Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Vigilance 

Charles Finfrock founded Vigilance in 2018 as a private intelligence and security company. He has 25 plus years of experience in national security, intelligence, counterintelligence, law enforcement, security operations, anti-money laundering, and supply chain security. At Vigilance, he leads a team of former intelligence officers, federal law enforcement officers, and members of the special operations community. This team provides a solutions-based organizational method which addresses its clients’ concerns and challenges through innovative, discreet, and decisive solutions.

Prior to founding Vigilance, Charles was a senior manager at Tesla, where he established Tesla’s Insider Threat Program and where he led Tesla’s Global Information Security Investigations. Charles led and conducted several high profile investigations to protect the company’s intellectual property and trade secrets from theft by nation states and individual actors. These investigations resulted in the detection, disruption, and mitigation of threats, leading to arrests, lawsuits, and employee terminations.

Before transitioning to the private sector, Charles served 18 years at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as a Senior Operations Officer. During this time, he gained extensive experience working and living in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. While with the CIA, he also specialized in the collection of foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, and conducting covert action operations at the direction of the President. 

Charles began his civilian national security career at the National Air Intelligence Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, in Dayton Ohio, as an Intelligence Analyst focusing on the Chinese Air Force and Chinese strategic military and foreign policy issues. He earned his B.A. from Wittenberg University, with a dual Major in Political Science and East Asian Studies with a focus on Chinese Foreign Policy, Military Studies, and Chinese Language. Charles was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and was the University’s Student Senate President, in addition to lettering in varsity football and track. 

Before attending University, Charles served in the U.S. Navy as a Criminal Investigator with experience in traditional law enforcement investigations, force protection, physical security, and anti-terrorism in Manama, Bahrain.

Charles is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS), a Certified Bitcoin Professional (CBC), and a Certified Professional Coach (CPC). In addition to his native English, Charles speaks and reads Persian with business proficiency, and Mandarin Chinese at a basic level.