Roota Almeida is the Chief Information Security Officer at Delta Dental of New Jersey and Connecticut (DDNJ, Inc.). Roota has been instrumental in helping to establish Delta Dental of New Jersey’s Office of Information Security and leading the development and implementation of enterprise-wide information security strategy, policies, risk assessments and controls. She believes more women should be encouraged to pursue STEM careers and has started a summer internship program at DDNJ, Inc. specifically designed to give graduating female high school students insight into the field of corporate cybersecurity. Prior to joining Delta Dental, Roota was the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Covanta Holdings Corp., a leader in Energy-from-Waste. As CISO, she led all aspects of Information security and risk, including global information security awareness programs, policies, business continuity, and incident response teams. With over 15 years of direct experience in establishing and maintaining global security strategies, architectures, standards, and compliance Roota drives the necessary cultural changes to affect measurable improvements in organizations’ security posture. Roota is a recognized industry thought leader who serves as a member of the Board of Advisors at several organizations, a governing body chair for Evanta’s NJ CxO Summits and other technology conferences, a faculty and a security awards judge. Her in-depth experience and expertise in the field of information security and risk management can be measured by the various articles, eBooks, interviews, and podcasts she has to her credit. Roota is also working to build and encourage new talent and solutions in the security arena. Roota holds CCISO, CISSP, CISM and CRISC certifications.
