Dan Payne
Senior Vice President & Chief Security Office, ManTech
As CSO of ManTech, Dan Payne has emphasized operational security, worked to mature ManTech’s insider threat program and played a key role in growing a mutual understanding between government and private sector leaders on security issues both sectors face.
“I’ve worked at very senior levels for both government and commercial industry, and this experience has helped me see both sides of the coin on our respective agendas for ensuring maximum security,” Payne said. “As a result, I have been able to improve mutual understanding of positions and decisions that help advance the shared mission of top level security to protect our nation.”
As government and industry experience unprecedented levels of cyberattacks by adversaries, operational security is imperative. Providing an awareness of how the nation’s adversaries steal information and technology and changing methods of operation to thwart those adversarial efforts is what makes ManTech stand out in industry.
“When Dan came onboard, I told him to make ManTech the most secured and trusted company in the industry, and he’s doing a great job,” said ManTech Chairman, CEO and President Kevin M. Phillips.
And Payne and his team have made ManTech’s insider threat program even more secure, protecting customers’ and the company’s information.
“I am committed to advancing beyond conventional compliance-based security to factor in counterintelligence — a vital initiative that empowers us to identify threats and take robust measures that safeguard data and systems,” Payne said.
Why Watch
In 2022, Payne will be concentrating on ways to automate security faster and better, potentially leveraging AI to identify how ManTech can speed this process. He’ll continue to work very closely with ManTech’s chief information security officer to match up security counterintelligence and cyber — areas that need to work together, but in many organizations operate separately and siloed. When these areas marry, a very holistic program is born.
“I have three words tattooed on the inside of my arm: ‘Determination, Perseverance and Courage,'” Payne said. “Whenever I was deployed on extraordinary ops I used to think about these three words. Having the determination to achieve the goal, the perseverance to push through the obstacles you will face and the courage to confront those obstacles — to me these elements are what make you a success in life.”