Idaho’s cybersecurity leadership bench spans public institutions, courts, local government, healthcare, financial services, and technology companies. The leaders in this feature reflect that range. Some are securing statewide civic systems and judicial operations, others are protecting county networks, health data, and regulated enterprise platforms. Together, they show how Idaho’s cyber ecosystem is being shaped by operators who pair governance and risk discipline with practical experience building resilient programs.
Lloyd Barron — Chief Information Security Officer, Idaho Secretary of State
Lloyd Barron is Chief Information Security Officer at the Idaho Secretary of State, bringing more than 25 years of IT and security leadership experience across domestic and international settings. His background includes earlier leadership roles at Mission Aviation Fellowship, Profitscore Capital Management, and Flagship Food Group, where his work covered enterprise security, privacy, compliance frameworks, business continuity, budgeting, and vendor management. He also notes experience with frameworks such as NIST 800, GDPR, and PCI-DSS, along with a longstanding ability to bridge communication between executive leadership and technical teams.
Robert Brooks — Chief Information Security Officer, Idaho Courts
Robert Brooks serves as Chief Information Security Officer for Idaho Courts, where he leads cybersecurity and risk management for a statewide judicial system supporting the Idaho Supreme Court and court operations across 44 counties. Before that, he briefly held an IT and cybersecurity leadership role at Pitch Aeronautics, and he previously spent more than two decades in the U.S. Air Force leading IT and cybersecurity teams in high-stakes operational environments. His background combines security program building, incident response, third-party risk oversight, hybrid infrastructure security, and a strong emphasis on practical risk management that people can sustain over time.
Jeff Sizemore — Information Technology Security Manager, Ada County
Jeff Sizemore is Information Technology Security Manager for Ada County, where he leads security personnel, oversees security tools and compliance, implements new technologies, and advises county decision-makers on cybersecurity matters. He previously served as an IT Security Engineer within Ada County, and he also brings ongoing experience as a Cyber Warfare Operator in the Idaho Air National Guard, with exposure to threat emulation, forensics, vulnerability scanning, DLP, offensive security techniques, and mission planning. His profile reflects a blend of public-sector security leadership and hands-on defensive and analytical work.
Nicholas Phillips — Chief Information Security Officer, City of Boise
Nicholas Phillips is Chief Information Security Officer for the City of Boise, where he oversees the city’s information security program. He has spent nearly two decades with the city, progressing from network infrastructure work into cybersecurity leadership, including several years as Cybersecurity Lead before becoming CISO. That progression gives him a grounded understanding of both the operational and security sides of municipal technology, covering the networks, firewalls, routers, switches, and enterprise systems that support city services.
Kevin Scharnhorst — Chief Information Security Officer, Health Catalyst
Kevin Scharnhorst is Chief Information Security Officer at Health Catalyst, where he leads the company’s cybersecurity program and has spent years building out its InfoSec team, cloud footprint, and regulatory audit readiness. His work includes supporting multiple HITRUST certifications, annual SOC 2 audits, and TX-RAMP requirements while helping position the company for growth, including its IPO. Before becoming CISO, he held leadership roles in cloud operations and professional services at Health Catalyst, and earlier in his career he worked in engineering leadership at Blue Cross of Idaho and Micron Technology.
Brandon Ashey — VP, Information Security (CISO), Celink
Brandon Ashey is Vice President of Information Security and CISO at Celink, where he leads the organization’s cybersecurity strategy and aligns security with business goals, resilience, and regulatory obligations. He previously led infrastructure and information security at Cradlepoint, where he helped build security and privacy programs through a startup-to-acquisition phase, and earlier managed identity and directory security-related systems at Boeing. His background spans software development, cloud and application security, governance, vendor risk, mergers and acquisitions, and board-level security reporting.
Idaho’s Cyber Leadership Footprint
Idaho’s cybersecurity leadership stands out for its breadth. This is a group that includes public-sector defenders, judicial and municipal security leaders, healthcare and fintech operators, and executives with experience in aviation, defense, banking, and cloud environments. What ties them together is the same core challenge: building security programs that are credible, scalable, and durable in organizations where trust, continuity, and risk management matter every day.
Explore more profiles of the leaders shaping cybersecurity across numerous industries in our CISOs to Watch collection.