On this month’s episode of The Business of Defense Rich Brady speaks with Brian Stafford president and CEO of Diligent, about how they grew a risk management SaaS platform from boardroom governance beginnings.

It all began as way to ensure the safety of information — often detailed internal financial records — being shared between companies and the members of their boards of directors.

Think about how unnerving it is “find yourself sending the most sensitive material you have to people who are not full-time employees,” said Brian Stafford, president and CEO of Diligent, as he harkened back to the initial focus of the company.

“What Diligent started out as was an incredibly secure way to take and lock down that communication that you would have with your board members,” he shared during an interview for the American Society of Military Comptrollers’ The Business of Defense podcast on Federal News Network.

Using technology to secure corporate financial information and communications led to the development of risk management expertise within the company and to the expansion of the services Diligent offered its clients.

“Over time, we’ve grown much broader than that,” Stafford said. The company in addition to providing governance and risk management added audit and compliance — and inherently data analytics derived from the information gathered to be able to track and audit against governance policies.

 

Continue reading for more insights from guest, Brian Safford, and Diligent.