why we started this business
McWhorter Technologies has been a dream of owner Lee McWhorter since he was "knee-high to a grasshopper". His love of technology sprouted from the original Pong video game system his parents bought the family for their TV and grew to fruition with the Commodore VIC-20 computer he received as a sophomore in high school. He taught himself how to program in BASIC and technology became a central part of his life. In college, he was exposed to the Internet and was completely fascinated by its potential. Lee was first exposed to hacking over dial-up and was mastering HTML and Linux before either were official 1.0 specs.
After obtaining his MBA, he started his own business and technical consulting firm. Two years later, he moved to New Orleans and began teaching computer information systems (CIS) at the A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University. It was at Tulane where he received some of his first certifications (including Certified Microsoft, Novell, and SCO Unix Instructor) and his interest in web development really blossomed as he began to use the technology to support his classes and build websites for private clients. Two years later, he was presented with a dual opportunity. He was presented with an offer to design a training certification program for a database company in Austin, Texas.
Additionally, he was offered the opportunity to continue teaching at Tulane via the Internet. He accepted both and taught Tulane's first online, fully accredited course for Tulane's University College. Beyond his ten years with Tulane, both onsite and online, he has also taught for other universities and institutions including New Horizons, Midwestern State University, ITT, CompTIA, Woz U, and the Department of Labor National Program Standard Covered 6 Security Academy. He has taught courses in a wide ranges of areas including business, economics, computer technologies, programming, and cybersecurity. Lee has created three complete cybersecurity programs, two of which (for Woz U and Covered 6) were fully accrediated.
Next, he was recruited during the Dot Com days to help launch the U.S. operations of a Swiss web-based education company as their Vice President of Operations. He built custom education programs for companies such as Volkswagon and Stamps.com. At the end of the Dot Com era, he and the nucleus of his team joined Persidea, Inc., a marketing communications company where he became the COO / EVP and headed all technical and production operations. Under his direction, Persidea was consistently ranked highly for ten years in the Austin Business Journal's Book of Lists for web designers / developers. During his tenure, he and his team developed websites and web-based training programs for Dell, Motorola, and the Austin Relocation Guide, as well as hundreds of other businesses large and small.
As technology evolved, he and his team began to offer new services such as digital publishing, mobile application development, IT support, and cybersecurity. When Persidea closed its doors in late 2010, Lee decided to realize his long standing dream of launching McWhorter Technologies. Nearly all of Persidea's technical clients chose to be initial launch clients for his new venture and remain clients to this day, filling him with pride and gratitude. He is excited about seeing the technology advances of the next few decades and looks forward to helping his clients get the most benefit from the best technologies available now and in the future.
Lee continues to lead by example, striving to stay current in the field and exploring the latest advances like IoT (Internet of Things), Containization, AI, and Machine Learning. He has earned a number of more recent certifications to go along with his many older ones. These include: Every current CompTIA certifications (ITF+, A+, Network+, Security+, PenTest+, CySA+, CASP+, Linux+, Server+, Cloud+, Cloud Essentials+, Project+ & CTT+) which Lee completed in one year and all of CertNexus' IoT certifications. He is most proud of the PenTest+ certification as he passed the beta version of the exam to be one of the first 400 people in the world to earn this certification. He was then asked by CompTIA to teach the first world-wide Train the Trainer series on PenTest+ in the summer of 2018. He has continued to work with CompTIA as a speaker on a number of additional webinars (including launching the Instructor Toolbox Series), as an instructor for additional Train the Trainers such as CASP+, Linux+, and PenTest+ when it renewed (becoming the first instructor to be asked to teach a second Train the Trainer and the only to do four), and is an Advisory Board member for the CompTIA Instructor Network (CIN). Lee was also recognized as the Most Valuable Contributor to the CompTIA Instructor Network at the 2019 Partner Summit.
In the last number of years, Lee has begun to invest much effort in giving back to the IT and Cybersecurity communities. Lee was particularly honored to get to speak and teach his first classes for the Red Team Village at DEFCON Safemode as well as for the Dark Arts Village at RSA, Texas Cyber Summit, and the Grayhat conferences in 2020. Lee has continued to work with, speak for, and run CTF's (Capture the Flag) competitions for the Red Team Village at DEFCON since 2019. He is also very honored to be a Core Team member and speaker for the Dark Arts Village at RSA since 2020, as well as for Texas Cyber Summit where he has volunteered since 2019, spoke since 2020 and now also leads the security team, the Texas Cyber Rangers, since 2022.
If you would like to connect with Lee, you can follow him on Twitter or reach out via LinkedIn using the icons below.