Meet Sharon Rowlands, CEO of Altegrity, a global security solutions and risk management company. Rowlands spent the last four years as CEO of Penton Media, joining Altegrity in September of last year.
Rowlands spoke to WashingtonExec about the compliance of cyber security in business, increased mobility use in developing countries, as well as the role of females in executive positions.
WashingtonExec: Could you please tell us a little about your background.
Sharon Rowlands: I have been in the business world for about 28 years, with the last 12 years running corporations as the CEO. I have been based in the United States since January 2000, and my career has been predominantly in the information technology sector.
I am very fortunate to have had a broad career. I was the CEO for Thomson Financial and then spent three years at Penton Media, a business-to-business media company, as the CEO. I left Penton to become the CEO of Altegrity in November 2011, but I remain on Penton’s board. I’m also on the board of Constant Contact, an e-mail marketing and social media marketing company whose customers are predominately in the small business community.
WashingtonExec: What do you think are the biggest security concerns for you all or just for America in general?
Sharon Rowlands: I believe compliance and cyber security are two of the most significant issues for businesses today. In the area of compliance, regulation has been increasing across the board and at all levels—international, federal and state. There are significant risks for companies that don’t comply with those regulations.
I think another huge issue, and you read more and more about this, is clearly in the area of cyber security. There are multiple threats facing companies today, and companies must be proactive to prepare for and defend against cyber attack. IT infrastructure protection is extremely critical, particularly for companies that handle confidential information and maintain customer information on their computer systems. Companies can, and should, take precautions and not wait for a problem to occur.
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You can’t afford to wait for something to happen. You have to have policies and training in place, have smart people working in your IT area and you have to do your own intrusion testing—and conduct it in a very realistic way. I always tell our IT security people to focus on finding where the gaps are and, if they find a gap, don’t take that as a failure.
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WashingtonExec: What is Altegrity’s approach to prevent cyber breaches?
Sharon Rowlands: You can’t afford to wait for something to happen. You have to have policies and training in place, have smart people working in your IT area and you have to do your own intrusion testing—and conduct it in a very realistic way. I always tell our IT security people to focus on finding where the gaps are and, if they find a gap, don’t take that as a failure. It means we found it and that’s good because then we can take remedial actions. I really think it is about being prepared, having the best talent available on your IT and related teams and making sure you’re constantly testing your systems and procedures.
WashingtonExec: What are your thoughts on mobility?
Sharon Rowlands: The fact of the matter is that the world is mobile now. There are areas of the world that are almost entirely mobile. You see it when you visit China; it seems as if everybody is doing everything from their smart phones. More than one in four homes in the U.S. already relies on cell phones alone and that number continues to grow. Clearly, we see the continuing movement in this direction with the sophistication of mobile devices, the variety of apps available in the mobile world, growth of cloud-based solutions and the future of HTML 5. This is all driving fundamental changes in how we use these mobile tools.
The consumer’s expectation is that they can do everything from their mobile device, so any organization, to satisfy its customers, must have mobile capability integrated into its suite of solutions. Customers want to have everything, anytime, anywhere and be able to move seamlessly from desktop to mobile. It’s true for employees as well. Sales teams want to move seamlessly back and forth from desktop to mobile, and have complete access to contacts, client data, required daily actions and follow-ups. I believe businesses are going to operate more and more on cloud-based applications.
WashingtonExec: Do you think that developing countries are more equipped to start using mobility because they don’t have the original infrastructure of developed countries?
Sharon Rowlands: I genuinely believe that it is easier to start from scratch and take advantage of where technology is moving rather than migrating from existing technologies and platforms to new ones. Developed countries often have one foot stuck in cement because of dollar and time investment in legacy infrastructures, while emerging economies are better able to take advantage of the cloud and mobility more quickly and efficiently as they discover new ways of doing business.
WashingtonExec: You are a three time CEO. Do people still comment that you are a female CEO or does it not matter? Do you think your role as a female has changed?
Sharon Rowlands: I think I’m one of the lucky women, and I do believe there is a glass ceiling. I think I have had great opportunities and great mentors along the way. You just have to look at the number of women on corporation boards and the number of women in leadership roles—it is too small of a percentage. And the scary thing about women serving on boards is that the percentage of women doing this is actually declining.
I have encouraged younger women at each of my previous companies and mentored them, helping them move into the higher ranks within organizations. I strongly believe that women need to have mentors and support from women who have been successful so that they can achieve their full potential in organizations.
WashingtonExec: What is your favorite book or do you have a book that has most impacted you?
Sharon Rowlands: I’m a big Jim Collins fan so I would say Good to Great. The book is all about getting the right people in the right roles so that you can drive the business exactly where you want to take it. I have continued to live by that in all of my jobs.
The second book that has had a big impact on me is President Obama’s Audacity to Hope. I read that at a time when I was becoming a U.S. citizen and it really inspired me.
The third book, and I’m only halfway through it but I am already seeing an impact, is Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run. I’m in my fifties and I plan to do my first half marathon this year. It’s really hard. The book is about a group of people who completed a fifty-mile run with bare feet. It shows several things—that there is a whole different style of running and we should go back to our roots. It also demonstrates that anybody can run and do so without injuring themselves. I have a feeling this book is going to have a big impact on my life.
