Chief Security Officer resigns from NERC

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) announced Monday the resignation of Marc Sachs, senior vice president and chief security officer at NERC, effective Nov. 27.

While NERC conducts a search for a new chief security officer, Tim Roxey, current vice president and chief operations officer for NERC’s Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (E-ISAC), will serve as the interim chief security officer. Roxey will oversee the E-ISAC and direct security risk assessment and mitigation initiatives.

Bill Lawrence, a NERC senior director with the E-ISAC who led NERC’s recent grid security exercise (2017 GridEx IV), will be responsible for day-to-day management of E-ISAC operations, including execution of its strategic plan.

William Fehrman, president and CEO of MidAmerican Energy Company and vice chair of the Members Executive Committee (MEC), has agreed to provide strategic counsel and guidance to the E-ISAC during the interim period. He will focus on its expansion as part of the E-ISAC strategic plan included in NERC’s 2018 business plan. The MEC, a committee made up of senior electricity executives appointed by the Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council, provides industry leadership and expertise to guide and support the E-ISAC.

“I am confident the E-ISAC, under Tim and Bill’s leadership, will continue to effectively carry out its responsibilities. In just the last few weeks, the E-ISAC has led a very successful grid security conference (GridSecCon) and GridEx IV, which had extraordinary industry and government engagement with more than 6,000 participants,” Charles Berardesco, interim president and CEO, said. “In addition, we will continue to push forward, with industry support and guidance, the expansion of the E-ISAC as detailed in its strategic plan, which has been endorsed both by industry and the NERC Board of Trustees.”