About Us
Heritage Assurance Partners
We are an independent cybersecurity risk management consultancy built on a simple premise: clients deserve advisors who put their interests first, every time.
Our Story
Founded on integrity. Focused on outcomes.
Heritage Assurance Partners was founded to fill a gap our team kept seeing in the market: clients receiving generic, vendor-influenced security advice that did little to actually reduce risk. Too many firms had become resellers of software dressed up as consultancies.
We built something different. An independent practice that takes no vendor commissions, partners only when it serves the client, and measures success by the strength of the security programs we leave behind — not the size of the follow-on engagement.
Today we serve a small portfolio of clients across financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, and the public sector. We grow only as fast as we can hire senior practitioners who share our standards. That deliberate pace is part of the promise.
What Guides Us
Principles, not playbooks.
- Independence We accept no vendor commissions, kickbacks, or referral fees. Our recommendations exist to serve you alone.
- Discretion Cybersecurity work demands confidentiality. We treat client information with the same care we would want for our own.
- Expertise at the Top Every engagement is led by a senior practitioner. You will not be handed off to a team you have never met.
- Business-Aligned Security Controls exist to support the business. We never recommend security for its own sake or to inflate scope.
- Plain Language Security is too important to hide behind jargon. We write and speak in language your board and your engineers can both act on.
Leadership
Meet the Founder
Founder & Principal Consultant
Michelle Melendez
Michelle founded Heritage Assurance Partners after more than two decades leading security programs across regulated industries. Her career spans roles as a systems engineer in the United States Air Force as an active duty member, contributed to the design and advancement of cybersecurity policy and program iniatives for the US Air Force and Department of Defense security and compliance programs to executive level global roles in Fortune 20 company, known as a trusted advisor to executive teams and partner organizations, navigating their most consequential security decisions.
Michelle has held her CISSP since 2004 and over the years has collected other vendor specific and industry specific certificaions. She has spent time in financial services, retail, consumer goods, pubishing and the federal government.
After leading global cybersecurity and resilence inititiatibes in large-scale environments, I foundded the firm to bring practical, high-impact strategies to organizations that need strong risk outcomes while operating on a leaner budgets and teams.
Industries Served
Experience that translates across sectors
Financial Services
Banks, credit unions, and fintechs navigating regulatory examinations and evolving fraud threats.
Healthcare
Hospitals, payers, and digital health companies subject to HIPAA, HITECH, and state breach laws.
Manufacturing
Industrial firms protecting operational technology environments and intellectual property from sophisticated adversaries.
Professional Services
Law firms, accounting practices, and advisors safeguarding sensitive client information.
Public Sector
State and local agencies and federal contractors meeting NIST 800-171 and CMMC requirements.
SaaS & Technology
Software companies preparing for SOC 2, ISO 27001, and enterprise customer security reviews.
Let's talk about your security program
The best engagements begin with a conversation. We'd welcome the opportunity to learn about your priorities and discuss how we can help.
Get in Touch