Colorado’s cybersecurity leadership extends well beyond any single sector. The CISOs in this feature are securing commercial space infrastructure, cable technology research, global manufacturing, public transit, consumer health commerce, aerospace and defense, and K-12 data analytics. What connects them is not industry but complexity: environments where the stakes are high, the regulatory frameworks are demanding, and the security program has to hold up under real operational pressure.
Alex Young — Chief Information Security Officer, Sierra Space
Alex Young arrived at the CISO role by way of US Army Special Operations and intelligence, a background that shaped how he thinks about risk, pressure, and mission alignment long before he entered the private sector. At Cognizant, he was brought in following a major ransomware event to rebuild client trust and modernize enterprise platforms, eventually scaling security coverage from 50,000 to 350,000-plus endpoints across more than 30 countries. At York Space Systems, he took ownership of a failing classified satellite program and delivered three accredited satellite operations centers, each achieving three-year ATOs under DCSA review. He joined Sierra Space as CISO in January 2026, holding a TS-SCI clearance and CISSP and CISM certifications. That combination of crisis recovery, classified program leadership, and AI-driven security operations gives him one of the more unconventional profiles in Colorado’s security community.
Brian Scriber — Chief Information Security Officer, CableLabs
Eleven years as a distinguished technologist and VP of security and privacy technologies at CableLabs preceded Brian Scriber’s move into the CISO seat in July 2025. His technical contributions span IoT security, privacy engineering, cryptography, and blockchain, and he holds patents in several of those areas. He chairs the Data Privacy Working Group at the Connectivity Standards Alliance, serves on its board as an officer, sits on the executive committee of the Communications Sector Coordinating Council, and previously chaired the IoT Security Working Group at the Open Connectivity Foundation for four consecutive elected terms. He holds degrees in computer engineering from the University of Michigan and computer science and an MBA from the University of Colorado. Few CISOs in Colorado have logged as many hours shaping industry standards from the inside.
Chris McLaughlin — Chief Information Security Officer, Johns Manville
Nearly thirty years at Johns Manville is a career unto itself. Chris McLaughlin has been CISO there since December 2015, but his security work began earlier, when he developed the company’s first industrial security program in 2013, bringing together IT and controls engineering teams to address industrial control system security before most manufacturers were treating it as a priority. His current remit covers both enterprise IT and operational technology security across a global manufacturing organization, with the ISO 27001 certification process, NIST CSF alignment, and ISA/IEC 62443 framework integration all under his oversight. That depth of OT and ICS security experience, built inside a single organization over a long tenure, is genuinely uncommon.
Tim Coogan — Chief Information Security Officer, RTD
Before joining Colorado’s Regional Transportation District in 2020, Tim Coogan spent nearly six years as CISO at Denver International Airport, where he was responsible for cybersecurity strategy, security operations, IT risk management, and compliance across a facility spanning 53 square miles, supporting 35,000 employees and 64 million passengers annually. His work there included partnerships with DHS, the FAA, the European Union, the Israeli Airport Authority, and aircraft manufacturers, giving him a perspective on critical infrastructure protection that extends well beyond any single agency or sector. At RTD, he applies that background to one of the region’s most essential public services. Two consecutive CISO roles in public transportation infrastructure, each lasting six-plus years, reflects a sustained commitment to a sector that most security leaders overlook.
Nicole Malloy — Chief Information Security Officer, Health-E Commerce
Nicole Malloy built her security career across some of the more operationally demanding environments in consumer retail and financial services. At Western Union, she led three globally dispersed cybersecurity engineering teams responsible for thirteen core technologies, drove NIST CSF maturity up by a full point, and delivered more than one million dollars in cost savings through strategic security consolidation. At Qurate Retail Group, which includes HSN and QVC, she directed security engineering across a multinational portfolio spanning SIEM, DLP, endpoint protection, CASB, intrusion prevention, and cloud security. She joined Health-E Commerce as CISO in July 2025. Her certifications include CISSP, CCSP, AWS Cloud Practitioner, and Azure Fundamentals.
Lisa Petersen — Chief Information Security Officer, The Aerospace Corporation
Lisa Petersen joined The Aerospace Corporation as CISO in December 2025, stepping into one of Colorado’s most security-sensitive organizations after serving as CISO at Sierra Space and spending nearly eleven years as a senior cybersecurity and risk specialist at Booz Allen Hamilton. Her background spans aerospace, defense, manufacturing, and critical infrastructure, with deep expertise in OT security, CMMC 2.0, NIST frameworks, and SOX compliance. She holds an active TS-SCI clearance. At Sierra Space, she spearheaded the development of a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy for defense programs and led incident response and risk management for classified operations. The Aerospace Corporation, which operates as a federally funded research and development center supporting national security space programs, is as demanding an environment as Colorado’s security landscape has to offer.
Jennifer Kurtz — Chief Information Security Officer, LinkIt!
Jennifer Kurtz spent four years helping defense industrial base manufacturers navigate NIST SP 800-171 and CMMC compliance as director of cybersecurity programs at Manufacturer’s Edge, serving as the designated cybersecurity resource for the six-state Rocky Mountain region under a Department of Defense grant. She consulted with more than seventy manufacturing companies during that period. When LinkIt!, a K-12 data warehousing and analytics platform serving school districts across the US and Australia, created a new CISO position, she stepped into it. The shift from defense manufacturing to K-12 education is less of a departure than it sounds. Both environments involve sensitive data, complex regulatory requirements, and a shared responsibility model that demands practical security rather than theoretical compliance. She was recently included among the Top 25 CISOs by Women We Admire.
Seven Leaders, Seven Environments, One Common Thread
The environments in this feature could not be more different: commercial space, cable research, global manufacturing, public transit, consumer health commerce, national security aerospace, and K-12 education technology. What they share is a security leader who had to build something real inside a genuinely complex operating environment and sustain it under ongoing pressure. That is what shows up consistently across this group, and it is what makes Colorado’s security bench worth paying attention to.
Discover more of Colorado’s cybersecurity leaders:
- The CISOs Protecting Colorado’s Students, Staff, and Institutional Data
- Securing Colorado’s Government from the Inside: A Public Sector Cybersecurity Feature
- The Strong Cybersecurity Bench of Colorado’s Software Sector
- Colorado’s Healthcare Cybersecurity Leaders: Protecting Patients at Scale
- The CISOs Keeping Colorado’s Financial Sector Standing