Who We Are

White Tuque Was Built Different, To Be Different.

Unique problems require unique solutions.

During most major incidents organizations bring together cross-functional subject matter experts with the mission to mitigate issues and restore normal operations.  White Tuque has been built based on similar principles.  Bring the best together, give them a mission and solve problems.

What Makes Us Different

Giving Every Organization Access to top Cyber Defenders

White Tuque offers in addition to the focus on technologies, our approach also looks at people and processes, providing recommendations that are holistic and can be highlighted as a competitive advantage.  We help you implement simple yet effective solutions that turn every user into a cyber crime fighter.

Defend Your Business with Efficiency and Simplicity

In order to respond and contain a cyber event quickly, the solution must be simple. White Tuque focuses on simple steps and transparent decision making. This methodology is leveraged on Bay Street and Wall Street to defend against attacks and now White Tuque brings it to you.

Our People are Our Top Priority

Cyber incident responders are under the similar pressures and stress as traditional first responders. White Tuque understands and supports our staff at all times.  In order to offer an elite service, we need our Elite Talent to be at their best.

We Aim to Be Different

Having observed first-hand how current approach to cyber defence is entirely determined by finances, our team focuses on the essentials, the risks you and your stakeholders face everyday.  We provide simple, straightforward solutions that work and help you defend against sophisticated cyber attacks.

Our People

Robert D. Stewart

Founder, CEO & Head of Cyber Event Management

Photo of Robert D. Stewart standing with arms crossed outside a castle

Over the past decade working in the global financial sector working within Major Incident Management, Global Crisis Management and Threat Intelligence, Rob has developed a passion for problem-solving, communication and enablement during the worst times an organization can face and with a focus on opportunity and continuous improvement.

Critical Incident Resolved in Global Financial Sector: 650+

Non-Critical Incidents Resolved: 3000+

Executive Incident Communications Issued: 5832

Critical Post-Mortems Completed: 198

Hours as lead Incident/Crisis Manager: 3212

Kevin Sandschafer

Chief Operating Officer & VP of Cyber Risk and Assurance

Kevin Sandschafer

In conjunction with Founder & CEO Robert D Stewart, Kevin directs the firms vision, operations and cyber risk management services.

With 20+ years of experience, Kevin has held leadership positions within healthcare, international financial and insurance organizations with a primary focus on cybersecurity, business resilience and risk management.

Through his career Kevin has led multiple initiatives to drive collaboration and response with federal regulators (HHS, FRB, OCC, OSFI, FCA), government entities (FB, BOC) and sector focused resiliency groups (CFRG, FS-ISAC)

Mitchell Dollin

Chief Revenue Officer (CRO)

Mitchell leads the company’s new Vulnerability and Configuration Management wing. He brings an impressively diverse history to the firm. He led Rogers Communications’ vulnerability management team while parlaying this experience into building/ scaling similar solutions for other major clients and serving as Managing Director of Canada for Qualys. Despite his vast experience working for high-profile and high-budget clients, he is looking forward to also helping the underserved, and under-protected SMB sector better understand their assets, risks, and steps to remediate before a breach can occur. 

Laura Payne

Chief Enablement Officer (CNO) & Vice President of Security Consulting

Laura Payne built her career over the course of 20 years at one of Canada’s largest financial institutions, including over a decade working in information security, and most recently working as the director overseeing a cybersecurity consulting practice. Her experience covers a variety of domains, including virtual CISO, information security governance and risk, security operations, and security engineering. Laura is passionate about bringing people together to solve problems in today’s increasingly complex technical landscape. Outside of work, Laura is actively engaged in mentoring professionals seeking to join the Information Security field, while also volunteering on the advisory board of SecTor, Canada’s largest security conference. In addition, Laura chairs the program advisory committee for Seneca College’s School of Information Technology Administration & Security. Laura holds an Honours Bachelor of Applied Science in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo.

Henry Ma

Program Manager - Cyber Threat & Advisory Services

Henry brings over a decade of experience working in the global financial sector, holding a variety of roles across all aspects of security operations.  With CIBC and later BMO Financial Group, Henry has held roles in security operations & investigations , incident response, and threat intelligence acting as in a Senior Advisor and Specialist capacity.

With Henry, White Tuque is able to not only leverage his technical skillset, but his experience dealing with vendor management, complex issue management and leveraging industry methodology across all areas of cyber security.

Henry will be helping clients understand their digital footprints, technical controls and empowering our clients to leverage their technology in their cyber defence.  Henry currently holds multiple active certifications including GCTI (Threat Intelligence) , GCIH (Incident Handling), GCFA (Forensic Analyst).

Chris Adams – Strategic Advisor

Managing Director, Adams Hamilton

Profile shot of Chris Adams

With over 20 years of experience, Chris has both managed his own start-up businesses and played the role of advisor for several other successful clients.  Chris’s skillset allows White Tuque to capitalize on its innovative ideas, talent, product strategy and ability to execute.   Through Chris’s support, we look forward to achieving our vision as a company and providing our clients exceptional customer experiences.

Chris’ philosophy is that start-ups are built on great ideas, team structure, product strategy, execution, and agility, and truly understanding the needs of the customer is crucial to success.

When Chris is not advising start-ups, he is a dedicated father, sailboat racer, cultural supporter, member of the rock band Sonic Coalition, Barrie Yacht Club Commodore and has been a Barrie Film Festival Board Member for the past 18 years.

White Tuque, eh?

White Tuque logo with name beneath
Let's Talk Hats

A “White Hat” hacker is an ethical computer hacker specializing in test methodologies that ensure the security of an organization. The term is derived from classic western films, where the hero would traditionally wear a white hat.

What's a Tuque?

In Canadian English, knit caps are also known as a tuque. Pronounced /tuk/ or tooook; also spelled touque in some regions. A proper Canadian Tuque has a tassel or pom pom at the end, but there can be variations. Origins are believed to be with the hats worn by the Voyageurs as they traversed Canadian rivers into what is now the United States.

We Can Help

White Tuque is a new approach. We will bring together the ‘good guys’ who are the top in their fields to look at a new approach to Cyber Defence and Resiliency. White Tuque will focus on delivering effective solutions that help protect our partners from today’s sophisticated threat actors and ever increasing risk.

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