W. Mark Brooks

W. Mark Brooks is PPL’s vice president and chief security officer (CSO). He leads PPL’s corporate-wide efforts to prepare for, protect against and respond to today’s persistent and evolving cybersecurity threats.

Brooks has more than 25 years of experience in information technology and cybersecurity.

He joined PPL in October 2016 from Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. (MISO), where he served as CISO and executive director. In this role, he was responsible for developing and implementing MISO’s cybersecurity strategy and overseeing the organization’s efforts to comply with federal Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) standards. He also served as CIP senior manager at MISO.

Prior to joining MISO, Brooks worked in senior security advisory roles at Cisco, advising Global companies on advanced security strategies, and at Dell-EMC, consulting on security programs, security assessments and security technology solutions.

For more than 15 years, Brooks worked at Eli Lilly and Company, a global leader in the pharmaceutical industry. At Eli Lilly, his leadership roles spanned a broad range of both IT and business areas that included IT solutions development and support, human resources management, compliance and information security. During his tenure at Eli Lilly, he assisted the company in responding to federal audits and was instrumental in remediating a consumer privacy breach involving Federal Trade Commission enforcement actions.

Brooks is a military veteran and served as a United States Army officer at the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He is a graduate of Ball State University with a degree in computer science.

Brooks holds numerous business and security certifications and is a member of many industry associations. Through the Edison Electric Institute, he is actively involved in industry-wide efforts to improve the security and resiliency of power grid operations.