CMMC Accreditation Body Appoints Melanie Kyle Gingrich as First Vice President for Training and Development

[ This article was originally published here ]

BETHESDA, Md.–()–The (CMMC-AB) today announced the selection of Melanie Kyle Gingrich as the CMMC-AB’s first vice president for training and development. In this role, Ms. Gingrich will oversee the day-to-day development and management of the CMMC-AB training, education, and curricula management programs to support and ensure the successful growth of the CMMC ecosystem.

Ms. Gingrich takes over for Mr. Ben Tchoubineh, who previously filled this important role as a member of the Board where he was responsible for building the CMMC-AB’s training capabilities since the organization’s inception last year. For the past 15 months, Mr. Tchoubineh has led the training committee of the CMMC-AB Board of Directors in a voluntary capacity. He will depart from the Board at the end of this week.

“This is a critical position for us, and I could not be more pleased over Kyle joining our growing ranks where I am confident she will make an immediate impact,” said CEO Matthew Travis. “She brings compelling experience in both the development and provision of online training as well as an acute understanding of service-delivery models. In addition, it is important to recognize Ben Tchoubineh’s sizeable and consequential contributions to the CMMC initiative that will long be regarded as foundational to its success.”

Ms. Gingrich most recently served as the senior director for products at Monster Worldwide, Inc. Prior to that she was the vice president for product, IT, and certification content and delivery at Skillsoft, Inc. She has also held senior positions at CypherPath, Inc. and the Computer Technology Industry Association (CompTIA). She is a graduate of Loyola University Chicago.

The CMMC-AB also today announced the appointment of two new members to the Board: Mr. Mathew Newfield and Mr. Clifton H. Poole.

Mathew Newfield is senior vice president and chief security and infrastructure officer (CSIO) of Unisys. He has more than 19 years of experience in information technology, with a focus on security, software-as-a-service operations, and risk auditing. Prior to joining Unisys, Mr. Newfield was director of global managed security services for IBM. He is on the board of directors of the National Technology Security Coalition (NTSC) and has been an instructor at the SANS Institute. He is an alumnus of George Mason University.

Clifton H. Poole is the director for corporate security at Unison, Inc. He is an accomplished IT executive with over 15 years of experience in maturing corporate cybersecurity programs. Prior to joining Unison, Mr. Poole was associate director for cloud security at Accenture Federal Services and held several senior positions at Raytheon. He is a graduate of Columbus State University and earned a master’s degree in computer science from Northwestern. Mr. Poole also served over twenty years in the United States Army.

“We are extremely pleased to welcome these two talented industry leaders to the AB,” said CMMC-AB Board Chairman Karlton Johnson. “Both Mathew and Clifton bring tremendous insight and understanding of cybersecurity challenges and solutions to our Board.”

About CMMC Accreditation Body (CMMC-AB)

The CMMC Accreditation Body (CMMC-AB) incorporated in January 2020 as a non-stock corporation in the State of Maryland, with an application pending for a tax-exemption determination by the Internal Revenue Service under Section 501(c)(3). The CMMC-AB is an independent accreditation entity responsible to establish, manage, control, and administer CMMC assessment, certification, training, and accreditation processes for the Defense Supply Chain in accordance with a contract signed with the Department of Defense.