Douglas Merrill

Douglas Merrill is the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) of Equinix, appointed in November 2025. He had served as Equinix's interim CISO for six months before taking on the permanent title.

Career path

Merrill began his executive technology career at Google, where he served as Chief Information Officer and vice president of engineering. In that role he oversaw the company's internal engineering and technology, managed corporate strategy and business development in the Middle East and Africa, and presided over Google's initial public offering in 2004. In 2008 he became president of digital business at EMI Music, a newly created role combining leadership of the company's digital strategy, innovation, business development, supply chain and global technology activities. He also served as EMI's chief operating officer of new music. Merrill later held the role of senior vice president and chief information security officer at Charles Schwab and Company. He has also served as a partner at McKinsey, where he worked on end-to-end, tech-enabled transformations covering IT infrastructure, architecture, data, operations and technology strategy. Earlier in his career he was an information scientist at the Rand Corporation and a visiting professor at Northwestern University's Institute for the Learning Sciences. He founded and served as CEO of ZestFinance, a financial services technology company that analyzes big data and credit variables. Merrill is a published author, having written Getting Organized in the Google Era, and he holds patents in machine learning applications. He holds master's and doctoral degrees in cognitive science from Princeton University.

Remit at Equinix

At Equinix, Merrill reports to Harmeen Mehta, Executive Vice President and Chief Digital and Innovation Officer. He leads the company's global security organization, overseeing information security operations, cybersecurity risk management, and the development of security platforms, services, processes and controls. During his interim tenure he led a redesign of Equinix's global security organization, introduced a strategic framework for embedding security across platforms, products and services, and strengthened cross-functional collaboration with engineering, product and operations teams. "I look forward to continuing to build a security-first organization that accelerates innovation and strengthens the trust our customers place in us every day," Merrill said.