Vincent Arnold

I received my first computer at age 6. It was a Atari 400 with a basic cartridge ( I still have it along with my Timex-Sinclair 1000 with a whopping 16K of RAM) and I’ve been hooked ever since…

I guess you could say I’m a self styled geek since most of what I had learned early on was self taught. Since those days, I’ve been an avid participant in the realm of Information Technology. I have always had a voracious appetite for learning everything I could related to computing. Pick an area of IT from programming to networking to web design to testing to systems management and on and on and on and I’ve been there and done that. Recently, I have taken a special interest in Information Security and the various ways to educate users on the importance of protecting their private data from evil doers and their nefarious plots to deprive the average unsuspecting individual of that precious information. This has become a serious problem and quite frankly, I wish I could have gotten involved in information security sooner. I want to make a difference and I like helping people.

My professional career includes leadership roles in management and sr. project management for Fortune 500 and U.S. government organizations such as Dell, USAA, BearingPoint and the U.S. Federal Judiciary. In the early ’90s, I started a PC computer company from my kitchen selling computer memory which eventually evolved into building complete desktop PC’s, servers and installing Novell Netware and Microsoft Windows networks. This led me into web development, during the dot com boom, where I became heavily involved in developing and deploying websites and their back-end supporting systems.

I have an MBA with a specialization in Information Security from James Madison University. I also have Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems. One of my long term goals is to secure an executive security management position for a major corporation or governmental body.

I am a tenured board member of the Austin Chapter of the Project Management Institute serving as the Webmaster and former Director of Internet Communications for the past 6 years. Also, I have recently joined the National Black MBA Association. My active professional certifications include the PMI (PMP), Microsoft (MSCE), Cisco (CCNA, CS-SecS), ISC2 (CISSP), the EC-Council (C|EH, E|CSA, L|PT), ISACA (CISA) and OGC (ITIL v3). Attaining certification in various areas of IT has been challenging but I have found that it is an excellent way to keep my skills sharp and it forces me to focus on current technologies. It’s not like I really need to be forced though.

Regarding my leisure time pursuits, I enjoy spending time with my family, Sci-Fi movies and the occasional book, comic books (Iron Man rocks!) sports like running, basketball, football and weightlifting and I play my fair share of video games on my PC and my shiny new Xbox 360 Elite.

My motto: think young…you’ll live longer.

My LinkedIn public page.