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Hello, my name is Rossell Safran, and I am the CEO and founder of Key Calibre.

I think when I was in about fifth or sixth grade I wanted to be about six different professions

ranging from doctor to ballet dancer and everything in between. It wasn't until much later that I had a better understanding of where there were opportunities and what was a good fit for me.

My undergrad degree from Princeton is in civil engineering, specifically focused in environmental engineering. And I did that for a year after school and then switched to more of a

tech type role at a startup and I kind of got the bug for for startups and this was dating myself here but back at the end of the original dot-com boom.

Then I saw this really interesting position as a computer crime investigator

posted for a law firm.

I had no backgrounds in any of the skills required, but the job sounded fascinating and I was able

to convince the hiring manager that I would learn all the skills on the job. And that's what really started to take me

down the cyber security path because I was doing computer forensics. I think I

was 600 and something in the world to have an encased certification.

And once I had that background in computer forensics,

then it's actually really easy to get jobs after that.

So then I eventually moved to the Department of Homeland Security and there I was

leading the forensic and malware analysis teams and then from there I moved to the executive office of the president and there I was

leading all the security operations. I will say it was a phenomenal experience. I was honored to have the opportunity to work there.

It was a very stressful experience because I was always concerned that there would be a

major breach that would be front-page news. That did not happen under my watch.

There was never a dull moment and we were a 24 by 7 shop and there was

never an evening where I slept through the night. I was there during the government shutdown in 2013.

At one point half of my team was furloughed and so I went back to working on the night shift doing analysis. It was a fantastic experience. It really helped me

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