Blogs

This episode of Women in Cybersecurity features Barbie Bigelow, a veteran CIO, cybersecurity executive, board member, advisor, and investor. She is currently CEO of Emerald Growth Partners, LLC, (formerly Better Technology Partners, LLC), which she founded to help clients develop and execute strategic moves while leveraging technology to accelerate growth and increase margins. Clients have included Fortune 500 companies, startup ventures, and non-profits, and she is passionate about sharing her knowledge and increasing the number of women in leadership and board member roles.

Barbie said she got into cybersecurity out of operational necessity; after all, if there is a cybersecurity incident, it affects operations. In her first CIO role at an electronics company, she created a cyber incident response team (CIRT). Since then, she's held roles and advised companies on how to approach cybersecurity in ways to support technological innovation and business needs.

Don't miss her video below, and be sure to check out the full audio interview to learn about her story and her commitments to helping increase the number of women in leadership roles in cybersecurity. 

The path a career can take is often based on moments – a company going out of business, chance encounters, seismic shifts in a given industry, enormous external pressures. My career is no exception. After many years as a consultant or in-house systems engineer, I joined BrianMadden.com where I became an independent blogger, analyst, and speaker focused on end-user computing. TechTarget acquired BrianMadden.com in 2007, and I spent that time covering the EUC space as it expanded from a handful of desktop virtualization vendors to hundreds of companies covering everything from virtual desktops to mobile devices to cloud services, along with all the adjacent technologies that support those pillars.  

In this episode of Women in Cybersecurity, I was delighted to interview Helen Patton, an experienced CISO who literally wrote the book on Navigating the Cybersecurity Career Path and is currently CISO for the Cisco Security Business Group. I'm also a longtime follower of hers on twitter where she shares information and resources for security leaders. 

Like many of us, her path to cybersecurity wasn't exactly direct or planned; she says, it was "a series of accidents and unexpected opportunities," where she moved from IT support, to disaster recovery, to cybersecurity. As someone who is passionate about her role and helping others, she is generous in sharing information and advice for other CISOs, as well as bringing more people into our field and helping them thrive. 

Don't miss her video below, and be sure to check out the full audio interview.