Kansas City-based cybersecurity firm Fishtech Group plans Rogers office

Kansas City cybersecurity firm Fishtech Group is opening an office in Rogers.

The company said Monday (Dec. 9) it’s opening a 10,000-square-foot Cyber Defense Center (CDC) at 4300 J.B. Hunt Drive. The CDC will be on the second floor of a new office building at The District at Pinnacle Hills in Rogers. The 54-acre mixed-use development is led by Whisinvest Realty at the southwest corner of the intersection of southbound Interstate 49 and Pauline Whitaker Parkway.

The CDC is expected to be fully operational by the spring of 2020.

“We are bringing leading edge cybersecurity resources to the Northwest Arkansas region,” Fishtech Group founder and CEO Gary Fish said in a statement. “Our service and technology offerings are tailored to serve today’s heavily burdened CISOs [chief information security officers]. We’re excited to invest in the local community bringing highly sought cybersecurity jobs and talent to the region.”

The office will house 20 employees initially, with plans to expand eventually up to 100 employees including security analysts, threat engineers, client success managers, account executives and other cybersecurity talent.

Kerri Kilker, Fishtech’s COO and CISO, will oversee the office in Rogers. Kilker was formerly senior vice president and CISO for Walmart Technology, where he established and operated cybersecurity program for the retail giant.

“The Fishtech team has a history of building large, successful companies in the cybersecurity space,” Kilker said in a statement. “There are so many high-growth companies in Northwest Arkansas and they each have evolving cybersecurity needs that we believe are better served locally.”

Fishtech Group includes the Security-as-a-Service division CYDERES and the security analytics firm Haystax of McLean, Va. Fishtech venture partners include Perch Security of Tampa, Fla., and Foresite of Overland Park, Kan.