CEO.CA Chairman's Briefing

WARREN, NJ--(Marketwired - Mar 28, 2017) - Prevalent, the industry leader in third-party vendor risk management solutions, and its strategic partner, The Santa Fe Group, have jointly committed to funding an MBA scholarship for information technology security professionals at The Pennsylvania State University's online World Campus.

The IT Security Industry Online MBA Scholarship in the Penn State World Campus is designed to benefit IT professionals by providing financial assistance to pursue the Online MBA degree through the World Campus at Penn State.

The scholarship is the idea of Jonathan Dambrot, CEO and co-founder of Prevalent. Dambrot founded Prevalent while working on his MBA through the Penn State World Campus, which he completed in 2005. Dambrot's goal with the scholarship is "to elevate the role of IT and the Chief Informational Security Officer (CISO) within the C-suite and to provide IT professionals with the knowledge and skills to allow them to move up into COO, CFO, and CEO positions."

Funding for the scholarship is provided by Prevalent and The Santa Fe Group, a strategic advisory company dedicated to helping organizations recognize shared core values, make meaningful connections, facilitate collaboration, and affect change. Prevalent and The Santa Fe Group are both active members of the Shared Assessments program, which coordinates collaboration industry-wide in third-party risk assurance and the control assessment process.

According to Catherine Allen, CEO and Chairman of The Santa Fe Group, "For industry to meet the growing need to respond to the rapidly evolving regulatory and threat environments, we need to gain ground in training leaders committed to holistic, proactive risk management. The shortfall of executive level candidates in this area is being felt in all verticals and puts organizations at acute risk. This scholarship supports students gaining the very skills and disciplined expertise necessary to successfully negotiate the difficult issues surrounding (third party) risk management."

Donald Welch, the chief information security officer for Penn State, says, "Information Security is not an IT problem, it is an enterprise problem. There is a shortage of security professionals overall, but especially a shortage of senior security leaders that are equally comfortable as strategic business leaders. This scholarship goes a long way in addressing this critical need for the nation."

The IT Security Industry Scholarship is the first to be created for students in the Online MBA program at the Penn State World Campus. Renata Engel, interim vice provost for online programs at Penn State, says, "The IT Security Industry Scholarship in the Penn State World Campus represents what can happen when a business enterprise comes together with Penn State. More students will have the opportunity to pursue an MBA online simultaneously with their careers so that both their academic progress and their employers benefit as a result."

The Master of Business Administration degree provided online through the Penn State World Campus is led by the Penn State Smeal College of Business in partnership with the Black School of Business at Penn State Behrend; the Penn State Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies; and the Penn State Harrisburg School of Business Administration. With accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the MBA incorporates a focus on business strategies, collaborative teamwork, strategic leadership, and an integrative and interactive curriculum across all functional areas of business. Enrolled students receive the same educational support resources that on-campus MBA students at Penn State receive.

The scholarship will be awarded to Penn State World Campus Online MBA students beginning in 2018.

About The Santa Fe Group

The Santa Fe Group strives to create solutions for a more secure economy through custom strategic advisory services in the areas of cybersecurity, fraud, payments risk and emerging technologies. The Santa Fe Group is the creator, thought leader and manager of Shared Assessments, the trusted source in third party risk. https://www.santa-fe-group.com/

About Prevalent, Inc

Prevalent is the leader in third-party risk management, helping global organizations manage and monitor the security threats and risks associated with third and fourth-party vendors. With a suite of products, focused on automated vendor risk assessment, continuous vendor threat monitoring, and revolutionary vertical vendor networks, organizations now have a purpose-built, unified platform that significantly reduces both risk and cost in managing and maintaining their vendor ecosystem. www.prevalent.net.