'20 under 40' Class of 2018—Brandi Wilson

Brandi Wilson, 39

Security manager, Wells Fargo

Port Richey, Fla.

Brandi Wilson didn't think her career would be in security when she began working as a bank teller 20 years ago, but an opportunity in 2001 to work in corporate security changed all of that.

“Once I got into corporate security I had a great manager and leader at the time—I call her my mentor—who really just showed me the interesting things about security and gave me the reigns to learn and develop a passion for physical security. I worked my way up from there,” Wilson said.

Working as a security agent in the field, Wilson responded to a lot of physical security incidents. “Working with Wells Fargo, a financial institution, it was burglaries, workplace violence, for example. In 2014, I transitioned from the security agent role in corporate security to a project manager role within corporate security, where I was responsible for project management as it related to security equipment, installing devices, so as we opened new branches or did new renovations or just major rollouts of equipment that required physical security protection, I was performing that role.”

She also worked as a business initiative consultant on the policy, compliance and risk team for the bank, and led that team dealing with security policies and procedures, including compliance with the Bank Protection Act and the operational risk that exists within financial institutions.

In addition to overseeing policy, procedure, compliance and risk, she leads the infrastructure support team within corporate security that handles security system databases, case management systems, for example.

When it comes to the future of the industry, Wilson said that physical and information security need to work together.

“The cyber and physical security crossover will continue as we move forward, as criminals continue to get better at hacking into systems,” she said. “The next five years these risks will grow, including on the physical side.”