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Amy Howland’s career moved from financial auditing to ethical hacking, consulting and cybersecurity leadership. Guidehouse announced her appointment as its Chief Information Security Officer on October 1, 2024, after earlier CISO roles at CSRA, Perspecta and Maxar Intelligence.
How did Amy Howland get into cybersecurity?
Howland began her career as a financial auditor and CPA, then moved into a security and technology practice and became an ethical hacker. Guidehouse’s October 1, 2024 appointment announcement describes that transition; a 2017 CyberScoop profile also traces her move from accounting into security work.
Her path is notable for how it broadened: from examining financial controls, to finding security weaknesses, to advising organizations on controls and remediation, and then to being accountable for carrying out that work inside an organization.
What was a turning point in her career?
In a 2021 WashingtonExec interview, Howland named “Becoming the CISO at CSRA” as a turning point. As a consultant, she had advised customers on policies and remediation. As an internal CISO, she became responsible for implementing security rather than only recommending it. WashingtonExec’s interview captures her account of that shift.
From advice to implementation
The change meant taking responsibility for turning plans into organizational practice. Her work has included governance, risk, compliance, vulnerability management, security operations and security engineering, according to Guidehouse’s leadership biography.
Integrating organizations and systems
Howland has also described the challenge of joining organizations with different systems and cultures. At CSRA, she worked on creating a new network after two legacy organizations came together; later, at Perspecta, she described integrating disparate systems and cultures as a team effort. These examples show the operational side of security leadership: securing a network while an organization itself is changing.
What does Amy Howland do at Guidehouse?
Guidehouse identifies Howland as its Chief Information Security Officer and says she joined as a partner and CISO, overseeing corporate cybersecurity strategy and operations. The company describes her as having 25 years of experience in cybersecurity and information assurance, and lists previous CISO roles at Maxar Intelligence, Perspecta and CSRA. That experience figure is Guidehouse’s characterization in its appointment announcement, not an independently measured statistic.
Her Guidehouse remit spans policy, governance, risk, vulnerability management, security operations and compliance. The company also identifies experience in security engineering, insider threat, security operations centers, malware, threat intelligence and cybersecurity architecture, serving both commercial and public-sector organizations, including civilian agencies and the U.S. Department of Defense.
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What advice does she give women considering technology careers?
Howland’s advice is to start with curiosity rather than assuming there is only one way into technology or cybersecurity. In the 2017 CyberScoop profile, she urged readers to “Find what interests you and investigate it more.” She also said, “There are no limits.”
That perspective fits the variety in her own career: auditing, ethical hacking, consulting, security implementation and executive leadership are different kinds of work, but all can contribute to cybersecurity. Her example suggests exploring the work that holds your interest and learning what roles connect it to security.
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