Justin Henkel named Chief Information Security Officer at SolarWinds

SolarWinds announced the appointment of Justin Henkel as Chief Information Security Officer. The company said his background spans the intelligence community and financial services, with specialization in cyber threat intelligence, vulnerability management, and third-party and enterprise risk.

Few CISO seats carry more symbolic weight. SolarWinds remains the reference case for supply-chain compromise and for CISO personal liability after the SEC's action against the company and its former security chief — whoever holds this role operates under a level of external scrutiny most security leaders never experience.

According to the release, Henkel has more than two decades of experience across the private sector and military service. Henkel spent nearly five years at OneTrust, starting as Head of the CISO Center of Excellence and rising to Deputy CISO, the company says. At OneTrust, he built a portfolio focused on security operations, resilience and enterprise risk, according to the release. From 2001 to 2025, Henkel served in the United States Air Force as an intelligence officer, the company says. He has also held cybersecurity leadership roles focused on threat intelligence at iSIGHT Partners and CME Group, according to the release. Henkel holds a Master's in Intelligence Studies from the American Public University System, with a focus on military and political intelligence, the release says. From MIT Sloan School of Management, he also holds an Executive Certificate in Technology and Operations, the company says.

The company says its solutions give organizations worldwide a unified view of distributed, hybrid and modern network environments. The company says it engages with database administrators, DevOps and SecOps professionals, and IT service and operations professionals to understand the challenges they face. SolarWinds says it offers solutions for database management, application performance, IT service management and observability. Business Wire also lists a SolarWinds announcement launching Avior, an agentic AI system for mission-critical IT environments that is standalone and goal-oriented.