Few organizations can defend themselves alone. Nonprofits, rural municipalities, universities, and hospitals often lack the budgets and staff of large enterprises, which is why some of Canada’s most important cybersecurity work happens through shared services, provincial hubs, and cross-sector partnerships. The five cyber leaders below are building that collective defense from Ontario to British Columbia. Their backgrounds are as varied as the communities they serve. One clerked at the Supreme Court of Canada before founding a national center for nonprofit digital resilience. Another spent more than a decade investigating privacy breaches for Alberta’s privacy commissioner. A third started as a programmer at the University of Saskatchewan and now runs a shared security operations center for the province’s research network.
Katie Gibson – Director, Cyber Clinic and Insights, Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst
Katie Gibson began her career in law, clerking at the Court of Appeal for Ontario and the Supreme Court of Canada and practicing labor and employment law in Toronto. She later consulted for nonprofits and taught law in Cambodia, built a community finance advisory service from the ground up at MaRS, and led Ontario government programs in social enterprise, entrepreneurship, and women’s economic security, including $19.5 million a year in investments to prevent gender-based violence. After serving as VP of strategy and policy and general counsel at Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada, she built cross-sector partnerships at the Digital Governance Council and co-founded the Canadian Centre for Nonprofit Digital Resilience, serving as its executive director. Gibson joined Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst at Toronto Metropolitan University in February 2025, where she leads the Catalyst Cyber Clinic, which offers free cybersecurity support to community organizations through trained students and new professionals. She also leads Cyber Clinics Canada, an emerging national network of postsecondary institutions expanding clinical education for cybersecurity learners.
Rachel Hayward – Executive Director, CyberAlberta
Rachel Hayward began as a manager in enterprise risk at Deloitte before spending nearly 13 years at the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta, rising to director of compliance and special investigations. She went on to work as a senior manager at The Privacy Pro and as director of privacy and technology law at fashion retailer SSENSE. Hayward became executive director of CyberAlberta in July 2024, leading the development of the Government of Alberta’s provincial cybersecurity hub. The program brings together government, industry, academia, and communities and is open to public, private, and nonprofit organizations across the province, including small municipalities and rural organizations. She delivered a keynote at BSides Edmonton in September 2026.
Jon Coller – CISO, SRNET and University of Saskatchewan
Jon Coller joined the University of Saskatchewan as a programmer in 2002 and has spent more than 24 years there, working as a systems and programmer analyst and security architect before becoming CISO in 2017. Since November 2023 he has also served as CISO of SRNET, the Saskatchewan Research Network, where he leads its Shared Security Operations Centre, pooling security capability across the province’s research and education institutions. Coller holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Saskatchewan and a master’s degree in information security from Royal Holloway, University of London.
Jim Galati – Director Cyber Security Defence Operations, Ontario Health
Jim Galati brings 25 years of experience in information security and technology architecture. He directed technology architecture at ING Canada and spent eight years at Intact Financial Corporation, leading strategic planning and enterprise architecture and then information security. He moved into public healthcare as director of cyber security defense at eHealth Ontario and has led cyber security defense operations at Ontario Health since 2019. In January 2024 he was appointed regional CISO for the East Region through Scarborough Health Network and The Ottawa Hospital, supporting two local delivery groups covering 36 hospitals with security controls and governance.
Earl Maynard – Vice President Cyber Domain, Dominion Dynamics
Earl Maynard began in federal politics as director of communications for the Minister of State for Seniors and the Minister of State for Finance, supporting Budget 2015 communications. He joined the Communications Security Establishment in 2016, working as a policy advisor and as strategic advisor to the deputy chief of signals intelligence, advancing legislative, Cabinet, and funding files. As senior strategic advisor for cyber partnerships at the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security from 2023 to 2026, he led engagement across Western Canada with critical infrastructure, industry, academia, and government partners, and helped establish CSE’s presence in British Columbia. Maynard joined Dominion Dynamics in Vancouver as vice president of its cyber domain in September 2026.
Building Defenses Together
These five leaders show that Canada’s cyber resilience depends as much on partnership as on technology. Gibson and Hayward are opening security support to nonprofits and smaller organizations, while Coller and Galati pool capability across universities and hospitals. Maynard brings years of national cyber partnership work to the private sector. Together they are building defenses that no single organization could build alone.
Discover more CISOs securing their organizations:
-
- Practitioners at the Podium: The Teaching CISOs to Watch
- Following the Money: America’s Financial Services CISOs to Watch
- Vital Signs: America’s Healthcare CISOs to Watch
- Securing the State: The UK’s Government Cybersecurity Leaders to Watch
- Keeping the Shelves Stocked: The UK’s Food and Beverage Cybersecurity Leaders to Watch
John Kevin Hao is a news and feature writer covering cybersecurity, technology, and business targeted for professional audiences.