The SANS Institute is pleased to announce that Jeffrey Shearer has been named the 2022 recipient of the SANS Michael J. Assante ICS Security Award.
Jeff Shearer is the Technical Director and Founder of Gray Man Cyber, where he provides Industrial Automation consulting services to customers. Jeff also currently serves as a Chief Automation Officer for Morris and Associates an innovator in machinery production for the poultry chilling and industrial ice applications.
Prior to his current roles at Gray Man Cyber and Morris and Associates, Jeff worked for Rockwell Automation for over 23 years. While at Rockwell Automation, Jeff has worked in almost every phase of the automation lifecycle, and has held positions as a security architect, principal security engineer, software product manager, an embedded firmware engineer, and a software product designer. While working at Rockwell for a large portion of his career, Jeff had a very diverse career with a wide range of original equipment manufacturers working across industrial sectors, from automotive to food and beverage, mining, oil and gas, water and wastewater, pulp and paper, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, plastics, and machinery. “Jeff has a gifting or unique talent in taking this very complex material and teaching it in a way that is consumable and relatable to students from seemingly all backgrounds and sectors. His work experience with companies of all shapes and sizes and all industries is truly unbelievable”. -Tim Conway
Throughout his career Jeff has been highlighted in multiple industry publications, has received numerous awards from his employer; Rockwell Automation Engineer of the Year, Application Discipline, Multiple Rockwell Automation Innovation Awards, and the Rockwell Automation Business Innovation Award. In addition, Jeff holds the following Patents; Injection Molding Controller with Machine Modeling, and Access Control Method for Disconnected Automation Systems.
Jeff has an amazing capability in educating students within the ICS community, and continues to give of his time and talent to help shape the industry for years to come.