Handren handed CSO title at CIBC

Handren, who left RBC as director of protection services in April of this year to take on the corporate security responsibility at CIBC, will assume the CSO responsibility for physical and IT security effective Jan. 4.

“I think convergence is the right thing to do. Security and risk management is integral across the enterprise,” Handren told Canadian Security. “I’ve seen some organizations go this way because it brings it all under one roof. It’s nice that they have the confidence in our team to do this.”

Handren said he has already met with employees in the IT security department at CIBC.

“I told them I don’t have a real depth in IT but know how to build a risk mitigation strategy and this will allow me to really standardize processes across the enterprise. We’re still ironing out the reporting structure and it may be three-to-six months before we get that pulled together,” he said.

Handren said there will not be a chief information officer (CIO) position within the structure as that will be one of his roles.

“I will be reviewing all the organizational charts and strategic plans over the holidays,” he said.

Handren was named the Canadian Security Director of the Year in 2009, specifically cited for a five-year project he did to integrate all intrusion and access control security systems across RBC’s 1,100 branches.