Montana Williams

R. “Montana” Williams is a Lead Consulting, Operational Risk Officer. He provides corporate independent risk management (IRM) monitoring & oversight of cyber/data resilience. To ensure operational risk is managed based organizational tolerance, regulatory requirements, industry guidelines & best practices. He began consulting with Wells Fargo, N.A. in 2019, after spending four years as an independent consultant. He co-founded Titan Rain Services (TRS), LLC, providing full-service virtual CISO (vCISO) support, IT/Cybersecurity risk, governance, workforce development, assessments, & policy development consulting to various public & private sector entities across the globe. Prior, Mr. Williams served a Chief Information Security Officer for Everi Holdings, the largest casino payments company in the world & an independent vCISO & Executive Cyber Consultant for Protiviti, Inc., supporting cybersecurity consulting efforts across their global customer base. Additionally, serves on the Board of the Cyber Education/ Training Information Analysis & Sharing Organization. Furthermore, he is an adjunct professor at California State University-San Bernardino teaching IT business integration, enterprise architecture, digital forensics, incident response, cyber strategy, governance, and policy, cyber risk management & enterprise cybersecurity impacting the education of ~400 students annually. 

He has held numerous executive-level positions in the private, non-profit, government, & military sectors. He has led operations, information security, risk management, cyber training, workforce development, exercise planning, red team operations, & cybersecurity consulting efforts globally. While serving at the White House & Department of Homeland Security, he oversaw the evolution of the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE), architected the National Cybersecurity Workforce Framework, created the Federal Virtual Training Environment, built the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers & Studies Portal, oversaw the DHS/NSA Centers of Academic Excellence Program & directed execution of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. His three decades of professional experience includes military assignments in flying, intelligence, training, & cyber; including, commanding the USAF Cyber Red Team & a Cyber Training & Exercise Integration unit. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel after serving 21 years in the United States Air Force and is an Afghanistan & Iraq combat veteran.  

Professional Roles:

1. May 1989 – Jun 2002 – Numerous B-52 flying, instructor & evaluator assignments, Various USAF locations globally
2. Jul 2002 – Dec 2004 – Commander Aggressor Ops/Assistant Ops Officer, 318th IOG, Lackland AFB, TX
3. Jan 2005 – Jun 2010 – Director of Red Team Ops/Commander, Chief Space & Info Ops, 57 WG/98 RW, Nellis AFB, NV
4. Jul 2010 – Sept 2011 – Senior Technical Program Manager, Cyber Counterintelligence Training & Threat Analysis, National Counterintelligence Executive, Office of Director National Intelligence, Washington, D.C.
5. Sept 2011 – Mar 2015 – White House Senior Strategic Advisor, National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) & Chief, National Cybersecurity Education & Awareness Branch, prior Director, National Cybersecurity Education & Workforce Development Office, Department of Homeland Security, Washington, D.C.
6. Mar 2015 – Present – Adjunct Professor, California State University-San Bernardino, San Bernardino, CA
7. Apr 2015 – Jul 2016 – Independent Cyber Practices Consultant, ISACA, Las Vegas, NV
8. Apr 2015 – Present – Co-Founder/Managing Partner & Cyber Evangelist, Titan Rain Services, LLC, Las Vegas, NV
9. Feb 2018 – May 2019 – Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)/Consultant, Everi Holdings & Protiviti, Inc, Las Vegas, NV
10. Jun 2019 – Present – Lead Consulting Operational Risk Officer (Cyber/Data Resilience), Wells Fargo, Las Vegas, NV