The department that serves as state government’s business office has appointed a chief information security officer.The Financial Information System for California (FI$Cal) has named veteran technologist Jennifer Benson to the CISO position. Benson most recently served as senior project manager for the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (CalOES), where “she spearheaded key technology project initiatives to bolster various emergency management solutions,” according to a FI$Cal news release.
Benson’s top priorities in her new role, according to FI$Cal, “include familiarizing herself with FI$Cal’s enterprise and security posture” and focusing on recruitment.
“Her primary objective is to synchronize the goals of the Enterprise Security Services Office with the department’s mission, priorities, and the Cal-Secure roadmap, ensuring a cohesive and robust security strategy,” the release says.
Benson’s previous public-sector roles include having served as CIO and deputy director of the state Department of Toxic Substances Control; as associate director for Enterprise Solutions Services and project management officer for California State University at Monterey Bay; and as IT manager for the California Environmental Protection Agency.
Her experience in the industry includes having been a senior consultant for Enterprise Networking Solutions (ENS-Inc, now part of Optm); senior project manager for IBM; systems engineer for GE Capital; and application engineer for System Integrators Inc.
Benson was featured in an Industry Insider — California “One-on-One” interview in June 2020, while she was CIO at DTSC. In that role, she said, she was most proud of helping to transition the department “to a very open and transparent culture, where management and staff are in the decision-making process related to technology initiatives.”
Benson has a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration, with a specialization in management information systems, from California State University at Chico. In addition, she holds various industry certifications and is a certified Project Management Professional and an IT Infrastructure Library Practitioner.
