Kelsey Waters

I have spent my entire career in leadership, helping organizations build world-class operations and security teams. From my early days as a Communications Officer in the Marine Corps, to working in and leading Networking at Rackspace, to driving Operations at Equinix Metal, I encountered and improved compliance programs wherever I landed; at Rackspace I provided domain-level expertise to a large GRC team, and at Equinix I rebuilt an existing SOC 2 program, met GDPR requirements, conducted a PCI SAQ, and executed a scope-change to an existing ISO 27001 program. Carrying a broad set of responsibilities from technical leadership, customer service, to compliance (and everything in between) has given me a deep understanding of the challenges growing companies face as they scale. I co-founded Openlane with Matt and Sarah because I wanted to help more teams build trust without relying on manual processes, disconnected tools, and overpriced software (and because I don’t know how to write code). Working with them at Equinix taught me how much a coordinated team of focused experts can accomplish in a short period of time. I want security and compliance to be more transparent, accessible, and approachable, and I work every day to help companies build programs that support growth, earn customer confidence, and give engineering teams more time to focus on building great products. When I’m not doing demos, onboarding customers, or keeping up with changes in compliance standards, I can usually be found reading, going for a walk, or spending time with my family.