CyberWire Daily - Gene Fay: Lead from the front. [CEO] [Career Notes]

Episode Date: January 15, 2023

Gene Fay, CEO of ThreatX sits down to share his experience rising through the ranks to get to where he is today. He shares how even at a young age he wanted to work in an office and become a businessman, though at the time he did not understand what that entailed. After college he acquired a job that was revolutionizing video editing for post-production studios as well as TV stations, where he started to really learn about technology. Gene talks about leading from the front and how a good leader will always do so, even if he has to lead from two different fronts. He said "it's kind of the two fronts, sometimes you've gotta put on the leadership face, and believe it, that, that you can get, and we can get through any situation, cuz sometimes you're, your gut feelings are, might be wrong and, or it's a moment in time and if you can help the team grind through that situation, it does get better." We thank Gene for sharing his story with us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to the Cyber Wire Network, powered by N2K. and VPNs, yet breaches continue to rise by an 18% year-over-year increase in ransomware attacks and a $75 million record payout in 2024. These traditional security tools expand your attack surface with public-facing IPs that are exploited by bad actors more easily than ever with AI tools. It's time to rethink your security. Thank you. Learn more at zscaler.com slash security. Hello, my name is Gene Fay, and I'm the CEO of ThreadX. Well, I think somebody born in 1969, you wanted to be an astronaut and a fireman and a whole bunch of other things. After getting over some of those ideas, for me, I remember thinking I wanted to work in an office. My mom was a nurse.

My father was a security guard. But I was always admired the people in a suit with a briefcase going to the train every day in New Jersey, heading into New York. So I didn't know what it meant, but I knew I wanted to get into business pretty early on. I went to Northeastern University in Boston. And that was my first exposure into what business meant and took classes in accounting and finance and kind of learned about marketing and sales and figured I was a pretty, I like to be kind of out and about meeting a lot of people. And that kind of got me excited about getting in sales. company called Avid Technology that was revolutionizing video editing and post-production for post-production studios as well as TV stations. So that was my first exposure into what technology could actually do to an industry. And to see these creative people start to think about what was capable or what they'd be capable of without the limitations of the

current editing base that they were dealing with was pretty amazing. And it was the first time I realized the power of technology and how it could revolutionize the world. So that got me really excited that I moved on and worked for a large company called EMC. And off and on since then, I've done six startups. So I've realized that that's really where my passion is. I love the early stage aspect of a company and developing a culture, bringing on the initial team, and ultimately starting to invent a company from near scratch. ThreadX, it's a combination of internal, working with our team, which I absolutely love, and getting to know them one-to-one, and the other end of it, coming up with new technology ideas

or new process improvements. So that's half my job, probably three-quarters of my job. Then the rest is externally focused, whether it's with our customers, which are really a lot of fun to work with, and then dealing with the board and making sure that their needs are served and they understand what our visions are, what our problems are, and getting feedback from them. So it's pretty diverse, but again, it goes back to my mindset, which is I enjoy having lots of different things and and contact shifting from from conversation to conversation or idea to idea. It's the way my mind works.

So I love my job. You can't expect people to do anything if you're not willing to do it yourself. I know it's cliche, but it's true. Be a good listener, whether it's to our customers or to our employees. And then build an environment where people can do the best work of their lives. I borrow that from Michael Tiffany, one of the founders of human security. And it's something I've carried forth here. It doesn't have to be the easiest job they've ever had.

It actually can be one of the most challenging jobs they have. But if it could be a place where they can do the best work of their lives and not only get excited to tell their nieces and nephews and children, but tell their great grandkids about their journey at the company. If you're able to build a work environment like that, that's pretty fulfilling for me. And I think that's, for me, pretty much the way that I try to lead day in and day out.

Not every day is great, and not every morning starts out great. So for me, I apply what I call the George Washington principle. And if you have read anything about George Washington, he really had two demeanors. He had the demeanor in front of his troops, which is, hey, we're going to continue to head this direction until we have more information. Follow me. I've got it figured out. And then to his brother, he was a little more open and said, hey, the troops are leaving. We don't have the supplies. We're outgunned. We're

up against the best military in the world. And I don't know whether we can win this war. So it's kind of the two fronts. Sometimes you've got to put on a leadership face and believe it that you can get and we can get through any situation because sometimes your gut feelings might be wrong and or it's a moment in time and if you can help the team grind through that situation, it does get better. And I think that's for us as leaders, the key to what we need to do. There are going to be dark days, dark hours to dark months to dark years. And we as leaders have to help get through those moments so that we can get to the other side, so that we can accelerate the business. Cyber, in particular, offers a great opportunity.

And I think the biggest hurdle that we have to, as practitioners within cybersecurity, is remove some of the mystique so that people understand that cybersecurity is a much bigger opportunity than just hands-on keyboard, though that is the large role for those types of people. They're critical in the process, but there's a whole ecosystem. I would say that for people that are trying to get in and people that are in here, we've got to change the dynamics of what we're looking for. We lament about how there's three and a half million open positions, but yet every time we post a position, we talk about even an entry level position. We would need a college education. We need two years of IT help desk and da da da da. It's like, well, OK, that that's limiting.

So we've got to open it up, be willing to train, be willing to mentor and coach because there are many great people out there. I think there is plenty of jobs for those that are willing to work hard to figure out how to get in and then come into an environment that's very dynamic. If you're a learned person, you can do really, really well here, constantly learning about new technology, new attacks, new things that are going on. I think about people that have worked with me. It was their first job out of school, and they got engaged. They got married. They bought a home. They had a kid. that have worked with me that it was their first job out of school and they got engaged, they got married, they bought a home, they had a kid, and that I was just a little piece of helping them

get a job that financially allowed them to or helped them to do some of those things. That would be a great way to be remembered. And equally, not even including the great people that I get to work with and I've been a part of the hiring process, but the people that I didn't necessarily know, but somebody introduced me to them and I helped them find a job. That's, you know, I hope to be remembered as somebody that's gave back on a continuous basis to an industry and a country that's been absolutely phenomenal to me. Hey everybody, Dave here.

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