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Susanne MAGEE

President and CEO, TechGuard Security

Imagine the Unites States being crippled by a catastrophic event such as a computer virus that disrupts the supply of power to a region. The systems and networks that make up our infrastructure are often taken for granted, but a disruption to just one of those systems can have grim consequences across other sectors.

Meet Featured Lady Suzanne Magee of TechGuard Security, whose mission-focused goal is to secure the United State’s Critical Infrastructure. TechGuard Security creates proactive countermeasures to malicious network attacks through deployment of industry-leading services and provides cutting-edge research and development of proactive security technology products. Now staffed with 50 TechGuardians™, Suzanne’s company earns $10 million in annual revenue.

Suzanne recalls that her entrepreneurial aspirations were evident early in life. From lemonade stands, selling Girl Scout cookies and charging admission to her backyard carnivals to Flightgear, the mail-order business she ran while a flight attendant for Trans World Airlines, Suzanne was gearing up to eventually launch her own company.

In 1998, Suzanne was working as the director of business development for a start-up computer development/services firm when she learned of Presidential Directive 63 (PDD-63) and the call for support of a national cyber initiative. Issued by President Bill Clinton, PDD-63 recognized that certain parts of our infrastructure were critical to the national and economic security of the United States and required steps to be taken to protect it.

“The need expressed in PDD-63 called for a public-private partnership to secure the Critical Infrastructures of the United States,” explains Suzanne. “The private sector owns the majority of our Critical Infrastructure predominantly controlled by computer networks, which are vulnerable and put us at risk.”

In direct response to PDD-63, Suzanne left her job and founded TechGuard Security from a basement office. “The firm I was part of did not want to pursue the security field, it was not part of their business model, so I told them that I would start my own company,” Suzanne explains. “It was really like stepping off a cliff with no job to fall back on. Just a mission, a vision and a basement!”

When Suzanne launched TechGuard Security it was early 2000 and the beginning of the downturn of the IT industry. After being repeatedly rejected for venture capital, Suzanne approached friends and family for fund-raising and secured enough money to operate until she could generate service revenue.

To Suzanne, it made sense that security was an afterthought as government and commercial organizations strove to go paperless. The Internet was becoming a means of not only communication but also commerce. “TechGuard Security was founded with a specific mission: to secure the US Critical Infrastructure,” says Suzanne.

In February, 2000 it quickly became apparent just how vulnerable Internet commerce was when Yahoo, Amazon.com and eBay’s websites were targeted with a denial of service attack. “We knew there was a real need for a company focused on network/cyber security,” Suzanne explains. “TechGuard was not only a mission, but a winning idea.”

Then the events of 9/11 occurred when TechGuard was just seventeen months old.

“Being mission focused on the Critical Infrastructure 9/11 could have brought the end of TechGuard. We had ramped up to perform on some pending contracts in the financial and government space, and all this business came to a halt,” Suzanne recalls. “The financial company had its headquarters in the World Trade Center and federal contracting was on hold while the nation scrambled to deal with the tragedy.”

With her business based in Missouri, Suzanne was able to secure a special SBA loan for companies outside ground zero and received $117,000 in funding at a low interest rate that carried TechGuard Security through the recovery of 9/11. The loan enabled Suzanne to keep her team intact and ready to perform as soon as the contracting resumed.

TechGuard provides award-winning Cyber Security Solutions through innovative research and development, consulting services and training for the Department of Defense, Intelligence, DHS, federal, financial and healthcare communities. The company tackles the current challenges of cybersecurity and privacy; specifically, the problems of information management, network vulnerabilities, firewall integrity and network security concerns created by e-commerce initiatives, global Internet connections and cyber terrorism.

What we learned from Suzanne: “Find other female mentors and study about successful women.”

All In
“I engaged my children in a conversation at the founding of TechGuard, making sure that we were all on board to take this leap. Keeping them informed and part of the adventure, helped blend our business and personal life – and at one point their babysitting money bought us our macaroni and cheese dinner!”

Yin and Yang
“Choose your business partners carefully, and with complementary skill sets. It is tempting to want to go into business with people who are just like you. My founding partner and I were like yin and yang – and we are still partners today and our company is prospering!”

This Featured Lady was profiled by Megan L. Reese, WORDrobe™ Stylist for Her Write Image in West Grove, PA.

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