Colorado Springs is a military town, and its cybersecurity leaders show it. Among the six below are an Army signal soldier who ran a division’s wide area network as an E-4, a Marine who went on to lead IT for Iraq’s Ministry of Defense, and an engineer who kept the missile defense network running at Fort Greely, Alaska. The city is also home to some of the country’s largest faith-based nonprofits, and one of these leaders protects one of them. Others secure enterprise software, federal programs, a state college, and the clients of an incident response firm.
Brian Rhodes – VP, IT Security & Operations, Compassion International
Brian Rhodes spent eight years in the U.S. Army as an information systems operator at Fort Hood, Camp Humphreys in South Korea, and Fort Carson. As an E-4 he served as acting noncommissioned officer in charge of a 57th Signal Brigade communications section, normally an E-7 billet, running a 46-node network for an entire division. He later built disaster response communications systems for U.S. Northern Command and the National Guard Bureau at NANA Pacific. As enterprise network support manager for the U.S. Navy at Guantanamo Bay, he served six weeks as acting director of the naval station’s information systems department and received a letter of appreciation from the regional commander. Rhodes joined Compassion International in 2012 to lead network and security operations and rose through director of cybersecurity and senior director of information security, also serving as interim head of a 90-person architecture and engineering group. Since 2021 he has served as Vice President of IT Security and Operations, overseeing information security, data center and cloud operations, and service delivery across 29 countries. He also advises senior technology leaders through his consultancy, Rhodigital.
Gary Cunninghame – Director of Information Security, ECI Software Solutions
Gary Cunninghame spent nearly 13 years at Hyperion Solutions, starting as a senior network engineer at corporate headquarters and rising through global network and data center operations to director of security and compliance, with responsibility for IT security and SOX compliance. After directing information security at Clayton, he established the first formal information security program at Misys as IT security director and information security officer. Cunninghame then spent nine years at Oracle, first directing global IT risk management and later leading enterprise IT security and risk management as senior director, covering cloud security architecture, vulnerability management, and regulatory audits. He joined ECI Software Solutions in Colorado as Director of Information Security in September 2023, leading security and compliance for its cloud and enterprise services.
Shannon Welp – vCISO, Arete
Shannon Welp spent nearly six years as desktop support and network administrator for the City of Cripple Creek, supporting its networks, phone systems, and IT budget. She went on to manage more than 1,500 servers as a system administrator at Infinite Group, led a help desk supporting Junior Achievement through Robert Half, and handled backup operations for the U.S. Postal Service’s worldwide server environment. As a cybersecurity consultant at Infinite Group she ran audits, vulnerability assessments, and penetration tests across frameworks including HIPAA, PCI, NIST 800-171, and CMMC. Welp joined incident response firm Arete in 2021 as a technical account manager, served as business information security officer, and since May 2025 has worked as a virtual CISO, advising client leadership on risk, compliance, policy, and incident response readiness.
Diego Rodriguez – CISO, Defense IT Solutions
Diego Rodriguez served four years as a Marine Corps tactical data systems technician at Camp H.M. Smith in Hawaii. He went on to lead IT for Iraq’s Ministry of Defense in Baghdad as a contractor, manage IT for the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization at Fort Irwin, and work as a lead systems engineer in Tallil, Iraq. He later managed a penetration testing team in Guatemala City before moving into audit and compliance, serving as a senior security auditor at Noridian Healthcare Solutions and Visa, an ISO 27001 architect at Arrow Electronics, and director of cloud security operations and GRC at Zayo Group. After more than three years as a senior manager of governance, risk, and compliance at CVS Health, Rodriguez became CISO of Defense IT Solutions, a firm he owns, in November 2023.
John Pfister – Director of Cyber Security, Xcelerate Solutions
John Pfister started in network operations for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system at Fort Greely, Alaska, and in Colorado Springs, monitoring the switches and routers that carry missile defense communications around the clock. At Fort Greely he also served as site lead and COMSEC custodian for Smartronix. He supported counter-rocket, artillery, and mortar systems for Northrop Grumman in a base defense operations center, then spent years in Colorado Springs securing systems including the Air Force Satellite Control Network at Honeywell. At Odyssey Systems and VMD Corp he brought agile and DevSecOps practices to legacy defense and TSA systems. Pfister joined Xcelerate Solutions in 2023 as Director of Cyber Security, directing security across a $200 million footprint, and serves as CISO for the Gigaplex Joint Venture. He led cybersecurity testing for a TSA initiative that raised passenger throughput by 28%, and founded the company’s Bravo Zulu employee resource group. He holds an active TS/SCI clearance.
Mike Krakow – Director of Cyber Security, Pikes Peak State College
Mike Krakow started as an assistant manager at a Software Etc. store in Pueblo and spent five years running IT for Guardian Building Products. He then spent more than 12 years as a network and software administrator at Colorado State University Pueblo, where he also taught engineering project planning. At the Governor’s Office of Information Technology he managed servers, storage, and computer-aided dispatch systems for the Colorado Department of Public Safety, including interfaces to E-911 and national crime databases. After two years as an IBM system administrator for more than 1,000 servers in data centers and power plants, he joined Pueblo Community College, eventually chairing its computer information systems department and managing its CIS and health IT programs. Krakow became Director of Cyber Security at Pikes Peak State College in August 2022.
Mission-Driven Security
Colorado Springs shapes its security leaders around mission. Rhodes, Rodriguez, and Pfister carried military and defense experience into nonprofits, federal programs, and their own firms. Rhodes now protects one of the city’s best-known ministries, an organization whose donors and beneficiaries span the globe. Cunninghame brings decades of enterprise software security, Welp built her career from a small-town city hall to incident response consulting, and Krakow moved from public safety systems to protecting a state college. In a city defined by the bases and organizations that serve beyond its limits, these leaders treat security as part of a larger purpose.
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John Kevin Hao is a news and feature writer covering cybersecurity, technology, and business targeted for professional audiences.