Inside a Veteran CISO's Playbook for Crisis and Communication with Philip Keibler, VP and CISO at Meijer
Show notes
This episode features Philip Keibler, Vice President and CISO at Meijer, one of the nation's largest privately held retailers.
With nearly three decades of security leadership, including CISO roles at Bass Pro Shops and Finish Line, Phil brings a rare long-view perspective on what the job actually requires day to day. He also talks about his feature in Semperis' upcoming documentary Midnight in the War Room, premiering at Black Hat on August 5.
In this episode, Phil explains why CISOs who struggle to get budget usually have a storytelling problem, how he defines success in a role where stopping every attack is impossible, and what it takes to lead a team through an active incident. He also dives into why fundamentals are what actually address most of an organization's risk.
This episode makes the case that the hardest parts of the CISO job are rarely technical, and that mastering the basics matters more than chasing the newest tool.
Guest Bio Philip Keibler has spent nearly three decades at the intersection of technology, risk, and business building information security programs that work in the real world.
As Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer at Meijer, Phil leads security for one of the nation's largest privately held retailers, overseeing the protection of supply chains, customer data, and critical operations across hundreds of locations in the Midwest.
Phil's career spans industries where the stakes are high and the margin for error is low. Before joining Meijer in 2015, he served as CISO at Bass Pro Shops and previously held the CISO role at Finish Line. Earlier in his career he led security at Herff Jones, bringing security discipline to the manufacturing sector. He began his career at EDS and spent years consulting in the Aerospace sector where he got his start in security.
What sets Phil apart is not just longevity, it is perspective. He has watched information security evolve from a reactive, audit-driven function into a proactive capability that enables business velocity. His approach centers on integrating security into how organizations operate, not as a checkbox, but as a competitive advantage that lets teams move fast while managing risk in practical ways.
Beyond the day-to-day, Phil is a passionate contributor to the broader security community. He has served as a guest lecturer on cybersecurity and data privacy at the University of Chicago Law School, sits on the Institute for Cybersecurity Education and Research Advisory Board at Grand Valley State University, serves on the IT Advisory Committee at Kent County Technical Center, and is a board member the Meijer Credit Union. He is also featured in Midnight in the War Room, a Semperis documentary examining the human reality behind enterprise cyber defense.
Phil has held his CISSP certification since 2009, attained his MBA from Davenport University, and a career's worth of operational experience across retail, aerospace, insurance, and manufacturing.
Guest Quote “A successful CISO understands that it's not about prevention, it's about resilience, it's about recovery, and it's about identifying those things in your program that you can do incrementally better every single day. We're in the pursuit of perfection, but we understand we'll never get there.”
Time stamps 02:46 Meet Philip Keibler: From Sysadmin to Security 04:35 Becoming a CISO 06:20 What CISOs Really Do 08:50 Defining Success and Resilience 10:41 Storytelling to the Board 13:29 Semperis' Midnight in the War Room 17:47 Team Care and Crisis Leadership 21:47 Advice for CISOs 24:24 The Case for Mastering the Fundamentals 31:02 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Sponsor The HIP Podcast is brought to you by Semperis, the leader in identity-driven cyber resilience for the hybrid enterprise. Trusted by the world’s leading businesses, Semperis protects critical Active Directory and Entra ID environments from cyberattacks, ensuring rapid recovery and business continuity when every second counts. Visit semperis.com to learn more.
Links Connect with Phil on LinkedIn
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