Introductions

Good morning from the great state of Tennessee! 🎶🎸

I'm Michael and work as the Sr Director of Security Operations at Veeva Systems. My wife, daughter, son and I live just 15 minutes north of Nashville. We're big into football, hockey, soccer, and track and field. Aligning with the standard Nashville music culture, my daughter is starting the cello!

My career has been a bit out of the ordinary. I graduated from the USAF Academy in 2011, and started off as an Air Force pilot. After about a year, I discerned that flying wasn't for me, and was reclassified into a cyber warfare officer. I spent 10.5 years in cyber warfare, ranging from protecting the F-35 JSF network, to running defensive cyber missions across 189 global USAF installations, and finishing my Air Force time in AFCYBER HQ as a joint strategic defensive cyber planner.

Now, I work at Veeva Systems, a software tech company for the life sciences where we specialize in CRM as well as products to manage clinical drug trial results. 

On the side, I'm also an educator at heart. I've taught anything from Krav Maga (I'm a blackbelt) for many years, to training AFROTC cadets to become officers, to teaching college-level courses, being an executive-level instructor in transformational leadership, and designing and enforcing curriculum for the Air Force Cyber Defense weapon system. Education is my passion so therefore my involvement in Immersive Labs is heavy! I'm very impressed with their model of teaching and excited to help in any way!

Also: Massive shout-out to our account team, Heather Ong and Jay Martinage. They have been incredible in helping us along the way!