Rodrigo Loureiro

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

ABOUT ME

Inventor, builder, investor, cyclist

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

I started as a programmer in 1988 and spent more than three decades building and running technology and security for large organizations. I was Chief Technology and Information Security Officer for CGI’s Financial Solutions Group, then joined Laureate Education as its first CISO and became Global CIO. After Laureate I founded Cyber Connective Corporation around a risk-scoring method I invented, awarded US patent 12,437,077. The company earned seven-figure revenue from its platform before I wound it down at the end of 2023. I hold two US patents and wrote ‘Game On – Leaders Who Last’.

Now I spend my time on the things I would do for free. AI comes first. I first studied neural networks in Lisbon in the early 1990s, as part of my graduate work in operations research. Three decades later I am back at it, working through how large language models function from first principles and applying it to AI security.

I build software with AI, invest my own capital, ride the gravel roads of western Loudoun, lead the nonprofit Cycling Unbound, and grow Christmas trees on 35 acres in Unison, Virginia.

I am open to board and advisory roles and to research collaboration.

Science University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal Master of Science, Operations Research (with Honors)
Science University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal Bachelor of Science, Statistics and Operations Research • (with Honors) Fluent Portuguese, English, French, and Spanish

What I work on

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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. Building on a patented method for scoring an organization’s cyber risk. 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 grow Christmas trees on a 35-acre 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 $3.8B in revenue from 27 accredited campus-based and online universities offering undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 805,000 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. Directs the global technology strategy and executes an enterprise-wide global security services program, including Information Security, Enterprise Architecture, IT Infrastructure, and Operations. Directs major corporate and global datacenters, delivering 24/7 world class infrastructure services. Leads a global IT organization of 1,810 employees and a $215M IT Budget, servicing a global organization of 65k employees.

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Joined Laureate Inc, as it’s 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. Direct 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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Successfully moved 65,000 employees to a ‘Work from Home’ model in two weeks and deployed all IT assets to support remote learning for 850,000 higher education students, 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 $5M million; prevented same in next attack.

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.