Who we are

The foundation of EnergySec was established nearly two decades ago as relationships formed between a group of information security, physical security, disaster recovery and business continuity professionals from energy organizations in the Pacific Northwest. Initially, a small group met for lunch to discuss the security challenges they were all facing. The idea was simple, share common security practices for the purpose of learning from each other.

As news spread about the lunch meetings, more people wanted to join and it quickly outgrew the informal setting. EnergySec Northwest, better known as E-Sec NW, was formed in early 2004. An online forum and quarterly meetings were established to give security professionals more time together and better ways to share information with each other.

In 2005, E-Sec NW hosted its first annual summit. The two-day event was a success from the beginning. There was no other meeting of its kind being held at the time. The summit promoted open and honest dialog, creative ideas, and collaborative solutions designed to benefit as many as possible. The summit especially appealed to the “boots on the ground” security practitioners who, prior to this time, had found themselves isolated at their respective organizations.

As interest continued to grow across North America the “northwest” was dropped from the name to embrace the burgeoning role as a national information sharing organization for the energy sector. Attendance at the annual summit continued to grow every year and new relationships developed with product and service vendors, government agencies and academic institutions.