“Cybersecurity is a 24/7 job.” Mike Conley, 2023 Pittsburgh CISO of the Year and Chief Information Security Officer for two Fortive companies, traces that mindset back to his Computer Science degree at PennWest (Cal). Early roles programming security tools at U.S. Steel led to leadership as one of the company’s first cybersecurity managers—a path he now pays forward by hiring and mentoring PennWest interns.

Conley’s work centers on mission-critical environments—environmental health and safety, aviation and industrial operations—where downtime isn’t an option. Inside a modern security organization, his teams operate on multiple fronts: governance, risk and compliance (policies and training), a security operations center (detection and response), and protective technologies (endpoint protection, firewalls, rapid patching). The objective is simple and relentless: prevent incidents, detect early, respond fast, keep people safe.

Looking ahead, he points to two imperatives. First, third-party risk in an AI-accelerated supply chain: are components built securely, and do we understand what AI contributed to code and data? Second, workforce quality and integrity in an AI era: teams must master tools without outsourcing thinking—or interviews—to bots. The horizon brings bigger challenges—quantum-era cryptography, attackers using AI to erase traces, and faster-moving threats—which makes fundamentals, human judgment and continuous learning more important than ever.

By partnering with PennWest, Conley helps convert classroom experience into industry impact—keeping critical systems safe while paying forward the preparation he gained on the Cal campus.