Winnipeg’s cybersecurity community defends institutions with long memories: a hydroelectric utility powering an entire province, an insurer founded in 1896, a lottery corporation serving four provinces and three territories, a banknote printer operating since 1907, the province’s largest research university, and an NHL franchise. Longevity runs through this group. Four of the six have spent more than a decade at the organizations they now protect, and one has been at the same employer for 22 years.
Tanis Brako – CSO, Manitoba Hydro
Tanis Brako spent more than 20 years at Manitoba Hydro before becoming its Chief Security Officer in September 2025. The provincial crown utility generates and delivers nearly all of Manitoba’s electricity from hydroelectric stations on the Nelson River system. Brako is a professional engineer who came up through the company’s technical ranks, and her mandate covers converged physical and cyber defense of generating stations, transmission lines, and the control systems that run them. Two decades inside the utility means she knows its operational terrain, from remote northern stations to the Winnipeg control centres.
Andrew Dunsford – VP & CISO, Wawanesa Insurance
Andrew Dunsford has been at Wawanesa Insurance for more than 11 years, becoming Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer in May 2022. Founded in a Manitoba farming town in 1896 and still headquartered in Winnipeg, Wawanesa is one of Canada’s largest property and casualty insurers, with operations across Canada and the United States. Its security program protects the policyholder data and claims systems of millions of customers, in a sector where regulators on both sides of the border have raised expectations sharply. Dunsford’s rise through the company gave him a ground-up view of its technology estate.
Patrick McCarthy – Director, Information Security & Compliance, University of Manitoba
Patrick McCarthy came to the University of Manitoba from health care. He spent nearly three years as an information security officer with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority through Manitoba eHealth before joining the university in August 2015. His role spans security operations and regulatory compliance for the province’s largest research university, covering tens of thousands of students and staff, research programs that attract foreign interest, and health sciences data subject to strict privacy law. That health background carries directly into an institution with medical, nursing, and pharmacy faculties. McCarthy holds CISA and CISM certifications.
Nicholas Douville – Director, Cybersecurity and Governance, WCLC
Gaming integrity is the whole business at the Western Canada Lottery Corporation, and Nicholas Douville has directed its cybersecurity and governance since October 2020, part of a 15-year career with the Winnipeg-headquartered organization. WCLC operates lottery and gaming systems on behalf of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. Douville holds SABSA and CISM credentials, pairing enterprise security architecture with management discipline. Gaming systems security is a specialized corner of the field, and 15 years inside one operator is a long apprenticeship in it.
Dan Gill – Director of IT & Cybersecurity, True North Sports + Entertainment
Dan Gill has led technology and cybersecurity at True North Sports and Entertainment since September 2004, more than 22 years with the organization that owns the Winnipeg Jets, the Manitoba Moose, and the Canada Life Centre. His combined mandate covers arena ticketing and point-of-sale systems, the broadcast and game-operations technology running on game nights, and the business systems of a sports organization with national visibility. Gill steered the organization’s technology through the Jets’ return to Winnipeg in 2011 and every season since. Venues like the Canada Life Centre blend payment systems, crowd-facing networks, and broadcast infrastructure in one building.
Sean Habing – Director of Information Security, Pollard Banknote
Sean Habing became Director of Information Security at Pollard Banknote in August 2024, working from Winnipeg in a hybrid role. Headquartered in the city since 1907, Pollard prints lottery tickets and supplies gaming solutions to lotteries across North America and worldwide. Its systems span secure physical printing and digital iLottery platforms, which gives the security program an unusual physical-digital reach. Habing arrived as lottery and gaming clients worldwide began demanding stronger assurance from their suppliers, which makes his program part of what Pollard sells.
Staying Power on the Prairie
Winnipeg’s cybersecurity leaders stay put. Gill has defended the same organization for 22 years, Brako spent 20 at Manitoba Hydro before taking its top security job, and Douville has 15 years at WCLC. McCarthy and Dunsford are both past a decade in place. That continuity matches the institutions themselves: a hydro utility, a lottery corporation, an insurer founded in 1896, a printer operating since 1907. Habing is the newest arrival, and even he stepped into a company older than most of its competitors. These are leaders who know their systems down to the wiring, which is what happens when people stay long enough to learn them.
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John Kevin Hao is a news and feature writer covering cybersecurity, technology, and business targeted for professional audiences.