Janet L. Rathod named chief information security officer at Johns Hopkins

Janet L. Rathod, a senior information security leader with more than two decades of experience heading enterprisewide security teams in the public and private sectors, has been named vice president and chief information security officer at Johns Hopkins. She will report to Rich Mendola, vice president and chief information officer, and will work closely with senior security colleagues across the institution. She assumes her new position Sept. 16.

"I am so excited that Janet will be joining Johns Hopkins as our next CISO," Mendola says. "She brings experience and perspectives that are incredibly well-suited to the incessant cybersecurity threats that we must face in higher education and health care."

Image caption: Janet Rathod

Rathod joins Johns Hopkins from Citigroup, where she led cyberintelligence across multiple global teams, performing cyber technical and strategic analysis to drive defensive controls and diminish emerging threats. She also identified and mitigated risk within the emerging technology space.

Mendola says that Rathod is known to drive positive change and foster a culture of excellence, and that she is recognized as an opportunity maker who continually sets a bold direction.

Prior to her tenure at Citigroup, Rathod served as senior director of Cyber Operations and Intelligence at Capital One Financial Corp., where she created and led cybersecurity functions with firmwide scope and impact. Rathod's career also includes 16 years in the FBI as a member of the senior executive service, which governed the intelligence program for 56 field offices and four operational divisions.

"Joining the Johns Hopkins community as the CISO is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Rathod says. "The institution's distinguished history of, and dedication to, making a global impact resonate deeply with me. I look forward to working with my new colleagues to safeguard the enterprise and contribute to its ongoing success in education, health care, and research."

Rathod succeeds Darren Lacey, who has been named chief engineer for cybersecurity in the Information Technology Services Department at APL.