Mac MacMillan
CEO Emeritus, Board member, Adjunct faculty, Advisor, USMC Ret.
Cybersecurity Industry Expert
Mac McMillan has been a thought leader in cybersecurity and privacy for more than 40 years serving in various leadership, policy and advisory roles and paving the way for others. He is Chief Executive Officer Emeritus and Founder of CynergisTek, Inc. a leading cybersecurity, privacy and compliance firm that served the healthcare industry. He has served on Boards for both private and public companies and now advises several. After successfully founding and leading CynergisTek to become the top-ranked information security and privacy consulting firm focused on the healthcare IT industry he sold the company and retired in August of 2022. He is recognized as a HIMSS Fellow, former Chair of the HIMSS Privacy & Security Steering committee, Work Group and Policy Task Force. He is recognized as a CHIME Fellow and served on the CHIME founding Board of Advisors for AEHIS, the Most Wired Advisory Board, contributed to Healthcare’s Cybersecurity Model for the Malcolm Baldridge awards and advised KLAS on defining its cybersecurity criteria for measuring healthcare providers. He has been an advisor, advocate, and role model to the HIT security community by sharing his passion to educate the industry on the importance of security since his retirement from the federal government. He was the first cybersecurity recipient of the CHIME Foundation Industry Leader Award for career excellence and the HIMSS John A Page Distinguished Fellows Service Award and the second recipient of the Baldrige Foundation Award for Leadership Excellence in the Cybersecurity sector. He is also a DoD Excellence in Government Fellow.
McMillan has been a leader in promoting cybersecurity and privacy issues in healthcare for more than 20 years and has been recognized for his many contributions. He was recognized by Health Data Management as one of the Top 50 influencers in health IT, by Becker’s Hospital Review’s lists of influential healthcare IT leaders by both its writers and readers, and named one of the top 10 health information security influencers by HealthInfoSecurity. He has served on several advisory boards, such as HIT Exchange HealthTech Industry, HealthInfoSecurity Editorial Advisory Board and the Healthcare Innovations Advisory Board. He has impacted healthcare security through broadcast and literature. McMillan has been a media fixture as reporters seek him out to educate the broader healthcare and security industry on what is going on in security, why it is important, and the consequences of ignoring security. This has led to his contribution in hundreds of articles, blog posts, podcasts, and news stories. He has testified in front of Congress and supported industry efforts at congressional outreach on privacy and cybersecurity issues. These efforts helped build a strong foundation of understanding for the importance of security in healthcare and allowed him to promote many issues such as medical device security, telehealth security, and the shortage of cybersecurity professionals in healthcare organizations and cyber threats in emerging technologies of the future. He is a contributing author for two books on Cybersecurity and Risk Management in Healthcare.
Deeply passionate about solving the problem of the overwhelming shortage of qualified cyber professionals and helping veterans transition to meaningful cyber related professions, he has a been a strong advocate and personal contributor to multiple efforts to create more opportunity. He believes young people in the cyber field is important to filling future needs. He supports the CyberPatriot Program which provides opportunities and scholarships for children and adolescents, K-12, to enter STEM programs in college and hopefully careers beyond. He is a strong proponent of women in cybersecurity and has supported his beliefs through his leadership at CynergisTek as well as with other organizations. He teaches and supports curriculum development at several universities in Health Administration, Health Information Management and cybersecurity programs. He is a faculty Affiliate at the University of Texas in their cybersecurity for healthcare program and member of the Texas State University MHIM Advisory Board on Cybersecurity.
McMillan worked in the Financial sector providing cybersecurity services prior to founding CynergisTek and served in the US Marine Corps and as Director of Security for two separate Defense Agencies, the On-Site inspection Agency and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and was a member of numerous interagency intelligence and security countermeasures committees while serving in the U.S. government. He holds a Master of Arts degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College and a Bachelor of Science degree in Education from Texas A&M University. He is a graduate of the Senior Officials in National Security program at the JF Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the Federal Executives Institute. He retired from the US Marine Corps as an Intelligence Officer after 21 years of service and is a veteran of the first Gulf War. He received multiple military decorations and both the DoD Gold and Silver Medals for Distinguished Service.
In semi-retirement Mr. McMillan continues to speak and write about cybersecurity issues, sits on multiple advisory Boards for healthcare entities and raises Angus cattle and produces hay on his ranch in South Central Texas in his spare time.
McMillan has been a leader in promoting cybersecurity and privacy issues in healthcare for more than 20 years and has been recognized for his many contributions. He was recognized by Health Data Management as one of the Top 50 influencers in health IT, by Becker’s Hospital Review’s lists of influential healthcare IT leaders by both its writers and readers, and named one of the top 10 health information security influencers by HealthInfoSecurity. He has served on several advisory boards, such as HIT Exchange HealthTech Industry, HealthInfoSecurity Editorial Advisory Board and the Healthcare Innovations Advisory Board. He has impacted healthcare security through broadcast and literature. McMillan has been a media fixture as reporters seek him out to educate the broader healthcare and security industry on what is going on in security, why it is important, and the consequences of ignoring security. This has led to his contribution in hundreds of articles, blog posts, podcasts, and news stories. He has testified in front of Congress and supported industry efforts at congressional outreach on privacy and cybersecurity issues. These efforts helped build a strong foundation of understanding for the importance of security in healthcare and allowed him to promote many issues such as medical device security, telehealth security, and the shortage of cybersecurity professionals in healthcare organizations and cyber threats in emerging technologies of the future. He is a contributing author for two books on Cybersecurity and Risk Management in Healthcare.
Deeply passionate about solving the problem of the overwhelming shortage of qualified cyber professionals and helping veterans transition to meaningful cyber related professions, he has a been a strong advocate and personal contributor to multiple efforts to create more opportunity. He believes young people in the cyber field is important to filling future needs. He supports the CyberPatriot Program which provides opportunities and scholarships for children and adolescents, K-12, to enter STEM programs in college and hopefully careers beyond. He is a strong proponent of women in cybersecurity and has supported his beliefs through his leadership at CynergisTek as well as with other organizations. He teaches and supports curriculum development at several universities in Health Administration, Health Information Management and cybersecurity programs. He is a faculty Affiliate at the University of Texas in their cybersecurity for healthcare program and member of the Texas State University MHIM Advisory Board on Cybersecurity.
McMillan worked in the Financial sector providing cybersecurity services prior to founding CynergisTek and served in the US Marine Corps and as Director of Security for two separate Defense Agencies, the On-Site inspection Agency and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and was a member of numerous interagency intelligence and security countermeasures committees while serving in the U.S. government. He holds a Master of Arts degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College and a Bachelor of Science degree in Education from Texas A&M University. He is a graduate of the Senior Officials in National Security program at the JF Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the Federal Executives Institute. He retired from the US Marine Corps as an Intelligence Officer after 21 years of service and is a veteran of the first Gulf War. He received multiple military decorations and both the DoD Gold and Silver Medals for Distinguished Service.
In semi-retirement Mr. McMillan continues to speak and write about cybersecurity issues, sits on multiple advisory Boards for healthcare entities and raises Angus cattle and produces hay on his ranch in South Central Texas in his spare time.
