Mike Wilkes has had a career many cybersecurity professionals could only dream of. An adjunct professor, former CISO of Marvel and MLS, member of the World Economic Forum, drummer, and board member at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, his interests and achievements are as eclectic as they are impressive. In the first edition of CISO Spotlight, we sat down with Mike to explore the skills, strategies, and stories that have defined his remarkable career – and got his take on the latest trends defining the modern cybersecurity industry. From Philosophy to Firewalls As you have probably gathered, Mike Wilkes hasn’t had a typical career path. With a background in philosophy and a master's from Stanford in the philosophy of education, he began his career working in a Californian K-12 education think tank. However, it didn’t take long for him to realize that he could put his talents to better use in the tech world. “There were more computers in the dumpsters of Palo Alto than in the classrooms,” he said. “I knew then that tech was where I could make a real difference.” This realization led him to early roles in WebOps during the dot-com boom, where he helped launch digital platforms for Starbucks, PlayStation, and Macy’s. But Mike was never just a web guy. “I ran the infrastructure,” he said. “Before DevOps was DevOps, we called it WebOps. Security wasn’t a department back then – it was something you did so your servers didn’t crash at 2 a.m.” A CISO Career Path Spanning…Read More