CISO Conversations: Timothy Youngblood; 4x Fortune 500 CISO/CSO – Cyber Tech

Timothy Youngblood didn’t got down to be a CISO, however he grew to become CISO at 4 main enterprises, took on angel investing and gained the Most Valued Member award on the Summer time Investor Capital Expo of the world’s largest angel group final summer season.

The trail to safety management

Some rivers rush headlong to their vacation spot, others meander slowly with out seeming to acknowledge the place they are going to inevitably finish. Tim Youngblood is that latter kind. Why and the way did he select a profession in cybersecurity? 

“I believe it selected me,” he says. “I got here from a single household dwelling in Atlanta. We didn’t have a lot cash, however I had a pal – I referred to as him my wealthy pal – whose father purchased an IBM PC once I was 10 years outdated. I’d go over, and we performed with it. On daily basis. I liked it. Till his mom mentioned, ‘Hey, I didn’t undertake you’; and it needed to cease.”

However he’d been bitten by the pc bug (in each senses – slowly evolving pun supposed). “There was a strip mall shut by that I might cycle to. It had department shops with computer systems on show. That they had demo modes, and I taught myself tips on how to program, till in addition they received bored with me and kicked me out. However I discovered a Radio Shack, and {that a} completely different ball recreation. The shop supervisor was type to me. I honed my data and love of computer systems at Radio Shack; and I went on to graduate from school with a level in Laptop Data Techniques.”

He left school as a programmer and transitioned from improvement into Native Space Community (LAN) and Huge Space Community (WAN) deployments – however with no clear intent on cybersecurity (which hardly existed as a occupation). It wasn’t till he later joined KPMG and began doing audits that he had any formal coaching in safety associated points. “KPMG additionally did formal safety threat assessments. We did penetration testing, and that’s the place I received my first formal coaching round cybersecurity.”

He received his large break when he joined Dell. It was within the early days of Sarbanes-Oxley and Dell had a failure in each laptop. ‘We needed to prepare the chief groups. They couldn’t simply pull insurance policies off the web and say they have been doing these issues – that was by no means going to work. So, we uplifted the management construction, and finally the entire course of rolled into me turning into Dell’s first CISO in 2010.

Youngblood arrived in cybersecurity management with a love of computer systems however no clear intent to work in cybersecurity. However from there, his cybersecurity profession took off – cybersecurity had chosen him. After KPMG, he spent two years as a director at Jefferson Wells (a part of the Experis group) earlier than working in compliance, coverage and threat at Dell (and later turning into CISO).

After Dell, he grew to become CISO at Kimberley-Clark, then company VP and CISO at McDonald’s, then SVP, CSO & product safety officer at T-Cell, grew to become an advisory board member with numerous organizations and an angel investor with the Keiretsu Discussion board, and adjunct professor on the College of Oklahoma in 2025..

CISO churn

CISOs famously have a excessive churn charge – it reveals in his personal profession path. There are a lot of causes. A decade in the past, the CISO can be held accountable for breaches. If the breach was critical, CISOs can be fired or be anticipated to fall on their very own sword. That is much less widespread as we speak, however the churn stays excessive. Why?

Youngblood offers beneficial albeit private perception.

“Restlessness, I suppose,” he instructed. “I prefer to tackle a problem and do one thing that hasn’t been finished earlier than. That’s what excites me.” 

The present crop of senior safety leaders contains, virtually by definition, ‘pioneers’ – the occupation didn’t exist earlier than they primarily created it. When he joined Dell, he hadn’t been in search of a ‘CISO’ position; however he relished the problem he had accepted. “I used to be doing issues that had by no means been finished at Dell – establishing the worldwide compliance group, and the corporate’s first threat administration workplace.” He hadn’t sought a CISO position (Dell didn’t have a CISO place), however the work he did finally created the position, and he moved on to fill it.

It’s price noting that he has an entrepreneurial spirit – one thing not unusual within the extra dynamic and profitable CISOs. When he was younger – bear in mind he didn’t come from a rich background – he and pals discovered a load of books in a dumpster. They loaded them right into a purple wagon and went around the neighborhood promoting them door-to-door. This pure inclination to make extra from what’s initially obvious has by no means left him. Early in his skilled profession, whereas nonetheless at KPMG, he studied for and gained his second diploma – a grasp’s in expertise commercialization from the McCombs College of Enterprise on the College of Texas at Austin. McCombs describes the course as a ‘program for entrepreneurs’.

There’s a robust aspect of, ‘Been there, finished that, what’s subsequent: and what can I make of it?’ In Youngblood’s private model of CISO churn.

Angel investor

This mix of in search of new challenges whereas making one thing new drew Youngblood, inevitably, towards angel investing. It didn’t occur in a single day. It barely existed when he first grew to become concerned in new concepts and enterprise capitalism. It grew out of an inherent curiosity in new concepts and startup companies.

“In every group I labored for, I began a course of to assist usher in new concepts and innovation into this system. Finally I referred to as it PIE – portfolio innovation enablement. I’d have 5 or 6 startups come and pitch to me and my management workforce. It wasn’t only for safety. I’d deliver within the CIO’s workplace, and privateness, audit and authorized. So, annually I’d hear 40 to 50 pitches from startups. It was a means of quick monitoring the lobbying course of for brand new companies making an attempt to get into large corporations, and annually, two or three would find yourself in our portfolio.”

However he didn’t simply sit in his workplace ready for the brand new companies to return knocking. He began touring to Israel some ten years in the past, which was creating its repute for brand new and modern concepts (see From IDF to Inc: The Israeli Cybersecurity Startup Conveyor Belt). And he met with VC companies.

The confluence of those numerous components (have to face new challenges, adventurous spirit, entrepreneurial angle, deep understanding of cybersecurity, and consciousness of the startup engine room) had the inevitable outcome. “Once I completed my final operational job at T Cell, I believed to myself, ‘Hey, I’ve finished all the pieces I wish to do as a CISO. What’s one thing new that I’m good at?’ Properly, I’ve been selecting winners and losers for many years now, and dealing with VC teams. So, why can’t I take pleasure in the advantages of this financially by being an angel investor?”

Angel investing by CISOs was in its infancy. Silicon Valley CISO investments (SVCI, a gaggle comprising greater than 60 CISOs) was based in 2019 with the mission ‘of fueling the subsequent technology of cybersecurity innovation’. This isn’t shocking. Generally, though not in complete, as we speak’s prime CISOs entered a brand new and dynamic business in its early days Like Youngblood, an adventurous and entrepreneurial aspect is widespread. It’s nonetheless a dynamic and quickly rising business, and prime CISOs might be very nicely recompensed.

IANS 2025 ’state of the CISO report’ notes that giant organizations pay CISOs that mix safety and IT duty “a median annual pay of $1 million [with] the highest quartile beginning at $1.5 million”. This not at all applies to all CISOs, however it’s indicative of a well-paid occupation. The mix of excellent pay, an entrepreneurial bent, and an in depth data of cybersecurity and its wants, makes one thing just like the angel investor SVCI inevitable.

Youngblood’s profession path has all the time been barely non-standard. He didn’t merely be a part of an angel group devoted to cybersecurity, however as an alternative selected to additionally be a part of the Keiretsu Discussion board, a world angel community based in 2000 by Randy Williams – and infrequently described because the world’s largest angel group. Worldwide, it has greater than 4000 members in 60 chapters. Membership is by invitation solely, however he had constructed a stable relationship with many VC companies. Like SVCI, Keiretsu focuses on startups with excessive progress potential; however in contrast to SVCI this isn’t restricted to cybersecurity companies.

“I began by focusing, naturally, on cybersecurity. I’ve received loads of deal circulation coming from VC teams I had labored with whereas a CISO – they permit me to evaluate corporations that they’re assessing for his or her portfolio, and I get alternatives to put money into them as nicely. I’ve expanded that and joined a number of angel teams. I’m a part of the world’s largest angel group, which is the Keiretsu Discussion board. And thru them and some others, I have a look at medical gadgets, clear tech, media corporations – and I simply made my first shopper product funding earlier this 12 months. Now I’m absolutely swung into the angel investing world and have seemed on the a number of features of what grows enterprise and what workforce seems like.”

CISO in residence

Youngblood’s position as an angel investor brings us neatly to his most up-to-date CISO place, as a CISO in residence.

‘In residence’ CISOs are one other current evolution in CISO roles, usually linked to enterprise capital and offered by the VC agency to ship an advisory reasonably than deep hands-on safety position. Right here the request got here from the corporate reasonably than a VC group – however the preamble was nonetheless funding.

“I’d been wanting on the drawback of non-human identities, which had been a big difficulty at each firm I had labored at.” It’s an issue that simply retains rising with enterprise transformation, SaaS, and now agentic AI. 

“I used to be in search of somebody making an attempt to unravel this. I talked with a number of founders of startups, most of them nonetheless in stealth. Then I received related with a agency that had been centered on NHIs since being based in 2021. I used to be actually attracted by that, and I used to be able to make an funding. However the CEO mentioned, ‘Hey, I’d prefer to work with you differently.”

They mentioned how that completely different means would work and settled on the concept of CISO in residence – a tenured senior stage govt that guides the corporate in the correct path; and it was a place he took. “I’m guiding the product workforce on tips on how to align the product with the wants of huge enterprises, working with the advertising and marketing workforce on the corporate messaging, supporting and guiding the platform technique, and connecting all of the dots with the salespeople.”

He used the emergence of AI for instance of this position. “We have been specializing in and discussing the subsequent layer of AI. Again within the Fall of 2024 I began speaking to the agency about AI brokers, and now they’re the largest buzz in cyber. Properly, all AI brokers work off NHIs, so it was necessary we might deal with the NHIs of agentic AI as quickly as potential. I mentioned this with the VP of product, he agreed, and now it’s within the product. That’s the sort of factor {that a} CISO in residence does.” It’s recognizing alternatives, requirements and enhancements, after which serving to the corporate do the correct factor in the correct solution to have the most effective impact forward of the competitors.

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