Former Citigroup CISO Blauner on What Makes a Great Security Leader
Dark Reading, Tuesday, July 28th, 2026
The cybersecurity pioneer discusses the evolution of the CISO role, AI's impact on careers, and why operational resilience is the profession's next frontier.
Charles Blauner, who served as CISO at JPMorgan, Citigroup, and Deutsche Bank after entering the field at the dawn of information security, is featured in Dark Reading's Heard It From a CISO video series. Blauner reflects on the influence of Steve Katz, regarded as the godfather of the CISO role, and explains how mentorship, collaboration, and a culture of paying it forward helped shape the profession.
He argues that today's security leaders must be more than technical experts, with resilience, communication, and business acumen increasingly defining successful CISOs.