Mandy Andress

CISO / Author / Advisor

Mandy Andress has spent more than 25 years at the crossroads of business, technology, and security, a career defined by boundless curiosity first sparked as a teenager behind the keyboard of her Texas Instruments-99/4A. Since then, she’s earned an alphabet of degrees and designations – CISSP, CPA, JD, and CISO, where she’s led Elastic’s security posture since 2018.

Mandy marries a deep technical background in system auditing, core security, architecture design, and security programming with legal expertise as a member of the Texas Bar to act as a bridge between rapidly evolving security regulations and her teams in the trenches. While staying ahead of technological and legislative change, she’s focused on the human side of security and how behavioral science can help influence rather than impede security approaches and best practices.

Mandy is the author of Surviving Security: How to Integrate People, Process, and Technology, a guide to holistic security awareness used as a foundational textbook by educators around the world. She’s also a committed mentor and advisor, both to advance the careers of future security leaders on her teams and in a voluntary capacity to share her experiences, challenges, and lessons learned with security startups as they navigate entry to market.