I learned to translate, not just report.
In 2016, Michael Vigneau was handed a blank page.
No team. No program. No playbook.
Just a mandate: build a cybersecurity function from scratch.
He hadn’t planned on any of this. He broke in through desktop support in 2000, the classic “you’re good with computers” door. A CISO career barely existed when he was 22.
But he kept raising his hand for problems outside his job description. And eventually the biggest problem in the building landed on his desk.
Then it got worse.
The ransomware threat showed up before the program was ready. He was hardening the environment, running tabletop exercises with executives who all had different risk tolerances, and trying not to start a panic, all at the same time.
That’s where he learned the thing most technical people learn too late.
A board doesn’t need to understand your firewall rules. They need to trust that you do, and that you’ll tell them what matters when it matters.
“I learned to translate, not just report.”
Michael Vigneau, Allegro MicroSystems
Today he leads cybersecurity at Allegro MicroSystems, a global semiconductor company. The current puzzle is OT security and Zero Trust, two things that don’t always get along.
But ask him where the real work is, and it isn’t the technology.
It’s the weekly phishing tests. The gamified training. The slow grind of getting 90% of people who never signed up for a security job to actually care.
“Technology is the easy part. Changing human behavior at scale is the real work. It never fully finishes.”
Michael Vigneau, Allegro MicroSystems
His advice to anyone ten years behind him:
“Get your CISSP, but don’t hide behind it. Certifications open doors. They don’t build relationships with the CFO or earn trust from a skeptical board. Learn to speak business. Learn to quantify risk in dollars, not CVE scores. The technical skills will evolve. The ability to communicate, influence, and lead compounds forever.”
Michael Vigneau, Allegro MicroSystems
One more thing about Michael.
The kid who grew into all of this? He built his grammar school’s computer lab. He’d been doing this work since before he had a word for it.
This has been a DoGood Member Spotlight.