01
Threat
Adversaries are moving from information technology access toward operational understanding and physical consequence.
Prepared for Dragos
Dragos' next phase is an operating challenge as much as a technology one.
As Dragos expands from operational technology into extended operational technology (xOT), the proposed Accenture transaction could combine new capabilities with global reach. Aaron Pait builds the operating systems that turn high-consequence expertise into consistent delivery, customer value, and durable scale.
Military intelligence officer. Cybersecurity and technology executive. Consulting leader. Business operator.
Strategic moment
Four shifts are changing what Dragos must scale.
Each shift widens the distance between specialized expertise and the operating system required to deliver it at scale.
02
Boundary
The security boundary now includes every system capable of influencing operations, not only traditional industrial assets.
03
Platform
Intelligence Fabric, EmberAI, runZero, NetRise, Phosphorus, and services point toward one broader platform for intelligence, assets, devices, exposure, and response.
1: source for Platform2: source for Platform3: source for Platform4: source for Platform
04
Distribution
The proposed Accenture transaction could extend Dragos' reach while preserving the independence and specialist trust that created its value.
1: source for Distribution2: source for Distribution3: source for Distribution
The opportunity is not merely to assemble a broader platform. It is to make scarce expertise repeatable, commercially scalable, and easier for customers and partners to consume without reducing it to a commodity.
External operating perspective
A broader platform creates a broader operating challenge.
These are hypotheses worth testing, not claims about Dragos' internal performance.
- 01
One coherent customer journey across products, services, partners, and acquired capabilities.
- 02
Delivery systems that multiply specialist capacity without weakening technical quality.
- 03
Faster feedback between practitioners, customers, product, intelligence, and go-to-market teams.
- 04
Integration discipline that protects mission, trust, and vendor neutrality.
Why Aaron
Operating range built in consequential environments.
A through line from military judgment to enterprise execution, regulated technology, consulting economics, and general management.
Judgment under consequence
Twelve years in the United States Marine Corps, including operational deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and leadership of approximately 76 intelligence officers.
Enterprise operating leadership
First Chief Information Officer and Chief Information Security Officer for a roughly $400 million global healthcare organization with approximately 2,500 personnel across more than 15 countries.
Regulated technology at scale
Security leadership supporting a federal cloud portfolio exceeding $1 billion across highly regulated environments.
Consulting and transformation economics
Customer-facing advisory work, incident-response leadership, private-equity diligence, operating-model design, and initiatives producing multimillion-dollar savings.
Commercial and financial discipline
Accounting, valuation, acquisition analysis, and Duke Fuqua Master of Business Administration training applied to margin, capacity, incentives, operating leverage, and enterprise value.
Value thesis
Where I could create the most value
A management scorecard that pairs operating relevance with evidence and a clear leadership approach.
Dragos operating need
Evidence Aaron brings
How I would lead
Lead distributed expert teams
Military, consulting, healthcare, and enterprise leadership.
Set clear outcomes, protect specialist authority, and build the coaching and operating cadence that help expert teams perform at scale.
Improve delivery consistency
Built governance, operating cadences, functions, and cross-functional systems.
Learn practitioner constraints quickly, then codify repeatable delivery without flattening expert judgment.
Manage resources and capacity
Led teams, portfolios, transformations, and competing priorities.
Connect demand, skills, utilization, quality, and margin in one disciplined capacity model.
Connect customers, sales, and delivery
Consulting, executive stakeholder, and customer-facing leadership.
Build feedback loops that turn customer and field insight into stronger delivery, positioning, and growth.
Strengthen financial accountability
Accounting, diligence, operating-model savings, and investment analysis.
Translate demand, staffing, utilization, and investment choices into visible revenue and margin outcomes.
Integrate capabilities and organizations
Platform consolidation, matrix leadership, transformation, and integration planning.
Align acquired strengths around one customer journey while preserving the distinct expertise that makes each capability valuable.
Protect mission through scale
Military judgment, regulated operations, and organizational leadership.
Earn trust through listening, disciplined execution, and operating systems that reinforce Dragos' mission and technical standards.
Questions worth testing together
The best conversation starts with the operating constraints.
- 01
Where is scarce specialist capacity most limiting customer impact?
- 02
Which elements of delivery should become repeatable, and which must remain expert led?
- 03
How should Accenture-enabled demand translate into staffing, quality, utilization, and margin?
- 04
Where can services insight accelerate product, intelligence, and go-to-market decisions?
- 05
How can acquired capabilities become one customer journey without flattening their distinctive value?
- 06
Which leadership and development systems will retain practitioners as the organization scales?
Selected career evidence
A career built around consequential execution.
- 01
United States Marine Corps
2006 to 2018Mission leadership when decisions carry operational consequence.
- Twelve years spanning infantry, Scout Sniper, and counterintelligence and human intelligence leadership.
- Led cross-functional intelligence operations in ambiguous, high-stakes environments.
- 02
Aon and Cognizant
Consulting and advisoryConsulting delivery at the intersection of technical risk, customers, and economics.
- Led customer-facing cybersecurity, incident-response, strategy, and operating-model work.
- Designed an information technology operating model tied to more than $3 million in savings.
- 03
AMI Expeditionary Healthcare
2021 to 2022Built enterprise technology and security operations in a complex global organization.
- First Chief Information Officer and Chief Information Security Officer for a roughly $400 million, 2,500-person organization operating across more than 15 countries.
- Built a matrixed team of 25 and consolidated five applications, improving efficiency by 15 percent and saving more than $100,000 annually.
- 04
Salesforce
2022 to presentTranslates regulated security requirements into executive and operating decisions at scale.
- Business security and operating partner for mission-critical government cloud products and a federal portfolio exceeding $1 billion.
- Leads cross-functional risk, authorization, and high-severity programs across regulated cloud services.
- 05
Business and acquisition work
OngoingEvaluates operating choices through economics, incentives, and enterprise value.
- Private-equity diligence, integration planning, acquisition analysis, and valuation work.
- Accounting graduate and Duke Fuqua Executive Master of Business Administration candidate focused on general-management responsibility.
Aaron PaitRocky Mount, North Carolina
Executive profile
Leading the systems around specialized expertise.
Aaron Pait is a technology, cybersecurity, and operating executive whose career spans military intelligence, consulting, global healthcare, and regulated cloud. He has built functions, led distributed teams, advised executives, and translated complex risk into operating decisions across high-consequence environments. His focus is broader than cybersecurity: building the systems, accountability, and cross-functional discipline that allow specialized organizations to scale. Aaron is completing his Executive Master of Business Administration at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and holds an accounting degree with honors.
- Certified Information Systems Security Professional
- Certified Information Security Manager
- GIAC Strategic Planning, Policy, and Leadership
- National Association of Corporate Directors Directorship Certification