FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 22, 2022
Contact:
Kathleen R. McMorrow
The Communications Optic, LLC.
Phone: 973.665.8167
Email: kmcmorrow@tco-pr.com
HG WOMEN LEADERSHIP ON THE RISE
HG TAKES THE PARITY PLEDGE TO INCREASE WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP POSITIONS
Rachel Kronenfeld named Director of Services
Christina McEvoy named Manager of Investigations
Megan Munoz, MS named Director of Education and Knowledge Management
(Wanaque, NJ) Hetherington Group (Hg)—a leader in the inclusion, training, and mentoring of girls and women in information technology and open source intelligence and investigations—is pleased to announce the promotion and hiring of three distinguished women to top leadership positions in the New Jersey-based firm: Rachel Kronenfeld, Director of Services; Christina McEvoy, Manager of Investigations; and Megan Munoz, Director of Education and Knowledge Management. With this announcement, Hg has joined hundreds of corporations and organizations in taking the ParityPLEDGE®, a public commitment to interview at least one qualified woman for every open VP, C-Suite, and Board position.
“We celebrate the extraordinary skills and talents these three women bring to Hg’s key leadership roles,” said Hg president Cynthia Hetherington, MLS, MSM, CFE, CII. “Hg has taken the ParityPLEDGE® for Women to exhibit our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workforce with these promotions. We encourage our sister organizations to join us in taking the pledge and to invest in young girls through externships, internships, and mentoring.”
While women representation in technology has been slowly increasing, a 2020 study by the AnitaB.org Institute noted that only 28.8% of the tech workforce were women. “Women in the Workplace 2019,” a study by McKinsey, found that 48% of women accounted for entry-level hires; whereas women hired as first-level managers dropped by 10%. This hiring gap can contribute to a woman’s long-term financial disparity.
Hetherington Group is a leader in investigative due diligence, corporate intelligence, and cyber investigations. Hg believes in continuing to set the standards in online intelligence and open source investigations by demonstrating and promoting the core competencies of online intelligence—critical thinking, data collection, information security, communication and collaboration, and technical exploitation. In recent years, the firm has grown from nine employees to fourteen—8 of whom are women.
Ms. Kronenfeld joined Hetherington Group in 2016 as a lead investigator. She was promoted in 2022 from Manager of Investigations to Director of Services and is responsible for management and development of all investigative work. In response to her promotion, Ms. Kronenfeld stated, “My background as an analyst transferred over well to my new role at Hg because understanding the methodology, sources, and tools behind the work the analysts do allows me to think critically about the right solutions for our clients and be able to accurately answer questions. Looking forward, I’m most excited to be working with a talented and motivating team. As 2022 was a year of heavy team growth and development, I hope to enjoy the successes of that in 2023.”
Ms. Kronenfeld leads Hg in business development, client and vendor relations, and serves on Hg’s executive team to identify and implement business goals and strategies. Ms. Kronenfeld conducts trainings to investigators, security professionals, attorneys, accountants, auditors, military intelligence professionals, and federal, state, and local agencies on best practices in conducting Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) investigations and corresponding techniques. Ms. Kronenfeld is a contributor to Hg’s FactSheets and blogs and presents at national conferences.
Ms. McEvoy joined Hetherington Group in 2022 as Manager of Investigations. In this senior leadership role, Ms. McEvoy is responsible for the management and development of the analyst team and oversees all investigations.
“My background in the investigations and intelligence industry has allowed for me to sit in many different seats,” noted Ms. McEvoy. “I started in this industry as an analyst and have grown into the expert I am today due to having excellent mentors who shared their knowledge with me. Hg has had tremendous growth over the past year and have gained several new clients that I am looking forward to working with in 2023.”
With over a decade of diverse intelligence experience, she performs comprehensive background investigations and enhanced due diligence, providing clients valuable insights into making sound business and personal decisions on hiring, investing, and asset management. Ms. McEvoy is a contributor to Hg’s FactSheets and blogs and presents at national conferences. Her professional expertise is in U.S. domestic public record research, including financial regulatory records, real property records, civil and criminal filings, and official government filings nationwide.
Ms. Munoz joined the Hetherington Group in early 2022, serving as the Director of Education and Knowledge Management. She is an all-source intelligence analyst and instructor specializing in homeland security, law enforcement, counterterrorism, radicalization, curriculum development, and intelligence analysis.
“My background in intelligence analysis and as an educator has transferred over well to my new position,” stated Ms. Munoz. “I have been an analyst for 17 years and have been teaching professionally for more than a decade. Looking forward, I’m most excited to train our staff and partners on some of the new tools that have recently been released. This includes more work with international clients, and exciting emerging markets like crypto, blockchain, and the metaverse. As technology evolves, at Hg we can be the tip of the spear in learning, using, and teaching about these technologies.”
Ms. Munoz is tasked with the growth and success of Hetherington Group’s educational programs and the Knowledge Management Center, which houses several programs relating to the industry and investigations. She is tasked with maintaining a robust training and instruction curriculum, populated with information related to the industry, cyber investigations, and the intelligence tradecraft, designed to cultivate staff growth in subject specialization and development. She is also solely responsible for business development in the training and education realm, identifying leads, client and vender relations, and proposal writing. Finally, she is a master instructor, leading courses for federal, state, local, and private industries, both in-person and via online platforms.
About Hetherington Group (Hg)
Hg is committed to sharing expertise, so the world can be a safer place. As a leader in open source intelligence gathering, it provides accredited training to industry professionals across the country. Hg offerings include seminar and webinar training in beginner, intermediate, and advanced internet and social media investigations; online ethics and best practices; online monitoring tools; fraud examinations; and open source intelligence searching. Annually, Hg staff train over 8,000 investigators, security professionals, attorneys, accountants, auditors, military intelligence professionals, and federal, state, and local agencies on best practices. Material is timely and actionable. Participants gain useful knowledge which can be used in the course of their own investigations.
Hg holds national certification as a Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB) and certification as a National Women’s Business Enterprise by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), the largest third-party certifier of women-owned businesses in the United States. Hg is a member of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), and the National Organization for Women & Information Technology. In 2020, Ms. Hetherington was invited to join the Women’s President Organization. Hg is an NSA Center of Excellence grant recipient charged with developing and offering training opportunities at the U.S. Department of Defense and academic settings. Hg classes are ACFE, NASBA, DHS, LPF, SHRM, and ASIS approved for continuing professional education credits.
About Parity.org
Parity.Org is the leading impact organization increasing representation of women and people of color in leadership, where the gap is the widest. Founded in 2017 with a mission to create parity in leadership for women, the organization expanded that focus in 2020 to include people of color. Parity.org takes a pragmatic approach, offering straightforward, practical strategies and tools that work, and work fast. Quite simply, organizations that take our ParityPLEDGE® and then use the ParityMODEL™ and ParityINDEX® make swift, measurable progress toward their DEI goals. Parity.org has helped hundreds of organizations worldwide transform their leadership composition and, in turn, create powerful ripple effects throughout their entire organizations.
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