About Stephen Ward
Stephen Ward is managing partner at Brightmind Partners, which led Empirical Security's $25 million Series A in July 2026.
He was earlier chief information security officer (CISO) at The Home Depot and TIAA, and in 2021 he joined Insight Partners as a managing director.
Experience
This experience comes from official bios and from SEC filings. For roles taken from filings, the years are when the filings name Stephen Ward in the role, so the role may have started earlier or lasted longer.
BP
Brightmind Partners Current
Managing Partner
Empirical Security, Inc.
Director
2026 · Chicago, IL
Empirical Security sells exploit prediction models, a global one and one trained on each customer's data, to help security teams decide what to patch first.
IP
Insight Partners
Managing Director
From 2021
TD
The Home Depot
CISO
TI
TIAA
CISO
JC
JPMorgan Chase
Security Operations
US
U.S. Secret Service
UG
U.S. Coast Guard
Education
- Seton Hall University
Key Colleagues at Startups
The people Stephen Ward works with at each company, as listed on that company's latest Form D.
Empirical Security, Inc. · Form D, Aug 3, 2026
EB
Edward Bellis
Co-founder & CEO, director
JC
John Cowgill
Director
MR
Michael Roytman
Co-founder & CTO, director
JJ
Jay Jacobs
Co-founder & Chief Data Scientist
Sources
- SECEmpirical Security, Inc. Form D, filed Aug 3, 2026
- Officialbrightmindpartners.com, team page (Managing Partner)
- Officialbrightmindpartners.com, portfolio (Empirical Security, SGNL)
- OfficialEmpirical Security Series A press release, EIN Presswire (2026-07-20): quotes him as Founder and General Partner of Brightmind