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Posted March 17, 2021
In honor of Women’s History Month, GreyCastle Security is highlighting some of the women in leadership positions at the organization. We are very proud to have amazing women in leadership positions here, and all the women at GreyCastle Security make valuable contributions every day.
We sat down with Business Development Manager Erin Manning to pick her brain on how to best move up the career ladder, and how she successfully transitioned from sales to management. Erin really believes in the importance of seeking out learning opportunities throughout your career. Whether it’s formal training or listening to those around you, continuously improving your skillset is the way to go. Simply attending trainings or passively listening isn’t enough; Erin says one of her keys to success is making an effort to apply what she’s learned to her work, piece by piece.
Erin’s career advice? Your best resource is the people around you. Whether they’re direct reports, peers, or supervisors, your teammates can teach you and inspire you to do better.
I manage one of the sales teams here. My team focuses heavily on our higher education customers and prospects.
The progression was a lot of fun. I came into GreyCastle because of the people here. I have been family friends with one of the cofounders for most of my life, but what was fun for me – once I really got involved in GreyCastle and started to understand the organization and what we did – was really finding a passion for cybersecurity. What we’re doing is really, truly helping people. The progression for me was really about taking on more and figuring out different ways that I could contribute, both internally and externally. I was learning from the GreyCastle Security team and from our customers.
Listening skills can be unusual in a professional setting. It’s important to show up, participate when you can, add value when you can, but you should really focus on being an active listener. You can learn from others and gain opportunities. Once you’ve had those opportunities to learn, put that into action. Take advantage of opportunities to do more, whether that’s learning about a product or learning how to navigate customer conversations. It really helps the business feel better about you moving up the career ladder, and it also helps build your skillset.
I was lucky. In my first role outside of college, I worked for a female leader, so I had a unique advantage. I didn’t directly experience a lot of the adverse impact of being a woman in the workforce. Over time, though, my reporting structure has gotten more diverse. It’s about being true to yourself. There’s a lot of influences, and there’s a lot of different opinions on how to manage your career and how to be a woman in the workforce. Identifying early on who you are and being authentic to yourself is what will help you be successful and navigate situations as they come up.
My best resource has been people. If you form relationships with your coworkers, your peers, or people outside your organization, you can learn from everyone. It doesn’t matter if they are in a senior leadership position or a boots-on-the-ground role. I really believe in being open to different influences and learning from others.
There’s a lot of different trainings available, and there’s good information in them, but what’s important is that I leverage what I’ve learned and implement it in my day-to-day. That has always been a priority for me – not necessarily changing your whole methodology based on a single training, but figuring out ways to incorporate that into your natural working style.
I have always been extremely customer-focused, and I get a ton of joy out of being customer-focused. Truthfully, I was really nervous about moving into a team leadership position, where my role is more focused on coaching others than interacting with customers. What I’m most proud of is how fulfilling it’s become for me, mentoring others, working in partnership with my team, and seeing them grow and be successful. Most of the individuals on my team have grown from a similar position that I started with at GreyCastle. They started in inside sales roles and have progressed in performance and responsibility. That’s definitely what I’m most proud of: being able to help my team.
We do quite a bit of training from a sales perspective, but we also do quite a bit of coaching and holding each other accountable. I truly believe that you shouldn’t ask people to do things that you’re not willing to do yourself, so I like to be very hands-on with the team and make sure that everybody has a voice.
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Ho Chin is Chief Financial Officer at GreyCastle Security. In this role, Ho leads Finance, HR, IT and Professional Development. As part of the executive leadership team, Ho works to establish the company’s overall strategy and ensure proper execution of the supporting initiatives pertaining to the above areas of responsibility.
Prior to joining GreyCastle Security, Ho led finance and administrative functions at multiple private equity and venture-backed portfolio companies across multiple industries. Ho holds a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Pennsylvania State University in Centre County, Pennsylvania and a master’s degree in Business Administration from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Dan Kalil is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Board Chairman at GreyCastle Security. In this role, Dan provides vision, leadership and strategies that drive GreyCastle Security’s position as an industry leader. With an emphasis on customer success, Dan’s profitable growth model leverages a customer-centric business approach that balances employee wellbeing and social responsibility.
Prior to becoming CEO, Dan served as the company’s Chief Strategy Officer, during which he supported multiple acquisitions and helped the organization achieve substantial sales growth. In addition to serving as CEO at GreyCastle Security, Dan continues to hold the position of Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) at Assured information Security (AIS) in Rome, New York, a company he co-founded in 2001.
Over the course of the last 22 years, Dan has been committed to advancing the state of cybersecurity and has played an instrumental role in the identification and development of critical, next-generation cyber capabilities. He has held positions in almost every facet of cybersecurity, beginning as a computer forensic examiner and progressing through the management and executive leadership ranks. In addition to co-founding AIS, Dan has facilitated multiple cybersecurity startups, raised investment capital and has served in various lead and support roles toward the acquisition of five companies in the last eight years.
Dan has a bachelor’s degree in Cybersecurity and a master’s degree in Cybersecurity from Utica College in Utica, New York.
Michael Stamas is an entrepreneur, board member, Vice President and a founder of GreyCastle Security. With more than two decades of experience in the technology sector, Mike pairs his management and business development skills with a deep understanding of cybersecurity. Mike brings a unique brand of risk-based advising to GreyCastle clients and prospects.
Mike holds certifications in numerous security and technology related areas, including the Department of Homeland Security and other security technologies like Symantec, Cisco and Microsoft.
Mike plays an active role in his community and serves as a board member and Vice President of InfraGard Albany as well as an advisory board position with the Capital Region YMCA.
Mike has been recognized for his numerous achievements through various honors including the Albany Business Review’s prestigious 40 Under 40 award.
Dan Maynard serves as GreyCastle Security’s Chief Operating Officer, where he currently leads Sales, Marketing and Legal.
Dan has enjoyed a 30+ year career in the Information Technology and Telecommunications industry, during which time he has held various leadership positions for organizations such as Rochester Tel/RCI, Citizens Communications (Frontier), PAETEC Communications, IntegraOptics, tw telecom/Level3 and Centurylink.
In addition to various voice and data technology platforms, he possesses a strong background in leadership development, sales and marketing leadership, transformational leadership and strategic planning. Dan has a thirst for knowledge and as a committed lifelong learner, he encourages and supports professional development initiatives for his teams and continues his involvement with Vistage International.
Dan holds a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, where he was selected as a member of their Athletic Hall of Fame in 2016.
When not at work, Dan enjoys traveling, golfing, attending Utica Comets hockey games and relaxing in the Adirondacks on beautiful Canada Lake with family and friends.
Dan Didier is the Vice President of Solutions and board member at GreyCastle Security.
Dan has been a cybersecurity practitioner for more than 20 years and uses his knowledge and experience to develop cybersecurity solutions that ensure readiness and preparedness.
Dan received his bachelor’s degree in Telecommunications from SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Utica, New York, and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a master’s degree in Information Assurance from Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont.
Our Computer Incident Response Teams (CIRTs) have responded to hundreds of breaches, intrusions, malware infections, thefts, employee investigations, fraud cases and other incidents. Our highly-certified experts have extensive experience in command, coordination and correction of incidents in nearly every industry throughout North America, from local businesses to Fortune 500 international conglomerates.
800-403-8350Francesca LoPorto-Brandow is Director of Culture at GreyCastle Security. In this role, Francesca leads all social responsibility efforts and partnerships and develops effective strategies that promote organizational-wide behaviors and attitudes consistent with a culture of safety, inclusion, teamwork, motivation and high-performance.
Prior to this role, Francesca was Director of People & Culture at GreyCastle and with her leadership, the company’s culture has been recognized by Inc. Magazine as a Nationally recognized Best Workplace, Albany Business Review Best Places to Work and Albany Times Union Top Workplaces.
Before joining GreyCastle Security, Francesca worked as an OD consultant and focused on strategic culture change at The Kaleel Jamison Consulting Group, Inc. for more than six years. There, she facilitated client education sessions, coached leaders and teams, developed and executed consulting interventions and served as strategy project leader on various client engagements. Her work has taken her into Fortune 100 companies and across borders including Panama, Singapore and beyond.
Francesca is a Lean Six Sigma–certified Green Belt, a proud YWCA-GCR board member and in 2013, she coordinated and emceed the inaugural TEDx Troy—a livestream of TEDCity 2.0. Since 2012, she has coordinated and emceed the Troy 100 Forum, a biannual forum for government, religious and community leaders to discuss issues vital to the future of Troy, New York.
Bilingual in English and Italian, Francesca holds a bachelor’s degree in Management and Technology from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Lally School of Management & Technology. She was awarded Cybersecurity Recruiter of the year North America in 2017 by the Cybersecurity Excellence Awards.
Jamie Aiello is Senior Vice President of Services and Product Management at GreyCastle Security. In this position, Jamie is responsible for leading a high performing and well-balanced team that is ultimately responsible for the identification, selection, execution and successful performance of our company’s diverse portfolio of cybersecurity offerings.
Prior to joining GreyCastle Security, Jamie has held leadership positions with Annese and Associates, ConvergeOne and BlueSky IT Partners with a focus on delivering cost effective information technology solutions for companies across multiple verticals.
Jamie holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York, a master’s degree in Business Administration from Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina and a master’s degree in Computer Information Systems from University of Phoenix in Phoenix, Arizona.
