Niel Harper will step into vice chair role alongside returning chair John De Santis
Schaumburg, IL, USA—At its Annual General Meeting today held in Schaumburg, Illinois, USA, and virtually, ISACA introduced its 2024-2025 Board of Directors. The incoming board slate comprises leading experts around the world from across the cybersecurity, IT audit, governance, privacy and risk professions, led by returning board chair John De Santis and new board vice chair Niel Harper, both former board directors and active members of the global association focused on advancing digital trust and serving members throughout their career journeys.
De Santis is a technology executive and past chairman and CEO of HyTrust, an IT infrastructure security software company that was acquired by Entrust in January 2021. A company-builder based in New Hampshire, USA, he has more than 30 years of international and US-based experience at venture-backed technology start-ups as well as at large global public companies in the telecom and IT fields. He currently serves on the fiduciary boards of Cequence Security and ValiMail, leading innovators in the cybersecurity space.
Prior to HyTrust, he was vice president, Cloud Services for VMware, chairman & CEO of TriCipher, entrepreneur-in-residence at Trident Capital, and CEO at Sygate Technologies, where they developed the technical foundation of Symantec’s Enterprise Endpoint Protection suite. In his earlier experience, he led European operations for various software, hardware and telecom networking companies, as well as co-founded and led to exit a start-up that built the first optical fiber networking capability for IBM mainframes.
“ISACA has the great privilege of equipping a future-ready tech workforce to excel throughout their entire careers,” says De Santis. “In my second term as chair, I will remain focused on effectively collaborating with the board to advance ISACA’s mission and help our members lead in a rapidly evolving tech landscape.”
Advancing to board vice chair is Niel Harper, a technology and cybersecurity executive and past ISACA board director, and the Chief Information Security Officer and Data Protection Officer at Doodle. He has more than 20 years of deep interdisciplinary knowledge across the domains of IT risk management, cybersecurity, privacy, ICTs for development (ICT4D), and technology law & policy. Harper, who is based in Germany, previously served as Chief Information Security Officer and Data Privacy Officer at the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), and has had senior leadership and advisory experience with AT&T, Bemol, Canonical, CIBC, Deloitte Consulting, European Commission, and the Internet Society, among others. He is the recipient of the 2021 ISACA Technology for Humanity Award and the 2021 IFSEC Caribbean Security & Resilience Award. Harper has also been recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader and a Global Shaper.
One new director joined the ISACA board for the 2024-2025 term—Jamie Norton, CISA, CISM, CGEIT, CISSP, CIPM, a partner at McGrathNicol, a specialist advisory and restructuring firm, who has over 25 years of experience in managing security resilience for state and federal government agencies and commercial organizations. Norton, who is based in Australia, also serves on the Advisory Board at Avertro, a cybersecurity startup. He is the former CISO for the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), one of Australia’s largest federal government agencies, where he led the security governance, risk, intelligence & operations, testing and forensics teams, and has previously held leadership roles at NEC, Tenable, Check Point, and the World Health Organization. Norton has been involved with ISACA for nearly 20 years, working with the local chapter board, as a conference organizer and most recently with the CISM Certification Working Group.
In total, the following 13 leaders were installed on the 2024-2025 ISACA Board of Directors during ISACA’s Annual General Meeting:
- John De Santis, Chair, technology executive and past chairman and CEO, HyTrust, Inc., USA
- Niel Harper, CISA, CRISC, CDPSE, CISSP, Vice Chair; technology and cybersecurity executive and Chcief Information Security Officer and Data Protection Officer at Doodle, Germany
- Brennan P. Baybeck, CISA, CISM, CRISC, CISSP, 2019-2020 board chair; SVP & CISO for Customer Success Services, Oracle Corporation, USA
- Tracey Dedrick, Director and 2020-2021 board chair; board member and chair of the Risk Committee for both First Bank Puerto Rico and Sterling FSB; and Lead Director for Sterling FSB, USA
- Stephen Gilfus, NACD.DC 2024, Director; chairman Gilfus Education Group, general partner at Oversight Ventures, Founder Blackboard Inc., USA
- Gabriela Hernández-Cardoso, Director; NACD director, social entrepreneur and past president and CEO of GE Mexico, Mexico
- Jason Lau, CGEIT, CRISC, CISA, CISM, CDPSE, CISSP, HCISPP, FIP, CIPP/E, CIPM, CIPT, CEH; Director; chief information security officer at Crypto.com, Hong Kong
- Massimo Migliuolo, Director; executive chairman, Intuin, Malaysia and Switzerland
- Pamela Nigro, CISA, CRISC, CGEIT, CRMA, Director and 2022-2023 board chair; vice president of security and security officer, Medecision, USA
- Jamie Norton, CISA, CISM, CGEIT, CISSP, CIPM, Director, Partner at McGrathNicol, Australia
- Maureen O’Connell, DC, Director, finance and education executive, audit chair for three public boards, USA
- Asaf Weisberg, CSX-P, CISM, CRISC, CISA, CDPSE, CGEIT, Director; founder and CEO of introSight, Israel
- Erik Prusch, Director and ISACA CEO, USA
“ISACA’s board directors not only bring rich knowledge and diverse expertise to the table, but also a sincere passion for advancing our professional community,” said Prusch. “I am excited to work with this dynamic group to continue evolving and strengthening how we meet the needs of our global members, elevating ISACA further as a world-class professional association.”
To access board member biographies, visit pbsf.517b2b.com/board.
About ISACA
ISACA® (pbsf.517b2b.com) is a global community advancing individuals and organizations in their pursuit of digital trust. For more than 50 years, ISACA has equipped individuals and enterprises with the knowledge, credentials, education, training and community to progress their careers, transform their organizations, and build a more trusted and ethical digital world. ISACA is a global professional association and learning organization that leverages the expertise of its 180,000 members who work in digital trust fields such as information security, governance, assurance, risk, privacy and quality. It has a presence in 188 countries, including 225 chapters worldwide. Through the ISACA Foundation, ISACA supports IT education and career pathways for underresourced and underrepresented populations.
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