Claudette McGowan is one of the ‘most successful VC-backed female founders in North America,’ the company said in a statement
Claudette McGowan has spent more than 25 years in the technology industry, optimizing infrastructure and designing new approaches that improve services.
She graduated with a bachelor of arts from Lakehead University and was awarded a doctor of laws degree, honoris causa, from Carleton University, in recognition of her distinguished career as a leader in global information technology. McGowan has worked with companies like Bank of Montreal, TD Bank, North York General Hospital and Metropolitan Police Services. Most recently, she became an independent director of the Air Canada board in May 2023.
The cybersecurity expert is also CEO of Protexxa. The company’s AI-powered platform, Protexxa Defender, identifies, evaluates, and resolves the human elements that result in 90 per cent of cyber attacks, the company says. McGowan announced Tuesday that she had raised $10 million of funding for Protexxa, a new record for the largest amount raised by a sole black woman founder in Canadian history, according to the company. She also raised $5 million of seed funding in 2022, making McGowan one of the “most successful VC-backed female founders in North America,” the company said in a statement.
Bell Ventures, the venture arm of Bell Canada, was among the most recent investors.
“When it comes to cyber crime, most leaders think they’re outnumbered, underfunded, and ill-prepared. The fastest way to change that narrative is to activate their greatest strength: people,” McGowan said in a statement. “Protexxa prioritizes people through assessments and training that improve cyber hygiene and create more secure organizations.”
National Post spoke to McGowan regarding her career in the tech industry, her achievements, and her path forward with Protexxa. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
How would you describe your experience in cybersecurity?
I was the former head of TD Cyber Security Operations and spent a lot of time prior to that at BMO, accountable for all the different endpoint technology. So, things like laptops and servers and desktops and ATMs. So, deep into connecting and protecting for decades.
What would you say is your proudest achievement in your career?
I think really trying to democratize cybersecurity understanding and cybersecurity literacy is something that I’m very proud of. When I was at TD, I had a cybersecurity podcast that was listened to by hundreds of thousands of people and did some things to really help get people thinking. Organizations are made up of people, so, really, if you have 10 people at your company, all 10 of them need to be some level of cyber-literate, to protect themselves, protect their families and, of course, protect the organization. So I’m really, really proud about trying to bring cyber literacy into the mainstream. Now, 5.6 billion people are using the internet and no one’s got a manual, so my goal is to give people, those first steps that they need to do to be connected and protected.
5.6 billion people are using the internet and no one’s got a manual, so my goal is to give people, those first steps that they need to do to be connected and protected.
Claudette McGowan
How far along do you think that is?
I think certainly, with every cyber attack of the day impacting how we work and live and study and play, it’s certainly raised the awareness and the concern. But there’s the “What do you do about it? How can I be a part of the solution?” That’s where the opportunity is and that’s really why we created Protexxa. It’s to focus on the human side of cybersecurity and risk, and present people with some of the tools and resources, and the things that are actually within their control. So I think the climate right now is raising awareness, and then having a place to go and a trusted partner to help you on the journey. That’s the role we want to play.
What hurdles and obstacles have you encountered in your career?
It all depends on the stage. But certainly, when you’re the youngest in the room, there’s some challenges that you get because you’re not viewed as being the experienced one and you still need to put the time in, which I think is certainly legitimate, but it’s something I remember. Being the youngest in the room, and then, of course, in a male-dominated industry, like technology and cybersecurity, you know, being the woman in the room.
Certainly you’re challenged maybe in different ways, right? So the view of how technical is an individual or what do they bring to the table? So, certainly, there’s a lot of work on getting more women into the industry. I think we’re at 26 per cent right now and when I started, my career was probably closer to five or 10 per cent, so I think that there’s certainly that opportunity and then of course, being a person of colour certainly plays a role in some rooms. Not all, thankfully.
What role does diversity play in business?
I think it’s really about just everybody. Casting wide nets, right? I think we don’t want to exclude people because of DNA, we want to include bright and brilliant minds from wherever they come from. So, for me, it’s more just about casting wide nets and being inclusive. I really focus on what are we doing to solve the problems of the day. Less about kind of who you are, and more about what you can bring to the table.
With all the problems that we see in tech, you want everybody there, you want different perspectives, and you want people to think about how can we get to the best solution in the fastest way possible. I think that’s really key and there’s just zero time to be thinking, “Okay, well, people with this last name, I’m not sure if they can do the job,” or “People who come from this background, I’m not sure.” It’s really just like, “Let’s solve the problem.” And that’s what I love about the tech industry it really is in many cases about focusing on the problem at hand and the opportunity at hand.
Is there anything you can tell us about your coming announcement this July 23?
So I think we know right now that the economic climate and, you know, just in for startups, it’s difficult to raise in these environments and, certainly not like 2021 and some periods like that. So, you know, we’re really thrilled that we have support from the VC (venture capitalist) community, making a bet on what we’re able to do around educating people and helping people focus on their cyber hygiene. Do you understand, what’s on the dark web about you? Do you understand how you may be contributing to those weird SMS texts that you get or those emails that you get? And are there things that you’re doing from a habits perspective, that are making you more of a target than others?
There’s a lot of technology focused on the gateway and the firewall in this, but we’re really focused on the human side of technology and the human side of cyber and threat, and so what I love about this announcement is really saying that more people are getting it, that we have to get to the individual, we have to get to the personalization of cybersecurity, to really combat some of the threats we’re dealing with today. Ninety per cent of the time, when you hear about a cyber attack, it happens through a human, right? It happens to somebody.
So you can have the biggest best fortress, but if somebody within the fortress lets them in, then it puts the organization at risk or the family at risk. If you share the Wi-Fi, you share the accountability. So just raising the awareness. We’re dealing with far more attacks. And they’re not just targeted at companies, but they’re targeted at people as well who are attached to companies. So it’s an easier path in for cyber criminals than breaking the code
What advice can you give for anyone from an underrepresented group looking to enter a field like yours?
I give the advice to anyone, is to get the knowledge. There are great programs, this is an industry that’s been growing. Right now there are 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs worldwide so I would say go out there and get the knowledge. So, whether you’re studying at college or university, or you’re doing Udemy, or Eduonix, or some Coursera, first get the knowledge because there’s not one job in cybersecurity. You know, there’s many, so you could be in incident response, you can be in forensics, you could be in cryptography, you can be in engineering, architecture. So, one: get in and understand about the industry. Two: pick a lane or two that you want to focus on. And then, three: find a great company to partner with. There’s lots of opportunity in cybersecurity and the earlier you get in the better.
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