Software Engineering Institute

Betsy Nichols is a serial entrepreneur who has applied mathematics to develop solutions in satellite mission optimization, industrial process control, war gaming, economic modeling, enterprise systems and network management, and most recently security metrics. Prior to starting PlexLogic, Nichols founded two other software companies in the roles of CTO and VP Engineering. The first company, Digital Analysis Corporation (DAC), implemented network and systems management software. DAC was acquired by Legent Corporation. When Computer Associates acquired Legent, Nichols became one of two principal architects for Unicenter TNG. The DAC technology became the real-time agent infrastructure for Unicenter. In the time Nichols was at CA, Unicenter revenues grew from $50M to over $3B. The second company, ClearPoint Metrics, was the first company dedicated to implementing software products for automating the collection, calculation, and communication of security metrics. Nichols is an author of five textbooks on microprocessor programming and interfacing as well as numerous articles in both the trade press and academic journals. Most recently, she was co-chair of the Metricon 2.0 Workshop and contributed to Andrew Jaquith's book Security Metrics - Replacing Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. Nichols graduated with an A.B. from Vassar College and a Ph.D. in mathematics from Duke University.