Rising Stars of the Profession: Matt McManus

Matt McManus is a Senior Director in FTI Consulting's Cybersecurity practice and is based in New York. Mr. McManus has more than 10 years of cybersecurity, consulting, and program management experience, maturing security programs at organizations with national and global footprints, building and conducting security assessments, and leading incident response and investigation teams. Mr. McManus has broad experience across multiple industries, with a focus in healthcare delivery and healthcare technology.

At FTI Consulting, Mr. McManus leads teams to perform cybersecurity maturity assessments, implement strategic roadmaps, conduct regulatory compliance assessments, build internal audit and compliance programs, and carry out incident response and complex investigative activities. Mr. McManus' client delivery highlights include leading regulatory compliance assessments for multiple global technology firms, providing response and investigative services during an active incident; coordinating and advising multiple technical workstreams during a complex investigation of sophisticated mobile malware; and conducting strategic roadmap development and implementation services. Mr. McManus has worked with clients in healthcare, retail, data services, financial services, and within the defense industrial base and has experience with controls frameworks from CIS, NIST, and ISO, amongst others, along with experiential knowledge of regulatory requirements, including HIPAA, DFARS, and GDPR, amongst others. In multiple investigations, Mr. McManus has prepared investigative findings for delivery to law enforcement.

Prior to FTI Consulting, Mr. McManus served as a Senior Program Manager on the information security team at WeWork and as a project manager for Planned Parenthood's national information security program.

What would you say has been the biggest factor in your success so far?

Over the course of my career, I have worked with multiple clients in different environments, which has given me the opportunity to experience different situations and perspectives. From dealing with various patient safety escalations to differing cybersecurity challenges, I have been able to gain broad experience through having so many unique experiences within healthcare.

What do you enjoy most about your career in the consulting industry?

You never face the same exact challenge twice and you never get bored. While experience prepares you to deal with scenarios and to provide expert guidance, there are always new circumstances that challenge your abilities. While stressful, there are always new opportunities to learn and provide service to clients.

What is your proudest achievement to date?

In a previous role, I managed an enterprise EMR implementation at a regional medical center. The challenges faced and overcome combined with the positive impact to the organization left a lasting impression. At FTI, during a live incident response, we discovered the initial point of compromise only days before the log set would have turned over. Discovering that IOC allowed us to trace the threat actor's full scope of activity within the client's environment.

What's the best advice you've ever been given?

Acknowledge when you do not know the true answer but be diligent in your follow-ups and work with the client to deliver an effective solution such that you continue to gain their trust.

What does being honored as a Rising Star mean to you?

I view this recognition as an acknowledgment of the hard work and development over my 10+ year career and also recognition of the great teams I have been a part of and the great mentors and coaches I have had.