Dan Mackin is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Rule4. He is an award-winning entrepreneur and leader, including the Colorado Technology Association’s prestigious CEO of the Year award. His past roles include COO of an IT infrastructure, security, and opensource consulting services provider, and Senior Vice President of Professional Services for a nationwide datacenter operator.
Dan is well-known in the industry for applying opensource and cybersecurity at enterprise scale. He specializes in client engagements involving large-scale Linux server environments and compliance efforts with standards such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and 800-171/CMMC. Dan is particularly passionate about cloud security and takes a cloud-agnostic approach, securing environments in AWS, Azure, and GCP. He is also a co-author of the “Unix and Linux System Administration Handbook,” currently in its fifth edition, and he curates the Boulder Linux Users Group (BLUG) meetup.
As a passionate backcountry skier and advocate for the Colorado wilderness, Dan has championed and consulted on multiple projects for the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, donating his time to dig into their systems and help secure the technology used to provide real-time avalanche forecasts and advisories for resorts, mountain roads and highways, and backcountry recreation enthusiasts. This partnership is saving lives and increasing access to the amazing Colorado high country. He also volunteers at and serves on the board of directors executive committee for Sister Carmen Community Center, one of several local safety net organizations partnering to distribute over a million pounds of food and assist more than 10,000 individuals in the community each year.
Away from the office, Dan likes to sink his teeth into new creative pursuits, whether it’s welding, woodworking, or applying Linux and other opensource technologies to automation, monitoring, and metrics collection projects. He enjoys cheering for the Colorado Buffaloes and Dallas Cowboys, and loves adventuring in Colorado with his wife and dog.
