As cyber‑threats grow more complex, the Tampa Bay region is home to a diverse mix of security leaders who are raising the bar for how organizations think about safeguarding data, operations, and resilience. Below are ten CISOs working at major organizations whose experience, impact, or leadership make them especially worth watching.
James Bowie — Tampa General Hospital
James Bowie leads cybersecurity for Tampa General Hospital, covering six hospitals and more than 150 sites, protecting 18,000 users and 70,000 endpoints. Under his leadership, the hospital’s cyber program was rebuilt: he chairs the internal cybersecurity council, created crisis‑containment and remediation playbooks, and oversees governance, risk, compliance, and identity & access management across clinical, cloud, and on‑premises systems.
In a 2025 interview, Bowie described how he and the hospital’s CIO reframed cybersecurity risk in business terms, quantifying risk in dollars and cents so board and executive stakeholders can understand the real cost of cyber decisions. That ability to translate technical risk into business‑level impact is especially valuable as healthcare becomes more digitized and AI tools (like generative AI) enter workflows.
Alejandro Ziegenhirt — Florida Crystals Corporation
Alejandro Ziegenhirt serves as CISO of Florida Crystals Corporation, an organization known for its agricultural and energy business operations. He holds various certifications, including CISSP, GWAPT, GCIA, and GPEN, signifying a broad technical background across security domains, including penetration testing, network security analysis, and governance.
His role overseeing security at a corporation with potentially global supply‑chain and infrastructure exposure is strategically important, especially in sectors prone to diverse threats, such as physical infrastructure, cloud systems, production, etc.
Michael Calderin — Barnes Aerospace
Michael Calderin represents the aerospace sector in Florida’s security leadership, serving as CISO at Barnes Aerospace. He is also listed among the Florida CISO Community’s governing membership.
Since aerospace firms often manage sensitive intellectual property, supply‑chain data, compliance with strict regulations, and advanced systems, Calderin’s role would demand strong governance, confidentiality, and risk management frameworks, making his leadership essential for both national security and corporate risk mitigation.
Joe Ellis — Ryder System
Joe Ellis serves as VP & CISO at Ryder System, an organization in logistics, transportation, and supply‑chain operations that includes fleet management, cargo, logistics data, and various integrated services. He is likewise on the board of the Florida CISO Community.
The logistics and transportation sector is increasingly a target for cyberattacks due to its role in supply‑chain reliability and operations. Ellis’ stewardship thus sits at a critical junction of operational resilience, data integrity, and threat readiness. His inclusion among Florida’s senior security leaders signals peer respect and recognition.
Barry Kortekaas — Morgan & Morgan, P.A.
Barry Kortekaas is listed among the senior security leaders of Florida in the roster of the Florida CISO Community. As CISO at Morgan & Morgan, a large law firm with complex data, compliance, and client privacy requirements, he occupies a critical role at the intersection of legal services, data privacy, and cybersecurity. Given the sensitive nature of legal data and the firm’s exposure to both client confidentiality and regulatory risk, the security posture under Kortekaas is likely pivotal.
Rich Latayan — AAA, Inc. (National)
Rich Latayan serves as CISO at AAA, Inc., a large membership‑based organization serving millions of members nationwide. He is also named among the governing body of the Florida CISO Community.
Managing security for a nationwide membership and services organization like AAA, which likely involves member data, mobility services, digital portals, and possibly IoT integrations, is complex and exposes the organization to significant risk. His presence among Florida’s senior security leaders marks him as someone who is instrumental in shaping cyber posture in large‑scale consumer and service industries.
Igor Spektor — TracFone Wireless, Inc.
At a telecommunications and mobile‑services company like TracFone, Igor Spektor’s role covers mobile‑device security, network protection, customer data privacy, and compliance, all within a threat landscape that includes network attacks, fraud, and privacy regulations. His position places him squarely among those securing critical consumer and infrastructure-facing digital services in Florida.
Cesar Suarez — Worley
Worley, a global engineering and professional services firm, operates across energy, infrastructure, and complex industrial projects. Cesar Suarez’s dual role in digital architecture and CISO suggests he oversees both the design of secure systems and the governance of security risk across sprawling, often global, operations. In sectors where operational disruption can have wide‑ranging consequences, such a role is vital.
Brian Roberts — Ledcor
Brian Roberts heads enterprise security at Ledcor, driving the company’s program-level strategy across construction, engineering, and industrial services. He’s led the organization’s move to a risk-driven security posture, implementing a centralized security operations capability, formal incident-response playbooks, and a company-wide security awareness program that ties behavior change to measurable risk reduction.
Under his leadership, Ledcor has strengthened third-party security assessments and elevated governance to align security controls with project delivery timelines and regulatory requirements.
Kevin Green — Terracon
Kevin Green leads Terracon’s global information security function, building an enterprise program that protects project data, client information, and field operations. He has modernized the company’s identity and access management, instituted continuous monitoring and tabletop exercises, and established an operationally integrated risk-management framework that connects security metrics to business outcomes. Green’s work has made security a proactive enabler for Terracon’s consulting and engineering teams rather than a bottleneck.
Shaping the Future of Cybersecurity
Tampa Bay may not be the first place that comes to mind when one thinks of cybersecurity leadership. But as this list shows, the region hosts a deep bench of experienced CISOs safeguarding critical sectors.
If you’re building outreach efforts, partnerships, or just tracking trends, these ten CISOs are among the standouts shaping how organizations in the region think about cyber risk, resilience, and strategic security planning.