
Partner at Rook Consulting
San Francisco Bay Area

Partner at Rook Consulting
San Francisco Bay Area
Thompson is a Silicon Valley based entrepreneur with Midwestern philosophies. Thompson founded Rook Consulting to provide strategically precise IT Risk & Security Advisory Services to executive management teams desiring lightweight, cost effective, intuitive Risk and Security Programs. Through a fully automated back office and by attracting domain thought leaders and practitioners to the team, Rook provides precise business driven solutions to emerging challenges.
Previously, at Ernst & Young, LLP, Thompson led client serving teams in developing methodologies and providing triage risk advisory services for E&Y's top ten accounts including the largest IT control failure in history. At a small professional services company, he served as Director of Business Development responsible for the company's go-to-market strategy and execution, field sales, channels, and marketing.
Thompson has held leadership positions for a variety of organizations, shares creative thought leadership at conferences, and has been published in leading international journals. He served as the President of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA), and has served as the Director of the Northern Region Conference for the American Marketing Association, President of the Management Information Systems Association & is a Board Member on the Henry B. Tippie College of Business Young Alumni Board. Mr. Thompson believes in stimulating process improvement & organizational change by leveraging marketing, psychology, and technology principles to business and organizational challenges. Effective solutions are simplified, rational, well-planned and fit within the cultural, political, and resource constraints of an organization.
Identifying & Developing Talent, Market Identification, Service Line Development, Compliance & Security Program Development, Process Automation, Compelling & Effective Marketing.
(Information Technology and Services industry)
May 2009 — Present (7 months)
(Privately Held; Information Technology and Services industry)
April 2008 — Present (1 year 8 months)
Client Facing:
Responsible for working with Executive Leadership to identify and prioritize areas of opportunity, create effective IT Risk Management Programs, and reduce barriers that may prevent IT from enabling the business.
Inside Rook:
Empower our team to provide best in class services to existing clients and to experience personal and professional growth while a member of the Rook team. Remove barriers that may prevent our team from providing leading services to clients. Position our firm to be at the forefront of emerging strategic IT advisory services.
(Higher Education industry)
April 2005 — Present (4 years 8 months)
Provide support to the Deans and leadership of the Tippie College of Business by providing feedback on curriculum, suggested improvements around the use of technology by students, and to bring awareness regarding the opportunities and strategies adopted by other competing programs on the West Coast. Provide guidance around the use of technology to maintain close contact with Alumni.
(Information Technology and Services industry)
April 2008 — May 2009 (1 year 2 months)
Served the members of the Silicon Valley chapter of the ISSA by creating programs focused on driving member value - in meetings, at social events, and through web based networking and collaboration tools.
(Privately Held; Information Technology and Services industry)
April 2007 — April 2008 (1 year 1 month)
Key responsibilities include growth through innovative marketing, productive partner relationships, and offering burgeoning services ahead of market demand.
- Solution & Service Offering Development
- Marketing: Branding, Advertising, Promotion
- Partnerships & Alliances
- Market Research
- Security & Compliance Project Management
- Back Office Automation & Business Process Design
(Partnership; 10,001 or more employees; Accounting industry)
May 2004 — April 2007 (3 years )
At Ernst & Young, the Technology and Security Risk Services practice provided a range of Assurance and Advisory services, all focused around ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your IT systems and control around processes.
Key Areas of Focus:
- Financial Control Failure Response Strategy
- Compliance Strategy & Program Design
- IT Control Assessment & Design
- Secure Software Development Lifecycle
- Security Program Assessment & Design
- Compliance Cost Reduction
- Team Development
Select Clients:
Freddie Mac, UnitedHealthCare, Berkshire Hathaway, Caterpillar
(Marketing and Advertising industry)
September 2003 — May 2005 (1 year 9 months)
(Internet industry)
November 2000 — May 2004 (3 years 7 months)
HolliThomp specialized in utilizing the web and web technologies to facilitate low cost startup ventures, increase target market exposure and to reduce overhead and inefficiencies associated with the current way you conduct business. HT served two primary cateogries clients: entrepreneurs and business management.
Entrepreneurs come to HolliThomp primarily for new business venture support - we provided services to facilitate exploration of web based business opportunities.
Business management primarily utilized our services for:
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - increase their search engine ranking based on popular searches
• Online Brand Overhaul - re-designing their web presence to better reflect their products and services.
• Cost Avoidance / Reduction - streamlining processes through the use of web driven tools to decrease the resources needed to conduct business .
(Non-Profit Organization Management industry)
January 2003 — May 2003 (5 months)
Key Accomplishments:
- Implemented an aggressive course altering strategic plan
- Increased membership by over 200%
- Increased recruiter attendence rates
- Increased job placement rate among MISA members
- Established partnerships with leading IT companies
- Recruited speakers and recruiters from Fortune 500 companies
- Introduced the MCP curriculum as the first applied curriculum / certification program to be awarded course credit
(Educational Institution; Higher Education industry)
August 1999 — November 2002 (3 years 4 months)
(Privately Held; Computer & Network Security industry)
May 1999 — August 1999 (4 months)
(Information Technology and Services industry)
1997 — 1998 (1 year )
ISSA, ISACA, CISSP, San Francisco Electronic Crimes Task Force, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF), Tippie College of Business Young Alumni Board, Phi Gamma Delta, FIJI, Business Technology Association
Alumni, American Marketing Association (AMA), Colt World Series