For Women’s Month, this feature highlights cybersecurity leaders whose careers were shaped inside some of the world’s biggest companies. Their experience spans Fortune 500 environments in industrials, financial services, real estate, aviation, healthcare, retail, and infrastructure, giving them the kind of board exposure, regulatory depth, and operational scale that few security leaders ever get to build. Together, they show how women are leading cyber programs at the highest levels of corporate America.
Teresa Zielinski — Vice President, Global CISO, GE Vernova
Theresa Zielinski brings deep large-enterprise experience to her role as Vice President and Global CISO at GE Vernova. After more than 26 years in cybersecurity and IT leadership across GE, she now leads cyber strategy, governance, product security, third-party security, and data protection for a company playing a major role in global electrification and energy infrastructure. Her background gives her rare credibility in both enterprise transformation and industrial-scale risk management.
Betty Elliott — SVP, Chief Information Security Officer, Freddie Mac
Betty Elliott has built a career across major financial and enterprise organizations, and now serves as Senior Vice President and CISO at Freddie Mac. Before that, she held CISO roles at Mercer, MoneyGram, and Convergys, along with senior security leadership positions tied to Best Buy, Ameriprise Financial, and Allianz Life. Her track record reflects the kind of executive who knows how to lead governance, compliance, fraud, security operations, and risk strategy inside large, highly regulated businesses.
Julie Myerholtz — Vice President, Chief Information Security Officer, Brunswick
Julie Myerholtz has led cybersecurity and enterprise risk functions across multiple major companies, and now serves as Vice President and CISO at Brunswick. Before joining Brunswick, she was CISO at Grainger and First Solar, where she built security programs, launched governance structures, and regularly advised executive teams and boards on cyber and compliance risk. Her experience across manufacturing, retail, and energy gives her a broad operating perspective that stands out in Fortune 500 leadership circles.
Julie Harris — Chief Information Security Officer, PulteGroup
Julie Harris has spent more than two decades at PulteGroup and now serves as the company’s Chief Information Security Officer. Her path through infrastructure, operations, and security leadership reflects the kind of long-term enterprise knowledge that can be especially valuable in a Fortune 500 setting. She combines deep technical and operational experience with a steady focus on efficiency, culture, and business value, making her an important example of cybersecurity leadership inside a major public company.
Shabnam Jalakian — SVP, Chief Risk Officer, First American Financial
Shabnam Jalakian recently stepped into the Chief Risk Officer role at First American Financial after years leading the company’s cybersecurity function as CISO. Her background spans enterprise risk services at Deloitte, technology audit at Pacific Life, and more than a decade of progressively senior security leadership at First American. That progression makes her a strong example of a cyber executive whose work earned influence well beyond security and into broader enterprise risk leadership.
Julie Porro — SVP, Chief Information Security Officer, Anywhere Real Estate
Julie Porro has led security at several major brands, including Anywhere Real Estate, Shutterstock, and JetBlue, with earlier leadership experience at Deutsche Bank, Citi, UBS, Ernst & Young, and Kraft Foods. She is known for building mature, business-aligned cyber programs and for bringing a pragmatic, board-facing leadership style to complex security environments. Her career shows how Fortune 500 and large-enterprise experience can shape a security leader who is both operationally strong and strategically trusted.
Sara Schmidt — Senior Vice President, Chief Information Security Officer, US Foods
Sara Schmidt serves as Senior Vice President and CISO at US Foods after previously leading security at Farmers Insurance and holding earlier information security roles at Perrigo and the Department of Defense. Her experience spans corporate security leadership, governance, risk and compliance, and public-sector cyber work, giving her a well-rounded view of how to protect complex organizations. She also stands out for her advocacy for women in IT and information security, pairing executive leadership with talent-building work that helps strengthen the field.
Kimberly (Kim) Basile — Chief Information Officer, Kyndryl
Kimberly Basile is the broadest fit in this group because she now serves as CIO rather than CISO, but her background clearly includes senior cyber leadership at scale. Before becoming CIO at Kyndryl, she led global enterprise security at Vanguard and served as Senior Vice President and CISO at Leidos, following a long career at Lockheed Martin. Her experience across cyber strategy, threat intelligence, governance, compliance, and enterprise transformation makes her a strong inclusion in any list focused on women with major Fortune 500 cyber leadership experience.
Param Vig — Senior Vice President, Chief Information Security Officer, Solventum
Param Vig is one of the strongest examples of a modern public-company cybersecurity leader. As SVP and CISO at Solventum, following the company’s spin from 3M, she has built a global cyber function, aligned security with board governance and SEC disclosure expectations, and helped shape cyber strategy for a newly public healthcare business. Her earlier leadership at 3M, Entegris, GE, and GE Healthcare shows sustained experience managing cyber risk, compliance, and operational resilience across multiple Fortune 500 and global industrial environments.
Where Fortune 500 experience shows
What ties these leaders together is not just title prestige, but the kind of operating experience that comes from leading security inside large, high-pressure organizations. Their careers reflect board visibility, regulatory complexity, global scale, and the need to make cybersecurity work as both a protective function and a business enabler. That is exactly why they stand out during Women’s Month as leaders worth watching.
Explore more profiles of the amazing women shaping cybersecurity across numerous industries in our Women’s Month collection.