Rodrigo Loureiro

Rodrigo Loureiro

Inventor, builder, investor, cyclist | Steward of a Christmas tree farm in Unison, Virginia | Founder CEO and Former Global CIO & CISO

ABOUT ME

Inventor, builder, investor, cyclist

AI and software | Gravel roads | A Christmas tree farm in Unison, Virginia

I spend my time on the things I would do for free. AI comes first. I trained as a statistician, with a BSc and an MSc in Statistics and Operations Research from the University of Lisbon, where I first studied neural networks in the early 1990s. Three decades later I am back at it: building a language model from scratch, reading the training and interpretability research, and applying it to AI security.

Security teams run dozens of tools, yet boards still can’t get a straight answer to one question: how exposed are we? I had to answer it with the markets watching. As Laureate’s first CISO I was on the executive team that took a private company public, at $4.2B in revenue, and I built the security program that let it stand up to public-market scrutiny, taking our security maturity from 1.2 to 3.8 in three years across a university network in 29 countries. After Laureate I turned that playbook into software, first inside my advisory firm, CyberVerse Advisors, then as Cyber Connective Corporation. I patented it (US 12,437,077), joined Microsoft for Startups and won seven-figure backing from a strategic partner. AI agents are the newest blind spot, and that’s where I’m taking it.

That playbook rests on more than three decades of building and running technology and security at scale. I started as a programmer in 1988, was Chief Technology and Information Security Officer for CGI’s Financial Solutions Group, and went on to become Laureate’s Global CIO, with a technology budget in the hundreds of millions.

Today I build software with AI: a personal-finance dashboard, a cycling coach and a retirement simulator, each with language models doing the analysis. I also invest my own capital, ride the gravel roads of western Loudoun, lead the nonprofit Cycling Unbound, and am the steward of a Christmas tree farm in Unison, Virginia.

I hold two US patents and co-authored two leadership books, the USA Today bestseller ‘Game On – Leaders Who Last’ and ‘Mission Matters’.

I am open to board and advisory roles, especially where AI and cyber risk meet, and to research collaboration.

University of Lisbon, Portugal: BSc and MSc in Statistics and Operations Research (with Honors), 1988 to 1994
Fluent in Portuguese, English, French and Spanish

What I work on

AI and large language models | AI security | Software development | Investing and personal finance tools | Statistics and operations research | Cycling training science | Land stewardship | Board and advisory work

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I build software with AI: a cycling coach that reads my training data, tools that track and model my finances, and a simulator that asks whether the money will outlast me.

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Three decades in technology and information security
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More than three decades building and running technology and security for large global organizations, as CIO, CTO and CISO, and as a consultant to Fortune 500 companies in finance, telecom, media and education.

CURRENTLY

AI and software
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Working through how large language models function from first principles: building one from scratch, reading the training and interpretability research, and applying it to AI security. Taking my patented cyber risk scoring software into AI agents, the newest blind spot. And building with AI: a cycling coach, personal finance tools and a retirement simulator.

and steward of a Christmas tree farm in Unison
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I invest my own capital in public markets and in private cybersecurity and AI companies, and I build my own tools to do it.

At home I am the steward of a Christmas tree farm in Unison, Virginia, and I work on preserving the village and the land around it.

Cycling Unbound
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Cycling Unbound is a Virginia 501(c)(3) nonprofit. We ride the historic gravel roads of western Loudoun and Fauquier, document their history, and work to keep them unpaved, open to everyone and safe to share.
Weekly open rides and a library of mapped routes at cyclingunbound.org.

PREVIOUS PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Laureate Education, Inc., Laureate International Universities •
Baltimore, MD (Global) Worldwide leader in higher education, with $3.3B in revenue from 27 accredited campus-based and online universities offering undergraduate and graduate degree programs to 875,000 students in 7 countries.

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GLOBAL CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER (CIO & CISO) 2015 to 2022, Senior member of the C-suite leadership team. Directed the global technology strategy and executed an enterprise-wide global security services program, including Information Security, Enterprise Architecture, IT Infrastructure, and Operations. Directed major corporate and global datacenters, delivering 24/7 world class infrastructure services. Led a global IT organization of close to two thousand people and a technology budget in the hundreds of millions, serving nearly 60,000 staff and faculty.
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Joined Laureate Inc, as its first CISO, built, grew, and fostered growth within the IT/CISO team from 1 to 200 staff. Developed corporate information security strategy, facing a critical problem with lack of cybersecurity that had resulted in coverage termination by the cybersecurity insurance carrier. Within 24 months, improved the corporate IT/CISO posture, for example enabling purchase of a $50M policy for cyber risks for operations with the same insurance carrier that had previously deemed Laureate too risky on a cyber perspective, contributing to a successful IPO in 2017.

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Led a corporate spend reduction from 9.2% down to 5.8% of total revenue on IT enhancement as a transformation project. Directed the IT Transformation program to prepare the IT global services organization to attain global reach and deliver 24/7 world-class technology services to all Laureate Education global operations. Revitalized and modernized with investments in innovative solutions, achieving reduced costs, streamlined operations, and increased revenue.
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Created and maintained a global information security program that successfully took IT Security maturity from level 1.2 to 3.8 in 3 years, strengthening security posture within an organization with a very large attack surface, across 25+ higher education institutions, enabling full SOX compliance for Laureate as public company.
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Moved 875,000 students to fully online learning and nearly 60,000 staff and faculty to remote working in a matter of weeks when COVID-19 hit, across 7 countries.
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Multiple successes in driving all aspects of program lifecycle, from initial concept and requirements through design, development, sales, and implementation.

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Attacked in 2017 by ransomware in a Laureate school in Mexico, paralyzing the school for a week during the rollout of the cyber security program. Recovered quickly, however, was hit again with added ransomware demand. Accelerated deployment to that school and prevented further intrusion. First shutdown cost $5 million; prevented same in next attack.

Previous

CGI, Inc. • Montreal, Quebec, Canada (Global) CGI is a global IT consulting, systems integration, outsourcing, and solutions company. Services provided include application services, business consulting, business process services, IT infrastructure services, IT outsourcing services, and systems integration services. CGI has customers in a wide array of industries and markets, with many in financial services.

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY & INFORMATION SECURITY OFFICER, FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS GROUP 2005 to 2015
Created and managed technology and INFOSEC strategy for CGI’s Financial Solutions Group, providing technical and security direction for all financial solutions, which included Trade, Originations, Servicing, Collections, and Gateway solutions. Led a team of 25 Senior Technical Architects via 4 direct reports.

Led business unit focused on building and deploying software for clients as CGI transformed from client single sales to selling software as a service hosted in CGI’s datacenter, selling 10-year contracts of reoccurring revenue. Security was the greatest challenge; software that was deployed in the client’s datacenter was now in CGI’s datacenter. Built and trained the team to make the environment in CGI’s datacenter secure. Developed programs that withstood audits by Bank of America (BOA), Citibank, Barclays, JP Morgan, and Chase.
Expert at building a technical information security program and also “selling” it to the client, to convince them to trust CGI. Performed complete architectural design and performance tuning for large-scale platform and web-facing infrastructure, which included J2EE and Oracle with BPEL, BPM, and EAI components. Information Security Governance: Rolled out an enterprise security program and technology roadmap for security solutions and security technology to address marketplace security requirements such as PCI-DSS and ISO27000.

Developed cloud security technology policy and standards to ensure safe deployment and offering of large information technology solutions in secure datacenters complying with the latest regulations and best practices Provided account management for the largest telecom operator in Brazil, including cultivating client relationships, identifying sales opportunities, and worked with the largest banking institutions, including JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Moody’s, and BOA.

Writing