CMMC board adds new training head, board members

The governing body for the Defense Department’s unified cybersecurity standard has a new training lead.

Melanie Kyle Gingrich will take over training daily operations for the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Accreditation Body as the vice president of training and development starting May 10.

Kyle Gingrich replaces Ben Tchoubineh who has been leading the board’s training efforts, particularly with standing up a CMMC ecosystem of organizations that develop course materials and train assessors, since the board's inception in 2019. His last day was May 14.

Kyle Gingrich was previously the senior director for products at Monster Worldwide and the vice president for product and IT at Skillsoft.

The appointment comes during a crucial time for the CMMC program which is expected to stand up its first certifying organizations this summer.

FCW previously reported a series of staff changes, including board member departures to adding professional staff, to the once all-volunteer board.

The board added its first CEO, Matthew Travis, the former deputy director of the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, in April.

Travis called the new training lead role “a critical position” in which Kyle Gingrich would have “immediate impact.”

“She brings compelling experience in both the development and provision of online training as well as an acute understanding of service-delivery models,” Travis said in a statement.

In addition to a new training chief, the AB also added two board members -- Mathew Newfield, Unisys’ chief security and infrastructure officer, and Clifton Poole, Unison’s director for corporate security.