California’s utilities sector depends on CISOs who can protect critical infrastructure while supporting the safe, reliable delivery of essential services. The executives in this feature work across electric, gas, and water systems where operational resilience, regulatory compliance, and risk management carry unusually high stakes. Their backgrounds span IT and OT security, critical infrastructure protection, enterprise risk, incident response, and large-scale modernization programs inside organizations that serve millions of residents and businesses across the state.
Jake Margolis — Chief Information Security Officer, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
Jake Margolis serves as chief information security officer at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, where he leads cybersecurity for one of the state’s most important water infrastructure organizations. His background reflects extensive experience in large and complex environments, with a focus on delivering technology and security solutions at scale for the public sector and critical infrastructure. Before joining Metropolitan in 2018, he served as chief information security officer for the County of Orange and earlier held policy, compliance, and information assurance roles with the county, the California National Guard, and the United States Army. That combination of public sector, infrastructure, and military experience gives him a strong foundation for securing a system where reliability and resilience are central to mission success.
Omar Zevallos — Chief Information Security Officer and Cybersecurity Director, San Diego Gas & Electric
Omar Zevallos is chief information security officer and cybersecurity director for San Diego Gas & Electric, with responsibility spanning both SDG&E and Southern California Gas Company. His role covers IT and OT security across two major utilities, drawing on a background that combines cybersecurity leadership with deep technical experience in power systems, smart grid, SCADA, and enterprise networks. Before becoming CISO, he held a progression of leadership roles across network technologies, operations technology, and energy management systems engineering, including oversight of large-scale network and communications initiatives, major datacenter upgrades, private LTE deployment, and critical infrastructure programs tied to reliability and field operations. His career at SDG&E reflects a leader who grew up inside utility operations and now brings that operational depth to enterprise and industrial cybersecurity.
Kevin Fitzsimmons — Chief Information Security Officer, Alameda County Water District
Kevin Fitzsimmons is chief information security officer at Alameda County Water District, where he leads district-wide cybersecurity strategy and operations supporting critical water infrastructure serving residents and businesses across Fremont, Newark, and Union City. He stepped into the role after eight years at EBMUD, where he led IT security operations covering strategy, architecture, incident response, and security policy for one of the Bay Area’s largest utility environments. Earlier in his career, he held senior leadership roles at ShoreTel and NeoGrid North America, building and scaling IT operations, cloud services, and security capabilities in complex enterprise settings. His background combines infrastructure leadership, cloud transformation, and information security operations, making him a strong fit for utility organizations where resilience, continuity, and practical execution matter as much as policy and governance.
Francisco Perez — Chief Information Security Officer, San Diego County Water Authority
Francisco Perez is chief information security officer at the San Diego County Water Authority, where he has focused on strengthening security posture, improving user experience, and advancing the convergence of IT and OT in a sector facing fast-changing threats. His early work in the role included assessing the security stack, recalibrating the program against relevant frameworks, prioritizing projects based on sector-specific needs, and implementing improvements in areas such as email security, identity protection, and awareness training. Before joining the Water Authority, Perez spent more than two decades with the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, including as director of information technology in a dual role as CISO and interim CIO, and earlier as the office’s information systems security officer. That background gave him experience in security program building, law-enforcement-facing environments, forensics, infrastructure, vendor strategy, and executive communication, all of which now inform his work in critical water infrastructure.
Yusuf Ezzy — Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer, Pacific Gas and Electric Company
Yusuf Ezzy serves as vice president and chief information security officer at Pacific Gas and Electric Company, where he leads cybersecurity for one of the nation’s largest combined electric and natural gas utilities. His profile reflects a senior executive who works at the intersection of enterprise risk, operational resilience, technology transformation, and regulated infrastructure. Before becoming CISO in 2024, he served as deputy CISO and previously led corporate security and broader cybersecurity functions, including risk management, engineering, service operations, security awareness, and large-scale investment planning. Over more than two decades at PG&E, he has held leadership roles across IT service management, infrastructure, web operations, and operational excellence, giving him an unusually broad view of how cybersecurity connects to utility operations, capital planning, and long-term organizational resilience.
Utility cybersecurity leadership in California is increasingly operational
The leaders in this feature reflect how cybersecurity in utilities has become inseparable from operations, resilience, and long-range infrastructure planning. Their work is not limited to corporate systems or traditional compliance programs. It extends into OT environments, field communications, emergency preparedness, cloud modernization, and the protection of services that communities depend on every day. In California, where utilities face both scale and scrutiny, these CISOs are helping define what modern security leadership looks like in critical infrastructure.
Explore more profiles of the leaders shaping cybersecurity across numerous industries in our CISOs to Watch collection.