JO
Security executive · Company builder · Technical operator

I build trust where
technical risk meets real people.

I’m Jim O’Gorman. For more than 25 years, I’ve worked across security, technology, products, and leadership - from hands-on infrastructure and incident response to helping build a global cybersecurity company.

Current focus

Local-first privacy tools, responsible AI, and security leadership that helps teams move faster without pretending risk does not exist.

Start a conversation
About

Strategy grounded in operator reality.

I started in infrastructure and security engineering, moved through enterprise consulting, penetration testing, forensics, and incident response, and spent 17 years helping grow Offensive Security from a small founder-led company into a 300+ employee global business.

Along the way, I opened and led the U.S. division, served as President and later Chief Content and Strategy Officer, helped shape products and operating teams, led trust-sensitive programs, and guided the company through two exits.

My best work happens when the problem is important, ambiguous, and cross-functional: understand the real constraint, build the solution, make it repeatable, and hand it to the right long-term owner.

Selected work
2008-2025Offensive Security

Built the company, not just the security program.

Helped scale OffSec across product, engineering, content, sales, marketing, consulting, operations, customer support, and community. Architected the shift from individual course sales to a subscription library and helped preserve practitioner trust through rapid growth and major organizational change.

SecurityOperator roots

Kept executive judgment connected to the work.

Led penetration testing, forensics, and incident response; worked on large-scale PKI, LDAP, and messaging deployments; taught advanced exploitation; supported Kali Linux; and spent a career translating technical reality into decisions customers and leaders could trust.

NowPrivacy + AI

Building technology that collects less.

Through Tacita Labs, I’m developing local-first approaches to personal privacy, including tools that keep sensitive information on the user’s device. I’m also exploring how AI can be useful without turning every private workflow into somebody else’s dataset.

Books
Co-author

Metasploit

The Penetration Tester’s Guide

 Co-author

Kali Linux Revealed

Mastering the Penetration Testing Distribution
Contact

Useful work starts with a direct conversation.

jim@elwood.net LinkedIn X / @_Elwood_ Mastodon