Concentric AI Expands Executive Leadership Team to Meet Accelerating Worldwide Demand for Its Leading Data Security Governance Solutions

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 23, 2025--

Concentric AI today announced it has named Lane Sullivan as its new Chief Information Security and Strategy Officer. In this new role, Mr. Sullivan leads the company’s cybersecurity program and contributes to its strategy, ensuring alignment with businesses’ real-world security needs. He is focused on maintaining Concentric AI’s security posture and fostering an innovative approach to enhancing safeguards for sensitive information across today’s complex digital ecosystems.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250523584119/en/

“Concentric AI’s rapid growth and technology leadership make this a pivotal moment to come on board,” said Mr. Sullivan. “I’m excited to lead our cybersecurity program and shape our strategy around data protection, insider threats, and responsible AI.”

Mr. Sullivan has 25+ years of experience leading enterprise-wide security transformations and guiding organizations through high-stakes incidents, including ransomware breaches. His most recent position was SVP, Chief Information Security Officer at Magellan Health, where he led the cybersecurity, physical security, and data governance programs, while also championing mental health awareness within cybersecurity teams. Recognized as a Top Global CISO by Cyber Defense Magazine in both 2023 and 2024, Sullivan further contributed to the industry through his active involvement with the HITRUST Health 3rd Party Trust Initiative. Previously, he served as Director, Information Security and Compliance (CISO) at Ingram Content Group; and as VP of Infrastructure at C&S Wholesale Grocers. Mr. Sullivan also served as Chief Information Officer and Chief Operating Officer at JT Investments. He earned his Master of Science degree in Computer and Information Systems Security/Information Assurance and his Bachelor of Science degree in Business – IT Management.

“It is a pleasure to welcome Lane to Concentric AI’s executive team,” said Karthik Krishnan, Concentric AI Founder and CEO. “His deep experience leading high-performing teams and delivering enterprise-wide security transformation comes at a critical time of growth for Concentric AI. Lane brings a proven track record of building resilient security strategies that span multiple industries that matter deeply to us, including healthcare, finance, retail, and energy.”

Concentric AI’s Semantic Intelligence platform redefines what’s possible for data security governance. Instead of relying on rigid rules, keywords, or data samples, it uses its patented AI to understand the context behind structured and unstructured data across cloud and on-premises environments. This means it can find not only PII, PCI, and PHI with exceptional accuracy, but also things like intellectual property and critical business documents that others miss. This result is stronger, more accurate classifications and access policies within the platform itself and across a customer’s entire security stack. And with continuous monitoring and remediation, risks like overpermissioning and misclassified data are handled automatically.

Concentric AI’s Semantic Intelligence solution provides advanced data security governance by discovering both structured and unstructured data across cloud and on-premises repositories. Its proprietary AI understands context—enabling it to detect not only PII, PCI, and PHI, but also intellectual property and critical business documents that don’t follow fixed patterns. The solution classifies and tags data automatically, identifies risks from over-permissive access or inappropriate sharing, and can take action—either autonomously or by working with your existing security stack—to secure data quickly and continuously.

About Concentric AI

Concentric AI is intelligent data security made easy. Its AI-powered platform simplifies data management, helping businesses discover sensitive data, remediate risk, eliminate duplicates, and maintain compliance across cloud and on-premises environments. The solution provides clear insights into where data resides, who’s accessing it, how it’s being shared, and empowers organizations to take remediation actions. With co-managed services, Concentric AI handles the heavy lifting while organizations stay in control—defining policies, managing risks, and running reports on demand. From reducing costs to preventing data leaks, Concentric AI ensures your data works for you, not vice versa. Concentric AI is venture-backed by leading Silicon Valley VCs and is headquartered in San Jose, Calif. For more information, see https://www.concentric.ai.

Concentric AI, Semantic Intelligence™, and Risk Distance™ are or may be registered trademarks of Concentric AI, Inc. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.

Seasoned Fortune 500 cybersecurity and risk executive Lane Sullivan named new Concentric AI Chief Information Security and Strategy Officer.

President Donald Trump’s administration announced on Tuesday that it’s freezing child care funds to Minnesota and demanding an audit of some day care centers after a series of fraud schemes involving government programs in recent years.

Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill said on the social platform X that the move is in response to “blatant fraud that appears to be rampant in Minnesota and across the country.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz pushed back on X, saying fraudsters are a serious issue that the state has spent years cracking down on but that this move is part of “Trump’s long game.”

“He’s politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans,” Walz said.

O'Neill referenced a right-wing influencer who posted a video Friday claiming he found that day care centers operated by Somali residents in Minneapolis had committed up to $100 million in fraud. O’Neill said he has demanded Walz submit an audit of these centers that includes attendance records, licenses, complaints, investigations and inspections.

“We have turned off the money spigot and we are finding the fraud,” O’Neill said.

The announcement comes one day after U.S. Homeland Security officials were in Minneapolis conducting a fraud investigation by going to unidentified businesses and questioning workers.

There have been years of investigations that included a $300 million pandemic food fraud scheme revolving around the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, for which 57 defendants in Minnesota have been convicted. Prosecutors said the organization was at the center of the country’s largest COVID-19-related fraud scam, when defendants exploited a state-run, federally funded program meant to provide food for children.

A federal prosecutor alleged earlier this month that half or more of the roughly $18 billion in federal funds that supported 14 programs in Minnesota since 2018 may have been stolen. Most of the defendants in the child nutrition, housing services and autism program schemes are Somali Americans, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota.

O’Neill, who is serving as acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also said in the social media post Tuesday that payments across the U.S. through the Administration for Children and Families, an agency within the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, will now require “justification and a receipt or photo evidence” before money is sent. They have also launched a fraud-reporting hotline and email address.

The Administration for Children and Families provides $185 million in child care funds annually to Minnesota, according to Assistant Secretary Alex Adams.

“That money should be helping 19,000 American children, including toddlers and infants," he said in a video posted on X. "Any dollar stolen by fraudsters is stolen from those children.”

Adams said he spoke Monday with the director of Minnesota's child care services office and she wasn't able to say "with confidence whether those allegations of fraud are isolated or whether there’s fraud stretching statewide.”

Trump has criticized Walz’s administration over the fraud cases, capitalizing on them to target the Somalia diaspora in the state, which has the largest Somali population in the U.S.

Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, has said an audit due by late January should give a better picture of the extent of the fraud. He said his administration is taking aggressive action to prevent additional fraud. He has long defended how his administration responded.

Minnesota’s most prominent Somali American, Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, has urged people not to blame an entire community for the actions of a relative few.

FILE - Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing, June 12, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

FILE - State Sen. Michelle Benson reacts at a news conference on Wednesday, April 10, 2019 at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul to a report by the state's legislative auditor on combatting fraud in Minnesota's Child Care Assistance Program. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski,File)