Many of Syracuse’s most experienced cybersecurity leaders run programs for organizations based somewhere else. Among the five below are the CISO of New York’s Attorney General, the security chief of a data protection company, and the head of security for a national optometry chain, all working from Central New York. One spent two decades building threat intelligence programs at Wall Street banks after starting as an Army special agent. Another started as a relationship banker and now protects a local financial services firm. Their paths run through the NSA, Merrill Lynch, a Syracuse IT consultancy, and a payments startup that grew from 15 employees to 300.
Ben Wilcox – CTO & CISO, ProArch
Ben Wilcox started as a partner at Intelliweb and an infrastructure engineer at Cazenovia College, then directed technology at Inalign. He joined Visory Group in Syracuse as a senior consultant in 2007 and stayed through its 2011 merger into iV4, working as a senior technology consultant on Microsoft and VMware infrastructure and as a Microsoft partner technical seller. He became iV4’s chief technologist, then VP of consulting and SVP of cloud and security. After iV4 became part of ProArch, Wilcox led solution architecture, then became CTO in 2021, leading the company’s Microsoft partnership. He ran ProArch’s cybersecurity and compliance business unit as managing director before becoming CISO in March 2025, overseeing internal IT and security alongside his CTO role.
Brian Scipione – Technology Support Manager & CISO, IBN Financial Services
Brian Scipione started out managing tech support for large retail chains, including as a department manager at Staples in Clay. He spent six years as a relationship banker at M&T Bank before joining IBN Financial Services in Liverpool in 2019 as an operations specialist. He became technology support manager in 2022 and added the CISO role in February 2023, combining his background in finance and technology to develop the procedures and software that IBN’s representatives rely on. Outside work he is a photographer and outdoorsman, and his household includes a pet sugar glider.
Aaron Miller – CISO, Office of the New York State Attorney General
Aaron Miller began as a computer consultant at Syracuse University. He moved into security operations at JPMorgan Chase, monitoring IDS, firewall, VPN, and privileged access activity and partnering with incident response on high-impact events. At National Grid he built a control self-assessment program for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, and at Booz Allen Hamilton he led security assessments of cross-domain solutions for the NSA at the Integration Test and Evaluation Center. After a stint as IT security practice manager at JC Jones & Associates, he became CISO of the Office of the New York State Attorney General in February 2017. He built the office’s information security and IT risk management program and secures its data centers and cloud environments across AWS, Azure, and Oracle Cloud. He holds CISSP, CISM, CISA, CRISC, and PMP certifications.
T.J. Minichillo – CISO, Keyavi Data
T.J. Minichillo started as a U.S. Army special agent, providing investigative and security support to U.S. forces, and later served as a Department of Defense senior special agent. At Booz Allen Hamilton he supported the FBI’s National Infrastructure Protection Center, building an information-sharing channel between the private sector and government. He went on to become Chief Cyber Intelligence Officer at Merrill Lynch, spent seven years as an SVP building Citigroup’s Cyber Intelligence Center, and served as Morgan Stanley’s global head of threat intelligence. He also sat on FS-ISAC’s threat intelligence committee for a decade. After advising clients at Info-Tech Research Group, he led global threat intelligence for National Grid in Syracuse. Minichillo became CISO of Keyavi Data in November 2020, where he also oversees red team testing as VP of cyber threat and intelligence. He teaches cybersecurity and cybercrime at Onondaga Community College, contributed to the book Firewalls: The Complete Reference, and played two seasons of varsity lacrosse at Ohio State.
Steven Tatem – Sr. Director, Cyber Security & IT Operations, MyEyeDr.
Steven Tatem started as a senior network engineer at Sapient and engineered network security infrastructure for the FDIC as a contractor. As VP of IT and security at Merchant Warehouse, a payments technology company, he built the technology infrastructure and security strategy as the company grew from 15 employees to more than 300. He then directed IT for AIR Worldwide, a catastrophe risk modeling firm. Tatem joined The Aspen Group in 2015 as IT director for information security and was promoted to Head of Information Security and CISO in 2020, building the security function for more than 1,200 retail healthcare locations across five brands. He moved to MyEyeDr. in 2023 and has served as Senior Director of Cyber Security and IT Operations since May 2024, working remotely from Syracuse.
Central New York, National Reach
Syracuse’s security leaders show how much work can be done from a mid-sized city. Miller protects New York’s chief legal office, Minichillo brings two decades of Wall Street threat intelligence to a data security company, and Tatem secures a national optometry chain, all from Central New York. Wilcox grew up with a Syracuse consultancy that became part of a national firm, and Scipione built his career in local banking and financial services before taking on security. Minichillo also teaches at Onondaga Community College, helping build the region’s next generation of talent. Together they show that Syracuse’s security bench reaches well beyond the city limits.
Discover more CISOs securing their organizations:
- The Lilac City’s Cybersecurity Leaders to Watch
- The Scenic City’s Cybersecurity Leaders to Watch
- Heart of the Valley: Fresno’s Cybersecurity Leaders to Watch
- Mid-Pacific Defenders: Honolulu’s Cybersecurity Leaders to Watch
- The Gem City’s CISOs to Watch
John Kevin Hao is a news and feature writer covering cybersecurity, technology, and business targeted for professional audiences.