Meet Luke

Luke Simonetti is the IT security leader for Booz Allen’s strategic consulting and advisory solutions business. He and his team use outcome-driven, risk-based approaches to help commercial clients assess their cybersecurity challenges and implement strategies to make them more resilient to evolving threats.

He has held several leadership positions in both the government and commercial sectors, and he has deep, hands-on experience in all aspects of IT security. Prior to joining Booz Allen, he led Gartner’s global security and risk management consulting practice. He was a regular event speaker and panel member addressing security topics. Earlier, Luke held another position at Booz Allen, helping build and run the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Cybersecurity Operations and Response Center. He also worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers in the threat and vulnerability management practice.

Luke is president of the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology Alumni Society Board of Directors and regularly shares his experience and expertise with both students and the college. He holds a B.S. in information sciences and technology from Penn State University. He also maintains several industry certifications, including as a certified information systems security professional and system security certified practitioner.

What makes you excited to come to work every day?  Helping clients around the world understand and address their cyber risks has always excited me. I’ve found that I need to be continually challenged by something to stay passionate about it, and cybersecurity certainly fits the bill. The threats are always evolving, so developing effective solutions requires constant learning and innovation.

What is the greatest challenge facing the financial services industry? In the financial services sector, cybersecurity is always at the cutting edge, and staying ahead of the threat actors operating from around the world today requires constant vigilance, real creativity, and nonstop learning. Taking the tradecraft Booz Allen creates and translating it between the government and business clients we support has proven critical to helping them stay ahead of those threats as much as possible, while also building the capabilities to quickly recover when bad things do happen.

How do you inspire your team members to do excellent work, and how do they inspire you? I’ve found that to build a successful team, you have to lead by example. You need to know when to be humble and let the team members work through a problem on their own, but also be willing to roll up your sleeves and take a more active role when needed. This builds trust and encourages true collaboration between the team and leader, with both knowing they can feel comfortable raising their hand to ask for help when they need it or to offer alternative solutions.

How do diversity and inclusion at Booz Allen help us serve our clients? I’ve seen firsthand how diversity among Booz Allen team members has had an exponential effect on the innovations we achieve for clients. Colleagues from diverse backgrounds, with unique skillsets, and at different points in their lives all bring valuable insights and contributions to the shared success of the firm.