Paul Nelson

CTO
PRINCIPAL ENGINEER

B.S., Physics with Computing (University of Warwick, UK); M.S., Information Security (Royal Holloway University of London); M.B.A. (University of Colorado Boulder Leeds School of Business); CISSP, CISA, ISSMP, ISSAP, HCISSP, PCI QSA, MCITP, MCP, GCE, GCFA (2009 – 2019), FEMA NIMS

Paul Nelson is Co-Founder and CTO of Rule4. In the decade prior to joining Rule4, Paul served as Chief Architect for a leading cybersecurity, infrastructure, and opensource consulting firm, and then as Vice President of Architecture for a nationwide datacenter operator. In those roles, he provided architectural, operational, and strategic leadership for clients. 

Paul is a respected advisor and thought leader, and he regularly gives presentations in educational and industry settings on technologies that have the potential to change the competitive landscape, such as machine learning. His areas of expertise include automation tooling, complex problem and system analysis, operational and performance issue remediation, process implementation, and overall information security thought leadership. The common thread is enabling data-driven decision making to help businesses grow, compete effectively, and evolve as technology becomes increasingly more ingrained in all layers of business. 

Paul also has significant experience providing incident response and governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) guidance, with an emphasis on Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) compliance frameworks.

In his free time, Paul loves to fly-fish, cook, bike, and try fun new outdoor activities with his wife and their two children.

Fox Trivia

Book recommendation:

"A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking

Spirit animal:

Owl

A life lesson I’ve had to learn more than once:

Sometimes being right isn't what matters.

My happy place:

On the river, tossing flies

I’m a sucker for:

A good Scotch or IPA

Chosen career path as a kid:

Astronaut