Phoenix CISOs Prove Experience Trumps Seniority
Phoenix is home to six experienced CISOs who have made significant contributions to their organizations' security programs. Brandon Young, VP and CISO at Republic Services, built Honeywell's Global Security Operations Center from scratch between 2004 and 2007, standing up a tiered incident response model that covered 120,000 employee desktops and the company's global network infrastructure on a $2.961 million budget.
Robert Wahl, VP of Global CISO and IT Infrastructure at Circle K, has held various security roles throughout his career, including stints at PetSmart and Tyson Foods. He joined Circle K in 2025 after serving as Chief Information Security and Privacy Officer at Harley-Davidson.
Stephen McMaster, CISO at Western Alliance Bancorporation, spent 24 years at Wells Fargo before taking on the CISO role at Western Alliance Bank in November 2025. His last role at Wells Fargo was leading cloud security strategy, data loss prevention, and third-party cyber risk.