Montana’s cybersecurity leadership spans state government, higher education, banking, software, and advisory roles. The leaders in this feature are working across very different environments, but their backgrounds point to the same core challenge: building security programs that can protect critical systems, support institutional trust, and keep pace with changing operational demands. From statewide security strategy and university environments to financial institutions and growing technology companies, these profiles show the breadth of cyber leadership shaping Montana today.
Chris Santucci — Chief Information Security Officer, State of Montana
Chris Santucci serves as State Chief Information Security Officer for Montana after previously leading as Cybersecurity Operations Bureau Chief within the Department of Administration. His background combines cybersecurity leadership, privacy, IT strategy, research, and policy awareness, along with earlier experience in public service and military security operations. That mix of operational leadership, analytical work, and government experience now sits at the center of Montana’s statewide cybersecurity efforts.
Jonathan Neff — Chief Information Security Officer, University of Montana
Jonathan Neff is Chief Information Security Officer at the University of Montana, where he has spent more than a decade in technology leadership roles, including serving as acting CISO and director of college information technology. His background also includes work at LMG Security as an IT manager and forensic analyst, along with earlier infrastructure and systems roles in telecom, healthcare, and higher education. At the University of Montana, he focuses on protecting institutional data, systems, and users while building a culture of security, risk management, and resilience across the university and its affiliate campuses.
John Williams — Chief Information Security Officer, Montana State University-Bozeman
John Williams became Chief Information Security Officer at Montana State University-Bozeman in 2025 after spending more than six years as head of information security at Murdoch’s Ranch & Home Supply. His earlier career included network and communications roles at Oracle, RightNow, and Aeroflex, giving him a long technical foundation in infrastructure, telecom, and security-adjacent operations. That path from hands-on engineering into formal security leadership gives him a strong operational base for leading cybersecurity in a major university environment.
Dale Daugherty — Chief Information Security Officer, First Interstate
Dale Daugherty is Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer at First Interstate, where he leads cyber and information security strategy in a highly regulated banking environment. His career at the company spans more than two decades, including prior roles in IT compliance, risk and security, IT audit, and information system security. Over that time, he has worked across control validation, audit design, policy development, board reporting, risk assessment, intrusion detection, vulnerability assessment, and enterprise security awareness, giving him deep institutional experience in financial-sector cybersecurity.
Scott Doty — Chief Information Security Officer, AdvicePay
Scott Doty is Chief Information Security Officer and Head of Business Operations at AdvicePay, where he has led security since 2019 before expanding into a broader business operations role in 2024. His background includes nearly eight years as senior IT infrastructure manager and CISO at ARGO, along with consulting work across software development, financial services, banking, healthcare, manufacturing, and real estate. His career reflects a combination of long-term infrastructure leadership and formal security ownership, with experience building and managing security programs inside both established companies and consulting environments.
Grounded in Montana’s Core Systems
Montana’s cyber leaders are working inside the systems people rely on most: government services, universities, banks, and technology platforms. Their careers reflect a blend of technical depth, institutional knowledge, and security leadership shaped by real operating environments rather than abstract theory. Across the state, that kind of experience is helping define what durable cybersecurity leadership looks like.
Explore more profiles of the leaders shaping cybersecurity across numerous industries in our CISOs to Watch collection.