French Caldwell, former Gartner VP and Gartner Fellow, brings a wealth of GRC industry insight and experience to guide customers through their GRC Journey
MetricStream, a market leader in Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) solutions, recently announced that French Caldwell has joined the 
MetricStream executive leadership team as Chief Evangelist. The appointment of Mr. Caldwell, former Vice President and Gartner Fellow at Gartner, Inc., demonstrates MetricStream’s focus and commitment to building the deepest level of GRC expertise, and enabling customers to derive maximum value from their GRC programs.
At Gartner, Inc., Mr. Caldwell led research initiatives on GRC, enterprise risk management, regulatory compliance, third party management, and social media risk management. In his 15 years at Gartner, he advised hundreds of businesses and government agencies on GRC issues, including the impact of rules and regulations, disruptive technologies, and digital business strategies. He authored and contributed to over 400 Gartner research papers, including the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise GRC Platforms, since its inception in 2007. Mr. Caldwell also led the White House sponsored Digital Pearl Harbor war game, the first ever strategic assessment of cyber war strategies.
MetricStream Chief Operating Officer, Gaurav Kapoor, said, “French has played an instrumental role in bringing the discussions around Governance, Risk, and Compliance to the forefront of business over the last decade. He is a well-known, visionary leader in GRC and the industry’s most influential proponent. When he left Gartner after a long and illustrious career, we started discussing his possible, continued contribution to the space. Together, we will help customers on their journey by making GRC pervasive and proactive, instead of ad hoc and reactive. We look forward to the contributions he will make by partnering with companies who face increasingly complex risks, as well as regulatory, financial, and operational environments, while seeking to harness risk intelligence and analytics to drive business performance.”
Before joining Gartner in 1999, Mr. Caldwell was director of knowledge services at Arthur Andersen. He also served as a nuclear submarine officer, and directed special congressional projects for the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of Defense. Upon retiring from the Navy, he served as the liaison to NATO for the Congressional Commission on Roles and Missions.
As MetricStream’s Chief Evangelist, Mr. Caldwell has the strategic role of guiding customers through their GRC Journey, and helping them adopt and integrate GRC into the fabric of their businesses in order to drive business performance and strategic objectives. He will also help bring the customer’s voice into market-leading developments at MetricStream.
“Over the last decade, I’ve covered the GRC industry in depth. This industry is reaching a tipping point where GRC programs are shifting from a reactive response to regulations, to proactive GRC intelligence and insights that drive real business performance,” remarked Mr. Caldwell. “At this critical juncture in GRC program transformation, MetricStream is very well poised to serve the market, and is the only software firm I considered joining. I see the Chief Evangelist role as an opportunity to not just advise on GRC as I did at Gartner, but to promote and advocate the kind of GRC programs that contribute to the top lines of MetricStream’s customers. Effective GRC programs can protect the value and reputation that companies have worked so hard to achieve. At MetricStream, we will travel with customers further on their GRC journey, and help them thrive on risks. We will enable companies to succeed in new business environments and help them take advantage of new business opportunities that may have otherwise been out of reach. I truly look forward to being part of this transformative change.”
