Secured by Women: Meet the five recipients making cybersecurity history

Earlier this month, we launched Secured by Women to bring visibility to the women making history in security. Today, we’re incredibly proud to announce our inaugural winners, for all to see, in one of the busiest intersections in the world—Times Square. Seeing them shine in a big way is a powerful reminder of the impact they’re making. Not only have these women worked hard and broken barriers to become leaders in cybersecurity, they’re also driving change in an industry by inspiring more women to pursue security careers.

As we learned from their peer-submitted nominations, they’ve inspired their colleagues, counterparts, and friends in countless ways. And based on the incredible submissions we received over the past few weeks, it’s clear that these five women represent a promising trend—women who are revolutionizing cybersecurity and making their mark on the industry. Please join us in congratulating our inaugural Secured by Women leaders, and take a moment to appreciate the many more women nominated for their fantastic achievements! 

 

Ami Dave Bansal – Chief Information Security Officer, Fanatics

👋 About Ami: Ami, an accomplished security leader skilled at building and maturing information security programs, has worked at a wide range of companies, from healthcare and insurance to space technology and sports betting. 

✨💡 Why she inspires us: As the CISO at Fanatics, Ami is building out an entire security program from scratch to meet the needs of a highly regulated and fast-growing betting and gaming business. She’s passionate about mentoring and helping women break into cybersecurity, engineering, and technology.

 

Julie Chickillo – VP, Head of Cybersecurity, Guild Education

👋 About Julie: Julie leads the innovative security team at Guild Education, a company that aims to unlock economic and career opportunity through equitable access to education and career pathways. She believes in evolving cybersecurity and privacy practices with new cloud technology. 

✨💡Why she inspires us: Julie knows firsthand how important it is for women to see others like them succeed. Being the only woman in the room many times throughout her cybersecurity career, she’s now passionate about empowering and paving the way for future generations of women in security.

 

Helen McLaughlin – Head of Security Enablement & Culture, Mambu

👋 About Helen: Helen drives security enablement at Mambu across customer journeys and promotes a security-first culture through education and awareness initiatives. Prior to joining Mambu, Helen held various security leadership roles at companies such as ING, Workday, and Barclays Investment Bank. 

✨💡 Why she inspires us: Helen is a shining star driving the security agenda at Mambu and supporting customers with their security needs. She also actively promotes and supports diversity and inclusion across the industry.

 

Melina Scotto – Vice President Cybersecurity, CISO, Hilton

👋 About Melina: Melina’s expertise lies in reducing cyber risk and strengthening security controls in a fast-paced environment while complying with federal, international, and domestic data security and privacy regulations.

✨💡Why she inspires us: Melina’s journey to CISO began with securing global health systems providing life-saving drugs to PEPFAR countries. She’s an advocate for women in technology programs and attracting more talented women to the cybersecurity community.

 

Erika Voss – Vice President of Cloud Architecture, Engineering, Capital One

👋 About Erika: A proven technology executive who has been responsible for global enterprise security and compliance programs for cloud based organizations, Erika is skilled at translating technology and risk for executive leaders and building enterprise support for change. 

✨💡Why she inspires us: Erika is a globally recognized security and technology leader and an active thought leader for women in security. She’s passionate about equality, upskilling talent, and she serves on the Forbes Technology Council.

 

Beyond Women’s History Month: Our celebration is only getting started

We’re proud to celebrate Ami, Julie, Helen, Melina, and Erika, for their incredible leadership and serving as role models for the next wave of cybersecurity leaders. We can’t wait to see what else they accomplish and look forward to seeing them—and many more women in security—at our Secured by Women event series at major industry gatherings later this year.

To all who nominated and recognized their peers, we’re extremely inspired by the submissions and grateful you took a moment to bring visibility to this important cause. Thanks to your support, we’re proud to donate $5,000 to Girls Who Code in support of their mission to close the gender gap in technology. 

At Lacework, we’re committed to creating change in cloud security to make the world a safer, and more equal, place. Stay tuned for additional programming and content as part of Secured by Women—today is only the beginning.