Thomas Ratz is a certified information systems security professional (CISSP) with twenty-five years of information security experience. Thomas’s career started in the US Army where he served in a strategic overseas role. Thomas transitioned to a civilian role supporting the military and then to the US firms of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu where he built and managed security, risk, and compliance programs. Thomas later moved to the retail industry where he serves as the CISO for Dollar General Corporation, a $22B publicly traded company with over 120,000 employees across over 14,500 locations.

Thomas leads Dollar General’s information security and compliance program by leveraging a holistic, pragmatic, and defense-in-depth approach toward information security that enables the business to meet its defined objectives. Thomas is a security generalist who draws on his experiences and expertise across multiple information security domains, focusing on environment-appropriate controls to naturally achieve PCI DSS, SOX, HIPAA, etc. compliance.

Outside of Dollar General, Thomas completed the Nashville FBI Citizens Academy, volunteers as the finance officer for an American Legion Post, and has served as a mentor for a youth information security program sponsored by the Air Force Association through the Civilian Air Patrol. Thomas enjoys woodworking, home improvement projects, hiking, cooking, and spending time with his family.