Digital Content Editor, Eve Goode spoke with Marcelo Rodriguez, the new President of the ISMA Board of Directors to discuss his appointment and his plans for the International Security Management Association (ISMA) going forward.
What attracted you to the ISMA Presidency and what is one thing you’d like to achieve during your term?
ISMA represents the pinnacle of the security profession. From the beginning of my career, its members were the chief security officers you looked up to because they were setting the standard for everyone else.
Becoming part of that community was something to aspire to.
After serving on the Board for the past two years, taking on the Presidency felt like an opportunity to help ensure ISMA continues to set that standard for years to come.
A key focus during my term will be expanding our leadership development programmes, including IGNITE, which recently welcomed its first cohort.
Today’s geopolitical climate and future risks mean the security issues we face will only become more challenging and more complex.
We need chief security officers that are fully ready for that responsibility so we have to invest in them long before they reach the boardroom.
For me, that’s one of the most important things ISMA can do.
Throughout your time working across law enforcement, corporate security and resilience, what experiences have shaped your leadership approach?
Whether in law enforcement or corporate security, I’ve learned that leadership is rarely about having all the answers.
It’s about building trust, making sound decisions with imperfect information and staying calm when others are looking to you for direction.
It’s also about collaboration with others and that in particular is central to what ISMA is all about.
I’ve also learned that the work you do before a crisis is often what determines how well you come through it.
Strong relationships, clear communication and the confidence to challenge constructively don’t appear overnight, but they can only be built over time.
That’s the approach I’ve tried to bring to every role: listen first, be honest about what you know and what you don’t and remember that good leadership isn’t about being the first to speak in any room, it’s about helping the people around you make better decisions.
As ISMA’s new President, what are your top priorities for the next two years?
The world is becoming more complex.
Chief security officers are expected to advise boards on risks that barely existed a decade ago, from geopolitical instability to emerging technologies and evolving threats.
My priority is to ensure ISMA remains the place where the profession stays ahead of those changes by bringing together the very best minds, sharing practical experience and challenging conventional thinking.
That also means broadening the perspectives we bring into our discussions.
Inviting voices such as Benedict Franke, CEO of the Munich Security Conference, is part of ensuring our members understand the geopolitical forces shaping security, not just the operational challenges they face every day.
As the CSO role continues to evolve, what do you think defines a successful security leader in 2026?
Security creates value when it helps an organisation make better decisions.
That is the measure of a successful chief security officer today.
Technical expertise remains the price of admission, but it no longer sets the best leaders apart.
Today, people expect their security leader to do more than protect the company, they want someone who can help them think clearly about risk and that shows up in a lot of ways.
Sometimes it’s helping a CEO understand what could go wrong before they enter a new market.
At other times, it’s showing how security upgrades benefit the customer; and sometimes it’s just translating something complicated into a few sentences a board can actually use to make a decision.
Why is investing in the next generation of security leaders so important, and what skills will future CSO’s need to develop?
Investing in future security leaders matters because this is a profession where experience is often hard-earned through situations you hope never happen again.
The challenges future CSOs will face will not be identical to those faced by current leaders, but they can learn a lot about judgement and how to deal with those through the experience of others.
That is why mentorship and access to experienced peers matter so much.
The role of the CSO is evolving faster than traditional career paths can prepare people for.
Future leaders will need more than technical expertise; they will need the ability to understand the business, communicate with senior executives, interpret a changing geopolitical landscape and make sound decisions when the answers are not always clear.
Our responsibility is not to create leaders who simply repeat the playbooks of the past, it is to help develop leaders who can apply that experience to challenges we have not yet seen.
Likewise, longstanding CSOs can also learn from the next generation of security officers too.
If you could leave the wider security market with one message as you begin your Presidency, what would it be?
If I had only one message, it would be this: don’t underestimate the value of having people around you who can challenge your thinking.
The security decisions facing organisations today are rarely straightforward. Often, there isn’t a perfect answer, only competing risks and difficult choices.
Having trusted peers who understand those pressures, who can offer perspective and say, “Have you thought about it this way?” is incredibly valuable.
That has always been the strength of ISMA.
It gives senior security leaders a place to have honest conversations, share what they are seeing and learn from people facing many of the same challenges.
In a profession where the stakes continue to rise, having that kind of peer connection is not a luxury; it is part of being effective.
