Me and my job

I like being involved with every operation in the company. In security and business continuity you must keep up with all aspects of the company and I really enjoy that.

I like doing something that is really important to the company. If we don't get this right, we're "betting the company" that nothing bad will happen to us. As insurance people, we know bad things happen to people -- we settle their claims.

How would you describe your job to your friends and family?

People "get" security. It's in the news, everyone wants to be secure. They don't quite understand business continuity, but if I resort to words like "back-ups" and concepts like: "you're really counting on your insurance company to be there for you," they kind of get it. Then we change the subject to sports and have fun!

Of what are you most proud?

I'm most proud of the wonderful people we have in IT and our other business units who really understand the importance of business continuity and security. They are enthusiastic, come up with wonderful ideas, and they're not afraid to point out problems. As a consequence, we are now confident we can meet our recovery goals, and we're confident that we have a pretty secure setup.

What annoys you?

The very few people who say, "Has that ever happened before?," or "That's never ever going to happen." That's as if to say: "Why are you wasting my time with this .I have REAL work to do." We do try to be sensitive when we work with other departments to recognize they're the ones taking care of our customers and putting revenue into our accounts, yet we know they and our customers are depending on us to prepare for the inevitable outages.

Nancy Edwards is vice president and CSO of State Auto Insurance Companies

SKILLS IN DEMAND

Identity management

As corporations continue to grapple with complex compliance requirements, the need for identity and access management professionals is very strong.

Alignment needs

There's a need for professionals who have experience not only testing and deploying identity and assess management products, but also those who have had verifiable success in aligning such corporate-wide ID management deployments with risk management plans.

Global opportunities

Base salaries range from $80K to $175K depending on the size of the organization and level of responsibilities. Opportunities can be found nationally as well as internationally.

Source: Jeff Combs, Alta Associates, Inc.