Profile
J. Wolfgang Goerlich is a CISO in the public sector. Prior to this role, he led IT and IT security in the healthcare, financial services, and tech verticals. Wolfgang has held senior positions at several consulting firms, leading security advisory and assessment practices. He is a strong presence in the security community, contributing to the establishment and organization of multiple groups and events. Wolfgang focuses on strategy, governance, identity and access management, and resilience.
Expertise
- Zero Trust
- Identity & Access Management
- Multi-factor Authentication
- Single Sign On
- Privileged Access Management
Qualifications
Achievements & Contributions
- InfoWorld Leadership for DevOps and Cloud
- IDG Best Practices in Infrastructure Management
- Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for Enterprise Security
- Contributed to NIST standards for digital identity (SP 800-63) and zero trust (SP 800-207)
- Former organizer of annual BSides and Converge conferences in Detroit
Certifications & Credentials
- CISSP - (ISC)2
- Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) - ISACA
Upcoming Events
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February 12 2026
2026 Q1 Symposium: Security Architect Symposium: What a Strategic Security Architecture Program Looks Like and How to Get There
Security architecture teams often face burnout from juggling too much engineering work or being pulled into non-architectural tasks. Misalignment with enterprise architects and challenges in demonstrating value to the organization further compound the problem. During this highly interactive event, IANS Faculty Wolfgang Goerlich will share his experience and expertise and facilitate peer-to-peer discussions that provide you actionable insights to elevate your architecture program to improve maturity, demonstrate value, and drive high-quality results
February 26 2026
2026 Q1 Symposium: Securing NHIs: Governance, Architecture, and Tools to Mitigate Risks of Non-Human Accounts
Most organizations today have a vast array of privileged non-human accounts in use – with some research enumerating that for each human identity, there are an average of 92 NHIs. Provisioning and entitlements of NHIs is complex, as we see excessive permissions and secret mismanagement of these accounts commonplace. Agentic AI and Robot Process Automation (RPA) accounts further complicate the situation by expanding the use cases for NHIs. With many high-profile breaches in the past year stemming from NHI attacks and the use of NHIs continuing to exponentially grow – whether in your cloud environment or from the adoption of AI agents – CISOs and security leaders must review the architectural design, identity lifecycle and governance, and controls necessary to meet the specific requirements of these often poorly managed but highly privileged accounts.
March 05 2026
2026 Chicago Security Architect Insight Exchange
Security architecture teams often face burnout from juggling too much engineering work or being pulled into non-architectural tasks. Misalignment with enterprise architects and challenges in demonstrating value to the organization further compound the problem. During this highly interactive event, IANS Faculty Wolfgang Goerlich will share his experience and expertise and facilitate peer-to-peer discussions that provide you actionable insights to elevate your architecture program to improve maturity, demonstrate value, and drive high-quality results.