Lawson brings more than two decades of cybersecurity leadership to the city, with prior experience in municipal, state, federal and private-sector roles. Before joining San Antonio, he held dual roles at Redapt Inc., as both chief information security officer and virtual CISO, where he led cybersecurity practice development and client strategy.He previously served as assistant CIO and CISO for the city of Phoenix, where he directed IT and security modernization across 35 departments, managed a $20 million security budget and led compliance efforts aligned with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, HIPAA and PCI DSS standards.
He also served as CISO and chief technology officer for the state of Alaska, where he unified cybersecurity operations across 15 agencies, launched a statewide security operations center and directed regulatory compliance improvements.
“This is a tremendous opportunity and honor to serve the city of San Antonio, recognized as ‘Military City USA’ and ‘Cyber City USA,’” Lawson wrote in a LinkedIn post. “I look forward to collaborating with our partners, including CPS Energy, San Antonio Water System, 273rd Cyber Operations Squadron, Texas Cyber Command and the University of Texas San Antonio, among many others.”
Lawson’s earlier roles include director of cybersecurity at NAVWAR and information assurance leadership positions in the U.S. Navy and the National Security Agency. He holds a Master of Jurisprudence in cybersecurity law from Texas A&M University School of Law and multiple advanced cybersecurity credentials.
This story first appeared in Industry Insider — Texas, part of e.Republic, Government Technology’s parent company.
