Dan Browder
"I don't know" is only temporary.
In Brief
Dan is an information security professional currently residing in Rockford, Illinois. Dan is very engaged in his professional career, but also has unique interests and hobbies. Dan spends much of his time with Diana, his wife of seven years and their two daughters Kaitlin and Chloe.
About
Dan was born in Chicago, Illinois and was raised by his mother in various locations throughout the far north suburbs. Dan spent most of his growing years in Gurnee, Illinois where he developed a love for the thrill of the roller coasters at nearby Six Flags. As a teenager Dan spent many days (and nights) tinkering on his computer. Toying with machines was a great hobby that led to a wonderful career path. After Gurnee, Dan lived in Palatine, Normal, Genoa and currently resides in Rockford, Illinois with is wonderful wife Diana and two beautiful daughters Kaitlin and Chloe. They have three cats, Seven, Princess Anabelle, and Pixel.
Hobbies
Dan also has a strong interest in politics, and a passion for baseball - specifically the Chicago White Sox. Dan spends much of his time on home-projects, remodeling, and yard work. Dan has taken an interest in clowning and has a full clown costume and character in the works. He also likes family activities with his two daughters. Last but not least, Dan enjoys any computing or electronic toy including gadgets, coding, scripting, multimedia, and general computer goodness. Sometimes he even finds time to play a video game or two, one of his childhood joys. Internet sites Dan frequents are listed in the box to the right. Dan likes pretty much all types of music. He follows current events and is always listening to either news-radio or sports-talk radio while driving.
Career
After working in various office positions through staffing agencies for many years Dan settled down and started working for a small marketing company in DeKalb, IL in early 2000. Through his time there his work varied and included IT support, web site and multimedia design, print-graphics design, IT infrastructure and management. All of these areas gave Dan valuable time-management and critical thinking experience in a live business scenario. Whether it was fighting a surprising new virus, restoring a corrupted exchange server, or getting prints to a client by their deadline the tasks were always unique and rewarding. In late 2002 clients started to cut their marketing budgets, and this caused cutbacks and layoffs at the company. As the IT division went from three down to one Dan decided it was time to leave and started looking for his next challenge.
In April of 2003 Dan accepted a position at regional financial institution as IT support staff. Dan and a co-worker who started at nearly the same time "learned the ropes" of the banking systems from the existing IT manager. Nearly a year later, after that manager left the company Dan was promoted to manager. With a staff of three the IT team supported over 250 users, and managed up to 400 computers spread across over 10 locations. In October of 2007 the company completed an acquisition of another local bank and merged IT staff. Earlier this year Dan was looking at the challenges of the company and decided that a dedicated security professional was needed. In October Dan became that information security professional working at the holding company level.
This new position has also brought challenges. After nearly eight years of working in technology, Dan entered a world of regulations and compliance. Securing the customers' physical information was just as important as protecting their electronic information. As part of a strong team in which he can learn and excel Dan has been enjoying these new challenges.
Views
Dan's views are generally considered liberal in most areas, but with a strong emphasis on individual rights and freedoms. Religiously Dan is a humanist who believes that the overall good of mankind is a bond that ties us together. Dan is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Rockford, although he does not regularly attend.
Contact
Feel free to contact Dan if necessary by email. Otherwise keep up with his twitter feed, or contact him on one of the many IM services. Information is to the right.