Having said that the suits have to be in the loop to some extent, they just need to be able to control those "I don't like this sue them" instincts and understand how to better channel that energy.

Security needs an executive level person to be able to directly work with the other executives to push things if only because the inclination to hide or not fix things is so common. Security just isn't a part of a lot of engineering teams mindset / time budget.