Ebenezer Arumai
Director of Infrastructure & Security
Persistent
Ebenezer Arumai has over 25 years of IT experience spanning diverse sectors including Oil & Gas, Food & Beverage, Insurance, Manufacturing, and Medical. His career commenced with building data centers with a wide range of technologies, and he subsequently assumed leadership of global IT Infrastructure, IT Security, and IT Operations teams. In his current role as the Chief Information Security Director for OldCastle Building Envelope, he focuses on building security and compliance programs and is also part of the M&A team to guide the team with IT Security and Infrastructure due diligence.
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Give us a brief overview of the path that led to your current role.
During my career with Videojet Technology (OpCo - Danaher), I was involved in building enterprise security programs and led the platform deployment strategy. Since my hands-on infrastructure expertise added more value to build this program for our corporation, I became interested in switching my role from IT infrastructure leader to IT security leader.
I was hired by Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope in May 2022 to build their IT security and compliance program, which was acquired by Private Equity firm KPS Capital Partners.
What is one of your guiding leadership principles?
Compliance and controls should be deployed top down. Security mindset and awareness should be deployed bottom up!
With disruption being a key theme of recent years, where do you see the CISO role going in the next 1-2 years?
My role in particular will get more attraction based on increasing cyber incidents and ransomware attacks aiming towards manufacturing sectors.
What advice would you give to someone just starting out as a CISO?
Do not try to boil the ocean, customize the activities in a snowball approach. My mentor taught me to build a successful program with the "crawl, walk and run" strategy which was so useful in my career.
Tell us 3 fun facts about yourself.
- I traveled on a scary flight which cost me $2. (Ashgabat to Hazar, Turkmenistan)
- I have visited nearly 30 countries for work and pleasure and lived in four countries.
- My wife and I conduct free marriage counseling.
What is the value of joining an Evanta community?
Networking with great minds is the value. The community allows us to take advantage of shared products and experiences so that we do not need to reinvent the wheel again in our current situations.
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