Dave Tyson leaves City of Vancouver for senior position at eBay in California

Recently named Security Director of the Year by Canadian Security magazine, Tyson  said Sept. 18 he had accepted the job, giving the city three weeks notice.

Tyson, who has been with the city for four years, has done a lot of work in preparation for the winter Olympics, and  insisted in previous interviews that he was continuing to be challenged at the City of Vancouver.
However, he says the offer from eBay Marketplaces CISO Dave Cullinane, former CISO with Washington Mutual, is one that comes with global challenges.

“It’s a worldwide opportunity,” Tyson says. “I will be building teams in Beijing, India and Europe.”

Tyson has worked with Cullinane on various associations over the years including the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA), Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) and creating the relationship between those groups and ASIS. He says Cullinane approached him about four weeks ago and made him “an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

Cullinane said he went after Tyson because he “needed a good strong operations person and he’s one of the best I know. That was my primary motivation for approaching him and he made everyone here happy with him and they all said yes, hire him.”

“It happened really fast,” says Tyson. “eBay is a spectacular company and is really out there on the cutting edge in terms of the work they’ve done around electronic commerce.”

Part of Tyson’s new job will be to develop a global security awareness and policies program at eBay, handing IT security compliance and standards issues, Sarbanes-Oxley and challenges around the Payment Card Industrya and emerging issues in the European Union and Asia.

“I said take this much to start with and when you’re ready for more tell me because there’s lots more,” says Cullinane.

While most people know the eBay Marketplace, the company also includes PayPal and Skype. Tyson’s responsibilities will specifically revolve around the marketplace, which exists around the world.

Cullinane said he wasn’t necessarily looking at Tyson because of his experience with security convergence, but rather he knows how to run a strong operational function and put processes in place.

“eBay is still a relatively young company and it has become a big company and that maturation of process is something it needs and he is very good at that.”

Tyson holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration (MBA) specializing in digital technology management, is a Certified Protection Professional (CPP), is board certified in security management, and is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).

Tyson will be at Security Canada Central — CANASA’s annual conference in Toronto Oct. 17 and 18 at the Toronto Congress Centre — to receive the award of Security Director of the Year.