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Articles by Rex
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Happy Fathers Day!
Happy Fathers Day!
Was at my desk this morning and looked down at my hands for some reason. Don't know why.
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The Most Important Leadership Lesson I Never Found in a Boardroom
The Most Important Leadership Lesson I Never Found in a Boardroom
I've spent 25+ years leading technology teams across the globe. But the most important leadership lesson I ever learned…
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4K followers
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Rex Young reposted thisRex Young reposted thisPosted on : Sunday, Sep, 13, 2026. 🎯AI Security-9 Critical AI Risk: AI security critical risks are evolving rapidly as organizations transition from standalone Large Language Models (LLMs) to fully autonomous, interconnected AI agents. Securing these architectures requires looking beyond traditional network boundaries, as AI introduces unique structural vulnerabilities across the application, data, and model layer. Application & Execution Layer Risks: Direct & Indirect Prompt Injection: Attackers pass malicious instructions into an LLM to override its system prompts. In indirect injection, an attacker embeds malicious instructions into external content (like a webpage or document) that the AI retrieves, causing the system to execute unauthorized commands without the user's knowledge. Insecure AI Agents & Over-Permissioned Systems: As organizations deploy autonomous agents capable of calling APIs and writing code, threat actors exploit these execution pathways. If an agent possesses overly broad access permissions, a compromised prompt can lead to unauthorized command execution, cloud lateral movement, or data. Model Context Protocol (MCP) & Plugin Abuse: MCP servers act as the bridge between AI models and local databases or third-party APIs. Attackers can target these servers via tool poisoning (tampering with metadata to distort model decisions) or direct exploit injections. 🔔 Stay connected for industry’s latest content – Follow Dr. Anil Lamba, CISSP #linkedin #teamamex #cybersecurity #technologycontrols #infosec #informationsecurity #GenAi #linkedintopvoices #cybersecurityawareness #innovation #techindustry #cyber #birminghamtech #cybersecurity #fintech #careerintech #communitysupport #womenintech #technology #security #cloud #infosec #riskassessment #informationsecurity #auditmanagement #informationprotection #securityaudit #cyberrisks #cybersecurity #security #cloudsecurity #trends #grc #leadership #socialmedia #digitization #cyberrisk #education #Hacking #privacy #datasecurity #passwordmanagement #identitytheft #phishingemails #holidayseason #bankfraud #personalinformation #creditfraud
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Rex Young reposted thisRex Young reposted thisThe most dangerous assumption in AI governance is that 𝗮 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝗶𝘁. AI generates something. A person reviews it. A person decides what happens next. The human is the control. That assumption is disappearing. 𝗠𝗰𝗞𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗲𝘆 puts the shift plainly: with agentic AI, the risk is no longer only that 𝗔𝗜 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴. 𝗜𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗱𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴. Take an unintended action. Misuse a tool. Operate beyond its guardrails. You can review an action afterward. You cannot prevent it afterward. And even among organizations with leaders responsible for AI governance, risk, or investment, only about 30% reached meaningful maturity across strategy, governance, and agentic AI controls. That is the gap the image captures. Inventory. Permissions. Runtime monitoring. Human intervention. Decision rights. Audit evidence. Here is a simple test: If an AI sales agent has authority to discount 10% and attempts 20%, does the system block it, escalate it, record the approval, and preserve the evidence? That is governance operating. Once AI can act, governance cannot live in a document. 𝗚𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘆 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻. 𝗜𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱. A policy tells people what not to do. A control stops the system from doing it. From Pilots to Platforms
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Rex Young reposted thisRex Young reposted thisIf you've had experience with a failed transformation, you're not alone. Over my career, I've learned that even transitions that begin with the same resources can end with dramatically different outcomes. I believe that perhaps, as leaders, we're paying attention to the wrong things. "Good to Great" by Jim Collins is a book I always return to for advice. In it, Jim's methodology is to focus on patterns and behaviors, not just results, when trying to improve performance. I think we should be doing the same. As we've all learned, the formula for success is complex. It has factors far beyond investment, training, and time. However, every organization has its own unique strengths and weaknesses as a team. Every organization has its own patterns. Comparing two transformations that looked the same on paper at the start helps us uncover which patterns work and which don't, what behavior can be a warning sign, and where leaders have opportunities to mitigate weak areas. It gives us more data and better information so we can lead a transformation with foresight and confidence. It's not a perfect roadmap for the future, but truthfully, there is none. If you find one please let me know! ;-)
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Rex Young reposted thisRex Young reposted this24 Hidden Attack Paths in AI-Powered Enterprises AI doesn't need to be hacked directly. Sometimes, attackers only need to compromise what the AI can access, what it can trust, or what it can execute. That’s where the real attack surface is hiding. An AI agent with excessive permissions can turn a single compromised input into an enterprise-wide security incident. Here are 24 attack paths security teams should be thinking about: Identity & Access → Stolen credentials expose AI access → Hijacked OAuth tokens inherit agent permissions → Privilege creep gives agents excessive power → IAM workflows enable unauthorized escalation AI Inputs & Context → Prompt injection manipulates agent behavior → Malicious documents poison AI context → Crafted emails trigger unintended actions → RAG poisoning corrupts trusted knowledge → Vector exposure leaks embedded data → Memory poisoning influences future decisions Tools, APIs & Agents → Stolen API keys unlock AI services → Backend pivots expose internal APIs → Tool-call abuse triggers unauthorized actions → Compromised MCP tools enter trusted workflows → Agent identity abuse reaches restricted resources → Browser hijacking abuses authenticated sessions Models & Supply Chain → Compromised model components enter production → Poisoned training data alters behavior → Model backdoors activate hidden triggers → AI output becomes executable input Infrastructure & DevOps → AI-generated code reaches CI/CD pipelines → Repository secrets leak into AI context → Cloud credentials become exposed through AI workloads → A compromised AI gateway becomes a centralized attack path The biggest AI security risk may not be the model itself. It may be the permissions, data, tools, identities, and infrastructure connected to it. The more capable your AI becomes, the more dangerous its trusted connections become. Secure the AI. But also secure everything the AI can see, access, modify, and execute. Which attack path would you rank as #1 for enterprise AI security? ♻️ Repost this for someone building or securing AI systems. Follow Marcel Velica for more AI + cybersecurity frameworks, attack paths, and practical security insights.
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Rex Young reposted thisRex Young reposted thisEveryone's talking about AI strategy. Almost nobody's talking about AI leadership. I keep seeing the same thing play out. Organizations don't fail because they picked the wrong model or the wrong cloud. They fail because they treat AI like a technical project and expect the culture to catch up on its own. The leaders who get real traction do a few things differently. They redesign the workflow instead of bolting AI onto the old one. They strip out the friction that stops a frontline person from actually using the tool. They reward people for trying and getting it wrong instead of quietly punishing the failed experiment. And they keep explaining the why until it stops sounding like a mandate from the top. None of that is a technical skill. It's leadership, applied to a new problem. Ask yourself this: is AI actually changing how your teams operate day to day? Or is everyone just being polite about the fact that it's still a pilot? Knowing how the models work is table stakes now. Knowing how your organization actually works, where the friction lives, who resists change and why, is the harder problem. It's also the one that decides whether any of this sticks.
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Rex Young shared thisTwenty-five years in enterprise technology, and I keep learning the same lesson. The teams that win aren't the ones piling on more tools, more process, more dashboards. They're the ones with the discipline to simplify. That's the lens I've carried through every CIO and CISO role I've held, and it's what I heard when I sat down with Matt Stava. I'm joining Spinnaker Support as Chief Information Officer. The mandate is a familiar one, dressed in new clothes: modernize the platforms, strengthen the data and analytics foundation, get serious about AI, and never treat security as someone else's problem. Spinnaker has spent almost two decades giving enterprise software customers a real alternative to vendor lock-in. That's the kind of business I want building my technology strategy around, one that already knows what disciplined looks like. I'll report to Matt Stava and join the Executive Leadership Team, and I'm looking forward to working alongside a group of leaders who clearly understand that scale without simplicity just becomes fragility with better funding. More soon. For now: simplify to amplify.Rex Young shared thisWe’re pleased to welcome Rex Young to Spinnaker Support as our new Chief Information Officer! With more than 25 years of experience across IT, cybersecurity, and AI, Rex will lead our global technology strategy and strengthen how we support customers across Oracle, SAP, VMware and other enterprise software environments. Welcome aboard, Rex! We’re excited to have you on the team. Read the full announcement 👉 https://lnkd.in/ejn-6Qwv #ThirdPartySupport #EnterpriseIT #Leadership
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Rex Young reposted thisRex Young reposted thisMy former colleague at Rackspace, Srini K., published an article titled, 'Thinking with AI is about taking "Game Reps"' and I think it should be required reading for anyone thinking seriously about AI and the future of work. (https://lnkd.in/ggtQbWGK) The distinction between being the driver and being driven really resonated with me. AI fluency isn’t about better prompts or knowing which buttons to push. It’s about judgment: knowing when to trust, when to question, and when to push further. And this line says it all: “What you no longer practice, you no longer possess.” A powerful and timely perspective...I highly recommend reading the full piece.
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Rex Young reposted thisRex Young reposted thisBefore starting a new transformation, leaders work through a checklist. Is my plan ready? Are my internal structures ready? How does the board feel? What leaders often misjudge or undervalue is whether their team is ready too. That's why Forbes reports that 70% of business transformations fail, not due to strategy, but due to behavior. In my experience, it's an easy mistake to make. Senior leaders rely on others to get a pulse on the organization. They hear from middle managers or outside stakeholders, or employee surveys. It's rare that they get the opportunity to talk to employees directly. When they do, the added pressure from their title can make it difficult to have honest conversations. Team leaders work hard to read the room and report back realistic portrayals of how teams are feeling, but it's our responsibility as leaders to build spaces where team members feel safe being open. Their dedication drives transformations, and how they feel determines what happens next.Change-Ready Leadership: Why 70% Of Transformations Fail On BehaviorChange-Ready Leadership: Why 70% Of Transformations Fail On Behavior
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Rex Young liked thisRex Young liked thisHad a fantastic conversation with my brother Justin Dodge as a guest on the Heavy Victory podcast and I’m excited to announce that my episode will be live tomorrow morning at 10 AM. Here is a quick look from behind the scenes at the recording! 💜💜💜
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Rex Young liked thisRex Young liked thisCome and meet the Dataminr team at the Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit 2026 next week in London to discuss how we can help you improve your security posture by efficiently and intelligently reducing your threat exposure. We’ll be there all 3 days and look forward to meeting old friends and making new ones! #Gartner #Dataminr #cybersecurity #CTI #PTEM #riskquantification #CCM #FAIR Pete Shoard Jack Clark Gerald Caponera Tim Wynkoop Tim Miller
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Rex Young reacted on thisRex Young reacted on thisAfter being away from LinkedIn for a while, I've spent time reflecting, grieving, and remembering one of the most influential people in my life: my mom. When I think about the opportunities I've been given, the obstacles I've overcome, and the person I've become, I can trace so much of it back to her. She embodied strength, perseverance, faith, and an entrepreneurial spirit long before I understood what those qualities truly meant. She taught me that success isn't about avoiding adversity. It's about continuing forward through it. My mom faced life's challenges with remarkable grace and determination. She showed me what it means to work hard, care deeply, and keep going even when the road ahead feels uncertain. Those lessons have shaped my leadership, my career, and the way I show up for others every day. While losing her has left an ache that will never completely disappear, her influence remains one of the greatest gifts I've ever received. Her example continues to motivate me to keep running my race with purpose, courage, and gratitude. As I return to sharing and engaging here, I do so carrying her legacy forward, determined to make an impact that would make her proud. To all the women who lead, build, nurture, innovate, persevere, and inspire: thank you. Your influence reaches further than you may ever know. #InfluentialWomen #FindACure #WomenWhoShapeUs
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Rex Young liked thisRex Young liked thisAs leaders, we often talk about the importance of onboarding, culture, and collaboration. This week, I saw all three come together. Our newest Product Management teammate, Carl Cutler, spent his first week working in person with members of the Telematics and Product teams. The result was more than onboarding. It was relationship building, knowledge sharing, and team collaboration. Conversations happened faster, ideas flowed naturally, and connections formed quickly. It was rewarding to spend time working with Carl directly, but even more rewarding to watch the team embrace collaboration from day one. It also reinforced something I genuinely appreciate about SambaSafety's culture. While we embrace flexible ways of working, we're also intentional about creating opportunities for people to connect, collaborate, and build relationships. This week demonstrated a people-first culture that values employee experience just as much as productivity. Welcome to the team, Carl! Looking forward to what's ahead.
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Rex Young liked thisRex Young liked thisI recently spent time in Singapore, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan meeting with customers, partners, and Qualcomm teams. Across those conversations, it was clear that organizations are increasingly focused on turning AI investments into real-world deployment, with an emphasis on infrastructure, governance, and operational readiness. In Vietnam, it was great to meet with the leadership team at Viettel IDC and discuss our collaboration to help enable next-generation AI infrastructure supporting enterprise, public sector, and sovereign AI initiatives. In Seoul and Tokyo, conversations with Amkor Technology, Inc. and KDDI Corporation reinforced the importance of ecosystem collaboration as AI adoption continues to accelerate. In Singapore, I spent time with local teams across engineering, supply chain, and IT, where AI is already helping improve day-to-day workflows and productivity. What continues to stand out is that successful AI adoption is not just a technology challenge. It depends on strong partnerships, thoughtful execution, and teams that are ready to embrace new ways of working. Thank you to the teams at Viettel IDC, Amkor, and KDDI for the conversations and hospitality. And thank you to the Qualcomm leadership team O.H. Kwon, Ehsanul Islam, Spencer (Sang Pyo) Kim, Yasu Nakayama, ST Liew, Li Song Yeoh, Özcan Eren, and Nam Thieu.
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Rex Young liked thisRex Young liked thisSuccess is what doesn't happen. We spend a lot of time in CS talking about the wins we can point to. The renewal we saved, the expansion we closed, the escalation we resolved. Some of the most valuable work never shows up in a QBR deck at all. The alert that got caught before it became an outage. The confused admin who got the right answer before they made a costly mistake. The account that never became an escalation because someone was paying attention three weeks earlier. In regulated or high stakes industries especially, success often looks like nothing happening. Fewer errors. Fewer surprises. Less risk exposure. If your team can only talk about the fires they put out, it might be worth building a way to also talk about the fires that never started.
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Rex Young liked thisRex Young liked thisCybersecurity has a vocabulary of its own. And the more you work in the field, the more acronyms you encounter. ZTA. IAM. PAM. SIEM. SOAR. XDR. CTEM. Each one represents a different approach to protecting systems, managing access, detecting threats, or reducing exposure. The challenge isn’t memorizing the abbreviations. It’s understanding how these technologies fit together to strengthen an organization’s security posture. This cheat sheet covers 24 cybersecurity terms worth knowing. Which one would you add to the list? #Cybersecurity #InformationSecurity #CloudSecurity #CyberSecurityAwareness
Experience & Education
Licenses & Certifications
Volunteer Experience
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Supporter
Little People of America
- Present 26 years 5 months
Children
Little People of America (LPA) is a nonprofit organization that provides support and information to people of short stature and their families.
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Rex Young - 15U Assistant Coach / USAB Youth Licensed Coach #41780150
ALTITUDE BASKETBALL CLUB
- Present 9 years 2 months
Children
Rex Young - 15U Assistant Coach / USAB Youth Licensed Coach #41780150
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Advisor
Post1 Foundation
- Present 5 years 10 months
i18n_veterans
We donate laptops for Veterans of Post1. Donations will have an impact to countless Veterans either directly or indirectly via Veteran Service Organization institutional impact.
Publications
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MEET THE WINNERS AND FINALISTS: 20TH CTA APEX AWARDS
Denver Business Journal
See publicationColorado Technology Association recognized individuals and companies who excel in the tech industry at its 20th annual APEX Awards in a virtual program.
Click here to read the full special report, including Q&As with the winners and finalists.
CTA honored winners and finalists in 10 categories and presented the Bob Newman Lifetime Achievement award at the ceremony, which took place on Feb. 4.
Outstanding leaders were recognized in the following categories: Advocate, CEO…Colorado Technology Association recognized individuals and companies who excel in the tech industry at its 20th annual APEX Awards in a virtual program.
Click here to read the full special report, including Q&As with the winners and finalists.
CTA honored winners and finalists in 10 categories and presented the Bob Newman Lifetime Achievement award at the ceremony, which took place on Feb. 4.
Outstanding leaders were recognized in the following categories: Advocate, CEO, CIO, CISO, Colorado Entrepreneur Excellence, Emerging Leader and Talent Champion. Exceptional companies were recognized in the following categories: Company, Emerging Tech Company and Project. One individual was recognized for the Bob Newman Lifetime Achievement Award for their overall contribution to the Colorado tech community throughout their career.
After individual and company nominations from across the state were submitted by friends, colleagues and leaders, a panel of judges and past APEX Award winner committees selected this year's winners. -
LogRhythm CIO expects short tech stack to deliver long results
Toggle
See publicationIt’s a one-word message displayed in multiple places in Rex Young’s office at LogRhythm.
“Simplify” is the crucial word, and even if Young and his LogRhythm colleagues can’t see the writing on his walls because COVID-19 has them working remotely, simplify is the operative and overriding word guiding the company’s technological growth. -
Three Steps To Solving Content Management Confusion
Forbes
See publicationToday’s content management platforms make it easier for people to securely share ideas, collaborate and get work done better and faster. That’s the plan. But it doesn’t always succeed. Too many content platforms within an organization can lead to crippling complexity and actually result in less efficiency and less effective collaboration. This article explains three steps to get your content in order.
Honors & Awards
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Finalist for Colorado Technology Association CIO of the Year
Colorado Technology Association
https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/c/special-report-2020-2021-cta-apex-awards/14055/rex-young-logrhythm.html
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2020 Info-Tech CIO of the Year Awards winner
Info-Tech Research Group - https://www.infotech.com/benchmarking/cio-awards
https://www.infotech.com/benchmarking/cio-awards
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C-Level @ A Mile High Guest Celebrity
Colorado Technology Association
C-Level @ A Mile High is an opportunity to meet C-suite decision makers and IT team leaders in Colorado across industries who use technology to power their businesses. http://www.clevelmilehigh.org/celebrities
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C-Level @ A Mile High Guest Celebrity
Colorado Technology Association
C-Level @ A Mile High is an opportunity to meet C-suite decision makers and IT team leaders in Colorado across industries who use technology to power their businesses. http://www.clevelmilehigh.org/celebrities
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Six Supercool Workplaces Award
Yahoo
https://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/photos/six-supercool-workplaces-1375298212-slideshow/convercent-what-hapens-in-the-kitchen-photo-1375298191529.html
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Named 2011 60th fastest growing software company by Inc Magazine
Inc Magazine
#168
2012 Ranking
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Company of the Year at the 2011 CSIA Apex Awards
CTA
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CIO 100 AWARD HONOREES
CIO Magazine
Rivet Software created a compliance services workflow system to accommodate an explosive increase in demand for its eXtensible Business Reporting Language filing services. Developed in August 2010, the workflow system assures clients of the timely and accurate filing of their financial disclosures with the Securities and Exchange Commission by granting the software company¿s employees unprecedented insight into its filing production pipeline. Using Microsoft SharePoint 2010 as a foundation…
Rivet Software created a compliance services workflow system to accommodate an explosive increase in demand for its eXtensible Business Reporting Language filing services. Developed in August 2010, the workflow system assures clients of the timely and accurate filing of their financial disclosures with the Securities and Exchange Commission by granting the software company¿s employees unprecedented insight into its filing production pipeline. Using Microsoft SharePoint 2010 as a foundation, Rivet Software transformed its single giant database of files into a system that allows teams to see the work in process for each filing, view necessary actions and know which filing is due on what day. Those insights enable the company to reach its estimated filing timeframes more than 95 percent of the time. The CS Workflow tool, which is used to track and record over 1,000 filings, also provides detailed footnote tracking ability, milestones, enhanced calendars and reporting abilities for better efficiency.
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United States Navy Veteran (1989 - 1997)
US NAVY
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Honorable Discharge (1997)
US NAVY
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Navy Achievement Medal (1997)
US NAVY
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Navy E Ribbon - 1995
US NAVY
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Navy Pistol Qualification Expert Marksmanship Medal
US NAVY
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Navy Rifle Qualification Expert Marksmanship Medal
US NAVY
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Navy Unit Commendation (NUC) - 1997
US NAVY
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Operation Desert Shield (1990)
US NAVY
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Operation Desert Storm (1990 - 1991)
US NAVY
Languages
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English
Native or bilingual proficiency
Organizations
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The IT Summit
Conference Executive Board Member
- PresentThe board provides direction regarding conference content such as topics on which the event should focus, trending technologies, vendors that should be invited, speakers, etc.
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Colorado Technology Association
Chief Technology Officer (Pro Bono)
- PresentColorado’s Technology Association, serves the software, hardware and IT services industry by providing advocacy, education, business connections, and information, while supporting economic development, unification of technology stakeholders, and larger recognition of the industry and the people involved to develop and promote Colorado’s technology industry. I current serve in a pro-bono role as the CTO driving technology decisions for the CTA.
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Member American Society of Military Comptrollers
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Member InfraGard FBI Security Group
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