Six Steps for Better Communication as a CISO

About this episode

Steve Moore interviews Dean Sapp about the importance of written communication for CISOs and how it impacts business.

In this episode of The New CISO, host Steve Moore speaks with Dean Sapp, CISO and Data Protection Officer at Filevine, about one of security's most critical yet overlooked skills—written communication. Drawing from a brutal college English class that failed students for a single typo and over 20 years building security programs in the legal tech industry, Dean reveals why the ability to articulate security findings clearly separates average professionals from exceptional leaders who drive real business impact. After abandoning architecture when he learned it would take six years to become licensed, Dean leveraged his dual skills in computer-aided drafting and IT to launch a career at Novell, eventually earning nine certifications in two years and a master's degree from SANS Institute. His background in design thinking shapes how he approaches security program development—viewing it like building a structure that requires solid foundations, functional systems, and even window dressing like SOC 2 compliance. After interviewing over 100 candidates for SOC positions, Dean identifies the biggest missing skill as the inability to translate security findings into business language…

People in this episode

Host: Steve Moore

Guest: Dean Sapp

Topics covered

• communication
• CISO
• security
• leadership
• business impact
• transparency

Keywords

• CISO
• communication
• security findings
• business language
• leadership
• BLUF
• transparency

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Filevine, Novell, SANS Institute

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