Spotlight on Arnel Manalo

Arnel Manalo is the CISO for Tri-State Generation & Transmission Association. He has over 20 years of experience in IT and Cybersecurity, and is focused on aligning compliance, reducing risk, and partnering with key stakeholders to meet business operational objectives.

A fun fact about Arnel: he has completed the Buffalo Wild Wings' Blazing Challenge.

Learn more about the Denver CISO community here.
 

Give us a brief overview of the path that led to your current role.

I started off in various IT positions that were responsible for endpoints, servers, and infrastructure. Over the years, I moved into the cybersecurity domain where my curiosity, readiness to improve, and successfully bridging the gap between cybersecurity and the business led me into senior roles.
 

What is one of your guiding leadership principles?

One of my guiding leadership principles is to stay curious. Being a cybersecurity professional, the landscape constantly changes and evolves. We have to master numerous disciplines and have a deep understanding in order to properly secure enterprises.
 

What is the greatest challenge CISOs face today, and how are you addressing it?

More recently, frontier AI threats. The foundation doesn't change, as over time, there will always be new ways threat actors infiltrate companies. This specific challenge is the time to respond to threats has been drastically compressed.
 

What is the key to success for someone just starting out as a CISO?

Understand the business. You have to speak the language and successfully articulate how cybersecurity enables the business. Gone are the days when you only spoke about risks. You need to elevate your communication to align with senior business leaders.
 

How do you measure success as a leader?

Impact. Several metrics and paradigms go into that measurement.

From the business perspective, stakeholder feedback on security initiatives. From the team, are we delivering on time and on budget? Is the team growing from accreditations to additional responsibilities? Defensive metrics, how well are we managing the risk in our environment? These are some of the underlying measurements I take into measuring impact and success of the program.
 

What is the value of being a member of Gartner C-level Communities?

As a member, especially surrounding the cybersecurity discipline, it's vital we communicate and help each other grow as we are responsible for the security of our enterprises. We combat adversaries with knowledge and skill. The more we share and be better, the stronger our defenses will be.

Governing Body members share their insights and leadership perspectives to shape the agendas and topics that address the top priorities impacting business leaders today.