“My drive, passion, and entrepreneurial approach have always been at the core of my strategy for my work with VigiTrust, the VigiTrust Global Advisory Board, involvement in security associations and research platforms, and my work with the French Government,” says Mathieu Gorge. He is the Founder and CEO of VigiTrust, an award-winning Integrated Risk Management (IRM) Solution Provider company.
Mathieu is a veteran of the Cybersecurity Industry with more than 20 years of experience in security and compliance, globally. Before VigiTrust, Mathieu worked as a sales & marketing executive for a project management company and then progressed into security working as an account manager, key account manager, product manager, and sales and marketing director for various security firms in Ireland. His vast experience in the industry led him to founding VigiTrust. He says, “VigiTrust continues to pioneer and relies on topics discussed at the Global Advisory Board and its community of 700+ members to help it drive innovation in the right direction.” He believes that security is a journey, not a destination. This means that innovation is required at all times to ensure that solutions address current threats, vulnerabilities regulations and standards. No one in compliance can afford to stay still.
Before Founding VigiTrust
Mathieu studied languages, marketing, and law. He did not study IT or compliance; however, over the years, he was blessed enough to work for companies where leaders were passionate about security and he got the bug, becoming equally passionate about data security, a subset of the security market. Things grew from there and he is more than ever enthusiastic about data security, risk management, and compliance.
Exclusive Risk Management Services
VigiTrust has 18 years of experience in the information security services sector providing one single SaaS solution which enables complex and disparate organizations to simplify the implementation and management of security and privacy regulations. Its solution, VigiOne, utilizes VigiTrust’s 5 Pillars of Security Framework™ to enable the key processes for preparation, validation, and compliance.
VigiTrust continually invests in development to new features aligned with the changes in the industry VigiTrust has a roadmap that the team follows with precision, to ensure that VigiOne is always adapted to any type of organisation, includingQSAs, ASVs, hotels, acquiring banks, large retail companies, and other end-users around the world.
The Integrated Risk Management industry (IRM) where VigiTrust plays is a busy space. However, VigiTrust has a unique blend in that VigiOne not only allows for security assessments, compliance validation, and continuous compliance, but also incorporates a full project management function to manage all compliance tasks, bothrecurring and one-off, Additionally VigiOne has a fully-fledged cybersecurity education platform boasting more than 250 training sections, and a collaboration platform allowing end-users to work together with external assessors.
VigiTrust is an award-winning Integrated Risk management (IRM) solution provider (PCI, GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, VRM) founded by Mathieu Gorge in 2003. VigiTrust is based in Dublin, Ireland, and also has support offices in New York and Paris. VigiTrust has clients in the retail, hospitality, banking, PSP, and assessors’ industries in 120+ countries. VigiOne, VigiTrust’s flagship solution, enables organizations to achieve and maintain compliance with legal, industrial, and security standards and frameworks, including data protection, data transfer and retention, Protected Health Information (PHI), and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), ISO 27001 compliance programs, and corporate governance. VigiTrust helps global Fortune 500 customers comply with US Federal regulations, state regulations, and European directives.
Leading with Surety
Mathieu strives to start his days as early as possible and prioritizes projects that require more thought leadership and mental effort. He says, “I then typically have team meetings to ensure all is being done by my direct reports. The fun typically starts thereafter when I get to interact with VigiTrust clients and partners and with members of the Advisory Board.” Mathieu takes a mid-afternoon break most days and returns to doing emails or research in the evenings.
VigiTrust has lived several lives as a VRA, training company, auditing firm, and now as a SaaS provider in the GRC cybersecurity market. Mathieu asserts, “I am proud that we are growing 40-50% in revenue year over year with great margins and very little churn from our subscribed SaaS users.”
Mathieu wanted VigiTrust to be a multi-cultural, open, and fairly flat structure. To date, his team has been great to work with, and every time they move up a notch and grow the team again, the management adjusts the culture to maintain its open culture but also puts in place the right structures that match the company’s size. The company states, “All at Vigitrust have a very consultative approach towards how we work with clients and partners, and this is also part of the DNA of a company, something I’d highly recommend all CEOs value.”
A Great Team is Essential in Difficulties.
As a CEO and an entrepreneur, Mathieu is faced with new challenges every day at work. His core expertise is in sales and security and compliance. He deals with finances, profit and loss oversight, fundraising, HR, product management, and many other areas where he may not be the foremost expert. He says, “The only way to deal with this is to surround yourself with people that are better than you in those areas and have more experience than you. Even if the ultimate decisions and responsibilities remain yours, you have to trust other people’s views and work as a team.” He surrounded himself with a great team including, COO, Rowan Fogarty, who brings 30 years’ experience in team management, operations, and planning and CFO, Mary Clarke, who provides great financial advice as well as external advisors.
Achievements throughout the Journey
To name but a few milestones, VigiTrust started working with the Secure Printing Division of HP in Europe and then in the US in the period 2005-2099. This really brought VigiTrust to the next stage in terms of enterprise cybersecurity, consulting, and speaking opportunities. In 2012, VigiTrust started working with Accor Hotels and this relationship has now developed into an amazing strategic partnership for both organizations – one that is the only official case study from the PCI Council on how to roll out an enterprise-wide PCI program for smaller merchants, in this case, individual properties.
The 5 Pillars of Security Framework™ has won a few awards and is now a well-recognized framework to educate boards and C-suite level on cyber responsibility. It is also the main subject of Mathieu’s recently published Forbes book titled The Cyber Elephant in the Boardroom, which achieved the #1 best seller on Amazon earlier in 2021.
Constantly Innovating and Evolving to Expand
According to Mathieu, VigiTrust is in scaling mode; therefore, his major goal is to maintain the development trajectory he and his management team and board have established. This is expected to include funding to support worldwide expansion, particularly in the United States, France, Germany, and Australia/New Zealand, which are currently performing exceptionally well for the firm. VigiTrust will continue to innovate and address the ever-evolving legal and industry standards landscape regarding data protection and compliance. The VigiTrust Advisory Board will continue to continuously monitor the security and compliance environment. The organization is currently integrating AI and ML, as well as blockchain, into its 2021 roadmap. As explained earlier, the VigiTrust Advisory Board is very unique and allows VigiTrust to innovate at all times.
What Success Means for Mathieu
Defining success is always a very personal thing. For Mathieu, it’s about creating something, a service or solution, that adds value and helps people address challenges and resolve issues. In his case, he has always been keen on ensuring that key decision-makers understand the concept of cyber responsibility. To that effect, he created VigiTrust, which now has users in over 120 countries across multiple industries. He also created and now chairs the VigiTrust Global Advisory Board, whose 700+ members are eminent security and compliance subject matter experts from 30 countries. He thinks that the combinations are exceedingly successful, and he considers himself very privileged that VigiTrust has become such a great success.
