Security as a Business Enabler by Re-envisioning Risk and Leading through Uncertainty – Elyse Gunn – BSW #436
Most organizations view security as a cost center, a "check-the-box" expense rather than a strategic investment. This mindset leads to chronic underfunding, reactive, panic-driven decision-making, and high staff turnover. It also hampers innovation, strategic initiatives, and customer trust. What if security was viewed as a business enabler, not a cost center?
Elyse Gunn, CISO at Nasuni, joins Business Security Weekly to discuss how to make security a business enabler, turning security from a cost center into a profit center. Elyse discusses why aligning security initiatives to business drivers is the key to addressing trust, both internally and externally, and how it solves the biggest security priorities for organizations, including:
- Data Privacy
- AI Security, and
- Nth Party Risk
In the leadership and communications segment, With CISOs stretched thin, re-envisioning enterprise risk may be the only fix, To Lead Through Uncertainty, Unlearn Your Assumptions, Leaders, Consider Pausing Before Acting on Employee Feedback, and more!
Elyse Gunn is the Chief Information Security Officer at Nasuni where she defines and leads the global security and compliance strategy for the Nasuni portfolio of offerings and operations.
Elyse is an accomplished security and compliance leader with experience assessing, developing, and implementing enterprise security programs across a diverse field o entities, including highly regulated financial institutions, health care providers, government entities and medium & large technology organizations. Elyse has a proven track record of developing and implementing best-in-class product security, AI governance and regulatory compliance strategies.
Elyse currently serves as the at-large cybersecurity audit committee member for the Girl Scouts Council of Colorado.
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Matt Alderman
- Why cybersecurity Is becoming a board-level priority for startups in 2026
Cybersecurity is no longer just an IT concern. It’s a valuation, fundraising, and operational risk issue and in 2026, it’s increasingly a board-level priority.
- With CISOs stretched thin, re-envisioning enterprise risk may be the only fix
Security leaders’ ever-expanding jurisdictions are increasingly spreading beyond what any single executive can handle. A board-level reassessment of cyber and risk strategies is imperative, experts contend.
- To Lead Through Uncertainty, Unlearn Your Assumptions
Leaders grow competence by adding skills, frameworks, and experiences. But they grow “capacity” by unlearning, which involves changing prior scripts, such as the assumptions that speed, reassurance, and control are necessary when making complex leadership decisions. It requires relearning ways of being that widen the room for reality and uncertainty. Competence equips a leader to manage and organize people so the business runs smoothly. Capacity equips a leader to remain present in the (many) moments when the business and the people in it are unsettled. It is what turns a leader from a reliable operator into a leader others can rely on in complexity.
- The blind spot every CISO must see: Loyalty
Organizations routinely rely on loyalty as a cornerstone of their security posture. Security and loyalty go hand-in-hand yet are not one and the same.
- Stop Shrinking: The Leadership Lesson I Learned On A Zurich Sidewalk
The harder I tried to stay out of everyone’s way, the more I got shoved aside. One minute in the morning rush taught me something no MBA program ever did
- Leaders, Consider Pausing Before Acting on Employee Feedback
Acting on employee feedback is essential to being a good leader. But a new study shows that how fast leaders change in response to this feedback shapes whether employees see them as authentic—and how likely they’ll be to share insights in the future. Across field and experimental studies, rapid shifts—especially on hard-to-change behaviors like listening—appeared disingenuous, dampening their willingness to give future feedback. Gradual change, however, was more often read as sincere growth. Before responding to feedback, leaders should pause, think deeply about the feedback, and communicate both intentions and process—verbally and nonverbally—to align visible behavior with signals of meaningful change. Managing the pace and explanation of change builds credibility and strengthens employees’ willingness to share valuable insights down the line.
