Ernie is the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)/Manager, Enterprise Information Security for the Port of Seattle - one of the United States' largest combined airport and seaport operations. In this role, Ernie is responsible for information security policy and practices, business continuity/disaster recovery planning, privacy issues, and elements of emergency communications. He started at the Port of Seattle in April 2004.

Ernie has strong experience and knowledge in the areas of cybersecurity, cybercrime analysis, privacy and emergency communications and has been recognized at national, regional and local levels. He has published a work on cybercrime and is often cited in such magazines as Information Security, CIO, ComputerWorld, and PCWorld. Also, he is frequently requested to speak at international, national and regional conferences on issues such as cybercrime, risk management, regional information security initiatives, and enterprise information security management.

Ernie holds a BA in Business Administration from the University of Washington, Seattle, is a CISSP - Certified Information Systems Security Professional, and holds a CEH - Certified Ethical Hacker certification. He lives in North Bend, Washington USA.