Richard Bird – Ping Identity

Why Nominated: Leveraging over 20-years of experience in identity and access management and security, Richard Bird serves as a thought leader on issues of identity ownership, data privacy, and new government regulations for protecting user identities. Ever a futurist, Bird proposes that the U.S. institute unique digital identifiers, and urges companies to adopt cutting-edge security frameworks and policies.

Profile: Before joining Ping Identity as its Chief Customer Information Officer, Bird ascended to various leadership roles in the finance, retail, manufacturing and consulting industries, including stints as global head of IAM and information risk at JPMorgan Chase, CISO at manufacturer Mettler-Toledo, and head of IAM and segment risk director at Huntington National Bank. In his current role, he liaises between Ping’s customers and the company’s sales/product teams to ensure the company’s solutions are meeting users’ needs.

Bird acts as an advisor to policymakers around the world, consulting with federal lawmakers on the proposed Data Care Act of 2018, which would mandate that online service providers properly secure sensitive consumer data and manage it responsibly. He has also worked closely with the Berlin Group and EU Commission on European privacy regulations, and a coalition of Australian banks regarding the country’s impending digital identity initiative.

Bird is also a proponent of legislation that give consumers control over their online identities and the use of its associated data. To that end, he proposes that the U.S. should launch a program to develop unique digital identifiers for its citizens, modeling the program after those established by Estonia and Norway. Bird sees it as a unique opportunity to update American IT infrastructure, streamline user experiences and improve identity security for the modern age. Additionally, he is an evangelist for Zero Trust and hybrid IT security models.

What colleagues say: “Richard was one of the first people in cybersecurity to not only recognize, but aggressively address the pending consequences and changes that will manifest in banking cybersecurity as a result of PSD2/Open Banking. In his prior IT executive management and banking cybersecurity roles, Richard evaluated pending regulations in order to create solutions that met those rigorous demands. His operational career honed his abilities to turn vague legal requirements into actionable security solutions and processes.”

“Richard now uses those skills at an industry-wide level to give direction to both Ping and our financial services clients… He is working with dozens of companies in their efforts to conceptualize what cybersecurity looks like in a world where banks, health care networks, insurance companies, government agencies and higher education are explicitly required to protect customer identities.” – Andre Durand, CEO, Ping Identity

Bradley Barth