Oakland County, Michigan hires new CISO

Oakland County, Michigan, announced last week that it’s hired Bridget Kravchenko, a veteran of the automotive, accounting and healthcare industries, as its new chief information security officer. Kravchenko is the first woman to serve as CISO for the 1.2-million population county northwest of Detroit, the second-biggest and highest-income county in the state.

“We’re looking forward to utilizing her expertise to boost Oakland County’s information security,” Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said in a press release.

Bridget Kravchenko.

Before joining the Oakland County government, Kravchenko spent her entire career in the private sector, beginning with an accounting firm. In 2000, she joined General Motors as an information-technology auditor. She later moved to Meritor, which manufactures parts for military vehicles and long-haul trucks, eventually becoming the firm’s information security director.

Most recently, Kravchenko worked as the CISO for Meridian Health Plan, a government healthcare provider, and Federal-Mogul Motorparts. She also serves as the chairwoman of the Michigan chapter of InfraGard, a nonprofit partnership between the FBI and private-sector executives who work with critical infrastructure.

As the county’s new CISO, Kravchenko will work with Chief Information Officer Phil Bertolini to safeguard the systems used by 82 county divisions, 100 local government bureaus — including police departments and property assessors — and about 50 private-sector clients. The county’s open data portal, Access Oakland, also has about 1,700 paying customers.

“Oakland County has a national reputation as a technology leader which is what attracted me to this role,” Kravcheno said in the county’s press release.

Oakland County is one of five Michigan counties that partnered with the state government in 2014 to create CySAFE, an information-security platform that smaller governments — which can’t always afford their own in-house IT operations — free assessments of their cybersecurity postures. Kravchenko’s predecessor, Chris Burrows, was one of its founders. Burrows left the Oakland County government in February for the private sector.

The program has grown into offering the CISO role as a shared service to smaller cities and counties that don’t have a full-time employee in that position. The initiative was awarded at last month’s National Association of State Chief Information Officers conference in Baltimore.

Kravchenko’s first day on the job is Tuesday.