Top 10 CISOs to Watch in 2021
WashingtonExec’s Top 10 CISOs to Watch in 2021 highlights industry executives who consistently stay one step ahead of adversaries, equipped with the technical know-how to safeguard systems and information.
Top 10 CISOs to Watch in 2021: ManTech’s James Webster
ManTech Chief Information Security Officer and Vice President of Information Security James Webster said his most significant accomplishment last year was successfully transitioning over 4,000 employees to securely work from home. Thanks to previous pandemic drills, a ready fleet of laptops and the ability to work over Virtual Private Network and leverage RSA SecurID tokens, ManTech’s
Top 10 CISOs to Watch in 2021: Appian’s Omesh Agam
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Appian’s security perimeter model had to fundamentally change to ensure resilience and security in the new era of 100% remote work. “To support this, we did something big: We built our own . . . security, orchestration, automation and response to automate security incident investigations,” said Omesh Agam, chief information
Top 10 CISOs to Watch in 2021: Lumen Technologies’ Nick Andersen
As public sector chief information security officer for Lumen Technologies, Nick Andersen brings with him a suite of skills honed from working cybersecurity inside the Energy Department last year. He is proud of the government work he did to build, maintain and operationalize trusted partnerships with the private sector to increase the cybersecurity and resilience
Top 10 CISOs to Watch in 2021: Accenture Federal Services’ Nicole Dean
Nicole Dean was just 35 when her executive abilities and accomplishments in technology landed her the nation’s highest civilian designation for leadership within the federal government — the Senior Executive Service. Now the chief information security officer for Accenture Federal Services, she leads work protecting the internal information of one of the world’s largest consulting organizations, and
Top 10 CISOs to Watch in 2021: Leidos’ JR Williamson
Even before the pandemic hit, Leidos had an incredibly busy year planned, according to Chief Information Security Officer JR Williamson. One of its most significant milestones though was transitioning a large percentage of its employees to work from home — and doing so without weakening security controls or taking on more risks. Last year, Leidos transformed
Top 10 CISOs to Watch in 2021: Alion’s Jim Rigney
Alion Science and Technology Chief Information Security Officer Jim Rigney has led the company through numerous upgrades. He modernized Alion’s security architecture by eliminating and replacing redundant, standalone technologies and appliances with solutions like next-generation firewalls that tie together critical components for more coordinated protection. He enhanced Alion’s endpoint protection with industry best practice tools,
Top 10 CISOs to Watch in 2021: SAIC’s Alicia Lynch
Science Applications International Corp. Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer Alicia Lynch joined the company in 2018, bringing over 30 years of intelligence and cyber experience from the Defense Department, the defense industrial base and the private sector. She retired from the Army as a colonel in 2012. Regularly asked to advise and assist on
Top 10 CISOs to Watch in 2021: Peraton’s Jim Schifalacqua
Peraton Chief Information Security Officer Jim Schifalacqua successfully navigated two enormous cybersecurity challenges in 2020: supporting a remote workforce and avoiding a supply chain compromise. With Peraton’s existing zero trust, cloud-first infrastructure, Peraton employees were immediately enabled to work from home. Schifalacqua layered additional guidelines and monitoring to address the added risks, and his team
Top 10 CISOs to Watch in 2021: LMI’s Jonathan Stammler
As LMI’s chief information security officer, Jonathan Stammler leads enterprise cybersecurity governance, architecture design and risk management. He has played an instrumental role in LMI’s most pivotal moments since joining in 2014. Within one week at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Stammler and his team ensured employees had secure resources to transition to full-time
Top 10 CISOs to Watch in 2021: GDIT’s Michael Baker
GDIT had just finished a years-long effort to integrate top cyber teams and revamp its cyber culture when work-from-home began en masse last spring. That foundational work would prove vital. Through the new models, GDIT last year quickly rolled out and consolidated large-scale enterprise systems while focusing on cost containment. “As soon as we finished
Never miss a Top 10 CISOs to Watch in 2021 story.
Our latest executive profiles, council news, and GovCon headlines — every morning.