Management Team
Daniel Nutkis
Chief Executive Officer
Daniel Nutkis is the founder and Chief Executive Officer for HITRUST. Mr. Nutkis has more than 20 years of experience in providing strategic advisory services in areas relating to health information technology. His recent focus has been on technologies that enable information protection and strategic business objectives. Prior to founding HITRUST, he held various positions with email encryption and e-prescribing service company Zix Corporation (NASDAQ: ZIXI), including Executive Vice President, Strategy, and President, Care Delivery. He was also with Ernst & Young LLP's healthcare emerging technology groups as National Director. He has led a number of industry research activities on eHealth vulnerabilities and has been a founding member of work groups and accreditations such as WEDI, CPRI and HISPP.
Cliff Baker
Chief Strategy Officer
Cliff Baker specializes in information security, privacy and compliance for healthcare organizations. He has more than 15 years of experience managing information security for healthcare organizations, including developing strategic plans for a number of global and national organizations, working on multi-year complex system implementations, and assisting organizations with board-level risk management decisions. He has worked with leading providers, health plans, and pharmaceutical-related companies on a number of strategic, compliance and tactical solutions. In his current role as Chief Strategy Officer for HITRUST, Mr. Baker is collaborating with organizations to define the focus areas for HITRUST that deliver the most value and support for the adoption of consistent information security practices in healthcare. Prior to joining HITRUST, he led PricewaterhouseCoopers' Healthcare-Provider Security and HIPAA practice. He is the author of a book on database security and several healthcare specific whitepapers, and he has presented in dozens of privacy and security forums across the country.
Ken Vander Wal
Chief Compliance Officer
Ken Vander Wal's role as Chief Compliance Officer at HITRUST involves providing supervision and oversight to the HITRUST CSF Assurance program. In this capacity, he is responsible for ensuring the quality, completeness and adequacy of the work performed by CSF Assessor organizations. Mr. Vander Wal joined HITRUST after retiring from Ernst & Young where he was a partner in the Technology and Security Risk Services (TSRS) practice and responsible for its global TSRS quality and risk management program. With almost 40 years of IT experience, he has experience in a variety of industries in multiple areas of information systems, including systems development, systems programming, project management, quality assurance, IT auditing and systems security. As the national leader of TSRS quality, Ken was responsible for ensuring quality was an integral component of Ernst & Young's methodologies, engagement staffing and service delivery. In this role as well as his previous roles, he served major clients as the IT audit engagement partner or as the quality assurance partner. Ken is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Information Systems Audit and Control Association. He is both a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Information Systems Auditor.
Mary Hall
Director, Marketing & Corporate Communications
Mary Hall manages the marketing and corporate communications functions for HITRUST. Ms. Hall has more than 10 years experience in developing and delivering communication strategies and campaigns in support of marketing, employee engagement and human resources. She is accomplished at driving consistent messaging platforms across multiple channels, including interactive/online, print, advertising, and events. Prior to joining HITRUST, she was a senior marketing and communications manager for BearingPoint, a global management and technology consulting company. Her responsibilities included managing the Global Alumni Program and providing marketing communications support to the human resources and recruiting organizations. She previously managed industry analyst relations for the company. In addition to her 10 years of experience in the consulting industry, she has managed public relations for high technology companies.
Christopher Hourihan
Manager, Development and Programs
Chris Hourihan has been involved with HITRUST from its inception and has helped drive the strategy for the organization. In his role as manager of development and programs, Mr. Hourihan leads the ongoing development of the HITRUST Common Security Framework (CSF) with his in-depth understanding of the information security requirements of today's healthcare environment and by overseeing work groups comprised of healthcare member organizations tasked with analyzing and cross-referencing new and existing regulations and standards. Mr. Hourihan's other responsibilities include developing and managing the requirements, roles, methodologies and responsibilities associated with programs and services such as the CSF Assurance and CSF Assessor programs. He works in collaboration with many organizations across various healthcare sectors on approaches to simplify compliance for a wide range of requirements, including ISO 27001/2, HIPAA, HITECH, CMS, PCI, FTC and more. He is a subject matter lead on the overlap, gaps and inconsistencies between these requirements and practical approaches organizations can adopt to meet their compliance needs. Prior to joining HITRUST, he worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers' Security Advisory practice focusing on the healthcare industry.