Cybersecurity expert Doug Wylie joins NexDefense executive team

June 22, 2015
Industry veteran joins team as vice president of product marketing and strategy.

NexDefense recently announced that joining their executive team will be cybersecurity veteran Doug Wylie as vice president of product marketing and strategy. Wylie comes to NexDefense after more than 20 years with Rockwell Automation, most recently serving as the company's director of product security risk management.

In addition, former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn has joined the company's investor and advisory groups, bringing a wealth of experience in defending national critical assets.

In his new role with the company, Wylie will apply his expertise to identify and address real-world customer challenges with relevant solutions that increase visibility and the operational knowledge necessary to counteract risks to the availability, integrity, and confidentiality of critical automation and control systems. He will be a public representative of the company and work closely with company customers and partners, company co-founder and chief security strategist, Mike Assante, chief product architect, Graham Speake and the company's product development team.

"For more than 20 years, I have had the privilege to serve the industrial automation market and help asset owners and operators improve productivity and address risks that can affect the security and operational integrity of mission critical systems," Wylie said. "With the threat landscape expanding, and interconnectivity of control systems growing, the need for innovative solutions that deliver actionable intelligence is immediate. NexDefense is uniquely positioned to tackle these challenges and help reduce risk and increase resilience of industrial systems."

In addition to its leadership team, NexDefense is expanding its advisory board with the addition of former U.S. Senator from Georgia, Sam Nunn. Throughout his career, Sen. Nunn has been instrumental in protecting the world's assets. In the U.S. Senate, Nunn co-authored both the landmark Department of Defense Reorganization Act and the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. Today, he serves as the co-chairman and CEO of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI).

"When people think of ‘protecting our national security' -- they think of the U.S. military -- but most of our critical infrastructure is owned and must be protected by the private sector," said former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn. "In today's world of increased cyber threats, I am encouraged that companies like NexDefense are working diligently to provide our infrastructure owners and operators new tools to protect both our economy and to protect our public safety."

"The addition of Doug and Sen. Nunn to the NexDefense team significantly enhances our objective to be the world's most trusted cybersecurity experts for automation and control systems," said Derek Harp, co-founder and executive chairman of NexDefense. "Their industry leadership and insight is essential to fulfilling NexDefense' mission of delivering value to industry that helps to tangibly combat the increasing cybersecurity threats to critical infrastructure."