Management Team

Daniel Nutkis
Chief Executive Officer

Daniel Nutkis is the founder and Chief Executive Officer for HITRUST. Mr. Nutkis has more than 20 years of experience in providing strategic advisory services in areas relating to health information technology. His recent focus has been on technologies that enable information protection and strategic business objectives. Prior to founding HITRUST, he held various positions with email encryption and e-prescribing service company Zix Corporation (NASDAQ: ZIXI), including Executive Vice President, Strategy, and President, Care Delivery. He was also with Ernst & Young LLP's healthcare emerging technology groups as National Director. He has led a number of industry research activities on eHealth vulnerabilities and has been a founding member of work groups and accreditations such as WEDI, CPRI and HISPP.

Ken Vander Wal
Chief Compliance Officer

Ken Vander Wal's role as Chief Compliance Officer at HITRUST involves providing supervision and oversight to the HITRUST CSF Assurance program. In this capacity, he is responsible for ensuring the quality, completeness and adequacy of the work performed by CSF Assessor organizations. Mr. Vander Wal joined HITRUST after retiring from Ernst & Young where he was a partner in the Technology and Security Risk Services (TSRS) practice and responsible for its global TSRS quality and risk management program. With almost 40 years of IT experience, he has experience in a variety of industries in multiple areas of information systems, including systems development, systems programming, project management, quality assurance, IT auditing and systems security. As the national leader of TSRS quality, Mr. Vander Wal was responsible for ensuring quality was an integral component of Ernst & Young's methodologies, engagement staffing and service delivery. In this role as well as his previous roles, he served major clients as the IT audit engagement partner or as the quality assurance partner. Mr. Vander Wal is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Information Systems Audit and Control Association. He is both a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Information Systems Auditor.

Dr. Bryan Cline
Vice President, CSF Development and Implementation, and Chief Information Security Officer

Dr. Bryan Cline is responsible for ensuring the CSF is appropriately addressing the needs of the healthcare industry and that it is a practical and effective solution with the appropriate content and implementation methods. An early proponent of CSF program integration, Dr. Cline is working to create approaches that go beyond CSF control specification and assessment support by developing standard methods, processes and tools that healthcare information security officers can use to help integrate the CSF into their organizational security programs. He was formerly the CISO at Catholic Health East where his responsibilities included providing overall leadership and direction of information security and developing a security awareness program, which involved adoption of the CSF. He also previously served as the CISO at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Steve Claydon
Director, Programs

Steve Claydon is responsible for a number of key HITRUST initiatives, including HITRUST training programs and CSF Kits. He also leads the creation of new programs that will enable HITRUST to continue to deliver leading-edge programs and tools to organizations responsible for protecting health information. One program in development is a security awareness program that will help organizations meet compliance regulations and teach general information security principles. Mr. Claydon was previously manager, security policy and compliance at Catholic Health East where he was responsible for creating and managing information security policies as well as the development of security awareness training. Prior to that position he was a consulting manager with VeriSign where he delivered information technology security consulting engagements to clients worldwide.

Mary Hall
Director, Marketing & Corporate Communications

Mary Hall manages the marketing and corporate communications functions for HITRUST. Ms. Hall has more than 10 years experience in developing and delivering communication strategies and campaigns in support of marketing, employee engagement and human resources. She is accomplished at driving consistent messaging platforms across multiple channels, including interactive/online, print, advertising, and events. Prior to joining HITRUST, she was a senior marketing and communications manager for BearingPoint, a global management and technology consulting company. Her responsibilities included managing the Global Alumni Program and providing marketing communications support to the human resources and recruiting organizations. She previously managed industry analyst relations for the company. In addition to her 10 years of experience in the consulting industry, she has managed public relations for high technology companies.