Telecom and network infrastructure security does not get the same attention as financial services or healthcare, but the systems being protected are just as consequential. Carriers, IaaS providers, cloud networks, and the technology platforms that power them handle the traffic, data, and connectivity that every other sector depends on. A breach or disruption in this environment does not just affect one organization. It affects every organization running on the infrastructure beneath it. The CISOs in this feature are protecting a diverse range of network-dependent organizations, from traditional voice carriers and application delivery platforms to digital infrastructure providers and regional research networks, and their work reflects the security challenge of keeping connectivity reliable and secure in environments that cannot afford to go down.
Ahmad Douglas — CISO, Vistance Networks
Ahmad Douglas stepped into the CISO role at Vistance Networks following the sale of the CommScope brand and Cable and Connectivity Services business segment to Amphenol Corporation, having served as CISO at CommScope since March 2023. Before CommScope, he spent nearly four years as chief security officer at Equifax Workforce Solutions and a year as SVP of global security strategic initiatives at Equifax, and before that three years as head of information security and risk management for Xfinity Digital Home at Comcast. His earlier career includes nearly four years as senior director of global information security at Visa and nine years at Los Alamos National Laboratory spanning system administrator, team leader, research scientist, program manager, and business information security officer roles in the Global Security Directorate. He also served as a STARS Network mentor at MACH37 Cyber Accelerator and on the technical advisory board of computer science at Allegheny College. That arc from national laboratory security through payments, cable, data analytics, and now network infrastructure reflects a security leader whose cross-sector depth is directly applicable to the converged technology environments that telecommunications companies increasingly operate.
Rafael Pierosan — CIO and CISO, EdgeUno
Rafael Pierosan serves as CIO and CISO at EdgeUno, a fast-growing IaaS provider operating across 17 countries and more than 50 data centers across LATAM, EMEA, and the United States, where he leads technology strategy, cybersecurity, AI innovation, data governance, and risk management for a mission-critical, high-availability infrastructure environment that sits at the edge of the telecom and digital infrastructure ecosystem. Before EdgeUno, he spent more than six years at SellersFi, joining at inception and scaling the technology, security, and compliance foundation from zero to more than $150 million in operations, achieving ISO 27001, ISO 9001, and SOC certifications while building integrations with CitiBank, JPMorgan, Visa, Amazon, Shopify, and others across seven years with zero material security incidents. Before SellersFi, he spent nearly twelve years as head of information technology and information security at Petrobras, one of the world’s largest energy companies, operating at the intersection of critical infrastructure protection, regulatory complexity, and large-scale enterprise technology across a $145 billion revenue organization. His compliance mandate across EdgeUno spans COBIT, COSO, ITIL, ISO 27001, NIST CSF, GDPR, LGPD, CCPA, PCI DSS, HIPAA, DORA, and NIS2, reflecting the regulatory breadth of an infrastructure provider operating across dozens of jurisdictions.
Sean Pike — CISO, A10 Networks
Sean Pike has served as CISO at A10 Networks since April 2023, leading security for a company whose application delivery controllers, DDoS protection, and security platforms are deployed by telecom carriers and enterprises globally. Before A10 Networks, he spent three and a half years as CISO at Business Wire, nearly five years as program VP for security products, data security, and information governance at IDC managing a consulting group providing strategic advisory services to the world’s largest cybersecurity and technology companies, and seven months as director of global compliance center of excellence at VMware. Earlier, he built and managed a cybersecurity and risk management organization at Arbitron from the ground up, overseeing a $1 billion acquisition’s forensic and eDiscovery work and leading a 24/7 security operations capability. He also founded and grew a security consulting business to $5 million in revenue over four years at AaSys Group. His background in market research, advisory, and consulting before his CISO roles gives him an unusually broad perspective on the competitive and strategic security landscape that informs how he approaches security at a networking technology company whose products sit inside telecom infrastructure worldwide.
Sharad Kumar — CISO, Netlink Voice
Sharad Kumar has served as CISO at Netlink Voice since March 2022, leading cybersecurity strategy, vulnerability management, compliance governance, risk management, and incident response for a voice and communications services provider. Before stepping into the CISO role, he spent more than four years at the same company as a senior security engineer, building the technical security foundation before taking on executive accountability. His earlier career includes a cybersecurity engineer role at Tutorialspoint. His approach centers on transforming organizations into risk-aware cultures through comprehensive security programs covering ISO 27001, SOC 2, and GDPR compliance, and he has built and led security training programs to elevate workforce security awareness across the organization. That progression from hands-on security engineering to CISO leadership inside a single communications company reflects a practitioner who built the program he now leads from the technical layer up.
Dave Phillips — CISO, OSHEAN
Dave Phillips has served as CISO at OSHEAN since December 2024, leading security for a Rhode Island-based regional cloud and network services organization serving educational, healthcare, and government institutions across New England. Before OSHEAN, he spent a year and a half as field CISO at Aqueduct Technologies and two and a half years as CISO at Cutting Edge Technologies, building and leading network and network security practices. The deepest tenure of his career is nearly nineteen years at Carousel Industries as senior solutions architect and solutions engineering manager, providing technical pre-sales design and consulting services across enterprise clients and leading a team of eight solutions engineers. Before Carousel, he spent three years as a senior network engineer at Partners HealthCare and began his career as a network and phone technician at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, Rhode Island. That background in network architecture, solutions engineering, and managed services, spanning healthcare and defense before landing in regional cloud network security leadership, gives him a grounded operational understanding of the infrastructure environments his member organizations depend on.
Kevin Hayes — CISO, Merit Network
Kevin Hayes has served as CISO at Merit Network since September 2018, leading security for a nonprofit internet provider and research network serving Michigan’s educational, governmental, and research institutions. Before Merit, he spent nearly five years as director of information security at Wayne State University, where he built the university’s comprehensive information security program from the ground up, and before that three years as lead systems security specialist and five years as a student and staff network security engineer at Oakland University. He holds CISSP and CISM certifications, teaches cybersecurity courses at Wayne State University, and has spoken about security issues on Detroit television station WDIV-TV and Detroit public radio station WDET-FM. His career, built entirely in higher education and nonprofit network security in Michigan, reflects a security leader whose deep community engagement and sustained institutional commitment shapes how he approaches security at an organization whose mission is to enable the institutions it serves rather than to generate profit.
Network Security Is Infrastructure Security
The organizations in this feature are not all traditional telecom carriers, and that is the point. The network services ecosystem has expanded well beyond the major carriers to include IaaS providers, application delivery platforms, regional cloud networks, nonprofit research networks, and the technology companies whose products sit inside carrier infrastructure worldwide. The leaders in this feature are protecting that full ecosystem, and their work reflects the reality that connectivity security is not a single sector problem. It is a foundational challenge that affects every organization running on the networks beneath it.
John Kevin Hao is a news and feature writer covering cybersecurity, technology, and business targeted for professional audiences.