Julie Cabus

A distinguished career in senior leadership roles at Kroll and the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Diplomatic Security, Diplomatic Security Service (DSS). Extensive leadership experience overseeing thousands of highly trained public and private sector security professionals, high profile executive protection operations, program and project managers, investigators, cybersecurity experts, threat analysts, compliance officers, logisticians, legal teams, HR leaders, and contract administrators.

What makes you a Risky Woman?

For over 25 years, I have navigated the field of enterprise security risk management stiving always to achieve the best outcomes for my client(s), community and organization. Identifying problems and finding collaborative, workable solutions is my hallmark.

Name your top 3 achievements

1. Collaborative and supportive leadership, mentorship and sponsorship.
2. Being a respected expert in the field of security.
3. Succeeding in a stressful, male dominated field.

What is the biggest risk you’ve taken in your career?

Choosing family over the job, knowing for some that their implicit bias would judge me for “being a woman”. Putting my family first set up boundaries and demonstrated to my staff, peers and supervisors that my priorities were clear and the consequences of choosing family over work were of no consequence to me. Over time, this choice had less and less impact on my career. Despite my initial concerns for those consequences, I still succeeded and was able to model behavior of others in balancing work and life.

What’s something most people don’t know about you?

I am a returned Peace Corps Volunteer. I spent over 2 years as a community health educator focused on maternal child health and HIV / AIDS in Gabon, Central Africa. This time was some of the most formative years of my life.

What is the best quality for successful leaders in Risk?

Be open to options: explore the possibilities and remain flexible. Risk is in fact risky, and requires agility and the ability to pivot as conditions change and evolve. Being rigid and unwilling to flex or bend never equates to success.