A Year In, Zoom's CISO Reflects On Balancing Security And Business
Help Net Security, Thursday, April 23rd, 2026
Zoom's CISO Sandra McLeod discusses her first year transitioning from reactive firefighting to strategic business-aligned security leadership.
In this Help Net Security interview, Zoom's CISO Sandra McLeod reflects on her first year in the role, detailing her evolution from reactive incident response to proactive business strategy. McLeod explains that engineers, the board, and customers all sought the same thing: confidence that security would balance risk mitigation with business enablement.
She discusses preparing for incident management's dual nature of crisis response and post-incident accountability, and reflects on her experience as a woman in technical leadership at Zoom, where she benefited from established credibility and strong female representation. McLeod concludes by advising aspiring women leaders to clarify their leadership motivations, test leadership through smaller opportunities, and pursue the path if they find energy in enabling others and navigating complexity.