Progress Appoints Chief Information Security Officer

Richard Barretto will refine and grow our current security strategy and implement and monitor information security standards and policies for both our internal systems and our products. He will also influence vendor selection to ensure our supply chain is secure.

In a world filled with information security threats and myriad compliance regulations, customers rightly expect that their trusted providers will have a dedicated leader well-versed in the risks facing the enterprise and capable of implementing the latest security technologies and processes to minimize those risks. That leader is the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO).

A successful CISO has deep security domain expertise, a highly influential style of communication and collaboration, a pragmatic and strategic approach to security process implementation and is acknowledged by their peers as a true security leader. Progress has an individual with all those traits and more—Richard Barretto—who since 2020 has served as our Director of Information Security. Effective immediately, Richard will be our new CISO, reporting to me.

Richard has 20+ years of experience as a security professional and has been a security leader in varying roles for the last 10 years. Before joining Progress, Richard helped build a Governance, Risk and Compliance team and Security Operations Center for Cimpress, a publicly traded, multi-billion-dollar, global organization. Before Cimpress, he served in security and risk management positions at Cobham Mission Systems, Alegeus, BJ's Wholesale Club and Old National Bank. He has managed large global security teams and is recognized as an industry thought leader in areas of risk management, security operations and the security best practices organizations should adopt.

Richard also serves on the boards of Rela8 Group Ltd., which connects business leaders with key innovators, and X-Cel Education, which makes education more accessible to low-income adults in Greater Boston.

Richard will refine and grow our current security strategy and will stay conversant in information security standards and policies for our products and our internal systems, making appropriate updates as well as implementing new technology as the market continues to evolve and new practices come into play. He will also influence vendor selection to ensure our supply chain is secure. 

We’re happy to have Richard as part of our leadership team to align, optimize and prioritize our security investments in support of our mission to be the trusted provider of the best products to develop, deploy and manage high-impact applications.