I believe inertia is the prime enemy of most security programs, the
right people are its greatest asset and relentless incrementalism
is our ultimate weapon in combating cyber risk. I believe security
programs should be business driven and technology ought to be
subordinate to business outcomes and service improvements.
To get the Why-What-How sequence right when selecting and
executing initiatives, I developed the BOSITE framework.
Recently, I've been thinking a lot about how to help CISOs securely
shepherd their organizations’ data+AI journey… at scale.
I get excited about about people, frameworks, and measurement.
Omar is currently VP, Field CISO at Databricks where he gets to
work with CISOs to help them securely shepherd their organizations’
data+AI journey. In the past, he was Chief Information Security
Officer (CISO) of $26B Highmark Health as it grew annually by
$1.5B for 9 years. Prior to Highmark Health, Omar was at Verizon
Enterprise Solutions, where he had product management and
marketing responsibilities for their security solutions portfolio with
customers in 72 countries.
To sustain the effective delivery of cyber risk mitigation at scale,
I led the development and execution of 14 frameworks and 8
measurement programs. For this focus on culture change, resilience
and scalability, my efforts have been profiled by: Wall Street Journal,
SANS, Forrester, Gartner, NACD, Reuters, HIMSS, CSO Magazine,
CMU and others.
As the CISO of $26B Highmark Health, I had the privilege of
leading a team of over 200 diverse cyber professionals to protect a
dozen technology platforms powering hospitals, BCBS insurance,
consulting, manufacturing and tech services.
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Databricks
CISO, Client (Field CISO, VP Security)
January 2023 - Present (2 years 4 months)
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Carnegie Mellon University
Faculty (CISO Program)
January 2015 - Present (10 years 4 months)
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FAIR Institute
Member, Board of Directors
July 2020 - Present (4 years 10 months)
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HITRUST
Member, Board of Directors
January 2014 - Present (11 years 4 months)
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Leadership Pittsburgh Inc.
Member, Board of Directors
August 2019 - June 2023 (3 years 11 months)
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Highmark Health
Global Chief Information Security Officer
December 2013 - January 2023 (9 years 2 months)
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ACTION-Housing, Inc.
Board Member
February 2017 - 2021 (4 years)
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Leadership Pittsburgh Inc.
LP XXXI
2014 - 2015 (1 year)
