Mr. Syed is RWJBarnabas Health’s CISO, driving the cybersecurity strategy that secures the technology and data assets of New Jersey’s largest academic healthcare system. He leads a comprehensive information security management program built on the National Institute of Standards and Technology cybersecurity framework, working with the CIO to determine acceptable risk levels and cybersecurity investment strategies. Mr. Syed joined Barnabas Health in 2002 as a security architect and was promoted to CISO as the organization grew through mergers, including the 2016 merger that created RWJBarnabas Health and the 2018 partnership with Rutgers University. He has expanded the security department into divisions focused on risk, architecture, operations, vulnerability management, and identity and access management. Mr. Syed and his team played a pivotal role in the security and architecture of the system’s Epic EHR standardization, which was completed across all acute care facilities by late 2024 and helped the system earn 10 “gold stars” from Epic for four consecutive years. He previously served on the board of AEHIS, an organization founded by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives dedicated to advancing cybersecurity leadership in healthcare IT, and recently became a certified high reliability organization facilitator.
