Mission-Critical Security Playbook: from NASA to Tools for Humanity

In this episode of Make Yourself @ Work, Matt Tverberg sits down with Alan Mather, Head of Corporate Security at Tools for Humanity, the company behind the Orb, World ID, and the World App. Before joining the company, Alan spent more than two decades at NASA, where he led the Protective Services Division at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. In that role, he oversaw the protection of personnel, facilities, and mission operations, and earlier in his career served as a Major in the U.S. Army’s Military Intelligence Branch. Alan shares how that mission-critical mindset translates to the fast-moving world of tech, where he now protects a company whose entire product is built on trust. From planning security for high-profile launch events to navigating the blurry line between physical and cybersecurity, he unpacks what it takes to build a resilient security program at the frontier of digital identity. He dives into the real-time accountability gap, why the secure path must also be the easiest path, and what the future of continuous, contextual identity verification looks like. Some key lessons from the conversation include: good security is invisible but not absent, planning matters more than the plan, and real vendor relationships are mission partnerships. This episode is a must-listen for corporate security leaders, workplace technology professionals, and anyone thinking seriously about the intersection of physical security, digital identity, and organizational trust.