Two Global Cybersecurity Executives Lead the Duke Cybersecurity Master’s Advisory Board

The industry advisory board of the Duke Master of Engineering in Cybersecurity convened last week for their inaugural meeting. Wendi Whitmore, Senior Vice President at Palo Alto Networks Unit 42, and Thomas Etheridge, Chief Global Professional Services Officer at CrowdStrike, will serve as chair and, respectively, vice chair for the next two years. The chair and vice chair will recommend discussion points for the advisory board meetings, speak on behalf of the Duke Cyber program at events, and recommend other advisory board members as needed. The chair will preside over the advisory board meetings and advise on the master program’s curriculum, while the vice chair will preside only in meetings for which the chair will not be available.  

“My primary goal for within the IAB the next two years would be to increase awareness of the Duke Master of Engineering in Cybersecurity program to ensure we bring the best and brightest students to Duke for this fantastic program, “said Wendi Whitmore. “As Vice Chair, I would support Wendi and the rest of the advisory board in this endeavor.  I’d also add that we should pay attention to helping the program align skills development and work experiences that would open career advancement & new opportunities for students in Cyber as the landscape changes,” stated Tom Etheridge. 

Both corporate leaders have impressive credentials. A global cybersecurity leader, Wendi Whitmore serves as senior vice president for Unit 42 at Palo Alto Networks. She has decades of experience building incident response and threat intelligence teams that have helped clients solve some of the world’s most significant breaches. Ms. Whitmore leads Unit 42, a team of elite incident responders and world-renowned threat researchers, assisting organizations in tackling the most complex cyber threats — from ransomware to state-sponsored espionage. The chair of the Duke Master of Engineering in Cybersecurity started her career as an Air Force intelligence officer. She has taught graduate-level computer science and cybersecurity courses at Carnegie Mellon University and George Washington University. The vice chair of the Duke Cybersecurity master’s program, Thomas Etheridge, is the Chief Global Professional Services Officer at CrowdStrike, where he oversees Incident Response and Forensics Investigative Services, Technical Assessment Services, Cyber Advisory Services, Training, and CrowdStrike’s industry-leading Falcon® Complete managed extended detection and response (MXDR) offering. Thomas Etheridge has decades of experience in cybersecurity leadership, including leading global services at security industry brand companies like Netegrity, Aveksa, ArcSight, and Imperva.

The chair and the vice-chair have demonstrated their support for the Duke Cybersecurity master’s program as seminar guest speakers and internship placements.