Kevin Lynch frames Optiv’s current moment as an identity problem. “Today, one of the most pervasive conversations we’re having with our clients in the market is, ‘How do I manage agentic AI in the context of identity and zero trust?’” He’s describing what’s landing on Optiv’s doorstep right now as companies push AI deeper into day-to-day operations and realize that delegating work to software agents still means delegating authority.
Before Optiv, Lynch spent 20 years at Deloitte across senior leadership posts, including chief global officer overseeing $1.2 billion of annual investment and work leading the firm’s technology, media, and telecommunications industry practice. Earlier, he served as chief strategy officer at AECOM and as a director at PricewaterhouseCoopers focused on the intersection of strategy and technology.
He joined Optiv as CEO in 2020, stepping into a company that had been formed five years earlier through the merger of Accuvant and FishNet Security. Since then, he has overseen Optiv’s growth from about 1,600 employees to 2,400, and he points to two internal shifts as central: building a professional services division and expanding managed security—particularly Optiv’s managed detection and response offering. In his telling, the company stays committed to being security-only, even as customer demands pull in new directions.
The AI wave is the newest pull. Lynch frames the problem as timing and governance: business teams want AI for productivity and client experience, while security teams often get brought in after decisions are already in motion. He says Optiv’s advisory work increasingly focuses on getting CISOs “at that table early on” so organizations can shape architecture decisions up front and have what he calls a “bulletproof view” of how to manage the risk. He ties agentic AI back to identity: if an AI agent is going to run tasks and operations, somebody has to manage credentials and authorization with the same seriousness as for a human.
Lynch expects Optiv’s “stance in AI” to grow larger over the next five years, and he’s clear about what he doesn’t plan to do in response: “Will we fall back to being a generalist? I think that’s unlikely.”