For people who don’t know, I live in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (actually, just south in a town called Mismaloya). Living here is the fulfillment of a dream, literally. I’ll write about “the dream” in future post, it’s pretty cool!

We bought our home to provide a place where employees (FRSecure and SecurityStudio) can enjoy a great vacation and hang out. It’s sort of like FRSecure’s house, and I’m the caretaker when they’re not here. It’s not just FRSecure and SecurityStudio employees who are welcome here, everyone is. Well, let me take that back, not “everyone”. We have my “no dickhead” rule here, just like I do at the office.

We’ve had dozens of people take me up on the offer to visit in the two months we’ve lived here, and some of the people I’ve never met before (shoutout to “random Twitter guy). LOTS of great times, stories, and memories. I’ll write about some of these in future posts too.

OK, it’s time to meet my latest visitor, Mr. Robert Pereira.

I dig this guy. He travelled from Canada to see me, and I’m glad he did! I don’t know him well (yet), because we only met four(ish) weeks ago. He was a student in one of our CvCISO groups, later going on to become one of our first twenty official CvCISOs. He stood out in the group because he consistently provided value to others, in the CvCISO Community and every class he attended. Sometimes it was an article he’d come across, some research he did, or just words of encouragement for the other students.

Here in Puerto Vallarta, we spent time getting to know each other. We chatted about family, information security (of course), past work experiences, hobbies, and a long list of other cool things. The week’s not over yet, so there’s still plenty of time to get into trouble. Robert isn’t the type to get into trouble, but he IS hanging out with me, so… Unique experiences, right?!

Anyway, the coolest thing about meeting Robert is embracing the fact that he’s not like me. If he hadn’t come here, I would have missed out on learning his perspectives, listening to his stories, and making a new friend. He’s a helluva guy and my life is better for having met him.

Robert is embarking on a (sorta) new venture, helping small businesses in his area with information security (as a trusted vCISO). He’s well on his way to success and I’m happy to help in any way I can! You can connect with Robert too, here’s his LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertjpereira.