Dena Solt: Director of Security, Risk and Compliance
Hired in July, Dena fills the final position on Seattle IT’s Executive Team where she leads the effort to keep the City’s—and its customers’—data secure and privacy protected. To do that, Dena sees her challenge as “responding to day-to-day security and privacy matters while getting an understanding of the vast and complex City of Seattle, its systems and operations.” One of her first priorities is to develop a prioritized and cohesive multi-year strategic plan for the City’s information security, risk, compliance, and privacy program—a plan that will ensure information assets are stored and protected in a manner that meets or exceeds corporate, compliance and regulatory requirements, and builds the public’s trust in government.
That is a tall order for somebody still new to the City of Seattle; Dena acknowledges that success depends on “developing, and empowering a team of proactive, collaborative, knowledgeable individuals to help carry out the plan.” She says she feels fortunate that her staff and the other Seattle IT employees she has met are “incredibly talented, knowledgeable, and dedicated.” One of the first accomplishments in building out the new Security, Risk, and Compliance team was the appointment of Chief Information Security Officer Jeff Brausieck, who will be joining the team on August 10th.
While Dena may be new to the City, she is not new to her role. She comes to Seattle IT with more than eighteen years of experience in technology, information security, risk management, compliance, and privacy. She has worked on four continents and lived in South Africa prior to moving to the state of Washington thirteen years ago. A Certified Information Security Auditor, she has assisted a wide range of public and private sector organizations, participated in various security industry initiatives, and served as Director of Corporate Risk and Compliance for drugstore.com/Walgreens, where she managed security, privacy, compliance, internal audit, payment processing, and IT finance.
When she’s not working, Dena enjoys adventure travel, photography (she is now venturing into astrophotography,) and spending time with friends and family, including her 20-year-old son when he is home from college.
Both personally and professionally, Dena sees Seattle IT as a great fit. “I decided to join Seattle IT after meeting Michael Mattmiller and the IT leadership team who I can now proudly refer to as my colleagues,” she notes. “I wholeheartedly believe in the vision and direction and simply could not turn away from the opportunity to work with you all to tackle the challenges, mitigate the risks, and be part of the solution.”