Today we introduce Manuel Montealegre, Head of Cyber Security. He tells us why he chose Bosonit and what he likes most about his job.
Who is Manuel Montealegre?
Manuel Montealegre is in charge of the department of cybersecurity from Bosonit. I am 49 years old and on a personal level I am married, I have a wonderful child with whom my wife and I live with on a daily basis. Professionally, I have been working in the ICT infrastructure and information technology sector for more than 25 years.
I have worked in all kinds of companies, both national and international, such as Sun Microsystems, Hewlett Packard... In the last 8 years I have been much more focused on the field of cybersecurity, I have worked in companies such as SIA, as a project manager.
Also in the field of service, in companies of all kinds and, above all, leading a very important project for me, such as ADIF, where I was the ?CISO as a Service? part with Mar de la Fuente, who was the service manager for ADIF. Adif and jointly, as we had almost all the cyber security of the railway infrastructure.
I have worked in the company INNOTEC, where I was responsible for managing the pre-sales area, giving a change to the profile in orientation and framing me more in the business strategy when it comes to being able to make sales services to customers.
In the last few years I have been working at S21Sec, a company that I am very fond of and which, in the end, I found it hard to leave because I was very happy there, but Bosonit called me, offered me an interesting project and now I am here.
Why did you choose Bosonit to pursue your career?
Well, obviously, in connection with what I was saying, Bosonit, in the figure of its CEO, made me a very interesting proposal, above all, something that I had not had until now in my career, which was to manage from a functional point of view everything that would be a field such as cybersecurity. And what it entails.
Moreover, it is a challenge because it is something that Bosonit, to date, has hardly implemented and it means making a quantitative and qualitative leap in my career to be able to provide new services that I believe will position Bosonit in a very, very good way in the market.
What do you think you can bring to the company?
Experience, basically, as I mentioned at the beginning, I have been working in the field of cybersecurity for 8 years, and I have worked in all areas. In public administration, in private companies, both SMEs and large accounts, and the ability to understand what the business requires in each situation.
Sometimes we believe that we can access any type of account business and you have to have a very clear strategy to start with and target the strategic areas of a company and I believe that I have that experience to be able to somehow focus on this type of services and business within Bosonit.
Which of your professional qualities would you highlight?
Well, I am a communicative person, I am a person very focused on the client, on business. Not so much, for quite some time now, a technical profile, even though, as they say, "he who had it, kept it".
But it is true that I am very focused, more and more, on the business area and its development. I believe that, together with the commercial areas, we can bring Bosonit's new cybersecurity business area closer to the portfolio of clients that they currently have and, therefore, I believe that this experience and this treatment with the client is a differential point that will allow us, in some way, to progress appropriately in the achievement of the objectives within the cybersecurity area.
What do you like most about your work?
Well, that's exactly what I was talking about. Being creative when it comes to proposing, working in a team, and with the team. In terms of both the more technical part and the more business-oriented part. I think it's a challenge and what I like is precisely that no two clients are the same, no two businesses are the same in cybersecurity.
You can more or less strategically manage the services, orient them to standardise them or industrialise them. But it is true that each of the businesses that open up in cybersecurity are different and, in some way, you propose new formulas for solutions to companies because they are different, and that is something that I like and that really fulfils me.
And the least?
Well, of course, the time I stopped dedicating to my personal side, right? It is true that I have a family and one of the things that worries me in some way, despite the fact that nowadays teleworking exists, is to be able to be closer to the family in some way, because you need that conciliation.
But still, travelling, spending many hours preparing materials, preparing presentations, defences, tender documents, RFPs, and being directly involved with the company at the management level, takes up a lot of time.
That is something I really suffer from when it comes to being able to offer it to my family on a day-to-day basis, so, in the end, you try to make the weekends as long as possible so that you can dedicate as much time as possible to it. Therefore, if there is one thing that I don't like about my job, it would be the time that I can't dedicate to my family because of the business needs.
What does Manuel Montealegre like to do in his spare time?
Indeed, in the little time I have, I try to dedicate it mainly to my family. I also don't have much time and I try to find time, above all, to do some exercise. I like the mountains a lot, I've always been a nature lover and, above all, I like to be able to go for walks in the mountains, do some hiking.
I used to go climbing and mountaineering, but for some years now, obviously with the family, with the child, I have been withdrawing that kind of facet of my life, but hopefully, like everything in this life, we can find time from where there is none to give way to those hobbies and interests that I am really passionate about and of which I have always been a faithful lover.
