Credit unions hold more than their members’ savings. They also safeguard personal information, account access and the everyday banking routines members depend on, all within a tightly regulated environment. The five leaders in this feature protect that trust from different positions. Four lead cybersecurity inside credit unions in California, North Carolina, Colorado and New York. The fifth secures the digital and core banking platforms that hundreds of credit unions run on.
Ganesh Raghavan – CISO & VP of Infrastructure, Provident Credit Union
Ganesh Raghavan oversees information security, infrastructure and vendor management at Provident Credit Union. The combination places cybersecurity, infrastructure reliability and third-party oversight under a single leadership seat. Since joining in July 2020, he has reported regularly to the board and executive team on program progress, industry threats and organizational risk. His program applies multi-layered and Zero Trust controls to protect sensitive data and business-critical services. It also strengthens governance against AI-driven threats, including deepfakes, fraud and bot attacks. Raghavan brings more than two decades of experience to the role. That experience includes CISO posts at Hill Physicians Medical Group and Bloom Energy, and earlier infrastructure and security leadership at Microsoft and Netflix. He also sits on the advisory boards of Cyble and Hackerdogs.
Jonathon Striley – VP, Information Security, Coastal Credit Union
At Coastal Credit Union, a $6 billion institution, Jonathon Striley leads cybersecurity in a role that carries CISO remit and direct engagement with executive leadership and the board. His team of 22 spans security operations, engineering, governance, risk and compliance, and technology support. Striley builds his program around NIST-aligned controls and operational maturity. He regularly briefs the board on cybersecurity risk, incident response readiness and strategic security investment. That discipline shows in the credit union’s examination record, with multiple NCUA examinations and state reviews closing without adverse actions. Striley is a founding member of the CarolinaCISO Advisory Board. He is also listed among the speakers for ISMG’s December 2026 virtual summit on the implications of AI.
Daniel Burkard – VP of Information Security, Premier Members Credit Union
Building a security program from the ground up is the work Daniel Burkard took on when he joined Premier Members Credit Union in August 2022. As the credit union’s corporate information security officer, he developed its information security and risk program on the ACET and NIST frameworks. He partnered with IT operations to manage the threat landscape and established outsourced 24×7 security event and incident management. His remit covers governance and controls across FFIEC and NCUA requirements, GLBA, SOX, SOC 2 and PCI. Burkard arrived with experience at considerable scale. At CommonSpirit Health, he directed cybersecurity engineering standards across an environment of nearly half a million endpoints. Before that, he headed cybersecurity, systems engineering and data center operations at Frontier Airlines. He has been an InfraGard member since 2002 and is an FBI Citizens Academy alumnus.
Daniel R. Ford – CISO, Jovia Financial Credit Union
For Daniel R. Ford, cybersecurity education extends beyond the workforce and into the community. As CISO at Jovia Financial Credit Union since February 2023, he has championed Cyganix, Jovia’s cybersecurity initiative. Its inaugural conference in October 2024 at Nassau Community College brought students, professionals and community members together for workshops on cybersecurity topics. Inside Jovia, Ford’s approach to security culture draws on security champions, phishing tests and gamification. He moved into the CISO seat after more than three years as the credit union’s CIO. His earlier career includes CISO roles at Silent Circle and Fixmo. At Unisys, he led the team that established the first approved enterprise security architecture within the Department of Homeland Security.
Rob Zelinka – Chief Information & Security Officer, Sharetec
Credit unions depend on core processing and digital banking platforms that sit outside their own walls. Rob Zelinka secures one of them. Sharetec appointed him Chief Information & Security Officer in January 2026. The role gives him responsibility for the security, resiliency and regulatory compliance of the company’s digital and core processing platforms, which serve nearly 300 credit unions. His remit also covers enterprise security strategy, the protection of sensitive member data and the management of emerging technology risk across the credit union ecosystem. Zelinka joined Sharetec after more than seven years as VP and CIO at Jack Henry & Associates. There, he led a team of more than 500 people and managed an annual budget above $200 million. That experience gives him a provider-side perspective on keeping shared banking infrastructure reliable, compliant and secure.
Security Leadership Across the Credit Union Ecosystem
Credit unions are built on member trust. The leaders featured here protect it in different ways: combined security and infrastructure leadership, board-level risk reporting, programs built from the ground up, member-facing education and the security of the platforms credit unions run on. Their work helps members bank with confidence, however they access their accounts.
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John Kevin Hao is a news and feature writer covering cybersecurity, technology, and business targeted for professional audiences.