Mitch Kohlbecker

Mitch Kohlbecker is the Chief Information Security Officer of City of Phoenix, appointed in February 2025.

Career path

Before joining the City of Phoenix, Kohlbecker spent over two decades in information security leadership, including CISO and Senior Director roles across education, government, non-profit and Fortune-listed organizations.

He joined the city as deputy chief information security officer in April 2020, a post he held for nearly five years.

As deputy CISO, Kohlbecker drove advancements in architecture, engineering, risk management and compliance that strengthened the city's security posture.

Starting in 2022, he led a review of the architecture underpinning Phoenix's critical water systems, which grew into a two-year effort with water department technologists to overhaul cybersecurity planning, procedures and resilience.

That work addressed people, processes and technology, with improvements completed by 2024.

In February 2025, the city's Information Technology Services Department promoted Kohlbecker from deputy CISO to Chief Information Security Officer.

Remit

As CISO, Kohlbecker's goal is to balance the city's business needs with safeguarding its assets and resident data.

He has described effective security and sound business operations as complementary rather than competing goals that drive overall organizational success for the city.

The city's Information Security Office, which Kohlbecker leads, sits within Information Technology Services and provides federated IT leadership for departments including water, aviation, police and fire.

Public statements

Discussing cross-department and statewide cooperation on cybersecurity, Kohlbecker has said, "Trust is the ultimate currency."

He has pointed to Phoenix's data-sharing agreement with Arizona Cyber Command, part of the state Department of Homeland Security, which coordinates statewide cybersecurity policy, compliance and information assurance, as an example of extending protection beyond city government.

On artificial intelligence, Kohlbecker has said attackers are increasingly using autonomous tools, and that Phoenix has implemented controls to monitor internal AI use and prompting.

He has argued that automation will not reduce the need for cybersecurity staff, emphasizing that a human element must remain involved even as agents take on logging, monitoring and other tasks.

Kohlbecker has also noted that rapid technology change, including AI tokenization and approaching quantum capabilities, will require governments to adapt policy and budgets more quickly.