Ken Barnhart

"No man left behind" reverberates as the mission – to awaken, empower and preserve fellow CEOs in the SMB ecosystem that are now on the frontlines of a sinister new battlefield of cybersecurity.

Expert on

  • Leadership
  • Entrepreneurism
  • Corporate Responsibility
  • Risk Management
  • Cyber Security
  • Strategic Planning

Fee Range

$5,000–$10,000

Travels from

MN, US

Biography

From the Battlefield to the Boardroom.

As a veteran of Desert ShieldStorm, Ken Barnhart earned his Combat Action Ribbon and other decorations serving with HQ Battalion, 2nd Marine Division.  Ken has carried forward his passion for the mission of protecting others from the battlefield to the board room.

On the home front, Ken has successfully built and sold multiple IT businesses with the belief that technology holds the power to educate, empower and protect.  Through the years he’s consulted for the enterprise elite, designing, building and securing their global cloud and hybrid infrastructures.

As a Philanthropist and a strong advocate for Veterans, Ken is an active supporter of the Wounded Warrior Project and has worked closely with the Minnesota Voice of the Veteran Program as well as the Brothers in Blue Prison Ministry.

Ken serves on the Board for LeadStar University which is helping provide affordable, accessible education for tens of thousands of students in Ethiopia and Sub-Sahara Africa.  For his years of service and teaching, LeadStar bestowed their first ever honorary doctorate upon Mr. Barnhart in 2016.

As an established thought leader and facilitator on various advisory boards, Ken also speaks on the topic of cyber security awareness for organizations and conferences nationally and internationally in his role as an international Vistage speaker and cyber security champion; educating Boards of Directors, CEOs, and small business owners on cybersecurity threats and the role and responsibility of business leadership.

The Marine credo “no man left behind” reverberates in Ken’s personal mission of security – to awaken, empower and preserve fellow CEOs in the small and mid market ecosystem that are now on the front lines of this sinister new battlefield of cybersecurity.

This subject of protecting our nation’s smb ecosystem is rooted in his deep appreciation for business and the risk the owners and CEOs take to stake their reputations, retirements and financial assets to provide 50% of our nation’s payroll. These businesses and their leadership are worth our very best effort.

-Semper Fi.

Speaker Videos

MOVING CYBERSECURITY FROM THE HEADLINES TO EXECUTIVE HEADSPACE

Format: ​Half day event, approximately 8am-11am

 

This program is perfect for:

  • ​C-Suite executives / Business owners
  • Small/Mid sized businesses
  • Any company that uses, stores, or creates data.
  • Non-technical audiences

 

The audience will leave with:

  • ​A raised awareness of how Cyber Security impacts key business functions like valuation, strategic planning, brand & reputation, sales & account management, human resources, business continuity, financial controls, legal, compliance, and risk management
  • Equipped with a simple, easy to use framework for how to approach the large, complex, and dynamic challenge of Cyber Security. 
  • Empowered with tools, tips, and techniques that they can take back to their organizations and implement immediately.  For example, a countermeasure to the “CEO Email” scam that they can implement for less than $5 in under 15 minutes.   

 

“Abdication is no longer an option and hope is not a strategy.” 

According to Department of Homeland Security statistics 97% of the financial losses related to Cybercrime are occurring in small and mid-market organizations. Yet, In a recent survey, 82% of mid-market executives stated that they don’t believe they are a target, claimed they haven’t been hacked, or asserted that Cyber Security is exclusively a large organization  problem. Clearly this perception is not matching reality. This program will move CyberSecurity from the Headlines to the Headspace of the mid-market C-Suite by focusing on c-suite business issues instead of technical matters.

THE NOTORIOUS 9

Format: ​90 Minutes

 

 

This program is perfect for:

  • ​C-Suite executives / Business Owners
  • Small/Mid sized businesses
  • Non- technical audiences

 

If you have ever struggled to determine how much and where you should be spending on your cyber security program, this session is for you.

Statistics indicate that 60% of companies that have a major cyber incident will go out of business in 6 months. That number rises to 80% failure rate 18 months after the incident. 

 This forces the questions; How do you accurately quantify your organization’s Cyber risk?  How much should you budget?  Where should you spend?  For those not conversant in the nomenclature of the information security professional, quantifying your organization’s overall Cyber Security posture can be a frustrating exercise. 

In this session, Ken will outline the “Notorious Nine” risk factors using common business & financial metrics.  More specifically, from the perspective of customer segments, revenue streams, the balance sheet and the importance of your company’s brand.  This is an asset based approach derived from multidisciplinary research on how asset types are compromised.