South Dakota’s cybersecurity leadership spans banking, higher education, consulting, and state government. The people in this feature are working in environments where resilience, compliance, and operational continuity all matter, whether they are protecting financial institutions, overseeing statewide technology functions, supporting university systems, or advising organizations on security governance. Together, their backgrounds show how cybersecurity leadership in South Dakota is tied closely to both regulated industries and public-sector infrastructure.
Jonathan Jackson — Senior Vice President of Information Security and Chief Information Security Officer, Pathward
Jonathan Jackson leads information security at Pathward, where he serves as Senior Vice President of Information Security and Chief Information Security Officer. His tenure with the company stretches back through multiple leadership roles at MetaBank, including vice president of information security, director of information security, and information security manager, giving him a long view of security program development inside a regulated financial institution. Earlier in his career, he held infrastructure and security roles at Citigroup, Bankfirst, and Marshall Bankfirst, building a foundation in Unix and Windows security, distributed systems, and enterprise administration.
Jared Felix — Chief Information Security Officer, CNH
Jared Felix is Chief Information Security Officer at CNH, after previously serving there as Director of Cyber Defense and Engineering in Sioux Falls. Before joining CNH, he was Chief Information Security Officer for the Minnesota Judicial Branch and held leadership roles in security and compliance consulting, banking, and enterprise retail security. His background includes cyber defense, audit and compliance, incident management, firewall and segmentation programs, and regulatory work across banking, healthcare, and retail environments.
Mark Wixon — Commissioner and Chief Information Officer, State of South Dakota
Mark Wixon serves as Commissioner and Chief Information Officer for the State of South Dakota, leading the Bureau of Information and Technology as the central technology function for state government. Before taking on the statewide role, he led agency and application support for the state and spent nearly three decades at Black Hills Energy in roles spanning enterprise security governance, risk management, technology governance, strategy, enterprise applications, and business application leadership. His experience includes cybersecurity frameworks, utility compliance, major acquisition integration, enterprise planning, and technology modernization across large operational environments.
Scott Francis — Owner, S&V CyberSolutions LLC
Scott Francis is the owner of S&V CyberSolutions, where he provides consulting across risk assessments, governance, vendor management, physical security, business continuity, disaster recovery, and incident response planning. Before launching his firm, he served as a senior governance, risk, and compliance consultant at VerSprite Cybersecurity and held several security-focused roles at MetaBank, including information technology security analyst and contingency specialist. He also worked as Associate Network and Security Officer for the South Dakota Board of Regents, helping coordinate information security and incident response strategies across the public university system.
Paul Kern — Chief Information Security Officer, South Dakota State University
Paul Kern is Chief Information Security Officer at South Dakota State University. Before moving into the university role, he served as Network and Security Director at the South Dakota Board of Regents and earlier worked in security operations leadership at Meta Payment Systems. His experience includes security tooling, vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, incident response support, network security, compliance review, and policy development, giving him a background that combines both operational security work and system-level oversight across higher education and financial services.
Chris Hoff — Director of Professional Services, SBS CyberSecurity
Chris Hoff leads professional services at SBS CyberSecurity, where his work spans audit, consulting, network security, and operations. His career began in software development before shifting into information security consulting and auditing for financial institutions, and he has spent years working across risk assessments, penetration testing, business continuity planning, incident response planning, and policy development. That blend of technical, advisory, and operational experience has made him a longstanding figure in South Dakota’s financial cybersecurity ecosystem.
A Stronghold in Financial and Institutional Security
South Dakota’s cybersecurity leadership reflects the state’s concentration of financial services expertise, higher education security leadership, and technology governance experience. Across banks, universities, consulting firms, and public institutions, these leaders are shaping how security programs are built, matured, and sustained in environments where trust, resilience, and disciplined execution matter every day.
Explore more profiles of the leaders shaping cybersecurity across numerous industries in our CISOs to Watch collection.