Andrew Wilder serves as Chief Security Officer at Vetcor, a veterinary consolidator that owns and operates nearly 1,000 veterinary hospitals across North America. Backed by private equity, Vetcor relieves veterinary practices of back-office responsibilities such as IT, HR, and finance, enabling veterinarians to focus on patient care. Andrew, the company’s first CSO, has built the security team from the ground up, growing it from zero to eight in just a year. His leadership emphasizes balancing innovation with risk management, building partnerships with early-stage vendors, and aligning cybersecurity strategy with real-world threats rather than chasing compliance checkboxes.
Andrew explains how Vetcor’s private equity backing influences the way security strategy is executed. Rather than being driven solely by compliance, the company emphasizes real security outcomes. He stresses that different private equity firms have different levels of involvement, and the right balance allows leaders to focus on building strong defenses without excessive overhead.
He discusses his philosophy of security leadership: not dictating solutions but presenting risks, controls, and letting executives set their risk appetite. This approach ensures that security decisions are aligned with the organization’s business priorities, while his team remains empowered to execute effectively.
Andrew highlights the power of peer networks in vendor selection. Instead of relying on market leaders, he prefers referrals from other CISOs, leading to innovation partnerships with startups. One example is Savvy, a company building tools that proactively guide users in real time, like a modern “Clippy” that prevents credential misuse or unsafe browsing. Another design partnership focuses on agentic AI to automate repetitive security reviews. These collaborations bring innovation into Vetcor while cutting costs and expanding capability.
The episode also covers Andrew’s career journey, which started at a small paper company where he was assigned to manage IT upgrades simply because he was the youngest employee. From there, he pursued Microsoft certifications, worked on security projects at HP, DHL, and Nestlé, and eventually rose to become regional CISO overseeing multiple continents. Today, he shares his knowledge as a teacher in Washington University’s executive cyber program, where he emphasizes data-driven defense and learning from incidents as key to building resilience.
Matthew Connor on LinkedIn
This episode is brought to you by CyberLynx.com
CyberL-Y-N-X.com.
CyberLynx is a complete technology solution provider to ensure your business has the most reliable and professional IT service.
The bottom line is we help protect you from cyber attacks, malware attacks, and the dreaded Dark Web.
Our professional support includes managed IT services, IT help desk services, cybersecurity services, data backup and recovery, and VoIP services. Our reputable and experienced team, quick response time, and hassle-free process ensures that clients are 100% satisfied.
To learn more, visit cyberlynx.com, email us at help@cyberlynx.com, or give us a call at 202-996-6600.