Engineer Black & Veatch has brought on Ian Bramson as its vice president of global industrial cybersecurity. Bramson is developing a strategy for the commercialization and business growth of all of Black & Veatch’s existing cybersecurity solutions for both new and existing infrastructure owner and agency clients.

Bramson was previously head of cybersecurity for Siemens and the American Bureau of Shipping. He says that increasingly connected infrastructure is driving the owners of those infrastructure assets to reassess their security needs, and they are asking engineers such as Black & Veatch to inform their decisions. “The whole reason I came in is Black & Veatch saw in the market both the level of attacks increasing in their customer base and in critical infrastructure, generally, and specific requests from customers saying, ‘Hey, we need help with this,’” Bramson said.

Greater Exposure

“The reason why we’re having such demand for the service is because you’ve got a lot more exposure,” Bramson said, noting major trends. “Infrastructure is getting more connected. Whether that’s factory floors or utilities such as water, just pick a critical infrastructure area, all of a sudden, the more connected you get with digitalization and modernization—the desire to operate things remotely—all of that ends up as more exposure.”

Black & Veatch says Bramson will develop a new team within the firm focusing on cybersecurity.

“Black & Veatch is uniquely positioned to take a global leadership role, identifying and providing cybersecurity solutions for our clients,” said Patrick Hogan, Black & Veatch chief client officer. He added that Bramson’s knowledge of operations, the industrial and energy sector as well as power and water make him the ideal choice for the job.