This is the same information that you will find over at LinkedIn:
Alex Crittenden
Minneapolis, MN
612-605-8920
Summary
My professional background involves more than 2 decades of experience working with leading, forward-thinking organizations to understand their challenges and how best to address those opportunities as a services and technology partner.
I focus on understanding and solving client challenges in information security and enterprise technology. Recognizing where and how solutions and services will most positively impact my clients’ business (including client executives and team members) is key. Solution selling, building relationships with client leaders, identifying and developing new business and new market opportunities, providing clear value differentiation, and managing sales and client engagement initiatives are all areas in which I have been able to maximize value for both my clients and my employer.
I have typically worked for nimble, rapidly-growing organizations where understanding both the business and technology needs of the client is the key to success. Complex sales cycles and the need to keep my organization in alignment with market changes have required that I step out beyond the traditional sales role and take on additional client engagement, marketing, and demand generation responsibilities. Over the last decade my focus has been a combination of direct sales and brand-development directed towards new market penetration or new product/service success.
I understand how IT strategy needs to be in alignment with overall organizational goals and how investments in technology can impact my clients' businesses.
Specialties:
- Client Engagement and Partnership
- Client Problem Solving
- Sales Strategy Development & Execution
- Account Management & Negotiation
- Consultative Selling
- Market Positioning
- Marketing Communication
- Sales & Service Delivery
- Partnership Development
- Sales Process Management
- C-Level Relationship Development
Experience
White Oak Security
10/2017 - present
Vice President
White Oak Security is a strong information security consulting partner focusing on delivering in-depth Penetration Testing, Red Team, and Consulting Services. Our clients are our partners and we work very hard to provide a very high level of service and client experience across all of our service offerings.
With experience in information security testing and compliance across a range of industry segments (including Financial Services, Software Technology, Healthcare, Manufacturing, and Multi-National Retail) my role is to help guide the organization's growth and to help ensure that our clients are properly supported.
Upper Midwest Security Alliance (UMSA)
01 / 2017 - present
Vice President
I am serving as the current Vice President of UMSA. My role is to help manage the organization as it works to deliver on it's stated mission to the Information Security Community.
NetSPI
07 / 2008 - 07 / 2017
Regional Vice President - Sales
My primary role is to identify, build, and solidify relationships with large National and International organizations that understand the importance of data security in their environment and the changing nature of the security landscape.
Other responsibilities include management of a portion of our inside sales team as well as brand and service positioning - this includes helping to drive marketing and content creation around specific service categories and key vertical markets.
NetSPI is a penetration testing and vulnerability management firm that typically works with Fortune 1000 clients to take a deep-dive approach to important technology assets and provide the expertise and experience that our clients require to identify the risks within their applications and environments. Our services are driven by a very in-depth process and a guiding methodology that allows our experienced team to deliver results that are particularly useful to clients with mature (or maturing) security programs.
Our expertise with vulnerability management (and our Correlated Vulnerability Manager technology) coupled with our experience in application prioritization and risk allows NetSPI to deliver value far beyond a typical testing partner - providing actionable insight for our clients' front-line team as well as decision makers up to the board level.
Upper Midwest Security Alliance (UMSA)
06 / 2014 - 06 / 2017
Secure360 Conference Chair
Proud to be asked to co-Chair Secure360 - The premier educational conference in the Upper Midwest for the information security and risk management industries. (www.secure360.org)
I worked with an amazing team of security, risk, and conference/marketing professionals to provide in-depth information sessions, vendor connections, and educational opportunities for our community. This year the conference moved to a new home at the Minneapolis conference center and we grew to over 1,800 attendees.
As the conference continues to grow we have built a multi-year plan to ensure that our focus is driven by the information security community and delivering the education, information, and networking opportunities that our community needs.
Magenic Technologies
10 / 2007 - 07 / 2008
Account Executive
Magenic works with organizations to understand their application environment and how that environment might be better leveraged to achieve their corporate vision and goals. We then execute on that understanding and work with our clients through the entire application lifecycle, from planning and architecture, through development, QA, tuning, and support. Our high level of expertise with Microsoft technologies has allowed us to become a Worldwide Partner of the Year.
My role is to build relationships with organizations in the upper Midwest, to understand the business and technical environments of these companies, and to recognize how Magenic can most effectively provide value. My history working with both IT and Finance has shown me how aligning technology and the business can provide significant return - Magenic is often at the heart of this alignment, building technical solutions driven by underlying business needs and leveraging the power of Microsoft’s tools and technology.
Winthrop Resources
05 / 2005 - 10 / 2007
Regional Sales Executive
My role at Winthrop:
-Build our business through direct relationships with executives at ‘profile’ organizations
-Build partnerships with organizations that complement our mission, benefit from our value proposition, and work with executives at profile companies
I work with C-level executives at large regional and national companies to build a strategic financial environment designed to address the unique nature of technology and unplanned change.
My approach is very relationship-based and requires an understanding of our customers’ internal/external pressures, their goals, financial/IT situation, and the forces of change involved to build a solution that will effectively merge fluid technology programs and prudent financial management.
I also help my clients (and partners) understand trends as well as pressures in the marketplace (whether technical, regulatory, or financial in nature.)
Direct Source
09 / 1996 - 05 / 2005
Regional Sales Manager
My role at Direct Source:
-Provided direct sales leadership in NE 1/4 of the US - working with Fortune 1000 clients to close new and incremental business.
-Identified, introduced, and built a sales plan for new technologies that contributed significantly to both sales success as well as overall margin.
-Re-engineered ‘go-to-market’ strategy - this strategy helped build sales from $4M/year to $35M/year over a 5-year period while maintaining $1M+/employee revenue rate and improving overall margins.
-Led successful effort to introduce new services offerings to the marketplace.
-Managed client teams on enterprise-level engagements.
-Provided leadership in successful corporate re-branding efforts.
-Before moving to a sales position, I managed support and logistics, transitioning them from reactionary groups into pro-active teams that successfully supported the growth of the company.
US Dept of Agriculture - Forest Service
06 / 1995 - 09 / 1996
Forester
Professional forester working to assess forest health and biological diversity in upper Midwest.
Education
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
1991 - 1995
Bachelor's , Forestry & English
National Forestry Honor Society (Xi Sigma Pi), Forestry Club, Intramural Sports, UROP - Undergraduate Research Position working with graduate students on their doctoral research
Honors
Xi Sigma Pi - Forestry Honorary Society, Inbound Marketing Professional Certification
Interests
Fly-Fishing, Hiking, Gardening, Nature, Soccer, Soil Conservation, Cooking
Associations
Rotary Club, Nature Conservancy, Heritage Conservancy, ACLU, Minnesota Public Radio, LinkedIn Minnesota, CCHIT, PA-DSS, Trout Unlimited, Planned Parenthood
Certifications
Inbound Marketing Certified Professional
08 / 2009
Publications
A False Sense of Security
08 / 2012
NetSPI Blog · Authors: Alex Crittenden · https://www.netspi.com/blog/2012/08/23/a-false-sense-of-security/
An article on automation’s place in security assessment and commentary on it’s improper ‘positioning’ by people that should know better.
Penetration Testing – Deception through Vocabulary
04 / 2012
NetSPI Blog · Authors: Alex Crittenden · https://www.netspi.com/blog/2012/04/24/penetration-testing-deception-through-vocabulary/
Article ranting (slightly) on the dilution of the term ‘penetration testing’ and it’s impact on our industry.
