Editor’s note: ISACA Board Chair Brennan P. Baybeck and ISACA CEO David Samuelson recently had a conversation about ISACA reaching its 50-year anniversary in 2019 and how that milestone inspired the organization to reach even greater heights in the future. The conversation began with Brennan and David reflecting on what stood out about the anniversary celebrations throughout 2019, with Brennan’s vantage point as a longtime ISACA volunteer leader and David’s as a relative newcomer to ISACA, having taken the reins as CEO in April 2019. An excerpt of the conversation is below. To read the full exchange, download ISACA’s 2019 annual report at https://www.isaca.org/why-isaca/leadership-and-governance/annual-report.
BPB: I’ve been part of ISACA as a volunteer leader for half of its 50 years. Seeing where we started from, as a group of people who realized that addressing technology risk was going to be important, with an initial focus on EDP audit, and then growing to cover the most important topics in the world right now and in the professions that we serve around governance, security, risk and IT audit, that’s probably most impressive to me. At the same time, we’ve significantly expanded the resources and services that we provide to our members and their organizations, and now we’re innovating how we deliver these resources and services to our professional community. Those are the things that excite me the most.
DS: I’ve enjoyed getting to know the organization with Brennan’s help. Having someone like Brennan who has come up through ISACA in various volunteer capacities as the organization has grown has been an important way for me to onboard into ISACA.
It was very interesting to join when we turned 50 because that’s a moment in time, just like when a person turns 50. It’s a big milestone so you evaluate what’s gone great, what you would like to do better and how you move into the next 50 years. It’s one of those milestones that makes you think deeply. The things that happened in the first 50 years were led by the organization itself; our members didn’t necessarily have a background in learning and certification, but they knew they had professionals that needed support and credentials so they could show what they knew to their colleagues and peers. That was remarkable.
I often talk about how impressed I am that across the communities and the professions that we serve, our members are very passionate about ISACA. They care about giving back and care about leaving a legacy of supporting these professions and letting the next generation in. That’s probably the thing that has impressed me the most – meeting people who were part of our history and using that knowledge of what we’ve done well in the past to inform our thinking about how we can transform our future.
BPB: Celebrating the 50th anniversary this year inspired a lot of conversations, but it also allowed us to make some important decisions on where we want to go. As David referenced, when people look back at their first 50 years, there are some things you want to start doing that you maybe put off, and there are things you want to accelerate to make yourself better or make your organization better, but then there are also things you want to stop doing. Those are some of the harder decisions to make. ISACA has a lot of legacy – 50 years of it with a lot of passion – so what I was really appreciative of was the courage of the board and David’s team at ISACA to take on a transformational mindset, and that is definitely paying off.
DS: And it was great to bounce some of those discussions off the membership and chapter leaders because I felt like people were ready. They want to know what’s next and where we’re going.
Driving forward major priorities
BPB: Our increased emphasis on Enterprise Solutions is an important part of serving our professions. We’ve made many investments in the past few years and are integrating our recent acquisition, CMMI Institute, into ISACA’s Enterprise Solutions offerings. Seeing that get on its feet and getting aligned the way it should be was very important to me. Also getting our new One In Tech foundation up and running, and putting a concerted effort around it, will be very helpful in driving our diversity initiatives. Diversity is a very important challenge in our professions, both socially and from a business perspective. And finally in 2019, my last major objective was helping David and his executive team be successful in everything they do. We’ve made significant progress in each of these areas, and we are well-positioned for the future.
DS: Setting the One In Tech foundation in motion in 2019 amplified our ability to address diversity and the unmet needs of the underprivileged all around the world, something our members and chapters feel passionate about.
BPB: One of the things people hear us talk about quite a bit is the transformation of the organization. I believe this is one of our biggest achievements this year. We started to lead up to it as we were turning 50, and then in year 50 we really began pushing the transformation and make these things a reality. We wanted to transform the organization in terms of how David and his team operate to set us up for the future, we wanted to transform the board as well, and that is in progress, and then we also want to help the chapters transform because they’re extremely important to our future success. Many people know this, but currently board chairs only have a one-year tenure in this position, so it can be challenging to get a lot done in one year. My goal was not only to get a lot accomplished in my one year, but also to launch other future initiatives. My analogy is each initiative is a ship that needs to be prepared and loaded to set sail. If we can get those ships loaded, launched and headed in the right direction, I will consider my time as chair successful (and will be a happy past chair!). We are well on our way in each of our transformational initiatives and the ships are sailing!
To read the full conversation between Brennan and David, download the ISACA 2019 Annual Report, and watch a related video, at https://www.isaca.org/why-isaca/leadership-and-governance/annual-report
