Sherif Azeem

 Founder and Managing Director OCYBERSEC ( Oak Park, Illinois)

With over 25 years of hands-on cybersecurity leadership across the United States, Middle East, and Europe, Sherif founded Ocybersec to help startups and SMBs achieve enterprise-grade security and compliance without the cost of a full-time CISO.

He currently leads OCYBERSEC as Managing Director and Director of Cyber Security Services, overseeing the Virtual CISO (vCISO) engagements, SOC 2 gap assessments, penetration testing, and regulatory compliance programs for ISO 27001, SOC 2, NIST 800-53, HIPAA, and GDPR. Previously, Sherif built and led Security Operations Centers (SOCs) for telecom operators, designed and implemented compliance programs for banks , online brokerages , fintech companies and petrochemical giants. He served as Chief Information Security Officer for a major telecom provider in EMEA. His expertise spans cloud migration security, risk assessments, security architecture, and presenting actionable cybersecurity strategies to senior leadership.

Sherif holds the industry’s most respected credentials — CISSP, CISA, CISM, CEH, ISO 27001 Lead Auditor, PMP — and is currently completing his MBA at Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh Business School). He also completed advanced business and leadership programs at UCLA Extension.

Passionate about making high-quality cyber security GRC services accessible, Sherif founded OCYBERSEC to combine deep compliance experience with AI-powered efficiency, helping US-based startups and SMBs close security gaps quickly, get SOC 2 certification and win enterprise deals — all at a fraction of traditional rate through the Virtual CISO model in service delivery