BRIAN MURPHY

FOUNDER & CEO, RELIAQUEST, TAMPA

Founded by Murphy in 2007, ReliaQuest is one of the fastest-growing cybersecurity technology companies in the world, with 1,200 employees across six global operating centers. Outside of Tampa, it has locations in Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Dublin, London and Pune, India. The company strives to raise awareness about careers in cybersecurity through Junior Achievement, as a founding partner of 3DE, Think Big for Kids and through cyber programs at the elementary, high school and college levels.

FIRST JOB: My first job was at Publix Supermarkets, where I learned about the importance of focusing on the customer.

HOBBY: Over the last couple of years, I recognized that I could use a hobby to help clear my mind, so I took up golf. It’s been a great teacher — humbling to say the least. It’s been fun to have something new to work on, and I’ve made some good friends along the way.

NONPROFIT PASSION: I’m committed to Embarc Collective, where I mentor other founders working to build their own tech companies to scale. Few people appreciate the grueling journey of entrepreneurship, and there are several companies at Embarc right now that have the potential to be Florida’s next great tech companies.

INDUSTRY TREND: AI has dramatically changed how we work and helped us move a lot faster. But AI is only as good as how you train it. In our case, our 10-plus years working with the largest and most complex organizations gives us a massive knowledge base to train our agentic AI. Not only does this help us contain threats faster, it’s getting security teams out of tedious tasks to work on more important issues for the business. I believe this is a turning point in cybersecurity.