Sonya Wickel

About Sonya Wickel

Extensive experience in IT, Cybersecurity, and Compliance leadership. Collaborate with teams to enhance IT resiliency, cybersecurity frameworks, ensure compliance, and mitigate risks while aligning IT and Cybersecurity strategies with organizational goals. Active roles on advisory boards at Verizon, Gartner, CrowdStrike, WiCys Executive Leaders Network, and DallasCISO reflect dedication to industry advancement. Committed to fostering secure, innovative solutions that empower the company\'s mission and culture. Recognized for contributions to technology and cybersecurity through collaborative and strategic leadership.Expertise: Greenfield builds of cybersecurity, governance and outsourcing. Board advisor, and leadership reporting. Regulatory compliance including SOX, DFARS/CMMS, UK MoD, and GDPR. Cost optimization through vendor assessments, negotiations, tool validation and consolidation.Career Highlights- Developed a transformational model to drive a 30% corporate cost reduction following an IT decentralization strategy, through tools reduction, vendor negotiations, and outsourcing for a $43M overall budget across 115 IT personnel at 22 locations in 7 countries- Developed a multi-year cyber and compliance strategy to include a risk-based, roadmap to improve maturity levels from 1 to 3 over a three-year period, using lean/six sigma practices to drive continuous improvement- Architected the Enterprise Security & Compliance program from the ground up to establish a SOC, SIEM, log management, Vulnerability Management, MFA, IAM, PAM, advanced threat hunting, and incident response. Includes a mix of internal and third-party support for ongoing management and support. Established and was appointed the first CISO for the company.

Experience

1. Customer Advisory Board Member

   Verizon

   Jun 2025 — Present

Education

• The University of Kansas

  Bachelor's degree

• DeVry University

  Bachelor of Science - BS

• Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University

  Master of Business Administration - MBA

• Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University

  Master’s Information Systems Management