The finalists for WashingtonExec’s 2023 Pinnacle Awards were announced Sept. 25, and we’ll be highlighting some of them until the event takes place live, in-person Nov. 16.
Next is Scott Smith, U.S. government and public sector cybersecurity partner/principal at Ernst & Young, and finalist in the Cybersecurity Executive of the Year, Private Company (annual revenue greater than $250 million) category. Here, he shares proud organizational moments and how he’s helping to shape the next generation of leaders.
What are you most proud of having been a part of in your current organization?
As the EY cyber practice leader in the government and public sector, one of things I am most proud of is the culture of collaboration and partnership across our teams and the organization. It has been a great experience to work across our commercial and government practices as well as across other competency areas outside of Cyber ⏤ e.g., Risk, Data and Analytics, Supply Chain, Human Capital, etc. Cyber and the idea of “security by design” requires partnerships with other parts of the business and the need to be involved early in the business case and the development lifecycle.
The ability to bring a wide range of perspectives as well as a full breadth of services from strategy and implementation to operations and managed services has been very rewarding. It has been great to see the teamwork across our firm and the ability to tap into different areas of innovation and emerging technologies.
How do you help shape the next generation of government leaders/industry leaders?
When it comes to shaping the next generation of industry leaders, I think the key is to create an environment where teams and leaders can be successful. That means providing team members room to make mistakes and the freedom to be accountable and “own” their part of the business.
Our leaders thrive on having an entrepreneurial spirit and being intellectually curious when working through challenges. In the ever-changing Cyber landscape, we need people who are able to learn quickly and evolve with the changing cyber threat landscape.
We encourage our leaders to be continuously learning and creating environments where leadership and the ability to inspire others is expected and celebrated. We want our leaders to not only focus on their clients, but to think about their “clients’ clients.”
When we can connect our teams and leaders to our client’s mission, we have the most success partnering with our clients to affect positive outcomes.