California’s high-tech manufacturing sector sits at the intersection of advanced hardware, connected products, cloud infrastructure, medical devices, and industrial-scale research and development. That makes cybersecurity a cross-functional discipline rather than a siloed one. The leaders in this feature reflect that reality. Their backgrounds span artificial intelligence security, cloud security, product security, compliance, risk management, secure engineering, and the protection of complex manufacturing and healthcare-adjacent environments.
Kshitish Soman — Head of Information Security, Seagate Technology
At Seagate Technology, Kshitish Soman serves as head of information security, with responsibility spanning artificial intelligence security, risk management, cloud security, and security architecture. His role builds on an unusual mix of product, engineering, and security leadership. Before moving into Seagate’s information security organization, he led engineering and later products, engineering, and operations for Lyve Cloud, giving him direct experience in the technical and operational environments that security teams are often asked to protect.
Earlier in his career, Soman co-founded OmegaTrace, an IoT product engineering company focused on indoor location sensing and tracking, and also co-founded Digigel, a scalable IoT and fog computing platform. Previous leadership roles at KPMG, Pali Capital, Marsh, Aon, American Express, and other firms added experience in consulting, enterprise architecture, systems design, and large-scale software delivery. That blend of engineering depth and security leadership is especially relevant in high-tech manufacturing environments where cloud platforms, connected systems, and operational resilience increasingly overlap.
Naor Penso — Chief Information Security Officer, Cerebras Systems
Naor Penso is chief information security officer at Cerebras Systems, where he oversees security at a company building large-scale artificial intelligence computing infrastructure. Before joining Cerebras, he served as vice president and head of product security at FICO, following earlier leadership positions including chief technology officer for cybersecurity at Amdocs and chief information security officer at Orbotech before its acquisition by KLA-Tencor. His career has consistently centered on product security, security architecture, and cybersecurity leadership in technically demanding environments.
Penso’s background also includes time as a senior cybersecurity engineer, a security consultant, and multiple roles within the Israel Defense Forces, including team lead for cybersecurity and forensics investigation work. Across those roles, he built experience in both hands-on technical security and executive security strategy. That combination aligns well with the demands of a high-tech manufacturing company like Cerebras, where product development, infrastructure security, and the protection of highly valuable intellectual property all converge.
Samuel Takachicha — Senior Director of Product Security, BD
At BD, Samuel Takachicha serves as senior director of product security, bringing a background rooted in secure product development and the cybersecurity demands of connected medical devices. His profile emphasizes expertise in security by design, incident response, vulnerability management, and product security processes shaped around medical device cybersecurity regulations and standards. That makes his work especially relevant in manufacturing environments where products are not only complex and connected, but also subject to rigorous regulatory expectations.
Before joining BD, Takachicha spent several years at Edwards Lifesciences in product security roles that progressed from architect to senior manager to director. Earlier, he worked in financial-sector security engineering at Banc of California and Broadway Bank, following more technical and operational roles earlier in his career. His path shows a steady progression from infrastructure and engineering work into specialized product security leadership, with a strong emphasis on embedded security practices in regulated product ecosystems.
Rowena Talosig — Director of Information Security and Compliance, Glidewell Dental
Rowena Talosig is director of information security and compliance at Glidewell Dental, where she now leads security and compliance after progressing through several risk and security leadership roles inside the organization. Before becoming director, she served as senior manager of risk and compliance and earlier as manager of information security and compliance, giving her a long runway of experience in the company’s internal security and governance operations.
Prior to Glidewell Dental, Talosig held a similar manager-level information security and compliance role at Allergan and earlier worked in technology risk advisory at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Her background reflects a sustained focus on governance, compliance, and enterprise risk disciplines inside healthcare and manufacturing-adjacent environments. In a sector where operational reliability, sensitive data, and regulated processes all matter, her experience stands out for its continuity and depth across both advisory and in-house leadership roles.
Sateesh Bolloju — Global Director of Research and Development Product Security, Alcon
At Alcon, Sateesh Bolloju is global director of research and development product security, leading the security engineering and solutions group responsible for securing connected product lines and digital solutions deployed globally. His work centers on embedding resilience, privacy, compliance, and customer trust into research and development lifecycles, with a stated focus on making security a strategic enabler for innovation rather than a control function operating at the edges.
Bolloju’s earlier experience includes leading product cybersecurity efforts at Thales in its avionics business, where he worked across in-flight entertainment, connectivity, and digital services, as well as senior cybersecurity consulting work at PwC and identity and access management initiatives at Southern California Edison. His career spans aviation, healthcare, and technology, giving him experience in sectors where safety, reliability, and regulatory precision are central requirements. That background makes him particularly well suited to the connected product security challenges facing high-tech manufacturers today.
The Security Leaders Shaping High-Tech Manufacturing
The leaders in California’s high-tech manufacturing sector are working in environments where cybersecurity now reaches far beyond traditional information technology controls. Their work touches engineering, product design, cloud platforms, compliance, artificial intelligence, and operational resilience. Taken together, their backgrounds show how security leadership in this part of the market increasingly depends on understanding both the business of making advanced products and the technical realities of securing them at scale.
Explore more profiles of the leaders shaping cybersecurity across numerous industries in our CISOs to Watch collection.