San Jose sits at the heart of Silicon Valley, where global commerce platforms, cloud security leaders, and enterprise technology giants converge. As innovation accelerates across fintech, SaaS, e-commerce, and infrastructure, cybersecurity leadership in San Jose has become both a technical and strategic mandate. The CISOs operating here are not only defending massive digital ecosystems, but also shaping how trust, resilience, and secure innovation scale globally.
Here are five CISOs to Watch in San Jose, each playing a critical role in defining modern cybersecurity leadership.
Sean Embry — Chief Information Security Officer, eBay
Sean Embry brings more than two decades of experience leading large-scale technology and security programs in high-growth, globally distributed environments. As Chief Information Security Officer at eBay, he oversees security strategy across one of the world’s largest e-commerce platforms, balancing risk management with the demands of continuous innovation and customer trust.
Embry is known for his ability to align security architecture with business outcomes, spanning enterprise infrastructure, application development, governance, and compliance. His expertise includes enterprise-wide technology roadmaps, financial and vendor management, large-scale web platforms, and global infrastructure services. He has led major initiatives in disaster recovery, high availability systems, and security governance across complex, multi-site environments.
His leadership stands out for its operational depth and global execution, making him a key figure in securing large consumer-facing digital marketplaces.
Shaun Khalfan — Senior Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer, PayPal
Shaun Khalfan serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer at PayPal, where he leads global cybersecurity, product security, technology risk, and cyber resilience. He partners closely with product and engineering teams to enable secure, high-velocity innovation across PayPal’s platforms, supporting its mission to be a trusted leader in digital payments and commerce.
Khalfan has a strong track record of driving enterprise-wide cybersecurity transformation, launching security frameworks, strengthening governance, and protecting sensitive financial and personal data at scale. He regularly briefs boards and participates in audit and risk governance committees, bringing cybersecurity directly into executive and fiduciary decision-making.
Recognized by Global CISO 100 and Cyber Defense Magazine, Khalfan is also an adjunct professor and advisor to growth-stage technology companies. His blend of technical credibility, business alignment, and board-level engagement makes him one of the most influential CISOs in fintech today.
Aanchal Gupta — Chief Security Officer, Adobe
Aanchal Gupta is the Chief Security Officer at Adobe, where she leads security strategy for products and platforms used by billions of people worldwide. With more than twenty years of experience, she has built and led geographically distributed teams responsible for delivering secure, trustworthy software at massive scale.
Gupta is particularly known for her work in integrating security and privacy into agile development environments. By partnering closely with product, engineering, legal, privacy, and customer-facing teams, she has helped embed security as a business enabler rather than a bottleneck. Her approach emphasizes collaboration, developer enablement, and user trust.
As a frequent speaker at major industry and digital innovation events, Gupta continues to influence how large software organizations operationalize security and privacy without slowing innovation.
Deepen Desai — Chief Security Officer and Executive Vice President of Engineering, Zscaler
Deepen Desai brings more than 20 years of experience as a cybersecurity and business leader, currently serving as Chief Security Officer and Executive Vice President of Engineering at Zscaler. His role spans both corporate and product security, as well as engineering leadership for some of the industry’s most advanced cloud security innovations.
Desai has led the incubation and scaling of multiple cybersecurity breakthroughs, including cloud sandboxing, malware automation, deception technologies, identity threat detection and response, and cyber risk quantification platforms. He has played a key role in integrating acquired technologies into Zscaler’s platform and driving significant revenue growth through security innovation.
A prolific inventor and thought leader, Desai holds more than 30 patents and is a regular keynote speaker at major global security conferences. His ability to blend deep technical expertise with product strategy and go-to-market execution makes him one of the most impactful security leaders in the cloud security sector.
Anthony Grieco — Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer, Cisco
Anthony Grieco is Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer at Cisco, where he leads teams focused on embedding security, trust, data protection, and privacy into Cisco’s products, platforms, and future business models. His work spans internal security, product security, and collaboration with customers, governments, and partners worldwide.
Grieco’s leadership emphasizes trustworthy systems engineering, secure development life cycles, and resilient operational processes. His team actively identifies emerging challenges and opportunities, ensuring Cisco remains ahead of evolving threats while enabling secure business transformation.
With deep expertise across cryptography, applied security, threat intelligence, hardware and software security, and supply chain protection, Grieco plays a critical role in shaping how security underpins global networking and technology infrastructure.
San Jose’s Cybersecurity Leadership Advantage
San Jose’s cybersecurity ecosystem reflects the city’s role as a global technology powerhouse. From fintech and e-commerce to cloud security and enterprise networking, the CISOs operating here influence security outcomes far beyond their organizations. The leaders featured above demonstrate how modern CISOs must combine technical depth, business acumen, and executive influence to protect innovation at scale.