Episode 130 - Fighting for Others with Anne Marie Zettlemoyer

Anne Marie Zettlemoyer is Vice President of Security Engineering and Divisional Security Officer at MasterCard. She’s a mentor to many cybersecurity practitioners and a visiting fellow at the National Security Institute at George Mason University

As far back as elementary school, making sure everyone was treated properly and respected was important for Anne. In college, despite not knowing the first thing about cycling Anne’s determination to do the right thing led her to participate in a 600-mile charity ride to raise money for research towards a vaccine against HIV.

Anne Marie started in Business and holds an MBA in Organizational Behavior and Corporate Strategy, she started on the business side and worked under many titles like Analyst, Controller, Auditor, and Strategist. About 12 or 13 years ago she fell in love with Security because it speaks to her mission of protecting and defending others.

Ron shares about how mentors have helped him learn cybersecurity and asks Anne Marie about when she’s helped others climb the security mountain. Anne Marie recalls being the only woman presenter at a Cybersecurity conference and receiving a certain lack of respect until she demonstrated exactly how much expertise and experience she had. She spoke to some other women in attendance and encouraged them to apply themselves in the same field assuring them that they could also succeed, two years later one of the people she encouraged had become Senior Security Engineer.

Chris asks about what it means to her to be able to show up with others now and whether she had someone like that for her own journey. Anne Marie shares about having to fight for everything herself. She expands that talent, grit, and many things are distributed throughout humanity but opportunity isn’t equally distributed. Anne Marie believes that those with the capability to find those who simply need an opportunity and lift them up have a certain responsibility to do so. That they can lift up those who will also lift up others. Ron asks Anne Marie about what it takes to make a great leader and supporter today. Anne Marie speaks a bit about leading from quiet influence and measures success more by effectiveness. The conversation shifts to how trust is needed when working to communicate risk and security decisions depending on who you’re working with as not everyone will share the same perspectives and backgrounds. Chris asks Anne Marie for a piece of advice for someone who may need someone to show up and protect them and she urges us to try new things, learn new things, expand our own possibilities. Anne Marie speaks about how showing up and trying to reach out can be enough to open new doors.

1:01 — Welcome back to the Hacker Valley Studio our guest this episode is Anne Marie Zettlemoyer.

2:43 — Anne’s amazing fluency in business and how she fell in love with security.

4:37 — The call Anne feels to respect others and make sure they’re respected.

6:48 — The causes to fight for even without complete preparation for the journey ahead.

8:58 — The extremes of a ride to do the right thing, and a helping hand to get you up a mountain.

11:30 — How you can never know the power of showing up for yourself.

13:30 — The power of showing up for others and being the only woman there.

15:34 — Two years after being the only woman cybersecurity presenter at a conference

19:04 — Anne shares about having to fight for everything herself.

20:30 — The responsibility for those that have the heart to find and uplift others.

22:00 — The conversation moves to topics about networking and great leadership.

24:00 — Why having a sense of humility is necessary for a leader and building a network.

25:30 — Learning to not re-invent the wheel.

27:20 — Creating a rounded perspective to build comprehensive solutions.

28:50 — Why you need trust from the folks you’re trying to protect.

31:00 — Advice for someone listening that needs someone to protect or stand up for them.

32:45 — Trying new things one step at a time can be enough.

Links

You can find Anne Marie Zettlemoyer on her Linkedin or her Twitter

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