Career profile
Brian Blakley
Chief Information Security Officer, Bellini Capital and ConnectSecure
- Current role, per sources checked 30 June 2026
- December 2025
Brian Blakley is the Chief Information Security Officer of Bellini Capital and ConnectSecure, appointed in December 2025.
Career path
Before this appointment, Blakley brought more than 20 years of cybersecurity expertise, having led transformations across compliance, enterprise risk, and managed services. A Tampa Bay Business Journal report on his hiring noted more than 25 years of experience, including a role at a Bellini Capital-backed company. Security Magazine's author listing describes more than 30 years founding, leading, and advising managed services and cybersecurity organizations, and states that a company he led ranked 315 on the Inc. 500 list for achieving 1,200 percent growth. He holds multiple top-tier credentials and has guided enterprises through security and data privacy programs, according to that profile. In December 2025, Bellini Capital brought him on to help cultivate a cybersecurity workforce in Tampa, a role in which he also serves as CISO of ConnectSecure.
Remit at Bellini Capital and ConnectSecure
At Bellini Capital, Blakley drives initiatives to improve cybersecurity talent and education across the industry.
At ConnectSecure, he is helping build the company's Managed Cybersecurity Service Model, designed to let managed service providers deliver scalable security products.
That work is meant to align technology, talent, and go-to-market strategy so MSPs can close the cybersecurity gap for small businesses.
ConnectSecure CEO Peter Bellini said Blakley's leadership would advance the company's cybersecurity vision and help service providers serve as the front line of defense for small and midsize businesses.
Public commentary and talks
Asked by InformationWeek about the first moves after a ransomware attack, Blakley said the sequence should be confirm, contain and anchor, and cautioned that rigid playbooks can hinder response more than help it. "The first few minutes probably matter more than most organizations realize." He has also written for Security Magazine, including the piece Cybersecurity Professionals Need to Think Like Business Leaders, published May 6, 2026, which opens on the communication gap CISOs and CIOs face when presenting to the board. In a June 30, 2026 InformationWeek podcast appearance alongside Zimana Analytics CEO Pierre DeBois, Blakley discussed how technology leaders decide whether to revise or restart a strategic tech plan after it is rejected by the C-suite or board. The pair closed that session by stepping into a tabletop exercise as interim executives working through a fictional company's technology proposal dilemmas.
