SIM Spotlight: Valene Skerpac on Leadership, Cybersecurity, and the Next Phase of Digital Risk

Cybersecurity has moved from the perimeter of the enterprise to the center of business strategy. As organizations adopt artificial intelligence, expand digital platforms, and operate in increasingly complex threat environments, security leaders carry a responsibility that extends well beyond technology. Their work shapes resilience, trust, and the long-term stability of the institutions they serve.

Valene Skerpac has built her career in that environment. Her work spans enterprise security leadership, engineering teams, and advisory roles supporting global organizations. Across those roles, a consistent theme emerges. Security is most effective when it enables the business while protecting what matters most.

In this installment of the SIM NY Metro Spotlight series, she reflects on the experiences that shaped her leadership approach, the mentors who influenced her thinking, and the opportunities and challenges redefining cybersecurity today.

Early Curiosity and the Start of a Technology Career

In my youth, my natural curiosity about science and technology led to many discussions with my father, a scientist who encouraged my interest. My strengths in mathematics and economics, along with the growth of technology and IBM’s campus recruitment as a software and systems engineer, led me into a career in technology. I was motivated by an experience early in my corporate career, where I was encouraged to manage ‘like it’s your own business’, which put me on the path of seeking leadership roles.

Mentorship and Leadership Influence

During my career, I have learned from key mentors and role models at both large and small companies where I worked. I was impressed by their enthusiastic support for helping me and others grow and lead. Their core message was that leaders grow leaders, who in turn grow other leaders, which is a tenant I strive to live by.

A role model that made an impression on me is a leader that would stroll the entire office daily to see how people were doing and promoting team work (no I in Team) and encouraging proactiveness (go get them). While a bit of an unconventional approach, the lesson that effective leaders are present, have a consistent message and value all those on the team has helped me be a successful leader.

From Technology Leadership to Cybersecurity Strategy

In my role as a senior security executive at Accenture, I led security engineering teams and advised global institutions strategically and tactically to enable their business goals, ensure mandates met and assets protected.

A pivotal moment that set me on the path to cybersecurity was leading a technology security company that developed security products and monitored parolees. I had always been drawn to security as a means of protection and found supporting the “greater good” fulfilling. Through this role, I came to understand that security could serve not only as a safeguard, but also as an enabler of innovative digital applications. Developing and deploying the security monitoring system deepened my appreciation for security’s broader importance to society inspiring my commitment to cybersecurity.

Habits That Sustain Focus and Performance

A habit that helps me to maintain focus and productivity in a demanding role is to commit to healthy living including exercise classes at the gym and diet. Taking a 20-minute break during the day is effective and doable way to gather and recharge.

Staying Current in a Rapidly Evolving Field

I stay current and continue to grow by being actively engaged with professional organizations in the areas of technology, security and women’s groups. I listen to podcasts, follow key security organizations and leading professionals. As a perpetual learner, I invest time to take courses and obtain technology related certifications throughout the year to expand my skills.

Leadership at Scale

As my responsibilities have shifted from managing teams to driving organizational security strategy, I focus on understanding the organization’s multi-year business strategy and developing a security strategy that aligns with it. My leadership style has evolved from directly overseeing teams to enabling others to execute the strategy.

Building Teams and Security Culture

To build high performance teams and foster strong security culture and collaboration across organizational silos, I take a risk management approach to communicate how security issues can impact the business. I find that acting as a partner and knowing the business helps translate security risk for the business resulting meaningful risk mitigation discussions and decisions that are optimal for business outcomes.

I have also found that creating groups that welcome cross collaboration is effective. I established and ran a women and cloud security group that connected those interested in cloud security. Through hosted monthly topic sessions and Teams, we fostered collaboration across silos and grew skills and awareness for Cloud security as it changed at a rapid pace.

Perspective Gained Over Time

I would tell my younger self that not all work is equally important. Seek to identify what truly matters and focus your energy there performing at ‘A level’ rather than trying to do everything at once.

A Defining Career Achievement

In my career, I am most proud of obtaining significant National Science Foundation grant funds to patent and deliver a leading-edge biometric security system using Machine Learning. The solution was designed to benefit society by reducing fraud. The reason I select this project because it was formative where I drove the idea from its inception, collaborated with university, expanded my skills in product development and project development and built a strong, business-driven funding case. It is this security entrepreneurial and engineering background that gives me a deep appreciation for embedding security by design and Artificial Intelligence.

The Next Chapter for Cybersecurity

The expanded use of AI using context to improve security in areas such as threat and vulnerability detection and automated mitigation is a big industry opportunity which will increase the ability to scale security, make it easier for stakeholders to take the ‘secure route’, and lower the average cost of security controls. Businesses can benefit through the avoidance of incidents, being able to fix vulnerabilities before a crisis, and related business benefits. The challenges are that the ‘bad actors’ will also be using AI to perform malicious activities, which escalates the need for organization to stay ahead of the bad actors. This dynamic between will likely be the way the industry operates over the next 5 to 10 years.

Why SIM NY Metro

I was drawn to SIM NY Metro after learning of the Information Technology events targeted for technology executives, its networking opportunities and support for NPower and women in technology. The unique value beyond events and networking has been collaborating with members and receiving feedback from different points of view on security topics I am involved in.

Building the Community Forward

I hope to see the SIM community continue to expand its networking and think that Pods (topic member groups) is a new added feature that members will gain value from. It provides the opportunity to connect remotely and or via meetups in addition to our monthly events and engage in in-depth conversations related to topics such as artificial intelligence, security, data, and leadership.

Continuing the Conversation

I welcome SIM members or the broader community to reach out to me to collaborate regarding cyber security in our organizations today and going forward. I enjoy contributing to SIM sessions and am available to connect on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/valene-skerpac/