Overview

Bret Fund, Ph.D., is a lifelong learner and educator. His formal educational pursuits culminated in a Ph.D. in Business Administration and led to an academic career as a university professor. As a professor, Dr. Fund started a student-run venture capital fund. The novel interdisciplinary private equity course partnered with local companies and financiers and developed a proprietary interactive education platform allowing educators to interact with their students beyond the time they were together in the classroom.

In 2014, he combined his passion for education and cybersecurity. He founded SecureSet Academy – a forward-thinking, immersive multi-campus cybersecurity education company offering an industry-leading curriculum for the next generation of cybersecurity professionals. From the start, Dr. Fund, through his work at SecureSet Academy, worked to bridge the talent gap problem within the cybersecurity industry. In summer 2019, Dr. Fund’s leadership led to SecureSet’s acquisition by Flatiron School, a WeWork company. Now, as Head of Cybersecurity for Flatiron School, Dr. Fund is tapped as a thought leader, guiding conversations at the intersection of science, education, and technology.

Dr. Fund recognizes that cybersecurity is an ever-evolving and dynamic industry; thus, he remains at the forefront of these changes to ensure that SecureSet Academy and Flatiron School are teaching the latest trends and threats that companies and nations face. This creates a curriculum for students that is 100% industry-aligned and current, equipping them with the skills necessary to be job-ready upon graduation. He also regularly consults with employers to create new courses that will enable companies to build and strengthen their existing security teams and provide cybersecurity awareness to non-IT and non-security related employees.