ISF Podcast2 Sep 2025

S36 Ep3: Karena Man - Cultivating Trust: Engaging Boards on Cyber and AI

In today’s episode, Steve speaks with Karena Man, whose expertise is connecting organizations with experts in technology as a Senior Client Partner at Korn Ferry. Karena highlights the growing awareness of cyber by boards of directors — an awareness brought on by the increase in cyber intrusions. She also emphasizes the importance of storytelling and collaboration, and she and Steve discuss AI and the preparedness of the board.

Key Takeaways:

Boards are increasingly knowledgeable of cyber and AI.
CISOs must be good storytellers and cultivate relationships with other departments to be able to succeed in their role.
Involve board members in the processes, not just the results.

Tune in to hear more about:

Cyber and the board (01:27)
AI and the board (19:30)
How cyber and AI will impact the board in the coming years (24:53)

Standout Quotes:

“If we go back to what boards are really charged with, they're charged with oversight and governance. They are there to really provide guardrails in many ways, allow the organization to go fast by asking the right questions.” - Karena Man
“When I am also assessing and helping my clients hire their next CISO, one of the things I'm looking for is not just someone who's technically deep, but someone who has the empathy, someone who really understands what is it that the business is trying to do.” - Karena Man
“Anyone who's used one of the large language models, don't name any of them, I think there isn't a single person I've talked to who hasn't had a model hallucinate. Or give them a questionable answer to a query or to a task. And so there is this understanding that the technology is promising and that we should experiment with it and innovate with it within our enterprise. But there is this worry that it could be used for not so good purposes.” - Karena Man

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From the Information Security Forum, the leading authority on cyber, information security, and risk management.

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