CyberWire Daily Mary Writz: Take a negative and make it into a positive. [VP Product Strategy] [Career Notes]
Feb 22, 2026
Mary Writz, VP of Product Strategy at ForgeRock and former ethical hacker, shares career turns from accounting to security and product leadership. She talks about leading mostly male, senior teams, using public speaking to clarify tech, framing identity access for users, building high-performing teams, and turning setbacks into opportunities with energy and focus.
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Leading Older Men Early In Career
- Mary Writz became a leader early while often managing older, better-paid men in a male-dominated field.
- She learned to galvanize them by keeping the team passionate about the goal so they would follow her lead.
Pivot From Accounting To Ethical Hacking
- Mary pivoted from intending to be an accountant to studying information systems after discovering calculus and networking excited her.
- She interned running IT for a startup then joined IBM as an ethical hacker in 2001, learning on the job in an emerging field.
Product Work Is One Third Learning One Third Communication
- Product leadership blends market learning, strategy design, and communication into roughly equal parts.
- Mary spends time connecting with people, designing strategy, and obsessively checking for blind spots while rolling up her sleeves.