Meet Pondurance: Braden McCann

For this month’s employee spotlight, we spoke with Braden McCann who has helped our healthcare customers at Pondurance for almost four years. 

What led you to your career choice in cybersecurity?

I ended up in technology somewhat by accident. I studied biology and math as an undergraduate with the intention of going to medical school. I had no idea at the time I would end up working closely with healthcare in an entirely different capacity. While in college, I worked for a small, local IT company — starting out with basic help desk and hardware repair and eventually getting into some larger projects and server administration. After graduating, I decided to stay on the technology path and got a job working for a division of Jack Henry & Associates that was responsible for network infrastructure and security. That was around the same time that I met Landon Lewis, Pondurance’s Chief Technology Officer, and really liked what he was doing at Pondurance. I continued learning more about cybersecurity at Jack Henry and worked on my MBA in the evenings. After a few years, I had the knowledge and confidence to ask Landon for a job so that I could be on the cutting edge of the industry. I haven’t looked back since. 

What is a typical day like for you?

Every day is different, thankfully. It’s always a juggling act of planned meetings, unplanned meetings, and trying to stay on top of communications and contracts in between. Most of my clients and prospects are in a state of constant change, much like the security industry itself. We work with clients on an ongoing basis to reduce risk as their technology and business processes evolve. Many organizations are undergoing their own version of the digital transformation, which includes meaningful impacts to their security postures. I help align the right Pondurance expertise and solutions to those challenges for both new and existing customers. 

What is your proudest accomplishment in your career to date?

My proudest accomplishment has been our work with healthcare organizations in Indiana. As we have all been recently reminded, healthcare is a vital industry that we all need to function well. Healthcare delivery organizations are tasked with an incredibly important and challenging role and rely heavily on technology to perform it. Hospitals can’t tolerate any downtime without potential risk to patients and even population safety. They have plenty to worry about without worrying about ransomware, business email compromise, regulatory fines, reputation damage, etc. I’m proud to have put together a promotional program for healthcare that numerous hospitals have taken advantage of that has allowed them to offload their security concerns to us in a cost-effective manner so they can focus on patient care. 

What advice have you been given that stuck with you?

You have to be empathetic to be good at sales. If you are genuinely empathetic to your prospect and/or customer’s needs, and you understand the use cases and limits of your solution, then everything else will follow. When you care, you listen well. When you care, you ask good questions and immerse yourself in their world. In cybersecurity, we sell to very intelligent, very sophisticated buyers who can pick up on how invested you are in helping them solve their problems and how well you actually understand the problem, which matter a lot in a long-term strategic partnership. 

What advice would you give to others looking to enter the technology field?

Develop a mindset of lifelong learning. This is applicable in every industry, as few to none are static, but is especially true in cybersecurity. The technology landscape changes quickly and so does the threat landscape. The number of security tools, services, vendors, and frameworks has grown and evolved rapidly. Educating customers and prospects is a key part of the job so you have to set time aside every day to stay on top of changes and understand how your peers are responding to them. 

Interested in joining the Pondurance team? View our current openings!