Matthew Zielinksi
CISO
Corient
Matthew Zielinski is Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Corient, where he has enterprise responsibility for cybersecurity for the organization. Matthew is an experienced global leader with over 25 years of cybersecurity, transformation, risk management, and broad information technology expertise.
Previously, Matthew was Senior Director of Information Security and Infrastructure at Vivid Seats; was previously a Director of Information Security at PepsiCo and spent a decade growing in a successful security consulting career at Deloitte. Matthew holds an undergraduate degree in computer science from Northwestern University. He previously obtained Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP).
In his free time, Matthew enjoys the challenge and chaos of managing a family of seven children – including a newborn and two in college (University of Illinois and Benedictine College).
Learn more about the Chicago CISO community here.
Give us a brief overview of the path that led to your current role.
I started my security career as part of a rapidly growing and innovative Information Security team at Allstate (Allstate Information Security was ahead of its time). My next step was a decade in Big 4 consulting (Deloitte); where I had to opportunity to expand my experiences within security and across a broad range of other projects (e.g., datacenter transformations, M&A, enterprise architecture, Crisis Management, et al.) which really broadened my experiences. From that point it was back to Information at PepsiCo, then 5 years in a combined CISO/CIO in e-commerce (Vivid Seats), and currently back to executive security leadership at Corient.
What is one of your guiding leadership principles?
Eliminate unnecessary uniqueness wherever possible – then operationalize and scale. Also, spend as much time as possible working in the business vs. in your own organization.
What is the greatest challenge CISOs face today, and how are you addressing it?
Driving security program transformation; in a company that is undergoing enterprise transformation and continuous M&A activities.
What is the key to success for someone just starting out as a CISO?
Understand your business (almost) as well as your business leaders and frame your communications in a language that is closely aligned to how they make other business, technology, and risk decisions. You will never be successful if you expect your business leaders to become security experts (that is why they hired you).
How do you measure success as a leader?
The surface level answer is measured in operational metrics (e.g., VM statistics, risk register, time to respond to incidents, et al.). The deeper answer is measuring the level (nature/timeliness) of engagement the business has with me as they continue to drive their business initiatives. The more value I can provide to help them achieve their results (vs. barriers to move forward) the more they choose to engage me early and help inform the path they choose to take.
What is the value of being a member of Gartner C-level Communities?
This is a community that the top Chicago security leaders choose to be part of; it is the best of the security communities I have found anywhere. We are a community that is passionate about our tradecraft and are willing to support each other as we all continue to grow in our own careers.
Gartner C-level Communities' Governing Body members share their insights and leadership perspectives to shape the agendas and topics that address the top priorities impacting business leaders today.
By CISOs, For CISOs®
Join the conversation with peers in your local CISO community.