About Us

Why Canopy Cyber?

We support your mandate to protect and strengthen your business. We step in where we are needed most and focus on delivering meaningful impact. We are here to get the work done, not cycle through accounts. Like you, we have been through this journey and understand what it takes to build a resilient, effective security program.

Discriminators for Canopy Cyber

Deep Practitioner Experience
Our experts bring over a combined 40 years of experience as practitioners, advisors, teachers, and leaders.

Cross-Functional Regulatory Expertise
We have worked across diverse lines of business, including environments with significant regulatory and technical complexity.

Embedded, Field-Level Approach
We work alongside your internal teams and transfer knowledge as we go, strengthening your organization without unnecessary overhead.

Partnership Built on Trust
We believe lasting partnerships are built on trust, not obligation. We hope to earn your business through transparency, dedication, and skill.

Our Mission

To build enduring cybersecurity and governance capability through focused, hands-on partnership — leaving organizations empowered, better prepared, and confident in what comes next.

To build a future where organizations confidently manage cybersecurity and governance.

Our Founders

Emily Pauls

Co-Founder and Principal

Emily Pauls is a Co-Founder and Principal for Canopy Cyber, with over a decade of experience working in cybersecurity program management, governance, risk, and compliance (GRC), vendor risk management, financial accounting, and organizational resilience. She has designed and implemented scalable risk management programs, developed comprehensive cybersecurity policies aligned with frameworks such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (NIST CSF), ISO 27001, PCI DSS, SOC 2, and HIPAA, and led clients in creating business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) programs to strengthen resilience. Her work spans high-compliance sectors including transportation, finance, healthcare, education, and technology, where she has supported organizations in identifying and mitigating critical risks.

Prior to co-founding Canopy Cyber, Emily worked as a consultant, delivering GRC and cybersecurity services with a focus on vendor risk management, contract oversight, and policy development. Drawing on her background as a Certified Public Accountant, she integrated financial governance with security objectives and supported clients in regulatory alignment. Her earlier career included managing multimillion-dollar budgets, implementing contract lifecycle management systems, and SOC 2 audit preparation, ensuring transparency and adherence to industry standards.

Bonnie Goins

Co-Founder and Principal

Bonnie A. Goins is a Co-Founder and Principal for Canopy Cyber. She has over 30 years of experience in security management, risk management, data governance, AI governance and security management, business continuity/disaster recovery, incident response and compliance with regulations and frameworks, such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (NIST CSF), NIST AI RMF, NIST Privacy Framework, ISO 27001/2, SOC 2, PCI, NIST SP 800:30, NIST SP 800:53, ISO 27005, ISO 42001, ISO 22301, HIPAA, SOX, NERC CIPs, ISO 20001/2, ITIL and others. Ms. Goins has been a trusted advisor to numerous Fortune 100 and 500 clients during her career, assisting senior leaders and Boards with the creation and enhancement of their security, risk, AI and compliance programs.

Ms. Goins was an Adjunct Industry Professor of Information Technology Management at Illinois Institute of Technology and a Distinguished Member of the Illinois Institute of Technology Center for Cyber Security and Forensics Education (C2SAFE). She has served as a Visiting Professor in the Cybersecurity curriculum and Director of Information Security at DeVry University. She is a coauthor of the CISSP Common Body of Knowledge (CBK), (ISC)2, 2nd ed., coauthor of the SSCP Common Body of Knowledge (CBK) and Study Guide, 2nd ed., coauthor of the Information Security Management Handbook, 2005–2012 eds., and a contributing reviewer of the SANS HIPAA Step-by-Step. Ms. Goins’ public speaking engagements include SecureWorld, Brainshare, Wisconsin Banker’s Association, ITEC, Technology Executive’s Club, NetSecure and ForenSecure and other engagements.

Infinite Carousel

Let’s get started.

We’re invested in your success. Contact us today to schedule a workshop where we can dig in to find the most successful, efficient and cost-effective way forward!

Contact us ➔