After White House event, Jacksonville firm targets cybersecurity need in local governments

After White House event, Jacksonville firm targets cybersecurity need in local governments (Courtesy of the Florida Times-Union) — When federal officials called experts to the White House to talk about jobs and cybersecurity, a Jacksonville CEO was in the crowd, laying groundwork for her company’s next growth phase.

Three-year-old Automation Strategy & Performance was the only Florida business at an event last week marking completion of a “cybersecurity apprenticeship sprint” launched in July to grow training systems to fill some of the roughly 700,000 cybersecurity jobs that were vacant nationally.

Founder Melissa Boutwell said some of those jobs belong in schools and local governments across Florida, starting with the First Coast.

“We really want the state of Florida to get what we have to offer first,” said Boutwell, whose company helps steer people with some qualifications to clients who are hiring, then delivers training designed to help them grow into new roles and stay satisfied with their new employers.

Water, power, heat and air conditioning systems are part of critical infrastructure for daily life that can be vulnerable to cyberattacks, and Boutwell said local governments need skilled people protecting against them.

The company is launching an initiative in January that builds on its training background, and Boutwell said she’s hoping to connect with agencies from schools to ports to help employers identify and strengthen cybersecurity gaps.

The company has training in seven occupations accredited through the U.S. Department of Labor.

Automation Strategy & Performance has grown incrementally since Boutwell founded it in 2019 after jobs that included managing utility systems at Orlando’s massive Orange County Convention Center and teaching energy management at Valencia College.

Now totaling 23 employees, the company began in a University of Central Florida business incubator and expanded operations to include work in the Jacksonville area during the pandemic.

In September, the company formally changed its principal address to an office building on Deerwood Park Boulevard off Gate Parkway in the Southside.

The company works with about 250 businesses nationally, Boutwell said, with about 17 based in Florida, including contractors and companies with advanced technical staffs that specialize in combining electronic systems.

After Labor and the U.S. Commerce Department promoted the idea of developing apprenticeships with standardized approaches to cybersecurity training, Boutwell said she decided to focus more attention on local agencies who could benefit from apprenticeship work too.

“We’re already working with the engineering firms in the state,” she said. “….What we want to make sure we don’t forget is the cities, counties and school systems that have employees of their own.”