From CDL to CIO — Daragh Mahon, CIO of Werner Enterprises

In 1994, Daragh Mahon won the green card lottery and moved from Ireland to Atlanta. His first American job was driving an eighteen-wheeler for Schneider. Thirty years later, he runs IT for Werner Enterprises, one of the largest trucking companies in North America, with 12,000 drivers moving freight across the country every day.

In this episode of Kill Chain, host Terry Reinert sits down with Daragh to unpack a career arc most CIOs never take and a perspective on cybersecurity, AI, and the future of transportation that most haven't earned.

What you'll hear:

• Why Daragh asked every autonomous trucking company the same security question and never got an answer
• The 3 critical infrastructure sectors a foreign adversary attacks first (and why transportation is on the list)
• Why he wants the tech industry to "stop talking about AI"
• The AI backlash brewing in colleges that CIOs aren't tracking
• The story of signing a contract he had no authority to sign and getting 12 months to make it work
• Why real innovation only happens at the startup level, and what the big software companies stopped doing
• Building security into corporate DNA instead of bolting it on
• The Werner Accelerator and why every corporation should run one
• Predictions for the next ten years (and why he refuses to make them)

About the guest:

Daragh Mahon is the EVP and CIO of Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ: WERN). Before Werner, he led IT at Vonage and held senior roles at Sage and Peachtree Software. He emigrated from Ireland to the US in 1994 through the Morrison Visa Program.

About the show:

The Kill Chain Podcast is a conversation series about cybersecurity, transportation, and the future of fleet operations, hosted by Terry Reinert, CEO of Fleet Defender. New episodes drop every other week.

Want to learn more about securing your fleets, platforms, or mission critical systems? Contact us at FleetDefender.com.