CyberWire Daily - Arti Lalwani: Supporting and being the change. [Risk Management] [Career Notes]

Episode Date: November 2, 2025

Risk Management and Privacy Knowledge Leader at A-LIGN, Arti Lalwani shares her story from finance to risk management and how she made the transition. Arti started her career in finance after graduating with a finance degree. Quickly learning the field was not for her, she decided to dip her toes into the tech world. She credits her mentors for helping her and said "they were able to push me up and get me there faster than I even thought." Arti says that she would like to be a part, and hopes to be apart, of the change where women are supporting women in the field. We thank Arti for sharing her story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Allow listing is a deny-by-default software that makes application control simple and fast. Ring fencing is an application containment strategy. Ensuring apps can only access the files, registry keys, network resources, and other applications they truly need to function. Shut out cybercriminals with world-class endpoint protection from threat locker. Hello, my name is Artie. Lawani, and I am a knowledge leader for risk management and privacy at Align. I remember being in college and sitting pretty undecided about what I wanted my major to be. So I sat down with my parents, and I told them that I was thinking about maybe taking a teaching career path.

However, I grew up with very traditional Indian parents. So if you were not a doctor or an engineer or going to marry a doctor or an engineer, your career choice was probably worthless. So I know after like many, many discussions, we finally decided that I would stick with finance as a major. And I graduated with a finance degree and jumped into a financial job. for a few years, until one day I realized, wow, this is not me. My parents always undoubtedly were a great support system for me. I do take everything that they say into account.

It doesn't mean that I actually listen to everything, but I hear it. My parents gave up everything to come to America and to make sure that we got the best education we possibly could get. And so I was not going to give that up. I really, honestly, I had no clue that I wanted to go into tech. It was just purely by chance that I happened to accept a job that worked in hardware. And I knew nothing about hardware either. So that was kind of where I jumped into this world where I was really learning from the

bottom up. One of the things I said was for the longest time is that I absolutely did not want to manage a team. So when I did take that step and I started managing a team, the first promise that I made to myself was that I never want to be one of those managers that I didn't like when I was going through work. I want to make sure that everybody here is heard and understood. And it's an extremely difficult task to say that. And it's easier done with a smaller team than a larger one. But I don't want there to be any sort of leveling. Just because I'm above you or I'm two steps above you

doesn't mean that you can't approach me with simple questions. For me, my management style has always been very inclusive. And I think that's what attributes to the team having very low attrition status. I have a very strong personality that can come across as, you know, when I'm passionate about something, it comes across as aggressive or bossy or, and I just remember feeling like I could never, I had to be a different version of myself when I first entered this industry, just to feel like I was even slightly accepted. I think it was very clear to tell when I was looking at the few other women in the industry

and how they were acting and how they were perceived. I think that the judgment was just extremely difficult on the women than the men. And I feel like there were times where you could sense someone was judging you not for the work that you were providing them, but for everything else that you were. women face, I think one of the biggest issues that they face is confidence. And for me, not only was that the issue, but I also felt like I wasn't ready to lead in this industry. So I remember reaching out to like a couple of professional mentors and I asked for advice. I asked for help. I asked for words of even encouragement because I just did not feel ready to lead.

Not only did these mentors think that I was ready, but also my direct management. at the time thought I was absolutely ready to take it on. For the first time, I felt like someone else saw something in me that I couldn't even see myself. That feeling of being judged because I'm a female, because I'm a minority female, I think is constantly there. For anybody that's going to come up into this industry, or any sort of industry where they're embarking on a career change, the first thing you're

going to hit is a roadblock. If you give up at that first sign, you're never going to get to where you want to be. So keep going and find ways to pursue past that, whether that's you have to put more work in on your own, or you find someone that can help you get past that, pursuing networking opportunities, finding people that can connect you to someone else, and trying to build that network on your own. And having a big support system behind you before you're about to pursue something like this is absolutely necessary. I like to be part of the change in this industry where women supporting and becoming great mentors for other women is the norm.

Through managing a team of my own, the best part has been being able to be a mentor, to coach them on challenges that they will undoubtedly encounter and teach them things that no one really ever taught me. If you think back to how your career launched off, it's usually with somebody that believed in you or helped you through the process. So being able to give back in that,

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