St. Louis-based venture capital firm SixThirty has expanded with the creation of a new role: chief information security officer-in-residence.
SixThirty has tapped cybersecurity veterans David Fairman and Dustin Wilcox as its first CISOs-in-residence. In addition to that post, Fairman and Wilcox are also partners at SixThirty, co-leading the firm’s cyber and privacy investment portfolio.
Led by Managing Partner Atul Kamra, SixThirty backs companies in the financial technology, insurance technology, cybersecurity and health technology sectors. Kamra said the firm created the CISO-in-residence position with the intent to provide cybersecurity expertise and mentorship to its portfolio companies.
“At SixThirty we are active investors. We often say, we are ‘hands-on-clay.' We are particularly focused on collaborating with our portfolio companies on their go-to-market approach. The CISO-in-residence is an innovative, and real practical addition to the collaboration platform. It gives founders an opportunity to work one-on-one with industry leaders and get their personalized attention and guidance to drive speed and trust at every step to scale bold ideas,” Kamra told St. Louis Inno.
SixThirty’s first CISOs-in-residence, Wilcox and Fairman, have extensive backgrounds in the cybersecurity field. Wilcox is currently vice president and CISO for health insurer Anthem. Before that, he held the same roles for Clayton-based Centene Corp. Fairman is chief security officer for the Asia-Pacific region of cybersecurity company Netskope. He's also held cybersecurity leadership roles with National Australia Bank and Royal Bank of Canada.
Fairman said he expects his priorities for the CISO-in-residence position to be twofold. He said it will include helping SixThirty’s portfolio companies strengthen their go-to-market strategy by helping them understand their product market fit and customer needs. In addition, he anticipates the role to involve assisting companies to advance technologies and products that ensure security and privacy.
“Cyber and privacy are complex issues and the cyber threat landscape is growing in velocity and sophistication at an exponential rate and so companies need to build strategies to address the associated risks," Fairman said. "Failure to do so can result in loss of trust with customers and employees as well as disruption or destruction of services impacting the company’s operations and threatening its survival. The role of the CISO-in-residence is to help them do just that."
