Alteryx Names Billy Spears as New CISO

Billy Spears has joined Irvine, California-based information technology company Alteryx as its new chief information security officer. 

Spears brings to Alteryx over two decades of experience leading multidisciplinary teams and establishing collaborative information security and privacy environments in organizations across the government, private and public sectors.

As the new CISO, Spears is expected to provide executive oversight on information security, enterprise cybersecurity and associated risk management practices, while also offering his knowledge on information and cybersecurity best practices, Alteryx said.  

Specifically, the said role combines responsibility for privacy operations, cybersecurity operations, security architecture and engineering, education, awareness, and outreach, governance, risk, and compliance, and identity and access administration, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Dean Stoecker, co-founder and chief executive officer of Alteryx, believes that under Spears’ leadership, the company’s cybersecurity capabilities for customers, partners, vendors and associates will see growth in terms of data protection. Spears’ addition to Alteryx’s executive team comes as the company continues to drive investments in strategic approaches to both internal and external information security, Stoecker added.

Spears readily accepted the challenge as he expressed a commitment to working towards developing complex solutions aimed at improving Alteryx’s information security protection posture. 

“Our number one focus is to enhance the privacy and information security solutions that enable improved protections while reducing unnecessary friction interacting with our enterprise technology offerings for both customers, partners and associates around the globe," Spears said. 

Prior to his appointment at Alteryx, Spears spent nearly three years at loanDepot, where he served as executive vice president, senior vice president and CISO. While at loanDepot, Spears demonstrated leveraged forward-thinking techniques to advance technical capabilities and simplify core cybersecurity, privacy and related risk processes. 

He also held executive positions for companies like Hyundai Capital America, GE Aviation and Dell, as well as the Department of Homeland Security.