North Carolina’s financial services sector includes major banking, payments, mortgage, insurance, and digital asset companies, making it one of the state’s most important cybersecurity arenas. The leaders in this group are responsible for protecting regulated environments, sensitive financial data, and customer trust while helping their organizations adapt to evolving risks across both traditional finance and newer fintech models.
Thomas Leary — CISO, Arch Capital Services Inc
Thomas Leary leads information security at Arch Capital, bringing a career that began in application development before moving into security leadership. Over time, he built deep expertise in application security, risk analysis, and the deployment of security technologies designed to address high-priority business risks.
His background also includes leading a team through ISO 27001 certification and strengthening prevention, detection, and response capabilities through both process and technology improvements. That blend of technical depth and governance experience makes him a strong fit for a complex financial services environment.
Jennifer Rosario — CISO, Spreedly
Jennifer Rosario serves as Chief Information Security Officer at Spreedly, where she leads security, privacy, compliance, and IT strategy for a company operating at the center of the payments ecosystem. Her role is focused on managing risk intelligently while helping the business scale with speed and confidence.
She is known for building scalable, risk-aligned programs that protect enterprise assets while supporting growth. In a payments infrastructure company where trust, uptime, and compliance are critical, her leadership helps ensure security remains tightly connected to business execution.
Steven Kode — CISO, Great Gray Trust Company
Steven Kode brings broad cybersecurity leadership experience to Great Gray Trust Company, with a background spanning education, e-commerce, energy, and healthcare. His work has centered on threat intelligence, vulnerability remediation, enterprise security roadmaps, and the creation of operating models designed to manage cyber risk in complex organizations.
He is also recognized for his focus on team development and mentoring, pairing technical knowledge with a strong leadership approach. That combination is especially valuable in financial services, where security programs need both disciplined execution and long-term strategic direction.
Ryan Keehn — CISO, Arch Mortgage Insurance Company (Arch MI)
Ryan Keehn leads cybersecurity at Arch Mortgage Insurance, where he has risen from director-level security and compliance leadership into the top security role. His background includes senior positions in cybersecurity, audit, and risk management at Businessolver, along with earlier consulting experience at KPMG and Deloitte.
That mix of internal leadership and advisory work gives him a strong grounding in risk, compliance, and operational security. In the mortgage insurance space, where resilience and regulatory discipline are essential, his experience aligns closely with the demands of the role.
Timothy Titcomb — Senior Director of Cybersecurity, Circle
Timothy Titcomb is part of Circle’s cybersecurity leadership team, where he focuses on controls and assurance at a company operating in digital finance. His career includes more than a decade at Fidelity Investments in senior cybersecurity, technology risk, and information security leadership roles, along with earlier consulting experience at PwC.
His background in vendor risk, customer protection, secure data exposure, and enterprise technology risk makes him especially relevant in modern financial services. At Circle, that experience carries into a sector where cybersecurity, trust, and regulatory alignment are central to business credibility.
Securing Trust Across North Carolina Finance
From mortgage insurance and payments infrastructure to trust services and digital finance, North Carolina’s financial services ecosystem depends on cybersecurity leaders who can balance regulation, resilience, and innovation. These executives are helping shape how the sector protects customer data, manages risk, and builds trust in an increasingly digital financial landscape.
Discover more cybersecurity leaders making a mark in various industries through our CISOs to Watch features.