Cybersecurity firm Fishtech Group of Kansas City, Missouri, has hired former Walmart executive Kerry Kilker to lead its new Cyber Innovation Center at Grit Studios in Bentonville.
Kilker will serve Fishtech as executive vice president and chief information security officer.
Most recently, he was senior vice president and chief information security officer for Walmart Technology.
Fishtech is opening the Cyber Innovation Center to establish a permanent presence in the northwest Arkansas market that will give it an edge over other cybersecurity firms that do business but don’t have a presence there, CEO and Founder Gary Fish. It’ll have about six people on staff at first.
“What we want to do is provide that presence to attract cybersecurity talent to the area,” he said. “And what we want to do is work with the local business community and the local governments to find out what their needs are and then offer free training and career advice to folks in the area that are interested in cybersecurity and then potentially match them up with local organizations that have a need for that talent … Some of it’ll be for free, some of it’ll be for charge.”
Fish said the center will also offer several free seminars and workshops for cybersecurity professional each month and offer industry insight to universities that are educating the next generation of cybersecurity professionals.
The company hopes benefit from the pipeline of talent it would help build as well. “It’s no secret, if you do a search, that there’s a big talent shortage in cybersecurity … We’re all out there fighting over the same people. So what we have to do, as a company, is create that talent,” Fish said.
He also said, when the center outgrows the incubator space at Grit Studios, Fishtech will look for a more permanent location and possibly buy real estate to construct a center.
Fish added the his company would like to duplicate the NWA model in other “non-NFL” cities, or small cities.
Kilker also spoke about the center’s mission. He said, “The goal would be to continue to support northwest Arkansas and its business growth, growing and developing more and more technical talent in the area as well as training and education and awareness aware information security, or cybersecurity. I think there is a great need.”
Kilker explained that, while larger companies have information security programs, there are many other companies that need a third party to handle cybersecurity for them. Fishtech already works with Walmart, Arvest, Tyson and J.B. Hunt.
But Kilker said the center would help the company become the prominent cyber security provider in region and a recognizable brand for those small and medium businesses.
Sign up for Daily E-news
