California remains one of the deepest cybersecurity talent markets in the country, not only because of its concentration of software, AI, and cloud companies, but also because of the scale and variety of environments its leaders help protect. The women featured here span enterprise software, higher education, public-sector technology, digital health, and cybersecurity product innovation. Together, they reflect the breadth of California’s cyber leadership, from securing global platforms used by billions to shaping risk strategy for state systems and data-intensive organizations.
Aanchal Gupta — SVP, Chief Security Officer, Adobe
Aanchal Gupta brings one of the strongest product-security backgrounds in the industry to Adobe’s top security role. Adobe appointed her as Chief Security Officer in July 2025 after a career that included senior security leadership at Microsoft, where she served as Corporate Vice President and Deputy CISO and also led major cloud and Microsoft 365 security efforts. Earlier in her career, she held security leadership roles at Meta and Microsoft’s Skype business, building teams and programs around product security, privacy, compliance, and platform trust at global scale. That combination of deep engineering fluency and executive security leadership makes her a standout figure in California’s cyber ecosystem.
Aysha Khan — CIO & CISO, Treasure Data
Aysha Khan stands out for the way she blends cybersecurity leadership with broader enterprise technology strategy. Treasure Data lists her as CIO and CISO, placing her at the center of both security and operational transformation for a global customer data platform company based in Mountain View. Her role spans risk, AI governance, enterprise modernization, and board-level decision support, which fits her broader profile as a technology executive who has worked across billion-dollar enterprises and growth-stage companies. In California’s market, where security increasingly intersects with AI adoption, data governance, and revenue enablement, that dual CIO-CISO lens makes her especially notable.
April Sather — Chief Information Security Officer, University of California Office of the President
April Sather is one of the most important higher-education security leaders in the state. UC public materials identify her as Chief Information Security Officer at the University of California Office of the President, and systemwide references also tie her to broader cyber defense responsibilities across the UC environment. That matters because the UC system is not a simple single-campus organization. It is a sprawling research, teaching, and public-service network with a wide attack surface and a high-value data environment. Sather’s background at UC Irvine and now UCOP places her at the center of protecting one of California’s most consequential academic ecosystems.
Liana Bailey-Crimmins — State Chief Information Officer & Director, California Department of Technology
Liana Bailey-Crimmins is not a current CISO, but she is absolutely one of the most influential female cybersecurity and technology leaders in California. As State CIO and Director of the California Department of Technology, she advises the governor on statewide technology strategy, resilience, digital identity, cloud services, and modernization. Her relevance to a cybersecurity-focused feature is especially strong because she previously served as Chief Information Security Officer at CalPERS, where she helped protect the data of millions of members and a massive investment portfolio. She represents the kind of public-sector leadership that shapes not just one organization’s security posture, but the digital direction of an entire state.
Susan Chiang — Chief Information Security Officer, Headway
Susan Chiang adds a strong digital health and platform-security perspective to this California lineup. Headway announced her appointment as Chief Information Security Officer in August 2024, highlighting her prior experience at Cloudflare, Uber, Salesforce, and Deloitte, as well as her healthcare-related consulting background. The announcement also noted that she is based in San Francisco, which makes her a relevant inclusion for a California feature even though Headway’s announcement came from New York. She is especially notable because her work sits at the intersection of cybersecurity, privacy, and trust in a sector where protecting sensitive health data is central to product credibility and growth.
Poornima DeBolle — Chief Technology and Security Officer, Menlo Security
Poornima DeBolle fits this feature as one of California’s most accomplished security product leaders and founders. Menlo Security’s leadership page identifies her as the company’s Chief Technology and Security Officer and co-founder, while recent company materials continue to highlight her role in shaping its browser security strategy. She may not fit a strict CISO-only list, but for a broader “female cybersecurity leaders” feature she is a strong inclusion because she has helped build one of the state’s notable security companies from the ground up. Her profile reflects a different kind of cyber leadership, one rooted in product vision, category creation, and long-term company building within California’s security sector.
Why California keeps producing influential women in cyber
California’s cybersecurity leadership bench is unusually broad because the state combines global software platforms, major public institutions, digital health innovators, and a dense security startup ecosystem in one place. That creates room for multiple kinds of leadership to stand out: enterprise CISOs, product-security executives, public-sector strategists, and founders building the next generation of cyber companies. The women in this feature reflect that range. Some are securing massive global technology environments, others are protecting public systems or shaping trusted digital platforms, and others are building the security tools that the wider market depends on. Together, they show why California remains one of the most important stages for women in cybersecurity leadership.
Explore more profiles in CISO Whisperer’s Women’s Month series.