history majors Captain Rogers was the captain of the Vence sends it was an arduous cruiser in the Gulf and He in late 1980s Said that an Iranian Airbus a civilian Airbus was attacking His ship and he shot it down if we had looked at history Over the years we would have been looking for terrorists using airplanes as a bomb as a weapon and That is part of what we saw later in New York City with the World Trade Center Was the use of those aircraft? And from there My husband I decided we didn't like that had California was too cool for us So we moved to the East Coast and they put us in Newark, New Jersey And I did undercover drug operations and as part of that Being able to talk to people So everyone always wanted to know how did you Marine? How did you get these great drug informants? I tapped in to a group that was bringing in over 10,000 kilos of cocaine into the New York Metro region every single month It was by talking to people And listening to what they have to say in reaching to them at their situation in understanding not judging not criticizing but talking to them and What I found out is the more people I talked to the more people they came to me And I ended up getting some really great informants now one of the the coolest things that I did was We knew that 10,000 kilos of cocaine no a thousand kilos. Excuse me. We're coming into the port of Houston and no drug dealer does anything on Monday through Friday they do it on the weekends because they know all the FBI agents and cops aren't working on the weekends and So my informant told me that they were coming in Port of Houston and He was going down there and he's supposed to pick up the load So I picked up the load and I worked with the Houston FBI When I flew down there to talk to them on Labor Day weekend thought I was out of my mind and Wouldn't hear me Wouldn't listen to me that in fact we have tapped into this network and They didn't want to do it it beat up my informant He had all sorts of bruises and scabs on his back from what they did to him I Convinced the Harris County in Houston to let me take him and I put him in a tractor trailer and myself and a cooperating witness and We drove that tractor trailer back across the United States through Atlanta and then Atlanta Hey, this was before ATMs So I guess what I somewhere I ran out of money didn't have gas money And so the FBI office had to meet me At some sleazy motel outside of Atlanta with cash So that I could actually buy food and buy gas To drive this tractor trailer back to New Jersey And I've got like a tunic top-on. I got my gun leather underneath I got my gun underneath my tunic and We're at a gas station and I'm filling up Because we also had a chase car the car that I was in was a Lincoln continental with Georgia plates and that tractor trailer had Florida plates on that the cab and main plates on the tractor are on the trailer we were like Drug deal drug deal drug deal, right? I got we got stopped a lot And so we drove this sucker sucker back up and we decided I got into Maryland and we're waiting for the FBI office up in Newark To coordinate that the takedown activities because what we wanted to do was we were going to take this This load and we're going to pretend to give it to the bad guys So we could get to the next group that would get us in Into the larger group so we could figure out who was getting the 10,000 kilos So sitting there in a parking lot in Maryland anybody been through Maryland, right? Maryland State Troopers Right like you look sideways like this stop in you, right? so the Maryland State on that super fresh parking lot in Maryland and State Trooper comes over and he's like Hey, what's going on? And I go, hey, I'm an FBI agent and show him a badge And I go, you're not gonna really believe me. It's okay. I get this Got Lincoln Continental with Georgia place. We've got this that and the other thing I said, I need you to call the Newark FBI office who they called who then told them let the real story He comes back and he goes I just want you to know I wish you good luck and you're right I didn't believe you and so here we were this traveling drug deal and The the idea of it Is again this informant he trusted me with his life His life was in my hands and To be able to get someone to trust you in that manner and Then to be able to ensure that their safety is taken care of we did the deal on the New Jersey turnpike Like 10 p.m. That night after I'd been there for 10 hours and 12 hours And we were able to take it down But two things from this is that trust of that individual and we were able to get him relocated So he didn't get killed Afterwards and I handed him off to another FBI agent who's been in Florida and took care of him for a long time and The other thing is does this face look like a drug dealer? It is not So don't take an expectation Or say hey, I can't do that because I don't know it or I don't look like it Or I'm not tall enough or I'm not short enough or I'm not fat enough or I'm not thin enough what I learned on the cold New Jersey turnpike is that You just have to do the thing and Understand and learn these are series of tasks and just because you don't look like it and just because it's not Convention you can do whatever you want if you if you just learn and treat people very very well It's a long way back to you know, but I'll get there so After I had worked in the FBI and And so you see a pattern here. I went to the United States Military Academy at West Point. It was all men Denison still graduated Then I went in the FBI Still in this convention of what you can do and can't do I ran in what ended up being my second sponsor. My first one was Margaret Hackler and my second was Lieutenant General Sam Wexel His West Point graduate what I he was on the board of directors of A&P foods and he was there with two women One of the very first board of directors in the United States that had women on it One was the major stockholders wife and the other was her best friend Well over wine one night. They were talking about who the fur who the new head of security should be they they were looking for a Somebody in law enforcement Somebody who was a woman and oh, yeah, we better find somebody who's a West Point graduate And it'd be great if they lived in New Jersey One person fit that bill that was me When I went in for the interviews here, I am an FBI agent. I know nothing about corporate security zero not a nothing and I Went in and I was Okay, we'll just see how this works was my time. Let me go in It ended up we talked about leadership. We talked about developing a team We talked about how to learn in the security area and so what I did I Obviously I passed the interview and I became their head of security and what I learned there was And this is specifically for a lot of the women you'll go in thinking I'm not a hundred percent qualified. I was about ten percent qualified from my perspective They thought differently Even if you think you're not a hundred percent qualified and this is for the men too. This is for everyone Go in and the only way you're not going to get the job for sure is if you don't apply apply you be surprised and We'll get a little further on around cybersecurity because I'm a geek and I got to get my cybersecurity Stuff in here. One of the things that you'll see is that Sometimes the job descriptions are written By security engineers and they don't know when you better that they need people that aren't all security engineers You need diversity so they write these job descriptions that nobody though 25 years of cybersecurity Experience and when they bring the job description to me, and I like cyber didn't exist 25 years ago What are you doing here? And what you find is is people will overwrite job descriptions go in anyway because you're good You're going to be able to make it I worked in I was ahead of security for 10 years there and I did physical security and Investigations and then oh one of the things There was a group of Albanians They came from the Russian Circus They de facto it and they came to the United States and What they were doing is they were breaking in to grocery stores and into the safes And they would crack the safes and then they take all the money out and they'd leave and The FBI actually thought it was kind of crazy when I told them hey We've got hundreds of these so I organized the food marketing Institute we put together a program with all the other grocery stores and there was no internet at the time still and So we were faxing these documents in and we brought them together and brought it to the FBI who opened up a major case called the Yugoslavians Albanians in Croatian the Yaks and What they were doing was raising money for the war in Herzogovina and We were able to follow them everywhere They were on East Coast and after we moved them out of the grocery stores that we actually they actually moved into like the home depots of Lowe's because hey if you broke into our store you got food and money but if you broke into a Lowe's you could actually get the sledgehammers and Heavy equipment that they needed for other jobs And I know not I knew nothing about safes But I befriended a guy that ran city safe company in Jersey City And we sat down and designed a safe that they couldn't break into and That's how we got a moved off Out of the A&P food stores and into these other big-box locations. I actually ended up doing Speaking and conversations with law enforcement all over the United States Because they had seen this crime group But they didn't quite know what it was and we started connecting all the pieces together to get the FBI involved So even one simple citizen Can be the conduit to be able to get law enforcement to understand what's going on and make it work Just because it sounds preposterous doesn't mean it is I Got a job because of a sponsor a Second time a sponsor in my life Sponsors are incredible powerful people they will see things that you don't see the first thing I will tell you with sponsors is Even if what they say sounds crazy listen to them They know better and and do it the worst thing you can do with a sponsor Is they give you the greatest advice ever or provide you with here is a job on a silver platter for you and you go Yeah, no, I don't want that There's a reason why they want you to do it and you should look at that because not only will you make friends for life But you'll also propel your career Leaving the FBI was one of the hardest leaving the army was the hardest thing I had to do But leaving the FBI. I was like, okay, I really like this thing and I'm good at it But that's what got me into corporate America And that's one of those roads that I took even though it sounded a little crazy at the time I'll buy it. Okay. Now the internet is barely the dog in 2002 Internet's out there. Not a big deal yet. The biggest virus out there is like love plug, right? Nothing major all address, you know, go in fill your contacts send out crazy little emails to everybody will spam in them and then steal more Nothing big I started there in February 2002 and Six weeks later the head of IT security for Avaya Decided to go back and work at Lucent. Avaya had just split from Lucent and he said I'm going back to Lucent So off he went my boss Came into my office and said hey, Marine. How'd you like to be the head of IT security? May, yes, sign me up now That's the job I want because I knew when I was over at A&P That I had to learn this thing called IT this internet this technology was coming out. It needed me I'm an electrical engineer. I should be doing this and so I said, yeah What I didn't know that I just signed up for Was Avaya was going to be a sponsor of the World Cup in Korea in Japan in 2002 if somebody could get me water, I would love you forever. Thank you And so voiceover I paid does everybody know that's what runs your phone in 2002 it was not in production First time ever on a world stage Avaya decided to showcase their voice over IP in Korea and Japan and I had just signed up to run the Security Operations Center Not a term that was why wildly used at the time for the entire World Cup Network and I would tell you that I had the best Master's degree education and network security from a guy by the name of Greg sauteing who was Had been rock had been Russian. He's now American citizen of Russian descent Who sat down and told me everything he knew and I learned it and we created the plan And what I learned was that I Don't always have to know everything about everything On my West Point we like to do that, but that's not the best thing trust the people who work for you Understand what they know and listen to them empower them Greg and I created the plan and implemented it and from my position as a director of security at Avaya The more important thing was the relationships. It was my FBI experience knowing how to get in touch with the FBI in in Seoul Korea because the South Koreans were hard-knocking They were scanning my network so hard They were starting to turn it over because they wanted to know what the technology was. Can you imagine we put this like IP? intellectual property for Internet protocol on a live stage in Asia first go around And we got knocked all over the place the only ones who didn't knock which is surprising now these days We're the Chinese in 2002. They were not knocking And looking at that technology the South Koreans were and what I used in a discussion with Now I'm a woman So I took the marketing director who was a man and I would talk to him and then he would talk to the translator Who then would talk to the South Korean law enforcement? Who then would all take it back and that's how the conversation went and what we did Out there is I convinced them That if they continued to scan the network and it would cause to fail on this grand stage in South Korea It would bring bad faith There they would be seen as failures and That we needed them to not attack the network like that to not scan it not attack But not to scan it do not scan it to bring it down and that's how we stayed up That's exactly how we stayed up the other thing that we learned then was the switches in the network were made by Lucent on our sister company and a Individual of Polish descent who took an avaya course in Poland The same time that the World Cup was coming had found a fatal flaw and a backdoor vulnerability in our network So We're very concerned that we're going to have an insider threat of epic proportions at the final, right? But a little bit worrisome So diplomacy works well We gave that individual For free tickets to the final of the World Cup all expense paid in Japan Because if he was sitting in the stadium, he wasn't going to be hacking and That's how we were able to keep the network out the biggest vulnerability to that network ended up being we had one one system failure in In Japan the culture is that they're very trustworthy if there's a sign that says do not enter People do not enter to try to get the land closet locked Where the servers were was a little difficult The only outage occurred when the cleaning lady went into the land closet to vacuum She unplugged our server to plug in her vacuum That was my average and So I learned this is not every insider threat is really intentional most of them Will end up being something Look at what you see and you're going to see a pattern that might say the intent is not there It is just collateral damage and that becomes very important for my cyber warriors Because everybody thinks it's somebody from somewhere else that's hacking us from there so I go back and They moved me to the law department and as much as I love lawyers Okay, the lawyers and I didn't see each other and Medco made me an offer To go up and work at Medco as your chief security officer So I left and went up to Medco and now we're talking in New Jersey. We're all talking, you know Just on 278, right? You know, I can move from one company to another. It's great New Jersey was like this My son could stay in school. It all worked out What I learned over at Medco Medco was a pharmacy benefit company. What's that? Most of you don't have Prescriptions or at least after the first four rows. Okay, most of you don't have descriptions. Okay, so in the healthcare system When you get a prescription whether you get a CDS of Walgreens or wherever There is a system underneath that checks that you didn't get one at four doctors and and you're doing something You shouldn't be doing your benefit company Your insurance company actually uses these exchanges Medco had the prescription history of 65 million Americans in their database. That's what we were protecting but out of that what was coming is Privacy rules security rules Sarbanes oxley around the financials all were coming out and so all of this regulation was coming out of out all at once It did a lot of good Especially in healthcare because it got us to a bare floor now We're going to move that on with some other work that we're doing with the government right now On moving those regulations further on but it got us there, but I learned about it controls The other thing I learned is Sitting there in March 2010 the Chinese hard-knocked every single healthcare company in the United States Every single one and there were only two types of companies those who knew what happened and those who didn't but it happened and We were one of the ones and what I realized was The federal government wasn't helping me at all and the local and state were the only ones that had cyber defenses that were actually interested in talking to us and so It became okay. What are we going to do here because the government? There was no see-saw homeland security looking at these things at that point in time All right Johnson and Johnson. This is this is a fun stuff so 12 years ago over 12 years ago. I went to Johnson and Johnson Okay, remember, you know, I really like the big jobs I was see-saw chief security officer at Medco and I got a call from a recruiter Are you interested in going to Johnson and Johnson? It's for the Head of IT security chief information security. I said it's only I keep really And and then I like it and the reason why I said yes and this has to do with work-life balance and family is That it was to our commute up to a via or up to Medco and I had had a An apartment that I stayed at during the week, but it's been a lot of time away from my husband and And he had been down in DC for a long period of time working on the World Trade Center Investigation that was presented to Congress, but we were now like, okay, what are we doing here? So I'm driving past an hour into my commute. I look over to the right. It's the J&J building that I'd be working at and After the light Is light turn red and I'm sitting there I hit the phone to call the recruiter and say yes I'm interested because now I'd be to work after an hour instead of two hours And I said okay, and I kept like a smaller job It's only IT security Right because it was before IT security was a really big thing This is where I ran into what I'll call my third mentor LeBurn counsel she black female CIO And she saw my resume. She saw that I was a West Point graduate and she wanted me to come to interview and I said sure What I found out during the interview was LeBurn counsel was supposed to be in the class of 1980 at the US Air Force Academy She turned it down. She went to another school But she was so intrigued with law with the military and what it represented She wanted the brand in her IT organization And so I joined I liked her. I liked the interview panel. I liked what I was going to do there I liked the team I was going to work with So I I said yes I Started out in that organization We had 28 FTE in the entire global IT security network of J&J We went to 26. I Was going nowhere fast. I Presented my IT. I worked with a consultant Deloitte tech not had Deloitte and we created the strategy and presented it when I left in January I had 90 full-time equivalent employees and 300 contractors Worldwide I got the best MBA that I didn't pay for in my entire life Learning how to run an organization of that scale and magnitude over 128 million dollars per year of technologies that we were running and It was because Again, it goes back to listen to the people that you have Understand what's going on. I Was ready to retire in February 2020 Went in performance appraisal time told my boss. Hey, you know, I'm not at that tender little age I think in September by September. I want to retire on April First start of April of 2020.  I Can't leave now and I'll stay till we get to the other side of this J&J decided to make a vaccine a typical drug in its production at any company is over 10 years It takes 10 years to produce a drug in the United States From the very first genome All the way through to an approved FDA drug We did it in 14 to 16 months Things were moving One of the things that came and there are many many other companies out there trying to do the same Lily Merck Pfizer Moderna AstraZeneca, they were all doing the same thing most of them fell to the side and The one thing and I really wanted to retire. I was really ready to retire But it became very clear I'm about mission when I raised my hand on that plane at West Point and I said I would defend against all enemies foreign and domestic I meant it and Even though at 17 years old I could never conceive that I Would learn a new technology and then be the best at defending it Defending in cyberspace. I could have never conceived that at 17 But somewhere along the way all those things I had learned all those opportunities all those doors that were opened Put me on this stage and it's very few times in your life. You'll feel this and you're like I'm right here at the right time doing the right thing and this is going to be good for the world and That's what we did J&J created that vaccine and You you can worry J&J for a hundred years and you still will never know the process of how a drug is we learned it In security because we had to stay one step ahead of all the clinical and the truth be known The reason why I went down to visit general gains is because I had a crisper and Because I had that crisper and it was in the book about J&J's board member and all the work that they had done on genome therapy I wanted to go talk to somebody who had one and what they were doing with it. It was a self-discovery But So J&J starts making this vaccine.  My set my very first call was to Chris Krebs. He was the director of SESA and Homeland Security Chris we got a problem and Out of that he helped launch Operation warp speed and I got they put a general in charge and the general Knew nothing about IT security, but knew a heck of a lot about physical security and so I I helped educate him enough and Tell him and help him get with the right agencies. I need you to get the FDA in the background I need to get NSA. I'm gonna need some help here and Every week I got to talk to the good general and we discussed those things during that time in 20 We had a 30% increase in ransomware in 21 We had a 30% increase in ransomware in 22. We had a 30% increase in ransomware additionally the day that we snitted our patent For our vaccine is the same day Putin came out and Said oh, we already have a vaccine and put it in his daughter's arm June 21 Well, we were doing a whole lot of looking for insider threat at that point in time Because how the hell could he know that? The day we submitted Well, he might have learned something Out of the government, but he didn't learn it from us. We checked all our systems We had the right technologies in place to know where that vaccine string String was and whatever What we did find out little-known fact is we had We had an individual who had to go through and and this wasn't a leak, right? This is just one of those when you think it's an insider threat and it's not really an insider threat It's probably something else the water What we found out was the the Regulatory department Needed to print out all 600 pages They have to review all 600 pages of the submission to make sure there's no spelling errors Everything's right everything's accurate all the data is correct talking about data accuracy and the individual Which he didn't realize is we had opened up the ability to print in their house So she sent it to her Google Drive, so she could print it But we could trace it and find out and then we contacted her but we're all sitting there like oh my god Do we have an insider and oh yeah better yet? She was a Russian descent. It was perfect It's like a perfect storm.  I Call her she's gonna think she's in trouble She might be in trouble But you're a lawyer and Ask her why she printed To Google will come to find out she didn't know that she could print just normally on her home printer By just clicking print and so she sent it to the Google because there's no way she was gonna read 600 pages online Crisis averted The data because you know what no Russian spy sending it to Google Drive because it just didn't make sense I we were talking about forensics earlier, right? You know like these facts aren't aren't adding up You know nobody's sending that to your Google Drive not not if you're trying to hide it because I got that So anyway, we talked to her explained what she could do. She was very happy And we were very happy that we didn't have an insider But we had Putin So it seemed like every time we were getting someplace and we used outside Manufacturing of that vaccine and every when we were doing the assessments What we found was there were parts of the some of the companies weren't ready for a cyber attack of the magnitude we were seeing and by the time we got to the fourth one And this was with the government of South Africa They redesigned the entire plant to make sure it was sustainable and they were the only ones who didn't suffer attack The other was as as much luck as we had had with the FDA submitting our submissions. We had to submit worldwide Well, the the Europeans who have GDPR, which is this grandiose Privacy law that's supposed to protect everybody's privacy. Well, the European medical agency had no cyber security So they lost not only Our our first mission it was it wasn't detrimental to us But our first mission but Pfizer's and Moderna all at the same time and So again, it's that influence in those areas in what you can do So I'm about at my wits end and The vaccine is January of 2022. I think at that point And our vaccine is about to roll We get a denial of service attack Which means it's just somebody's smacking against your network so hard 17 times our network strength and Only because I had read a piece of Intel a couple months prior that said DDoS attacks were starting to pick up in In healthcare Did we start we made that sure I pushed that that technology went to the forefront we had installed This is devices two weeks prior to the attack Just in time security delivery is good as gold. Okay two weeks too late. It had been another story But we were able to sustain in January When the first trucks rolled out of our Kentucky distribution center they create a video There was not a dry eye in the entire corporation when they watched that because of so much that had gone into it and that was and then the vaccine rolled out and then and I'm like, okay time to retire here time to retire and We We're getting towards the end of the year and it looks like Russia is going to vent and they the Ukraine and so at that point in time In the position that I had we had created We had been watching the Russians in the Ukrainian For at least five years prior Not Petia was out of that region. It was the Ukraine By the way, it was me Docs. It was the tax software that was an upload that the Russians had corrupted the server and That caused not Petia for those companies that completely failed and out of that I had I had told my team how long how long people does it take To bring to take the network down between us in the Ukraine Well, we're in it takes a couple of weeks and we've got to send people here We've got to send people there and I go you got five seconds. I want five seconds the goal my head of security engineering and architecture on Nile Casey is good friend of mine. He's in New Zealand He he goes Maria. That's not possible and I go it's only impossible for others for you you'll get it done and so they started working on it in 2016 and They were able to get it where they could take it down immediately But they couldn't bring it back up. I said no downs good. You gotta bring it back up because once we need it Just prior To the Russians invading the Ukraine. We've got a technology called the scaler which gave us that capability So five seconds up five seconds down. We can do it and Even though they thought they couldn't do it Once you give a team you can say okay, I understand you can't do it What's it going to take to do it and you give them all the capabilities to get stuff done? They will get stuff done Now some of it may be reliant on technologies that aren't available But they'll push on the vendors to get the technologies they need Because this whole Living in this world Leadership in this space and especially in cyber it's about working together in the ecosystem We all bring something different to the table that we all need to defend To defend our networks to defend our country to defend our companies I have a bunch of slides that talk about the internet and let's see. Let me see where we are We're an hour in aren't we? Okay. All right, so what I'll do is is I Move through all that so you non-gauge you don't have to worry. Okay, but what do the slide say? Okay In today's world we talk a lot about going digital What the heck does that mean? All right, let's go digital. Let's go to the cloud. Let's do this. Let's do that. What does that mean? Well, let me talk to you about data and and computing of data So back in the olden days Okay, when I was a young pop just about your age We had mainframes. There's still mainframes that are out there. They still exist But mainframes was the main way we computed all the data was here and The only way you could get to it was through something called rack F And it gave you entitlements to look at data You could see everything that was touched you knew who looked at the data and how you looked at it with these things called green bar reports and The older folks in the audience all sort of laugh, right? So this morning when I fit or this afternoon I was picking up my car at avis They have a pin dot printer Pin dot printers were used for these green bar reports, right? So avis can tell me all they want that look at our new website.  Okay, so I told you about these mainframes and then in the late 1990s everybody thought it would be cool and We would go to this thing called the PC and it was client server and Apps would be developed and then apps were put on there and it was all client server so in in the 80s when I had to do Like I only took a file folder home to utilize and read at night Now I could take a laptop home, which was like six file cabinets worth the data Okay, this really from a security perspective wasn't cool, but that's what we did and then from client server What happened is we started doing things like I'll put all my data in somebody else's place And then I'll try to connect to it. Okay, HR firms did a lot of that, right? CA and some of the HR databases they were all run that way Wasn't the cloud yet it was just I'll take my data and put it over in your location in a client server Over there then the cloud came out With the cloud it was oh wait a minute.  It'll be cheaper It was and you got hacked It was just it was really simple Then what you have and what you see a lot today is you have companies that have a little bit of mainframe And they have a little bit of client server and they have a little bit of cloud That is not a digital environment Even if you have a website on top of it. It is not digital Then you'll see companies like Uber or Lyft who you see a little car You can follow you where you're at you can pay online. It connects. It does all these things. That's digital And what is it going to take to get there?  You're going to have to figure out what you're going to do with it To get it so it can be used in a digital Manor or a cloud manner or everything everywhere Then that work has changed over time as I told you I have my story of voice over IP and what I did And that was that was a turning point Voice over IP is what powers your cell phone your computers all the things you see around you is because of that technology and then as we move into 5g I mean real 5g not 10g like what is the Verizon who has that so I have 10 10 G I'm like no you don't that's not even a thing And and we move into everything everywhere commuting communicating with everything it changes all the security profile Why is that important to all of you?  Oh, well, I know nothing about computers. Well, neither did I You can learn you can learn and understand and make it happen And that's why it's about you Your capacity for learning and now some of you have spent one year two years three years Four years hopefully we don't have any five years here, but maybe we do but you have spent all those years learning What you need to know for the future hasn't even been created yet So the learning from Norwich is that you've learned how to learn you've learned how to be leaders To learn when even when oh crap, I don't know we're gonna create a vaccine What am I going to do here? They have created instilled in each one of you that ability that strength of character To be able to say I got this. I got this country You're in my hands. I can lead and Some of you will choose to do that in uniform. I applaud you I Did my five years in uniform and I own one of the few regrets one of the very few regrets is I wasn't able to serve longer That I wasn't be able wasn't able to become a three or a four star general Because I would have loved that that would have been me inside I had to do other things and I had to be a a Champion a general on the battlefield called cyber When there were no other people who understood what the battlefield consisted of But you will because you have the makings and the learnings that started at this school And you're going to take them with you. This is where I come in and I talk to you What are you gonna you do these are all the things all the networks? I have I think a dinner I think I Expanded my network like five out right like yeah, you can be part of that network. You want to do that? network join groups Whether if you go into a critical if you go into the military There's all sorts of groups in that space join how many people are on LinkedIn raise your hand You should all be on LinkedIn tonight Marine Allison LinkedIn Lincoln with me my group is your group my tribe is your tribe That's what you need to do be bold Know people all the groups when I joined A&P. I Was a FB gunslinging FBI agent. Okay, could shoot a possible It was pretty darn good Could run real at house. I Didn't know anything about retail shrink. I Sat in a meeting the very first day at A&P food for eight hours and It took me to the ninth hour to figure out what retail shrink is And but you know what I learned and then I realized it's just math And if I use the scan reports I can find out what the shrink is and if I can find out what the shrink is on certain products on certain Cashier lines. I'm gonna be able to find out who's trying to who's doing the wrong thing Because they all should be average Well, maybe except for the express line But then you could see that and once you get that data Then you can you have the power to do something with it. So network now again to the end Nothing is to be feared It is only to be understood We must understand more So that we may fear left This was the inscription on my high school year book This is the quote I put in there And it has been so true when I wanted to go to Wellesley And then I would settle on the Air Force Academy But I went to West Point I made lemons. I made lemonade out of the lemons that I was provided You have been provided one of the best educations that you'll get ever in the United States Here at Norwich because it's not only about Your academic education It's also about your physical and your leadership and your spiritual Education All of those things will make the whole person cybersecurity Internet didn't exist If that didn't exist, what are you going to learn? What is out there before you? Can you only imagine we all kind of you know The space force, right? But think about it What could it be? Do I have anybody who went space force? Ah, there he is. He's up in the corner raise that hand be proud of that You get the almost awesome uniforms ever You're not going to be in pink and tans. You're going to be in star wars heaven You'll be good. You'll be cool. But can you imagine he's going to learn about satellites all about these satellites and Rockets and all of this amazing technology and where it's going to go and how do we defend ourselves in that space This is what I ask each one of you You don't have to be the person with the highest GPA, but you can learn something new every single day Every single day figure out something new to just ponder on And it's not just cat mints. Okay, it can be other things But to some of those don't you'd like wonder how the heck did they get the cat to do that?  It represents the seven thousand west point women who have graduated God bless you In 43 years Seven thousand that's it It represents every single one of them We help each other every single day Every single day we're helping to pull somebody out It's so easy to like scoff But how about be the helping hand Be the person that others want to be So we were talking about Women in the military and then after the military became an FBI agent and that really didn't help my demeanor much But when I joined corporate america I took a five by seven card And on it I wrote be kind Be kind not be kind And I still have that card. It's on my desk out in my farm in panetta Because we all need a reminder Because sometimes it's just easy to not be kind But being kind makes you a better human being and makes people want to listen to you and makes people trust you And that is what is very important and when I hear I hear from some of the People some of the young men that I used to coach on my son's soccer team One of them had a birthday yesterday. He's a major up at west point teaching german And when I go up to west point later in may He's going to be there And and to see the kindness that we were at you know He as when I coached him And soccer and to now where he is and he's up at west point even though he's not a west point grad He's giving back And that is the type of kindness that we need to have and mentor I also skip one nor start no where the heck you're going Okay You don't have to have it all mapped out I love it when people come to me and they they want advice and they ask this question Mrs. Allison I'm going to do this and this and this and by the time I'm 30 and then I'm like Uh, do you have a family in there? Do you have a life in there? You're just going to do your career Oh, no, I want to be you one day and this is how I'm going to do it Well, what I tell people is is you know, the north star is not a direct path Much of it is weaving in and out and being agile in your life and taking the lemonade the lemons and making them into lemonade And good things are going to happen or bad things will be happen But you have to look at it and say okay now. What do I do with this? Someone wants to ask me Marine Is there any mistakes you made in your career? There's no mistakes in my career It's the career that I had and I'm proud of it now Maybe I should have become the veterinarian I wanted to be when I was 16 But I didn't go that route. I took another route And so I don't have regrets that I'm not a veterinarian I've got two horses for god's sake. You can be sure I'm not upset that I'm not a veterinarian I like animals, but it doesn't mean I have to be that bad And those are the things find out what you like. I didn't even know right here. I took electrical engineering I graduated became an amp military police officer Undercovered drug officer and it wasn't until I was at A&P And we were starting to look at all our data that we had and I'm like, oh, I kind of like this IT stuff Like I really like this IT stuff And so it doesn't you don't have to know right now what you're going to be Just know you're going to go in a direction and keep going in that direction Um, you'll find it's a lot more fun that way. I mean The thing that I would tell people Is You're not going to know everything But you can read about it And you can apply it The best education you got at Norwich is not calculus It is going to be the fact that you know how to read and apply And that you know how to do research and you can look things up and you can go god I don't know anything about this, but I'm going to learn Many times I am not a drug dealer But I can figure out how to take one down And that is what you can do by just reading and applying Don't get in a comfortable place for too long. You can go there for a while All right, Christopher Columbus did not find the new world. Well, I'm not sure he even found it But he others found it performed, but he gets credit for it by staying in spain You've got to move You've got to see things And if you get into a place where you're comfortable And you're so comfortable that you're not learning it's time to learn something new I am one of the finest CISOs in the world And I have no problems stating that from what I've gone through in the last 12 years and then years before that and years before that I needed to learn So what did I do? Well, I failed that retirement. Let me tell you that I have failed that retirement But you know what I didn't get to do? I didn't get to spend any time with venture capital And figuring out How we get innovative technologies Um in cyber security out of the venture capital world So I joined a ton of firms Okay, I don't think any of them is going to make me five five nickels. I'm not going to make any money out of them But you know what I learned? crap When the scd when the silicon valley bank Had its issue Almost every one of them that I was working with Was concerned with how they were going to make payroll And if they hadn't made payroll they could have been out of business And that whole tier of technology could have just been washed away A whole tier So now my recommendation to jen easterly the director of cisa is that we need to look at the resiliency and Viability of the funding of venture capital for cyber security But I wouldn't have been able to make that recommendation if I didn't just go out and play In vc world And so sometimes it's okay. Just go out and play because you're going to learn something new now Into pe private equity How does that make that work and where do they get their money and what are these funds and who's putting money in these funds? And even though I know I'm not a finance person. I know nothing about it. I'm going to learn Because that's how I can figure out our industry and make it better And work with the government agencies to make recommendations on what do we need in this space? Hey, we don't have labs like we used to who's making all the new technology vcs And if that is how it happens then we need to make sure we have the resiliency.  That's my daughter-in-law That's my grandson the greatest joy of my life quince And my husband of 43 years Right there Your family is your greatest gift It it will be your greatest gift and you always must remember them and bring them along on the journey You don't you will not do this alone Life is incredibly difficult if you try to do it all by yourself You'll be the person making the catmaps. I can guarantee But that is my family My son is a is a chip off the old block. He works at j and j also. I told you in the it department And he is A helicopter pilot turned fixed wing um the head of the aviation reserve unit Happens to be my west point classmate And he called her auntie and so That is his network that he's used my daughter-in-law is a physician assistant in cardiology My grandson's mission right. He's older than there. He's seven now is to outrace myself And to find his fishing pole that he lost on the St. John's River last weekend and then my husband Who was one of the people I am most proudest of? He it was the chief bomb technician in newark new jersey and the fbi for world trade center one And he had the bead on at least two of the terrorists for world trade center two And he had fallen off the roof. I wouldn't wait for me to hold the ladder and A week before 9 11 he fell off the roof and had major surgery So he couldn't be a first responder. Um, and I think pretty much saved his life Do not go where the path maybe Go instead where there is no path And leave the trail Any question don't be shy. Yeah, we have All right, I'll take any questions. Come on. I'd like to hear from the students. So we have one coming down here The mic we like to do it that way so oh, okay, you take a swig of water there my friend And we have some coming down Please just give me a moment. I gotta formulate this question for you. Oh, it's okay Anybody else come on down. Come on. Come on. Just kind of question. We get the first one out. Go ahead. Awesome Thank you, ma'am for being here. I appreciate it. Uh, it was a really great, um experience to to hear your journey A question I have for you is Not everyone's perfect. A lot of people make mistakes How have you been able to bounce back through mistakes and overcome adversity throughout your career? So as I told you I had no mistakes. Okay, they're all learning opportunities.  If you look at something like oh darn, right? I didn't get signal core. You know, my life is ruined. I didn't get signal core. Okay, I'll go in pace um It's it's really your mental attitude your Of how you take it. I'm like, oh in peace. That's really cool That's a branch where women can serve just about everywhere men can because on the day they couldn't serve everywhere I was like, I can do that. Yeah, that'll be cool. I'll learn that a kind of life law enforcement That'll be, you know, you have to be inquisitive about stuff Um, you know, sometimes we lock ourselves into if I don't get this house If I don't get this car if I don't get this, you know, whatever it is It's it's devastating into the world. No, it's not It might be the best opportunity. Hey my best opportunity I went to west point the only place it might have been better was norwich Okay, but I didn't even know about it. Nobody told me, right? And that's what I'm saying is is that you have to be open to what what happens and then the wonder of it Right, you know, have you ever gotten lost and gone? Wow, I didn't know this was out here This is cool, right? If you hadn't gotten, if you hadn't made a mistake, you wouldn't have gotten there It's harder these days with google maps, but you can occasionally get lost Thank you, ma'am. Thank you Oh ma'am, I'm Dennis Kuntz. I was just um, where are you from? I'm from west texas west texas. How did you get to norwich? The school paid me Sounds good So when it comes down to your personal leadership philosophy, what are the I guess Three first striking things that should define a leader and how a leader should act especially around their subordinates Be kind Be kind. Yeah, that is probably the very first one Be compassionate Okay, and I guess kind and compassionate you could probably roll them in into the other, right Listen to what they have to say Okay, be open to what you're saying to you Okay and When the world was going to come to an end because of coveted The thing that I found out was it would have been easy for me to curl up in a ball and have a good cry But I had to be strong I had to be strong mentally To be able to talk through it even when in my heart I didn't feel strong I had as enough doubts about what was going to happen So that's what I would say is be kind be compassionate and be strong Hi Are you from west texas too? No, ma'am Evening, ma'am. My name is cadet don't trend. I'm from nam. Ah, there you go A really long a really long way you gotta take two three two three different flights. It's almost like coming from florida to here Same difference same difference um, I I took a class last Yeah, I took a class last year We were talking about military history and one of the topics that popped up. She was playing blasting sabbaton The night witches the song over the loudspeaker when she was when the teacher was teaching us this but She was talking about the the night witches and how that How one Officer in the russian the the soviet union back during the world during world war two Came up with the idea that she's going to put together to put together a unit of bombers of just women and she has to put The or to do the training organization figure out logistics Figure out what kind of planes they're going to be flying what kind of missions they're going to be conducting from scratch because well if she's not going to do it nobody will And She blazed the trail and I looked at that story and I thought to myself, you know what I want Maybe one day I want to do something like that But the question is Chaos when you deal when you blaze a trail you you walk through a patch of grass. You see tall grasses about that this tall everywhere How do you know where to go? How do you know what to step on what not to? how do you Navigate through the chaos of vines and trees and bushes and leaves and maybe animals and maybe a stick somewhere that Posts up the snake too. Don't forget the snake. There's a lot of those in my country Okay, it's like Florida. We got a lot of them down there too. They do taste like chicken. Yeah But not chicken the chicken tastes like fish so out of chaos and and one of the things is is It's relying on some of your instinct And your intuition. Okay. Remember I talked about the north star and I talked about mission And the integrity you have in the knowledge you have leaders Make the best decision at the moment People can come historians can come years later and tell you whether that was a good decision or a bad decision They're really good at that from there, you know, their desks You know typing up the the book whether you were good or bad But the reality is you can only make the best decision for what you have in in front of you and You will have the knowledge and expertise. You just have to listen to it Most of the bad decisions or decisions that are second-guess later are because we don't listen to them What's around us? What our people are telling us? We are not looking at our north star And we're not coming at it from the mission And once you get those clear guideposts in your life You know which way to go at west point. There's a cadet prayer and there's something called in and um Most everybody I know who's memorized this which is every cadet west pointer I know is there's something called the harder right instead of the easier wrong And even though there's just a phrase in a prayer there's Been a million times in my life And that I've gone Is this the harder right? Or the easier wrong and because I had that moral guidepost And even I go okay. It would have been really easy for me to say in february of 2020. I retire. I'm out. Have a nice life That would have been the easier wrong But I made a decision which was around the mission around the We have to get a vaccine out the door that To make sure I had the compass in the right direction Once the compass is in the right direction you follow the right path And then it's the intuition inside And there's been a million times especially in cyber. I don't know if this is the right answer But this is the only thing we have and we've got to make it It and it feels right to go this way And time will tell whether you're right or wrong or you have to course correct And and that becomes very important, but you have to listen to that inner voice You have to have your moral compass You have to have your mission and you have to have that more star Once you put those together you go. Oh, yeah, I get this It's there You're gonna have follow up all you want There's Every day there's another business idea. There's another venture another go fund me another Another crowdfunding project A lot of them fail And I'm sure that a lot of them follow that same idea too. They Maybe they learn from it. Maybe they don't but they when they start it out. They all know At least I hope they all know that It will work But do that then do they really know It will be a good business model or are some of them in it Especially in the cyber because I feel very Very strongly about this I find most of the vcs are in it to make money. They know nothing about security. They know nothing about mission They might know a little bit of something about networking or something about data But the companies that I find that are highly successful their ceo has a mission They understand what they're doing in the in the frame of cyber security and can articulate it why it's important They're they're in it and even if they have to sell their company Because the technology is the right technology and it may have to go to another company to launch it And it's not just yeah, there's a lot of failures in the vc market But I would tell you there's a lot of dud technologies and most of them have tried to sell them to me And and I've been there and they're not ready for prime time. They're not ready to launch and I've even had some Entrepreneurs come to me and it's like well really, you know Like I ask them about cyber security and they're like well Well, it's not really that's irrelevant because you have to do this As someone come to my office right j and j About 20 of our businesses in china They tell me I could just block all the ip addresses in china This we wouldn't talk to our network in china I said I don't think that's going to work and that is people who are into technology Yeah, you can do that probably not a good idea And that's where do you really understand? The security side The mission side and the business side of what you're doing and that's why most of them fail Some of them are mismanaged, you know, they're you know, they go on big holidays and do big events and Spend all the money instead of putting it into the technology. There's many many reasons, but it's not it's not one size fits all Thank you, ma'am. Thank you Let's give marion a final round of applause. Thank you You've started 8 a.m in the morning. We bear all go and get asleep so Nine All right, well, thank you everybody


Pressure at work is next to impossible to avoid no matter what job you do, therefore learning how to deal with pressure at work is a pretty sensible skill set to develop. For example, to know when you are comfortable with a level of pressure and when the stress gets too much and starts exhausting you or worse. Your ability to productively manage pressure is as important to your career progress as developing many other more obvious skills. Having stress productively will also make your work life a lot more enjoyable. Today we are covering firstly know your pressure threshold, secondly prioritise ruthlessly, third turn big tasks into small tasks, fourth set boundaries and be clear on expectations, fifth how and when to ask for help and sixth nine pressure management techniques. Some pressure is needed in daily life, it's motivational and increases what we get done. Too much stress and pressure can leave you exhausted or worse, it is important to know where you are on the stress performance curve. Towards the end I share nine pressure management techniques that work for the majority of people so try these out. My name is Jess Coles and I've been a hiring manager for over 20 years in corporates and household names through to SMEs. I genuinely enjoy reasonable pressure and regularly have to deal with pressurised situations. I've also experienced too much pressure at work for an extended period which left me exhausted and struggling. I've experienced most parts of the stress performance curve. If you're new to this channel enhance.training shares business and people management expertise to help you improve your performance and that of your team and business. And if you like this video please give it a thumbs up and subscribe. The first tactic to deal with pressure at work is to know your pressure threshold. Everyone has different pressure thresholds. Enjoyable pressure at work for one person might be debilitating pressure for another. There are several traits that help us cope with stress. Having good self-awareness and emotional intelligence help.  Getting to know yourself better helps you develop each of these and it helps you understand your own pressure threshold. Knowing your pressure threshold allows you to manage yourself better to enable you to be cool headed more often and less emotionally reactive which can also be draining. There are many ways to get to know yourself a little better to develop better self-awareness. If firstly ask trusted colleagues for feedback on your performance under different levels of pressure. If what they notice how does your performance and behaviour change it is really worth finding out. Secondly, ask friends and family the same questions. There are plenty of pressurised situations outside of work too. Third, spend time reflecting on your emotional reactions to different situations. How can you change your mindset to lower these reactions?  Fifth, undertake 360 degree feedback exercises you are usually organised through HR or external parties. And sixth, get a mentor or a coach which are both brilliant ways to find out more about yourself. As you get to know yourself better you should become better at recognising the situations and actions that increase the pressure you feel at work. Knowing what is happening gives you a better opportunity to develop coping tactics to reduce the pressure or stress you feel. Start using these tactics well before the pressure level has become too much. Know your own pressure thresholds and what causes you to feel under pressure at work. The second tactic to deal with pressure at work is to prioritise ruthlessly. When you feel under pressure when the tasks and projects you need to do mount up and you just don't have time to do them all. I certainly feel pressurised in these situations. In the endless drive of companies to do more with less we all face this situation. Here are a couple of tactics that can help you prioritise. Firstly, create a two by two quadrant with the urgency of tasks on one access and the importance of tasks on the other access. You can then group all the tasks on your list into one of the four boxes. First, the important and urgent tasks should be the first you tackle and complete. Second, the important but not urgent tasks should be diarised so you can make sure you get to these and spend enough time and energy delivering them. Third, the urgent but not important tasks. It will look to delegate as many of these as you can and do them after all the important tasks have been completed. Fourth, the not urgent and unimportant tasks. See if you can simply not do them or to delegate them to others. This is one way to prioritise your tasks. Another key discipline to get into is to select the most important and most urgent task and then work on completing this task before doing anything else. Once the task at the top of is completed then you can move on to the next most important or the next most urgent task and complete this. Keep moving down the list. Complete each current task before moving on to the next. I know this sounds easy. It is until the task at the top is one you don't like doing and the more interesting tasks are available further down your priority list. Keep the main thing the main thing. Don't allow yourself to get distracted. Ruthlessly prioritise your tasks and complete each task before moving on to the next task. The third tactic to deal with pressure at work is to turn big tasks into small tasks. I'm sure everyone has been given a project or a task that looks like a nightmare or appears really hard or you have no idea where to start.  Take a big breath and start thinking about the next step you could take on the journey to achieving the goal that you've been given. Think small. Think about what is actionable quickly.  Mentally a speed bump is much easier to get over than a big hill. The pressure you feel will reduce as a result. You can think more clearly and start taking useful action. You know, for example, you need to change a process that is not working well and cost in the company thousands a day. The first step might be establishing and documenting exactly what the current process is. This is a much more straightforward step and a small step to take and is entirely within your control. Do this step and you gain confidence and a better understanding of the problem. The next step might be to understand what's going wrong or why we're losing money. Again, a manageable step that you can take and it deepens your understanding. Then you can start looking at the options to improve the process. Whenever you come across a sizable project or task, break this down into bite-sized tasks. You're going to identify the first sensible step and take it. Then take the next small step. Before you know it, you'll be well on your way to completing the main goal and confident about doing so successfully. So turn big tasks into lots of smaller tasks. The fourth tactic to deal with pressure at work is to set boundaries and be clear on expectations. In today's world of hybrid working and working from home, the boundaries between work and relaxing time are even more blurred than before. Set personal boundaries so you allow yourself to switch off and relax. This could be going for a gym class after work each night or it could be meeting friends or doing activities that are not work-related on certain nights of each week.  Give yourself time to recharge will mean that when you are at work, you'll have more energy, more drive, and more mental space to deal with the challenges. Just as important is to find out exactly what the expectations are on you from your manager, from the team members around you and from other stakeholders. A lot of pressure is created from simply not knowing or having unclear expectations. If expectations are unrealistic, then you can work to make them realistic with the person placing those expectations on you. The fifth tactic to deal with pressure at work is to know how and when to ask for help. When the pressures are too high or they're rapidly heading that way, then asking for help is a very sensible tactic. Who to ask for help will depend on your circumstances, the strength of your relationships at work, and the company culture. I appreciate that asking for help in some organisations can have career-impacting consequences. There are many people you can ask for help inside and outside of your work. Work out who is best able to help you with your situation. Even just being able to talk about what is happening can reduce the pressure and stress you are feeling. Here are some people you should consider asking for help. Firstly, speak to your manager. Your manager should be the first person you speak to about the pressures you are under. Ask to help to reduce the pressure at work or at least stopping it increasing. Your manager is also best placed to help you in most organisations. Providing help and support should be a very important part of their role. Secondly, ask colleagues for help. If colleagues you trust or who owe you favours should be another source of help and support. Ask them to help you out. Offer to repay them the favour in the future. Third, ask your peers. If you are friendly with one or more of your peers, they can be an excellent source of help and advice. They're in a similar position to you and probably understand pretty well the pressures you're under. They may even have very useful solutions to share that have worked for them. Fourth, ask contacts outside of work. Having a business network outside of work is a great source of help and support. Getting help from your network will not impact your career negatively and is a lot safer than asking people in work. The downside is that they can only indirectly help you reduce pressure at work. Lastly, find a mentor or coach. Mentors and coaches can both be excellent sources of help and support for your personal situation. Both routes provide confidential support and help even if your company is paying for them. There are other options. If you feel the pressures at work are getting too much, take action and get help as early as possible. Leaving it too late does not help you professionally or personally. Sixth, to help you deal with pressures at work, here are nine pressure management techniques. Keeping pressure and stress to management levels is good news for you and those working around you. Here are nine pressure management techniques that work for many. Try them all and see which combination works best for you. Firstly, take deep breaths. Hear more oxygen into the body, is calming and taking deep, rhythmic breaths is easy to do in nearly any situation. Make use of this very simple technique. Second, get organized. Organizing gives you a sense of control and plan of action. These alone are good to calm you down and reduce the pressure. I get super organized as the pressure rises. It really works. Third, take a walk around the block. This is one of my favorites and walking is very good to calm you down. Steve Jobs was a famous user of this technique. Pop out for five to 10 minutes to take a short walk. Fourth, get better at saying no. Say no to more work. Say no to popping into that extra meeting. And don't say no flat out. Say something like, I'm very sorry, I'm maxed out with X project and I don't have any additional time until next Wednesday. Can we talk about it then? Fifth, do the work to a good enough standard. Perfection is not needed. When you know exactly what is expected of you from your boss and others, it is much easier to meet those expectations without going too far beyond them. Don't aim for perfection. Aim for good enough, particularly when you're under pressure. Sixth, build exercise into your daily routine. Taking regular exercise helps reduce pressure on that you feel and it makes you feel healthier, stronger and gives you more energy. All good reasons to make 30 minutes or more of exercise a daily part of your routine. Seventh, eat well. A demanding job takes up a lot of your energy. Your food gives you energy. The better your diet, the more energy you have. So eat well and eat healthily. You'll have more energy to tackle the causes of stress and pressure at work. Eight, a good night's sleep cures a lot. When you're under pressure and is tempting to work very late, all the screen time, the stress and pressure can easily reduce the hours you sleep. A vicious circle develops. Do your absolute best to get a good night's sleep. You'll think more clearly and have more energy and be more productive. Ninth, practice calmness. Be mindful of your own emotional reactions to situations. Practice reframing your mindset when confronted with these situations so you manage your emotional reactions better. You know a simple example, think of successfully overcoming the exciting challenges rather than dreading the work involved. If you have additional pressure management techniques that work for you, I'd love you to leave a comment in the comment section below sharing these. So in summary, dealing with pressure at work is a skill that each of us need to build regardless of what job we do. How we deal with pressure needs to be tailored to our own personality and our attributes. We each have our own pressure thresholds and getting to know these and the signs we're heading towards these thresholds is a very important step. As a reminder, we have gone through today. Firstly, know your pressure threshold. Secondly, prioritize ruthlessly. Third, turn big tasks into small tasks. Fourth, set boundaries and be clear on expectations. Fifth, how and when to ask for help. And then sixth, nine pressure management techniques. Do try out all the pressure management techniques outlined. See which ones you like best and which work best for you. And if you've got any questions, please leave them in the comment section below and I'll get back to you. Thanks very much for watching and I look forward to seeing you again soon.