North Dakota’s cybersecurity leadership bench is smaller than that of larger states, but it includes a strong mix of public-sector, financial-services, higher-education, and software security leaders who are helping shape resilience across the state. The people in this spotlight reflect the practical nature of cybersecurity leadership in North Dakota, where roles often span strategy, operations, governance, compliance, and institution-wide modernization. Their backgrounds show how the state’s cyber ecosystem is being strengthened through work in government technology, banking, enterprise software, and university systems.
Christopher Gergen — Chief Information Security Officer, North Dakota Information Technology
Christopher Gergen serves as chief information security officer at North Dakota Information Technology, where he brings a background that blends public-sector cyber operations, financial-sector security, and earlier experience in audit and risk. His progression through NDIT included roles as interim CISO, director of cyber operations, cyber analysis and response lead, and interim cyber operations manager, giving him broad exposure to both leadership and frontline cyber defense functions. Before joining NDIT, he held security roles at the Bank of North Dakota and earlier worked at Deloitte, where his experience spanned internal controls, regulatory environments, and risk-based assessment work. That combination gives North Dakota’s statewide technology organization a leader with both operational cyber depth and a strong governance foundation.
Nick Lindhag — Chief Information Security Officer and Deputy CIO, City of Fargo
Nick Lindhag serves as chief information security officer and deputy CIO for the City of Fargo, where he has played a long-term role in shaping municipal technology and security operations. Before adding the deputy CIO title, he served as the city’s chief information security officer and previously held responsibility for network services and public safety systems, giving him a practical understanding of how cybersecurity supports core city functions. His career path inside Fargo stands out for its continuity and institutional depth, reflecting experience across infrastructure, security governance, and public-sector service delivery. In a city environment where resilience and continuity are critical, that combination makes him a notable cybersecurity leader in North Dakota’s local-government landscape.
Jacqueline Fredette — Chief Information Security Officer and Head of Information Security & GRC, Bushel
Jacqueline Fredette is chief information security officer and head of information security and GRC at Bushel, where she works at the intersection of cybersecurity, governance, compliance, privacy, and enterprise risk inside a software company serving agriculture and financial technology markets. Her profile reflects an unusually broad compliance and regulatory range, spanning frameworks tied to government, finance, healthcare, privacy, and infrastructure, which makes her role especially relevant in a business handling sensitive data and regulated workflows. Before Bushel, she worked at Deloitte and PwC, building a foundation in risk, controls, and advisory work that now supports her leadership in a growing North Dakota-based technology company. She stands out as one of the state’s strongest examples of a cyber leader operating where SaaS, fintech, and GRC discipline meet.
Todd Kuehnast — Director of Information Security, First International Bank & Trust
Todd Kuehnast serves as director of information security at First International Bank & Trust, bringing a background that combines financial-services technology leadership, information security, and enterprise operations. His role at the bank reflects a long-standing focus on security and risk in regulated financial environments, supported by earlier leadership positions that included senior technology and CIO responsibilities at other banking institutions. That history gives him a perspective shaped not only by cybersecurity, but also by broader operational oversight, disaster recovery, vendor management, and the deployment of banking systems across multiple lines of business. In North Dakota’s financial sector, he represents the type of leader who connects security priorities directly to institutional stability and business execution.
Brad Miller — Director of Information Security, North Dakota University System
Brad Miller serves as director of information security for the North Dakota University System, where he leads system-wide security strategy, operations, and governance across NDUS and Core Technology Services. His role spans security operations, incident coordination, leadership engagement, and alignment of security capabilities with institutional and regulatory needs, making him a central figure in higher-education cybersecurity across the state. Before stepping into the NDUS role, he served for years as IT security officer at the University of North Dakota, with responsibilities that included policy, assessments, risk analysis, compliance, awareness, and incident response. That long track record in higher education gives him a strong foundation for helping guide cybersecurity across one of North Dakota’s most important public institutional systems.
The leaders shaping North Dakota’s cyber backbone
What makes this group notable is not just title level, but range. Together, these leaders show how North Dakota’s cybersecurity ecosystem is being built across government, cities, banks, software companies, and university systems. In a state where leadership benches can be thinner than in larger markets, these roles carry outsized importance because the people holding them are often shaping both day-to-day resilience and the long-term maturity of the organizations they serve.
Explore more profiles of the leaders shaping cybersecurity across numerous industries in our CISOs to Watch collection.