From Craft Cocktails to Control Systems
OT After Hours · Verve Industrial, a Rockwell Automation Company
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Show Notes
In this episode, we trace an unlikely career pivot from fine‑dining bartender to the helm of Verve's OT cybersecurity lab. Join host Ken Kully, Systems Support Lead at Verve Industrial, and his guest Andrew Wintermeyer, Team Lead, Device & Integration Research, as the latter discusses breaking into the field, learning on the fly, and why forgotten manuals can be more dangerous than zero‑days.
Key Takeaways
- Curiosity compounds — an hour of self‑study each week can snowball into deep expertise.
- Real‑world OT risks often hide in "maintenance" passwords and long‑running configs.
- A safe testing lab accelerates learning and de‑risks production environments.
- Soft skills from hospitality — patience, improvisation — translate surprisingly well to cybersecurity.
Timestamps
00:00 – Introduction
00:05 – Holiday bartending burnout sparks a career rethink
01:40 – Six‑week help‑desk contract at Madison Power & Electric turns into a year
02:40 – Landing at Verve as a COVID‑era lab assistant
03:13 – First solo day in the lab: imposter syndrome & safety scares
03:50 – The breakthrough that changed everything
04:59 – Finding your place in the field
05:20 – Sunday‑night learning ritual and compounding knowledge
06:30 – What happens in the field matters
Guest Information
- Andrew Wintermeyer: OT Security Specialist and lead for Verve's North American lab. Former bartender turned Java programmer, now wrangles PLCs, SCADAPack, and virtualization stacks to keep client environments safer.
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