Aaron Shilts brings over two decades of cybersecurity and organizational leadership to NetSPI, empowering the world’s most trusted brands to secure their attack surfaces. As President and CEO, he leads the company’s global strategy, growth, and innovation initiatives, advancing NetSPI’s position as the industry leader in continuous threat and exposure management.

Under Aaron’s leadership, NetSPI has become the trusted proactive security partner for 100% of the largest cloud providers, 90% of the top U.S. banks, 60% of the world's largest healthcare companies, and 80% of the MAMAA tech giants. He played a key role in expanding the company's platform offerings, including the award-winning Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS). In addition, he architected the company’s AI transformation to drive efficiency, while consistently scaling and achieving double-digit growth.

Prior to NetSPI, Aaron served as Executive Vice President of Worldwide Services at Optiv, where he led one of the industry’s largest cybersecurity services companies and played an integral role in the merger of Accuvant and FishNet Security. His career reflects a deep understanding of how to scale high-performance teams, navigate complex integrations, and deliver transformative client experiences.

A graduate of St. Cloud State University with a B.S. in Business, Aaron also served proudly in the Army National Guard. He co-founded Change Starts With Me, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit focused on catalyzing positive community impact, and he regularly advises emerging leaders and enterprise teams on cybersecurity strategy and systematic growth.

Aaron’s leadership has earned industry recognition, including being named a finalist for Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Heartland in 2021, 2022 and 2025. He is driven by the belief that people are the source of organizational value. This philosophy fuels his decisions every day to build client-centric, mission-driven teams that solve today’s security challenges with integrity and innovation.