Joan Ross
Field CISO, Fortinet
Joan Ross is the field CISO for Fortinet, working closely with internal and external security executive teams. A technologist for more than 25 years, her security leadership comes from direct, hands-on security experience and exhaustive research, most recently working with the Verizon Cyber Intelligence Center, taking their findings directly to security teams to improve the security resiliency of global, complex, computing environments. Ross is the former chief security officer for two technology companies in the Pacific Northwest, DocuSign and Avanade, and understands first-hand the challenges, priorities and risk considerations daily facing every security executive.
Prior to becoming a CISO, Ross was a security strategist and architect for Microsoft’s Online Security and Compliance division during the advent of cloud computing and introduction of Azure, and VP of information security at Washington Mutual, now JP Morgan Chase, creating their first information security, incident response and forensics divisions, Ross holds an MS degree in human-computer design and engineering from the University of Washington and works closely with their Center for Information Assurance and Cybersecurity mentoring and developing the next generation of cybersecurity professionals.
Joan Ross is the field CISO for Fortinet, working closely with internal and external security executive teams. A technologist for more than 25 years, her security leadership comes from direct, hands-on security experience and exhaustive research, most recently working with the Verizon Cyber Intelligence Center, taking their findings directly to security teams to improve the security resiliency of global, complex, computing environments. Ross is the former chief security officer for two technology companies in the Pacific Northwest, DocuSign and Avanade, and understands first-hand the challenges, priorities and risk considerations daily facing every security executive.
Prior to becoming a CISO, Ross was a security strategist and architect for Microsoft’s Online Security and Compliance division during the advent of cloud computing and introduction of Azure, and VP of information security at Washington Mutual, now JP Morgan Chase, creating their first information security, incident response and forensics divisions, Ross holds an MS degree in human-computer design and engineering from the University of Washington and works closely with their Center for Information Assurance and Cybersecurity mentoring and developing the next generation of cybersecurity professionals.
