WORKING AT DEFENSESTORM

Lisa graduated from Florida Atlantic University with bachelor’s degrees in Multimedia Journalism and English as well as a teaching certificate in 6-12 English. Her writing career started as a freelance reporter for the Tribune Company in South Florida while working in the marketing department for a disaster restoration company. Later, she worked for the Broward County Public Schools as an English teacher. In 2011, Lisa decided to stay home with her baby girl and work on projects as a freelance writer and editor, and in professional development, training other teachers. After moving to Georgia, she began contract work as an ESOL instructor for the Forsyth County Schools.

While cybersecurity was never her focus, the opportunity arose to write for DefenseStorm, and she was immediately intrigued. Having been a victim of cybercrime where her own bank account was breached, cybersecurity became an extremely attractive topic due to its growing prevalence and significant impact on individuals. She was especially interested in the position to write for DefenseStorm after learning about the company’s passion, drive, and commitment to keeping community banks and credit unions protected against cybercrime.

What she loves most about working at DefenseStorm is her coworkers. The culture established at DefenseStorm is one where employees feel valued and respected. From the interns to the CEO, everyone at DefenseStorm operates with an “open door” and is willing to work together for the success of the company. She is most thankful for her team members, who work well together to produce quality content in an effort to bolster brand awareness and spread the company mission to “build a community of trust so we can grow and thrive together.” Lisa is especially grateful to have a balance of flexibility in remote working with an opportunity to pop into the Alpharetta office to collaborate with coworkers. She believes her experience in writing and editing across various industries has given her the ability to connect with a greater audience and effectively share the DefenseStorm vision.

Born and raised in Broward County, Florida, Lisa and her husband moved to Georgia in 2016 with their two children. She spends her weekends on family adventures exploring Georgia and making sure to stop at every brewery along the way. The Leppek family loves to hike to waterfalls and enjoy outdoor activities with their rambunctious 95-pound boxer, who has a better social life than most people.  She has come to love living in Georgia but runs back home to Fort Lauderdale Beach whenever possible to soak up every moment of sand, sun, and water.

Meet Mike. He majored in business administration and finance with plans to work in a hospital post grad then he found his passion for cybersecurity sales and hasn’t looked back since! He started in sales a sales development representative (SDR) and learned all the ins and outs of cold calling and moved up quickly to SDR coaching role. He practiced his leadership skills in this role before transitioning to a sales executive role then coming to work as a sales executive at DefenseStorm. We are so lucky to have Mike on the DefenseStorm sales team due to his background in SDR roles and cybersecurity sales!

When asked what Mike loves most about DefenseStorm he immediately replied with the same answer a lot of his peers say, “the culture!” He loves the balance of work and socializing at DefenseStorm. He says everyone at DefenseStorm is hard working and we all want to succeed. He also believes in our platform and how special it is. He loves seeing how much we help our customers in different ways and it makes his job a lot easier when he truly believes in what we sell. When Mike is not working he loves anything football related, especially the NFL. He also likes to play basketball, pickleball and video games with friends.

When asked what qualities he admires most in his coworkers he said, “the dedication they put for the company. It shows in multiple areas that everyone is bettering the company, and everyone is super easy to get along with.” He maintains a healthy work-life balance by setting boundaries for himself and reminding himself to take a break for a short walk daily. Mike believes that his greatest career strengths that he brings to DefenseStorm are his cybersecurity sales experience and his ability to adapt to any situation and willingness to continue learning. He also sees himself as a natural leader with great time management skills. A fun fact about Mike is that his mom’s great uncle was one of the members of the Four Seasons band, Tommy de Vito!

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Meet Matt. As a young child, he remembers wanting to take computers apart because he was curious about how they worked. While he has always had a strong interest in computers growing up, he wasn’t always sure what he wanted to do career-wise. Once he got to the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) he enrolled into the IT program and started taking classes in cybersecurity. Once he started taking classes, he found that he enjoyed the investigation and trying to figure out what happened and how it happened. Matt also discovered that cybersecurity is a crucial aspect of people’s daily lives, and many people are not aware of it. So, ultimately, he got into the cybersecurity field out of his curiosity of computers and wanting to help educate people on the importance of cybersecurity.

When asked what he loves most about DefenseStorm, he immediately replied with, “the work culture, the people, and the opportunity to learn”. Matt says the working environment at DefenseStorm is great because we all are here due to our passion for cybersecurity and inclination to help others. He expressed that he loves his opportunity to get exposure to other departments and learn new skills from different people in the company. He admires his co-worker’s honesty, openness, and willingness to help others. Matt thinks everyone here is likeminded in a way which helps us work towards the same goal, building a community of trust so that we can grow and thrive together. He says that in cybersecurity collaboration is a must and his co-workers make that effortless. He truly appreciates that are no closed doors here and we all have the opportunity to have our voices heard. When Matt is not working, he enjoys playing with his dog Maggie and photographing wildlife.

When asked how Matt maintains work-life balance he admitted that he does find this challenging sometimes but taking short breaks throughout the day is a great way to keep your mind clear and sharp. Ultimately, he tries to separate work and life by having hobbies to do outside of work. As well as, trying to stay on a consistent schedule to help maintain a good balance of things. Matt’s greatest career strength that he brings to the DefenseStorm team is his willingness of wanting to help others learn about cybersecurity. He also brings a sense of structure and organization which is important in helping someone learn. When asked which has been more valuable in his career: his education, or his experience he replied with, “I would say it’s a combination of both. I’ve learned a lot in my studies that have helped me get a good foundation but getting hands on experience has helped me build upon that foundation. I started out as an intern at DefenseStorm and have learned a lot daily. I continue to learn new techniques, tactics, and skills daily”.

A book that Matt takes inspiration from is The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. He says that it talks about being resilient, working hard and doing everything to the best of your ability. A fun fact about him is that he is left-handed, and it is estimated that left-handed people make up only about 10% of the world population!

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Meet Joe. He grew up loving computers and acting as his family’s own personal IT guy from a very young age. His mom worked for a bank and would come home and tell his family stories about all the ways bank fraud could occur. Joe wanted to take his skills and passion for computers and apply them in a way that he could help protect people’s livelihoods. Pursuing a career in cybersecurity was his way to really make a difference. That’s how Joe got involved in the cybersecurity field!

When asked what he loves most about DefenseStorm, he answered immediately with “DefenseStorm’s culture”. He thinks his coworkers are awesome and truly feels like we are one big happy family. He admires his coworker’s willingness to learn from and teach others within the company.

When Joe is not at work, he says he enjoys “breaking things”. He enjoys finding the latest ways to hack different software and platforms. Doing this helps him further protect our clients in an ever-evolving threat landscape. He says although he personally struggles to maintain a work-life balance, he has plenty of time to take a break during the day. He enjoys going on short walks during his breaks.

Joe’s greatest career strengths he brings to DefenseStorm is his natural curiosity for all things cyber. He is constantly wanting to learn about the latest attacks and vulnerabilities so much so that he built and maintains a homelab to learn as much as he can. His curiosity for cybersecurity never ends! When asked which has been more valuable in his career: his education, or his experience, he quickly answered “experience”. Joe is a very hands-on learner; he prefers seeing real world examples to learn. Which leads into the quote that motivates him the most by Albert Schweitzer, “A good example has twice the value of good advice”.

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Meet William. After working in IT for many years he finally found his niche in cybersecurity. William began working in IT in 1997. His path led him from building computers and pulling network cables to building small and medium sized business networks and being contracted to work as a systems administrator for multiple businesses. Eventually he went back to college to learn programming which led him to creating video games for a few years. He liked his job but didn’t like the industry. So, he began searching for a new path in IT. His friend worked in cybersecurity and urged William to get involved considering that many of his previous roles had involved cybersecurity. He is so glad he switched fields because cybersecurity clicked instantly for him!

When asked what he loves most about DefenseStorm, William began with saying the answer common to all DefenseStormer’s, “the amazing people and culture.” He also said that he loves his role. He gets to do exactly what he is passionate about within cybersecurity. When he is not working, his family is his number one priority. He has young children and loves going on family adventures with them and their dog. He also likes to exercise and play the guitar in his free time. Some qualities that William admires about his coworkers are their positivity and resilience. He admires how they work through negative situations and come together to overcome challenges. When asked how he maintains a work-life balance he admits that while he is not always great at it, he always listens to his family when they need him to step back.

William’s greatest career strengths that he brings to the DefenseStorm team are his drive, passion, and experience in IT. He says that his years as a CISO gave him the tools to overcome many challenges. This put him in the right spot to take on many projects at once and lead his team at DefenseStorm. He believes that the most important skill he possesses and one that is vital to his everyday job, is resiliency. He says that sometimes things don’t work the way you want them to, and he can be pulled in many directions at once with many different priorities, but his resiliency doesn’t let it defeat him. Education and Experience have been equally important to William in his career. He says that you can never stop learning in the cybersecurity field and that learning how to educate yourself is the most important skill that comes with experience.

When asked what quote motivates him in his work life William said that, “Think Big, Start Small and Move Fast” is what motivated him when he joined DefenseStorm last year. He knew he had a lot of projects and challenges to take on and always reflected on that quote. A fun fact about William is that he loves to 3-D print and build things at home with his kids!

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Meet Adam. He didn’t choose cybersecurity but fell into it due to his natural problem-solving skills. When Adam graduated from college he worked for a bank. His job was very manual and he wanted to figure out how to automate it. Once he did this he began automating many more projects in IT banking operations and ultimately built a new system for fraud investigations and recovery. This is where his love for fraud began, and he hasn’t looked back since.

When asked what he loves most about DefenseStorm he says that his coworkers are passionate about the company’s mission and are always willing to help each other out. He loves how DefenseStormers have plenty of opportunity to work outside of their general job description and are always willing to do so. His greatest career strength is his expertise in fraud and love for problem solving. Adam also enjoys the balance between business and technical knowledge that is crucial to being a good product manager.

When asked how he maintains a healthy work life balance he said he likes to start his day walking his dog before work and end his day by cooking dinner to unplug and unwind. When Adam is not at work, he enjoys long walks on the beach, paddle boarding and travel. His wife and his motto is, “looking for warmer weather and bluer water.” They are constantly vacationing in the Caribbean and Latin America area looking for their next beach with hopefully the warmest weather and bluest water!

“Just go with the Flow” is the quote Adam always comes back to that motivates him through stressful situations. It reminds him that we can’t control everything in life or work, but we can control how we react to things. A fun fact about Adam is that when he was 12 years old, he was on a national tv commercial and made enough money to buy his parents a new fridge because theirs was broken.

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Meet Robin. She chose to work at DefenseStorm because she had a lot of confidence in members of our leadership team who were previous colleagues of hers. Understandably, she also admired the perpetuity of the cybersecurity industry along with the ability to leverage her banking and fintech experience from past career moves. Ultimately, she came to DefenseStorm for the same reason the majority of others did, our excellent DefenseStormers! She especially admires her co-worker’s open mindedness, collaborative approaches and outside the box thinking.

When asked what Robin loves most about DefenseStorm she explained that although we have grown exponentially since she joined the team in 2019, we are still at a size where the work she does has an immediate impact on the company. She loves how we try things and if they work, we pursue them. If they don’t work, we learn why and move on. Her Sales Enablement team’s initiatives have immediate impact on DefenseStorm which is a great source of pride for her. When asked how she maintains a healthy work-life balance she admits that this is sometimes hard. She grounds herself and goes back to the fact that while she prides herself in her career, she works to live, not lives to work. She says, “It is extremely important to give your all at work, but it can’t take over your entire life.”

In Robin’s free time she absolutely loves to travel. In fact, she has traveled to all 50 states, all 7 continents and 159 countries! She says, “at any opportunity to jump on a plane and go somewhere, I’m all in!” Robin also picked up running four years ago and hasn’t stopped, literally. She runs seven days a week, rain or shine, no rest days. Very impressive!

The greatest career strengths Robin brings to DefenseStorm include her self-diagnosed OCD, her hyper organization and unbelievable memory, almost photographic. She brings an incredible level of organization and structure to everything she does. However, she is flexible enough to not get frustrated or concerned when things get off schedule. Robin says, “In order for projects to move forward you have to be flexible enough to bend, not snap.” Robin believes her experience has been more valuable in her professional career due to all the networking she has done. Although, she does pride herself in getting an amazing education from Elon University, and that her first job after earning her undergraduate degree was an exact manifestation of her degree in play. Some skills that Robin possesses that are crucial to her everyday role are solid interpersonal skills. She has the ability to talk to people, understand their viewpoint and meld that with her own viewpoint and ideas. She says that shockingly a lot of people don’t possess this skill. Most people listen and if an idea isn’t what they had in mind they say, “that’s not what I’m trying to accomplish” and move on.

A fun fact about Robin is that she’s been a bridesmaid 29 times even though she’s never been married herself. She’s done the calculations of what she’s spent on this over the years its totaled up to more than the cost of her first house!

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Meet Andrea. She didn’t necessarily choose cybersecurity as a field to pursue but says that the bad guys definitely help with job security! She began her career at a payment software company. Now she’s back in the banking space working as DefenseStorm’s HR Manager. When asked what she loves most about DefenseStorm she replied, “this probably seems cliché but it’s the people”. Even though we are a 100% work from home company, one of the things she loves about DefenseStorm is coming into the office because she enjoys her work family.

When Andrea is not at work, she spends much of her free time with her two dogs, Ginger and Jasmin. She also loves to cook and bake, especially for her family and friends. Initiative is one of the qualities she admires most in coworkers. She appreciates when her colleagues take charge, make decisions and stands behind them

She encourages work-life balance; if you have child (or in Andrea’s case, a 4-legged fur child) and they get sick, you take them for medical care or take a Friday to enjoy a long weekend. No questions are ever asked, and PTO is always encouraged.

Andrea’s greatest career strength is her reliability. You can always count on her for assistance in any area and she is very prompt at getting back to you on a project. When asked what has been more valuable in her career, education or experience, she laughed and replied with, “experience – one hundred percent!” Andrea originally majored in Art History and although it was interesting at the time, she has not used it in her career, thus far. She is currently in the process of taking classes to get her Juris Masters in Employment Law and Human Resources Risk Management from Florida State University. Way to go, Andrea!

A specific quote that motivates Andrea both in her personal and professional life is by Vince Lombardi, the former coach of her favorite NFL team, the Green Bay Packers, “some of us will do our jobs well and some will not, but we will all be judged on one thing: the result.”

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Meet Matt. Seven years ago he decided it was time for him to make a career change after serving four years in the Navy. Matt felt a huge calling to serve the public again not necessarily in a physical capacity but ended up finding out that cybersecurity filled his need. In college he realized his passion for cybersecurity when he joined the cyber defense club and competed in national competitions. Matt believes his greatest career strength is his true passion for what we do at DefenseStorm along with him being a very accurate person who is very attentive to details, which is crucial to this field. He is very mechanically minded. As a child, he would take his toys apart and figure out how they worked which eventually evolved into his passion for computers and technology.

When asked what he loves most about DefenseStorm Matt replied, “I love working with a whole host of different professionals from different fields and that everyone is more than happy to help each other.” His coworker’s dedication and loyalty are very inspiring along with their availability to support one another and go the extra mile to ensure everyone succeeds. Matt also loves that DefenseStorm is a new and growing company. Matt expressed that there is more of a sense of pride in your company knowing you are building something. When he joined DefenseStorm the first thing that impressed him is our CEO, Steve, took everyone including interns out to eat dinner to mingle with each other. He appreciates how the overall management is easily accessible and genuinely cares about building a community of trust at DefenseStorm. He also appreciates DefenseStorm’s dedication and recognition of the veteran community. There are quite a few veterans that work here, and Veteran’s Day is an origination day-off holiday.

To manage a healthy work-life balance Matt takes a couple short breaks throughout the day consisting of a 5-10 min walk. He says it is so easy to get tunnel vision with what he is working on and ensuring to give himself a mental break is extremely productive, so he doesn’t burn out in the long run. When Matt is not at work, he enjoys building furniture. A fun fact about him is that when he was in the Navy, he was a photographer and public relations representative who served with the Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, Blue Angels. Through this role he learned how to do calligraphy which is a skill he still uses to this day. Very cool!

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Meet Jessica. She didn’t necessarily choose cybersecurity prior to working at DefenseStorm but we are immensely grateful that she found her way to us! Her field began in banking and risk management. Jessica graduated from college during the global financial crisis and began her first job as a bank teller. Her then boss recommended she apply to the OCC. The OCC charters, regulates, and supervises all national banks and federal savings associations as well as federal branches and agencies of foreign banks and they only take new hire applications twice a year. It is a very difficult and formal process which includes many tests, but Jessica landed the job! While she worked as an examiner, she learned all things “banking”. She is a wealth of knowledge from her valuable experience as an examiner that set her up well to do anything in banking. She then settled into software which is a bit more laid back and fits her personality very well. When DefenseStorm reached out to Jessica about being a product manager she found the job offer very attractive. Specifically, because it is a different angle in the banking space than she has ever been in. Previous to joining DefenseStorm, she was a subject matter expert in Anti-Money Laundering and the Bank Secrecy Act. She was super excited to take the job to learn a new role (product management) and a new domain (cybersecurity).

When asked what she loves most about DefenseStorm she has the same answer that most of our employees express: the people! Jessica says, “we have the most talented, smart, hard-working group of people that I have ever worked with in my life!” She loves how everyone is truly engaged and cares about what they do whether it is banking, cybersecurity, or the customers. She mentioned how everyone is so smart in their own way, which is good, because you don’t want a group of people working together with only one area of expertise. Jessica also enjoys how fun her job is because we are in this fast-paced growth stage, and she gets to experience tasks outside of her direct role. It keeps her day exciting and challenging, that’s for sure! When not at work, Jessica loves spending time with her son doing fun things around Austin, Texas.

Jessica feels that her greatest career strength is her regulatory experience, and we agree! She knows exactly what examiners are looking for and through the lens they are looking. She understands how they will perceive certain things and what looks good from an examiner’s perspective. She “speaks banker”, when typically, software doesn’t. She is great at assisting in translating from software to banker. A skill that Jessica possesses that is vital to her job is her empathy. She says it goes a long way in the product world. Software is always a work in progress, and you have to understand the pain points a customer or internal stakeholder is experiencing in order to correct and assist with the problem. We are so grateful to have Jessica on our team!

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Meet Ashley. She got involved with Cybersecurity in a crazier way than most of us here. During her senior year of high school, she was filling her taxes and found out someone filed her taxes for her. They claimed everything and when she called the IRS, they said they would investigate into it. Ashley and her father were able to track down the person and get her money back faster than the actual government was able to. After getting her identity stolen, she decided to double major in Information Technology and Criminology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She said, “They won’t get me again!”

When asked what she loves most about DefenseStorm she quickly answered with, “our clients!” Ashley was recently promoted from TRAC engineer to TRAC Engagement Engineer, so she does all TRAC calls for all our amazing clients. She says she could sit there and talk to them for hours because making sure our clients sleep well at night, knowing we are watching their network, is what matters most to her. Ashley also loves her relationship with her coworkers. She admires everyone’s willingness to help. She says, “everyone at DefenseStorm talks about our community of trust and that we are an open-door policy, and I am so glad that is in fact true! I admire that I can even go directly to our CEO for guidance and can always count on him for support.”

Ashley enjoys spending time at the beach when she is not working and manages her work-life balance nearly perfectly through her extremely organized and color-coordinated planner. The greatest asset she brings to DefenseStorm is her ability to be honest with our clients. She is not afraid to let them know she does not have an answer to their question but will immediately communicate with her team and get back to the client promptly. This has built huge amounts of trust with our clients. She believes that having a lot of confidence is vital to her job and she has gained more leadership skills at DefenseStorm by jumping from call to call and delegating tasks to her teammates.

When asked which has been more valuable in her career: her education or her experience Ashley quickly replied with, “Experience, I started as an intern and everything I learn continues to build my experience the last 2.5 years here at DefenseStorm.” Ashley’s favorite quote that motivates her daily whether it be at work or in her personal life is, “the difficult task we do immediately, the impossible just takes a little longer.” She stands by this quote and believes nothing is impossible with the right amount of time and effort put into it. A fun fact about Ashley is that she once traveled to eight different countries in thirty-one days in Europe!

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Meet Elizabeth. She’s crazy smart and she believes cybersecurity “chose” her. She completed her undergrad degree in pre-med zoology before going on to grad school for molecular systematics in entomology and plant pathology. She moved to Seattle to enroll in a library and information science master’s degree program and then re-enrolled at a community college in network engineering. Elizabeth transitioned to digital forensics and cybersecurity courses and in the process met our CISO, Bob. Luckily for her (and us) Bob offered her a job as a cybersecurity engineer, and she hasn’t looked back since. So, just as she insinuated, cybersecurity truly found Elizabeth!

When asked what she loves most about DefenseStorm Elizabeth said, “The cliche answer is the people I work with, but what’s fascinating about working for the company is that it’s dynamic. It is continuously evolving, and we are constantly looking at ways to improve what we do with the products and services offered to our customers. And it keeps things from being boring.” We completely agree! She admires the passion, dedication, and fun qualities that her co-workers possess.

Outside of work Elizabeth enjoys watercolor painting, the outdoors, and reading. As the author of our daily intel reports, she must work through lots of news articles. Her passion to learn and further her education is her greatest career strength.

When asked what skills she possesses that are most vital to her job, she replied, “Soft skills have been very crucial in the cybersecurity field. People won’t remember what you said, or did, they’ll remember how you made them feel.” She believes people look for human interaction for assurance that they aren’t a statistic in salesforce, and that we have a vested interest in their success. Something most people who only see Elizabeth virtually might not know about her is that she’s 6 feet tall! We are so lucky to have a fantastic talent like Elizabeth on our team.

We look forward to introducing you to another DefenseStormer every month, so check back often to meet more interesting and talented people.