Acquisitions, separations, public offerings, and rapid growth all change the shape of a business. Systems have to be merged or pulled apart, new teams and regulators come into view, and controls built for one organization have to work for another. Security has to keep up through every stage, often while the business is moving faster than usual. The five cyber leaders below have taken on that challenge in different forms, from separating a company from its parent to integrating hundreds of acquired firms and building security for a business that keeps getting bigger.
Michael Milligan – CISO, FedEx Freight
Michael Milligan’s job is to keep security working while FedEx Freight separates from its parent. As CISO since September 2025, he sets the company’s strategic direction for cybersecurity, regulatory compliance, and risk management, oversees the protection of its digital assets and continuity programs for more than 40,000 team members, and leads the security strategy for its separation from FedEx Corporation. He knows the organization he is separating from. Before taking the role, he was staff vice president of IT governance, risk, and compliance at FedEx Corporation, and earlier led IT risk management at FedEx Services, covering business continuity and disaster recovery, data privacy, and mergers and acquisitions. He started his career as an accountant at Entergy and AT&T before moving into consulting at BearingPoint.
Matthew Mudry – CISO, Alera Group
More than 200 firms fall under Matthew Mudry’s security program at Alera Group, an insurance and financial services company that has grown rapidly through acquisitions. As CISO since April 2025, he is responsible for integrating newly acquired firms into Alera’s infrastructure while maintaining compliance with standards and regulations including SOC 2 and NYDFS. In a May 2026 conversation, he discussed standardizing security across acquired organizations, balancing business pressure with security due diligence, and why security teams need to be involved earlier in acquisitions, along with the importance of access controls and data loss prevention as companies adopt AI. “What’s better than fighting AI with AI?” he asked. He brings similar experience from HomeServe, where as CISO he integrated acquisitions while maintaining PCI and SOX compliance, and a strong technical foundation from years in infrastructure. He advises aspiring security leaders not to rush into management before building that technical and risk management grounding.
Sean Walls – SVP & CISO, Bob’s Discount Furniture
Sean Walls has helped prepare two companies’ security for life as a public company. At Presidio, he matured the security program in preparation for its IPO and SOX compliance. He joined Bob’s Discount Furniture shortly before its public offering in October 2024 as its first dedicated CISO, brought in to elevate security as a standalone executive function. His remit there covers information security, governance, risk, compliance, privacy, business continuity, and crisis management. “We’re not here to say no,” he says. “We’re here to empower and strengthen the business.” His career has run through several other structural changes: at Conn’s HomePlus, he played a key role on the integration team, unifying security programs and network architectures between Conn’s and Badcock Furniture, and at Eurofins he was part of the global cybersecurity M&A team. He also serves on Bain Capital Ventures’ CISO advisory board.
Cole Sinkford – VP & CISO, GlobalFoundries
As deputy CISO at GE Renewable Energy, Cole Sinkford established the business’s standalone cybersecurity capabilities. He went on to lead them, serving as CISO and later as GE Renewable Energy’s global chief information and product cybersecurity officer, responsible for cybersecurity strategy and operations across both its products and enterprise. Since October 2022 he has been vice president and CISO of GlobalFoundries. His path into security ran through GE’s corporate audit staff, where he spent three years leading audits and projects across digital technology and business environments, after starting in GE Aviation’s Digital Technology Leadership Program. He holds a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Cincinnati.
Colleen Carroll – Senior Director, Information Security Officer & Data Protection Officer, Emburse
“In the security world, you do nothing in a silo,” says Colleen Carroll. When she joined Emburse in 2021 after six years in technology risk at EY, the private-equity-backed company was expanding rapidly, and its audits were handled in silos through processes that weren’t fully coordinated. Her focus became building a unified structure to reduce redundancy and increase efficiency. Her team now manages more than 20 external audits, and she has taken on GRC, security risk and vendor management, and the role of data protection officer, later adding application security, employee awareness, and fraud risk. In December 2025 she became senior director, information security officer, and data protection officer. She is also a central voice in the company’s cross-functional AI governance initiative, helping set guardrails for responsible AI use. She holds a master’s in accounting.
Security Through Change
A separation, a wave of acquisitions, a public offering, a new standalone function, and fast growth each test security in different ways. Systems and teams have to be brought together or pulled apart, compliance has to hold through the transition, and new risks arrive before the dust settles. The leaders who handle that well keep the business moving while making sure security is built into whatever shape it takes next.
Discover more CISOs securing their organizations:
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- Security Without Shutting the Door: The University CISOs to Watch
- Banking Without a Branch: Europe’s Digital Finance CISOs to Watch
- Securing the Physical Economy: Europe’s Industrial Cyber Leaders to Watch
- Ready Before It Happens: New Zealand’s Cyber Readiness Leaders to Watch
John Kevin Hao is a news and feature writer covering cybersecurity, technology, and business targeted for professional audiences.