Michael Volk brings over 25 years of sales, financial management and operational experience spanning both the public and private sectors. He currently serves as the Chairman and CEO at GuidePoint Security and is responsible for the overall company strategy, vision, growth and profitability. Along with the other GuidePoint partners and principles, Michael ensures the operational efficiency and execution of the company’s strategic plan.
Prior to founding GuidePoint, Michael served as FishNet Security, Inc.’s COO from July 2006 to October 2010, where he led the company’s sales, consulting and marketing teams. He was also responsible for all operations inputs into corporate strategic plans, visions, budgets and financial forecasts, as well as evaluating potential corporate acquisitions. During this time period, company revenue grew from $125M to over $350M.
Before FishNet, Michael was the joint founder, President and COO of True North Solutions. During his tenure, he managed all corporate development and revenue growth from $0 to over $63 million. The company was acquired by American Systems Corporation in June 2004 and then by Fishnet Security, Inc. in July 2006.
He founded True North in January 2001 after his departure from Internet Security Systems (IBM). As a business leader for the Mid-Atlantic United States, he held direct responsibility for all business development, planning and sales strategy.
Earlier, he served as a senior financial consultant and PreSales Engineer with Baan Company and was on active duty with the United States Air Force. Assignments included four years in the Pentagon as a program manager, two years as a weapons systems cost analyst and three years as a base financial analyst.
Michael earned an MBA in management and a B.S. in finance from Virginia Tech.
Michael Annessa has more than 15 years of experience building and leading finance teams for high-growth private equity-backed tech companies. As GuidePoint Security’s CFO, Michael oversees the accounting, financial planning and analysis, treasury, tax and business operations functions to continuously optimize the company’s financial performance.
Prior to joining GuidePoint, Michael served as the CFO of Apcela, a leader in cloud-optimized, software-defined enterprise networks, where he led a successful turnaround through cost optimization and operational improvements that resulted in EBITDA expansion. Prior to joining Apcela, Michael served as VP of Finance and Controller at Greensmith Energy, a leader in grid-scale energy storage technology. Michael joined when the company was in the start-up phase and was a key financial and operational executive that scaled the business to close its $170 million sale to Wärtsilä. Post-acquisition, Michael led the global integration of Greensmith into Wärtsilä.
Prior to Greensmith, Michael managed the finance function Presidio, overseeing accounting and financial reporting at the corporate level. While at Presidio, he supported buy-side M&A transactions, managed several large debt transactions and supported Presidio’s sale to new private equity investors. Michael began his public accounting career at Deloitte, where he served as a lead auditor on several large SEC filers in the financial services industry.
Michael holds a B.S. in accounting and an MBA from George Mason University. He is also a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).
Bryan Orme leads the information assurance consulting organization, which includes application security, cloud security, governance, risk, and compliance services, threat and attack simulation, and incident response and forensics. Additionally, Bryan leads the internal IT and information security teams as well as the project management office and services operations. Bryan also serves on the Board of Directors of deepwatch, a next-generation managed security services provider.
Since 2001, his primary focus has been on designing and implementing comprehensive information security programs and assisting clients with building business-aligned programs to mitigate risks associated with today’s increasingly sophisticated array of threats. Bryan has extensive backgrounds in multiple disciplines within information security, including security program strategy, application security, penetration testing, PCI DSS, incident response and forensics, and vendor management.
Prior to joining GuidePoint, Bryan was the Director of Information Security for Capital One. His accomplishments included building and leading the application security, third-party management and PCI DSS programs.
He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences including OWASP, SecureWorld, HP Protect, ISSA, ISACA and HIMSS on a wide array of information security topics. Bryan also served as a member of multiple special interest groups of the PCI Security Standards Council.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from James Madison University and an MBA from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. Bryan holds QSA, CISSP and CISM certifications.
Chris York is the Northeast Regional Partner at GuidePoint Security with more than 15 years of experience in IT and information security. Chris began his IT career as an engineer, earning a reputation for excellence in customer relationship management that established him as a leader in IT and information security sales.
Before joining GuidePoint, Chris worked at RSA, the security division of EMC, through the acquisition of NetWitness. Prior to RSA, he spent four years designing and selling IT security, risk and compliance solutions for NetWitness and CoreOne Solutions, focusing on commercial enterprise customers in the Northeast.
Chris has a B.S. in business administration with a concentration in management information systems from Salem State College.
Jim Quarantillo is a Federal Partner at GuidePoint Security with responsibility for federal contract strategies, major account building and penetration of the key federal system integrators market.
A respected alumnus of the Washington, D.C., federal IT and information security community, Jim joined GuidePoint Security from F5 Networks, where he held roles as a district sales manager, civilian and intelligence, major account manager for the intelligence community, and federal channel sales manager across civilian, defense and intelligence agency sales.
Prior to F5 Networks, Jim was director of federal inside sales for True North Solutions and was responsible for all inside sales and BWAC/BPA programs. He also served as an account manager and contracts administrator at Comstor, where he managed large federal accounts, including Northrop Grumman Computing Systems, Apptis, and CACI, as well as GSA contract administration and partner coordination for GSA programs.
Jim earned an associate’s degree in electrical engineering from ITT Technical Institute.
Ernest Dunn is a Mid-Atlantic Regional Partner at GuidePoint Security. Ernest has over 20 years of experience in information security and networking. Over the course of his career, Ernest has focused on network and security technologies from a variety of vendors. He has extensive cybersecurity experience building strategies, performing assessments and delivering solutions for medium and large organizations from various verticals, including, education, financial, retail, medical, utilities and government.
Ernest has years of experience and a deep understanding of government and industry regulations, such as PCI, HIPAA, FISMA, SOX, GLBA and NERC/CIP, and has helped many organizations achieve or maintain compliance. Ernest has been with GuidePoint since the start of 2017.
Prior to GPS, Ernest was with Presidio, a 3B+ infrastructure VAR, for almost a decade in security and services leadership roles.
Ernest has a B.S. in computing security and technology from Drexel University.
Rick Hill is a Southeast Regional Partner for GuidePoint Security. He oversees and manages all sales accounts in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and the Caribbean.
Rick has enjoyed tremendous success throughout his 25-year career. His breadth of experience includes roles such as Original Equipment Manufacturer Sales Representative, Value Added Reseller Sales Manager and Systems Integrator Sales Manager.
Prior to joining GuidePoint, Rick was also a Federal Sales Representative for VMware, a company that specializes in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions. His account base included most of the Unified Commands such as United States Central Command, United States Special Operations Command, and United States Southern Command.
Additionally, Rick had a distinguished sales career in the commercial space where he provided IT solutions and services to many of the Fortune 500 and enterprise accounts in the southeast.
Scott Bruce is a Southeast Regional Partner at GuidePoint Security. Scott’s 26-year career spans experience in cybersecurity, risk management, data privacy, security operations center processes, security program management, complex systems design and integration and support.
Before joining GuidePoint, Scott was a key member of Deloitte & Touche’s U.S. Security and Privacy Practice, delivering cybersecurity solutions to the U.S. Department of Defense and to commercial clients.
In a distinguished career with the U.S. Army, Scott performed the planning, development and execution of offensive cyber operations in support of the Global War on Terrorism, designing solutions for the Army’s Computer Network Defense, Attack and Exploitation program. Scott was also the program manager for vital initiatives including the Army Enterprise Attack, Sensing and Warning capability, and multiple classified national programs, special technical operations and special access programs.
Scott earned a B.S. in computer information systems from Park University and an M.S. in information security from Boston University. He has certifications in CICISO, CISSP and CEH.
Scott Rachford is a North Central Regional Partner at GuidePoint Security, where he is responsible for building and leading the North Central technical sales, delivery and operations team, with a focus on customer success and strategic partnerships.
With over 17 years of IT security experience, both as a practitioner and executive sales leader, Scott joined GuidePoint from Qualys, Inc., where he was most recently the Vice President of North American Field Operations. Prior to Qualys, Scott was involved with security consulting, training, management and sales engineering at local Chicago-area consulting practices and VeriSign, Inc.
Scott holds a B.A. in MIS from the University of Iowa’s Henry B. Tippie College of Business Administration, as well as a long-standing CISSP certification.
Brian Brush is a North Central Region Partner at GuidePoint Security. He brings over 18 years of computer security, engineering, consulting, sales and executive management experience to the mission of driving company growth in the region through strategic relationships with his customers.
Prior to joining GuidePoint, Brian served as the Security Director at Sallie Mae, as a key manager in Deloitte’s Security Privacy Services practice and as a Technical Account Manager at Qualys. Throughout his career, he has spent time as a subject matter expert for security operations and program management, ethical hacking and penetration testing, numerous security compliance standards and overall security program building.
Brian holds a B.S. in computer engineering from the University of Cincinnati and has obtained numerous industry certifications, including the CISSP and CISA.
Matt Peterson is the Heartland Region Partner for GuidePoint Security. He has 15 years of information security experience that covers a variety of responsibilities, including security operations, risk management, security program management, security integration and security compliance. Matt began his IT security career as an engineer where he established himself as a trusted advisor and shifted his focus to helping customers build their security programs.
Before joining GuidePoint, Matt performed a key role at Protiviti, within the IT security consulting practice, identifying and delivering security solutions to a variety of commercial clients. Prior to Protiviti, Matt spent several years working for FishNet Security where he was instrumental in the development of security solutions for a variety of clients throughout the country.
Matt holds a B.S. in communications management from DeVry University. He also holds certifications in CISM, CISSP and QSA.
Jerry O’Brien is a Heartland Region Partner for GuidePoint Security. He has 20 years of information security experience helping organizations address complex challenges including: security operations, risk management, security program management, security integration and security compliance. Jerry began his security career as an account executive, over time becoming a trusted advisor for his customers, helping them build and evolve their security programs.
Prior to joining GuidePoint, Jerry led the TOLA sales team at Exabeam for more than two years. Previously, Jerry was a Global Account Manager at Optiv, and before that an Account Executive at FishNet Security where he routinely was the company’s top sales performer.
Jerry was an accounting major and holds a BSBA degree in Marketing and Minor in Economics from the University of Missouri.
Bryan Bollman is a Partner level consulting executive and Sales Strategy expert with a focus on team execution. His strongest traits are the recruitment, development, and leadership of profitable teams of professionals all unified to execute a common goal. He has a heart for service, a strong desire for helping customers chase and stop “bad guys” in this every evolving and challenging cyber security space . Bryan credits his previous military background, secret clearance, and fanatical approach to service and discipline as key elements of his very successful leadership career.
Currently he is the Regional Partner at GuidePoint Security. Previous to that he was the VP of Sales for SecurityScorecard. Prior to that, Bryan has held multiple other leadership positions at Vera Security, Zerto, Commvault, EMC, ePlus and 11 years at Forsythe where he opened and built multiple territories across the US from scratch.
Bryan was also a very successful frontline sales executive amassing 12 straight President Clubs between EMC and Forsythe before moving into leadership roles. Bryan moved to the Northwest in 2006 and has developed a strong reputation with customers and the OEM community who have followed him and his teams between multiple changes in jobs.
Prior to being in sales, Bryan worked with Allegheny Energy running their line of business offering business continuity and fiber optic network technology solutions to their clients. He also worked at USAirways as an IT manager and AT&T/DEC as a consultant.
Lastly, Bryan went to IUP as a Business Finance/Management major and completed 8 years of Service (4 active, 4 reserve) in the US Navy as a decorated veteran of the first Gulf War.
Jason Braun is the SVP – Southwest for GuidePoint Security. He has 25+ years of leadership experience in the technology and information security industries. His maniacal focus to solve the toughest cyber and technology problems is how he has built a reputation as a trusted advisor.
Prior to joining Guide Point Security, Jason has led go-to-market teams at Onapsis, CyCognito, Protectwise (now Verizon) and held the position of VP of Strategic Accounts at Optiv. His belief in establishing long-term, trusted relationships with clients, business partners and manufacturers has been a core value to his successful career.
Jason has a Mathematics degree from San Diego State University. In his free time, you will likely find him on a youth sports field giving back to the community by coaching soccer and flag football teams.
Gary Brickhouse is the CISO at GuidePoint Security, and is responsible for all aspects of the company’s information security program, inclusive of building and maintaining GuidePoint’s internal security architecture and control practices. Gary also leads the GRC Services consulting practice where he is responsible for the development and delivery of GRC service offerings to support our clients. This unique position allows Gary greater visibility into customer needs from an industry services perspective and also as a practitioner, addressing the same risks for GuidePoint.
Before joining GuidePoint, Gary was the Security and Compliance Architect for The Walt Disney Company, working on a large, multi-year business program where he served as the subject matter expert for compliance, data privacy, infrastructure and application security, as well as securing emerging technologies like RFID. Previous to working at Disney, Gary was an Information Security Specialist at Publix Super Markets, one of the nation’s largest retailers.
Gary is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and webinars, covering a wide array of information security topics. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Florida Southern College, holds the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and is an ITIL v3 Expert.
Rachel has over 15 years of experience and is a seasoned marketing leader who drives forward-thinking, data-driven marketing strategies with high-performing teams across diverse channels, spanning partner and vendor landscapes. As the head of Marketing at GuidePoint Security, Rachel leads the marketing organization and practices while cultivating relationships to propel success in cybersecurity solutions, always prioritizing customer-centric approaches.
Before joining GuidePoint Security, Rachel excelled in steering innovative marketing strategies and initiatives focused on partnership-driven growth across various software technologies, including cybersecurity, enterprise workflow automation, and logistics solutions. At Workato, as the Global Partner Marketing and Program Leader, she orchestrated a comprehensive Global Partner Program, resulting in the expansion of partner enablement certifications and partner-sourced revenue growth. At Uber Freight, as Head of Marketing, Rachel led the Product Marketing team and redefined the branding strategy, positioning Uber Freight as a thought leader in the logistics industry. During her tenure as Director of Global Revenue Marketing at Cisco Cloud Security, Rachel spearheaded innovative demand-generation strategies and comprehensive digital marketing programs for consistent year-over-year growth.
Rachel holds a B.A in Marketing from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Sarah Collins joined GuidePoint Security in 2013 and leads the Financial Planning and Analysis and Process Optimization functions. She maintains a process-driven mindset and works closely with the Information Technology group when determining system selection, including being involved in implementation efforts that impact the business. She oversees budgeting, reporting and analytics, offers data-driven insights and recommendations, and drives operational excellence though developing continuous process improvements.
Sarah has led many system implementations and is uniquely positioned with insight into cross-departmental processes and analysis since having performed in a variety of roles during her career. She began her career in forensic science as a DNA analyst working for the National Center for Forensic Science on a project for the FBI before pursuing a profession in accounting and finance. She spent four years in corporate accounting before coming to GuidePoint Security.
Sarah earned a B.S. in Forensic Science and Chemistry from the University of Central Florida a MAcc from Florida Atlantic University, and is NetSuite certified.
Mark Thornberry is Senior Vice President of Vendor Relations Management (VRM) at GuidePoint Security. He leads the VRM team to collaborate with vendors and accelerate their overall GTM partnerships across GuidePoint Security.
Prior to GuidePoint, Mark spent over a decade on the vendor side building and leading channel organizations. Mark’s diverse experience at cutting-edge cybersecurity companies enables him to bring a unique approach to working with vendors of all shapes and sizes. Prior companies include Cisco, Lacework, OpenDNS, WatchGuard Technologies and CDW, where he held numerous positions as both a high-performing individual contributor then accelerating his career into leadership roles within the channel organizations.
Mark currently sits on several prominent Partner Advisory Boards where he works with senior level executives to implement best-in-class strategies drawing on his extensive experience jump starting channel programs and operations. Drawing on his strong sports background and upbringing in metro-Detroit, Mark’s major passion is around coaching and development, and seeing others around him grow in their careers. He is an active and well-known member of the channel community always looking for opportunities to identify new partnerships and accelerate existing ones.
Meghan Mayer has over 14 years of leading through change in fast-paced growth organizations. At GuidePoint, Meghan is responsible for all HR initiatives including talent acquisition, organizational development, culture and people operations. She is a genuine influencer who thrives on challenges and has the ability to translate visions and strategies into actionable plans. Meghan firmly believes the key to success is to remain focused on the organization’s most valuable asset: its people.
Prior to GuidePoint, Meghan was the VP of People Operations at NetSPI, a cybersecurity company focused on penetration testing. By attracting the best talent and creating solutions for complex employee situations, Meghan’s expertise was vital in building NetSPI’s culture of engagement, agility, innovation and integrity. Meghan holds a B.S. from Saint Cloud State University in mass communications, advertising and public relations.
Kelly joined GuidePoint Security in 2018 and oversees all finance, accounting and tax functions for the company. She is an experienced finance and accounting professional in corporate financial processes, budget performance, financial reporting, internal controls and team leadership.
Bringing more than 15 years of experience to GuidePoint, Kelly served as Corporate Controller for Black Box Network Services, where she gained significant experience in mergers and acquisitions.
She began her career at EY in the audit practice. Kelly is a graduate of West Virginia University and holds degrees in accounting and management information systems and is a Certified Public Accountant.