(US & Canada) Craig Kapper, Executive VP at Irvine Technology Corporation (ITC), and Nick Ritter, CISO of Worldpay, speak with Asha Saxena, Founder and CEO of WLDA.tech, in a video interview about attracting talent in the technology and cybersecurity space, underrepresentation of women, and strategic ways to enhance the representation of women in the technology space.

Irvine Technology Corporation (ITC) is a leading provider of technology and staffing solutions for IT, security, engineering, and interactive design disciplines, servicing startups to enterprise clients nationally. Worldpay is an American multinational financial technology and payment processing company.

Ritter begins the discussion by stating that there are more positions than people in the cybersecurity space. This makes it critical to be able to attract and retain talent to be successful.

To fill all the roles, finding cyber talent from non-traditional backgrounds other than computer science or MIS graduates is necessary.

Additionally, Ritter notes that women are generally underrepresented in technology, but it is worse in cybersecurity and alarming in leadership. He reveals that as an organization, Worldpay and its leaders are intentionally seeking candidates from diverse backgrounds to fill the roles. The organization ensures that leadership represents the talent that it is willing to attract.

Further, when it comes to hiring, Ritter has a philosophy of hiring the person, not the resume. While having a specific set of capabilities is crucial for some roles, the majority of the roles in the organization require people to adapt and learn the business nuances, he says.

This approach has helped Ritter build a leadership team that has better women representation as opposed to 11–12% of women leadership in cybersecurity. Moreover, plenty of open positions and a lack of talent stress the need to cultivate and find new leaders on a daily basis.

Building on this, Kapper lays down the statistics, which state that 26% of all IT workers are women, less than that in cybersecurity, and even less than 10% of women are in tech leadership roles. Additionally, 55% of women quit technology as a career by the age of 35 — the reasons being lack of mentorship, career path, investment, and not having enough women in technology. Also, one of the less discussed reasons is childbirth, after which it becomes challenging for women to come back because technology as a field is constantly evolving.

To address this as a strategic provider, Kapper affirms that ITC runs a “women in leadership” program. It is designed to help advance the careers of director, senior director, and VP-level women through training, cohort benefits, and mentorship opportunities.

Investing in women in tech and helping them elevate will attract more women to the organization, says Kapper. He then shares how the percentage of women enrolled in STEM courses has gone down to 18% from 21%, proving that the field struggles to attract women.

Concurring with Ritter’s point, Kapper states that with full employment possibilities, the real challenge lies in attracting diverse workers or qualified people to the field. In efforts to mitigate this challenge, he mentions collaborating with Ritter to empower women in technology with the needed tools.

Moving forward, Ritter shares how the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) movement has been misrepresented in the media. The reality in cybersecurity is that middle-aged white men constitute probably 25% of all existing roles. Furthermore, Ritter affirms setting up mentorship and diversity programs that would classify under a DEI movement, just to attract people that do not resemble himself. As a key women supporter, he states that doing this is not altruistic but an act of self-preservation.

To this, Kapper states that both Ritter and he have daughters engaged in the technology space and shares that his daughter is one of the three girls in a cybersecurity major class. While he believes that it offers a great career opportunity, it also boils down to how the community helps each other out.

On that front, Kapper states that it is not just about mentorship but also peer-to-peer conversations and mentorship down to the entry-level talent. He states companies will not survive if they do not focus on a variety of workers to come in that field.

Having said that, Kapper refers to the women in leadership program, stating that it has fostered over 700 women, and 71% of them have secured promotions with their current companies. As a staffing consulting and solutions firm, he expresses interest in partnering with companies to enable the women in their teams to grow.

Among other efforts, Kapper mentions running an “Empower Her” webinar series that brings in influential people who share their journeys and advise on career growth. Next is a podcast hosted by the company CEO, Nicole McMackin, that features CIOs and CISOs to talk about what they are doing in this journey. Apart from those, there are community introductions that aim to help anybody through the network.

In conclusion, Kapper appreciates Ritter for being a constant advocate of the efforts and says that the community approach to elevating women has been a massive home run.

CDO Magazine appreciates Nick Ritter and Craig Kapper for sharing their invaluable insights with our global community.