Leslie Kershaw named Chief Information Security Officer at IonQ

IonQ announced that Leslie Kershaw, previously with its IonQ Capella unit, will advance into a newly expanded role as Chief Information Security Officer, reporting to incoming Chief Information Officer Katie Arrington. The appointment was announced alongside Arrington's hire from the Department of War.

A quantum-computing company elevating security to a corporate CISO post reporting to a former Pentagon technology official signals how closely IonQ is tying its security posture to government and defense business.

According to the company, Kershaw is responsible for meeting commercial and federal cybersecurity requirements and for managing enterprise physical and cyber security. IonQ says her remit also includes ensuring that security keeps pace as the company expands commercially.

IonQ says Kershaw has nearly two decades of cyber leadership, and that she served the U.S. Space Force as Cyber Technical Director for Space DELTA 6. In the Space DELTA 6 role, according to the company, she guided operational readiness and cyber architecture for teams in 13 globally dispersed locations.

IonQ describes itself as a quantum platform company delivering solutions for networking, sensing, security and quantum computing. IonQ says it is headquartered in College Park, Maryland, and has more than 1,300 employees, with operations in places including Tennessee, California, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and South Korea. According to the company, its customers and partners include NVIDIA, AstraZeneca and Amazon Web Services. The company says it achieved 99.99% two-qubit gate fidelity in 2025.