Tim McKnight
Former Chief Security Officer, SAP
Tim McKnight has joined SYN Ventures as Operating Partner focused on the dedicated cyber seed fund. Tim has a 30+ year career as a security professional and business executive in government service and the private sector. Prior to joining SYN Ventures, Tim served as EVP & Chief Security Officer of SAP reporting directly to Christian Klein, CEO and member of the executive board of SAP SE. Tim was responsible for SAP’s overall security strategy, ensuring that SAP customers have a consistent and convenient security experience, establishing SAP as a recognized and trusted leader in the industry. In his role, Tim developed, implemented, and managed SAP’s global security policies,
standards and guidelines in accordance with ongoing security initiatives and worldwide IT, physical and personnel security, cybersecurity activities, data protection and privacy laws.
Before joining SAP in December 2018, Tim was chief information security officer for Thomson Reuters, responsible for all aspects of the company’s global information security risk management program. Prior to that, he served as Chief Information & Product Security Officer for General Electric, executing its information security and IT risk strategy. Previously, Tim was executive vice president of Fidelity Investments’ Information Security and Technology Risk. He also served in various IT Security leadership roles at Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems and Cisco Systems. Tim began his career at the Federal Bureau of Investigation as lead investigator of National Infrastructure Protection Center matters, including high-tech crimes, corporate espionage, foreign counterintelligence and telecommunications fraud.
In addition to these roles, Tim has held the roles of Chairman of the Internet Security Alliance and taught undergraduate courses in digital forensics as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. He is also a member of the Board of Security Advisors for Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Tenable and an Advisor to the Director of the National Security Agency.
Tim received his bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University and executive education at The Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania.