About — Frederick Nwokobia

01Professional Journey

Dec 2023 — Present

Director of Security & AI Innovation

MIOCONSULT GmbH — Rödermark, Germany

Building an AI-native, data-sovereign environment where employees and AI agents collaborate to turn problems into secure, deployed software. This is where the vision for personal AI assistants became reality — and where ClawNex, real-time security operations for AI agent fleets, was born and open-sourced.

Closed the agent blind spot with ClawNex — a real-time Security Operations Center for AI agent fleets: every prompt and response inspected through a 163-rule shield spanning 10 threat categories (secret exfiltration, command injection, jailbreaks, C2 beacons), data loss prevention in both directions with span-based PII redaction, and an immutable, audit-ready evidence trail — self-hosted, open source (Apache 2.0)
Created an AI-native workspace where staff and AI agents collaborate as one team — coordinated in self-hosted Mattermost, chosen over Slack for data sovereignty and open agent integration
Empowered any employee to turn a business problem into a production app — AI agents scaffold, build, and ship it while the hardened pipeline auto-enforces scanning, signing, and human-gated promotion
Standardized the agent workflow into a portable skill deployed across six AI coding agents (Claude Code, Qwen, Hermes, OpenCode, OpenClaw, Kilo)
Engineered for data sovereignty beyond the US CLOUD Act — every workload self-hosted, so client data answers to EU law alone, not foreign legal compulsion
Replaced the foreign-cloud stack with self-hosted open source — Nextcloud over Microsoft 365/SharePoint, Authentik SSO (OIDC) over Okta/Entra — keeping EU data residency, saving thousands of euros annually, and cutting software-supply-chain risk
Processed confidential data on on-premises LLMs (Qwen, Gemma) — sensitive information never leaves the building; frontier models (Claude) reserved for non-sensitive reasoning
Architected a security-hardened CI/CD pipeline — 8+ automated gates (SAST, DAST, SCA, secret-scanning, SBOM + image signing) with secretless, Vault-backed deploys
Deployed an on-premises Learning Management System, cutting recurring costs by 90%
Built an IFRS center-of-excellence assistant for policy-based contract queries, enhanced with Graph RAG — now piloting an agentic IFRS "think-tank" using Claude Code
Went beyond retrieval: fine-tuned a dedicated model on Accounting for Innovation by MIOCONSULT founder Michelle Olufeso-Nwokobia, turning the book's scenarios into deep-dive teaching material for the CoE — while advising the author on AI topics to keep the book's treatment of AI accurate

Oct 2010 — Dec 2023

Cyber Security Architect — Vice President

Barclays — New York, NY & London, UK

Thirteen years leading global cybersecurity initiatives for a multinational financial services company. This is where I learned that the best security is invisible to users.

Spearheaded RSA two-factor authentication innovations, saving $500K annually
Architected a bespoke Symantec DLP solution, reducing triage workload by 4 FTE/year
Led Cyber Innovation initiatives, establishing a proof-of-value lab for emerging technologies
Managed 24/7 security operations across global infrastructure
Oversaw enterprise security for 180K devices, including BitLocker, CyberArk, and Tanium

Oct 2008 — Oct 2010

Software Asset Transition Consultant

CGS — New York, NY

When Lehman Brothers collapsed in the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, its software estate had to be untangled, sanitized, and handed over — correctly, defensibly, and under scrutiny. I managed that transition.

Directed the depersonalization and sanitization of proprietary software ahead of transfer to new owners
Assessed applications across the Lehman estate for viability, disposition, and transition readiness
Tracked every aspect of the software transition, keeping stakeholders informed on audit and IP exposure

Mar 2001 — Oct 2008

Cyber Security Engineer — Assistant VP

Lehman Brothers — New York, NY

Founded the company's first Information Forensics group. Led the team through the 9/11 crisis — learning that resilience is built before disaster strikes.

Created the post-9/11 platform that duplicated 1,500+ desktops for rapid market reopening
Led the team that designed security software which earned two patents
Launched a wireless intrusion detection system, protecting against 90% of breach vectors
Reduced client data loss by 90% through full-disk encryption implementation
Deployed a security system to 30,000 computers globally for VPN device validation

1994 — 2001

Early Career & Entrepreneurship

Bankers Trust · Bear Stearns · Merrill Lynch

From the trading floor to the production gate — this is where I learned the discipline that would define my career: nothing reaches production until it's been verified.

Bankers Trust — As Assistant Treasurer, one of a dedicated three-person team embedded directly on the trading floor, supporting 33 traders serving high-net-worth clients across FX, equities, and bonds. We owned everything they touched — Excel macros, Access databases, printing, networking, patch panels, squawk boxes. When a trader walked up, we walked out with them; the ticket got filed later, because their time was the business
Bear Stearns — In the Windows NT 4 era, before certified drivers existed, engineered the right hardware-to-software compatibility mix and built an unattended deployment system: one script, a fully configured machine, no human intervention — replacing the 3–6 hours of hand-built setup each machine had required
Merrill Lynch — Served as the production QA gate for Merrill Lynch Asset Management's trading platform: every release tested end to end, and anything that broke went straight back to development
Merrill Lynch — Drove Y2K remediation (1999–2000): built a mirrored microcosm of the enterprise application environment in a dedicated data center, then identified application owners and project-managed each system through remediation, verification, and release
Co-founded the Institute of Computer & Network Technology, training 500+ students

02My Philosophy

I

Technology should serve people

After 30 years in cybersecurity, I've learned that the best technology is invisible. It should reduce cognitive load, not add to it. That's why I build AI assistants that understand your workflows — not the other way around.

II

Trust is earned through transparency

I don't believe in black boxes. Every AI system I build comes with clear documentation, explainable decisions, and audit trails. You should always know what your AI is doing — and why.

III

Start small, think big

The best AI implementations start with one painful workflow and expand from there. I help you identify that first win, prove the value, then scale what works.

03Patents & Innovation

At Lehman Brothers, my team's work on secure network connectivity produced a four-patent family — three granted by the United States Patent Office and one by the European Patent Office — covering systems and methods for validating and securing devices before they touch a corporate network.

The thinking behind those patents — verify first, trust deliberately — is the same thinking I bring to AI systems today.

US 7,428,746 B2USPTO · 2008

US 7,428,753 B2USPTO · 2008

US 7,360,237 B2USPTO · 2008

EP 1,782,265 B1EPO · 2015

04Certifications & Credentials

2024

NVIDIA Certified Associate

AI Infrastructure & Operations

2006

CISSP

Certified Information Systems Security Professional

2007

EnCase Certified Examiner

Digital Forensics

2011

Symantec Certified Specialist

Data Loss Prevention

2005

Microsoft MCSE & MCT

Systems Engineer & Certified Trainer

✈

Private Pilot License

Passionate aviator

05What Colleagues Say

"Frederick possesses a rare technical expertise, a cybersecurity mind-set, and the ability to work with people at all levels of the organization. He is always suggesting new approaches to problem-solving and is always supportive of his teammates."

Tahj Hamilton

Cloud Architecture & Security

"Frederick was well in tune with the business, understood the business requirements, the drivers and the dynamics of the business. He always made sure that the security solutions he deployed were in alignment with the business needs."

Chris Young

Leadership Compliance · IT Governance · Security

"Frederick was very good at keeping up with the latest security technologies and trends. He was always looking for ways to improve the security posture of the organization."

Yakov Kravets

Managing Director at BlackRock

"Frederick is a consummate professional and a pleasure to work with. His technical expertise combined with his ability to communicate complex security concepts to non-technical stakeholders is invaluable."

Angelo Cascio

Head of Identity & Access Management

About Frederick.