How AI is reshaping IT leadership: Insights from Barracuda CIO Siroui Mushegian

The 2026 BayAreaCIO ORBIE Award winner shares lessons on AI, IT leadership and putting people first.

Key takeaways

• Siroui Mushegian received the 2026 BayAreaCIO ORBIE Award in the Corporate category.
• Her career has been shaped by the intersection of people, technology, and cybersecurity.
• She sees IT’s role in AI shifting toward helping people experiment safely, connect ideas, and learn from one another.

The best technology leaders do more than keep systems running. They build strong teams, connect ideas across the business, and help people navigate change.  

That people-first approach helped earn Barracuda CIO Siroui Mushegian the 2026 BayAreaCIO ORBIE Award in the Corporate category, an award that recognizes technology executives who demonstrate outstanding leadership and business impact.

We asked Siroui to tell us more about the path that led her to technology leadership, the lessons she’s learned along the way, and what she’s most excited about as IT and AI continue to evolve.

How did you find your way into technology and eventually to Barracuda?

My interest in technology happened almost by accident. I started my career in finance as a municipal bond analyst, but I quickly realized it wasn’t the right fit for me.

Not long afterward, I took a part-time job with a small French software company in New York. I started out answering phones and translating manuals, and along the way, I learned how to build computers, outfit networks, and do many of the hands-on things needed to keep a business running.

That’s when I discovered that I loved the intersection of people and technology. I realized that was my true calling.

Later, at Time Inc., I began to understand how closely technology and security needed to work together. That connection stayed with me through roles at Ralph Lauren, the NBA, PBS/WNET, and BlackLine.

When the opportunity at Barracuda came along, I was wildly excited. I had experience with Barracuda solutions earlier in my career, and being able to become part of a cybersecurity company was especially exciting because I had understood for so long how important security is.  

What does winning the ORBIE Award mean to you?

When you work in technology, people often call you when things aren’t going well. They’re not necessarily calling when everything is working perfectly. That’s part of the role we accept. We’re here because we want to be helpful, contribute to important initiatives, and have a voice in strategy.

To be recognized for the hard work you’ve poured into the roles you’ve had and the career you’ve chosen is very rewarding. It’s an incredible feeling to be recognized among people who have also chosen to do this work.

What are you most proud of in your time at Barracuda?

We’ve done a lot of work to understand where we had gaps and build the right capabilities to fill them. That has included building out our data and business intelligence engineering capabilities and working with leaders across Barracuda to develop our AI practice.

But the thing I’m most proud of is the team. I look at this group, and they fit together like the best puzzle ever. They rely on each other, they’re incredibly smart, and they push me and one another. That is the absolute best part.

How is Barracuda approaching AI?

Our AI Council has been operating for just under two years. It started after we recognized that we needed a shared way to understand the guardrails we wanted around AI, and that those decisions needed to involve a group of people working together to understand what the company needs.

But we don’t want AI governance to slow innovation. The council is an accelerator, too. Governance will remain important so that we’re operating safely, particularly as a cybersecurity company. At the same time, we want to help move important AI initiatives forward and help people reimagine how they work in an AI-native world.

AI changes every day. The council is transforming along with it.

How is AI changing the role of IT?

AI is the latest form of digital transformation, but it’s happening faster than the transformations that came before it. IT isn’t simply a stage gate anymore. People across the organization want to experiment and be creative with AI, so our role is increasingly about giving them access to the right tools, helping them learn to use those tools safely, and seeing what they create.

We also have a view across the organization that individual teams might not have. We can see when different groups are trying to solve the same problem and bring those people together. The mind share is going to be much more powerful if we can get people working together instead of separately.

What leadership lessons have shaped your approach to building teams and driving innovation?

It doesn’t matter what kind of technology has come out or what’s coming next. Human change management is always important.

Communication remains the cornerstone of making any major initiative successful. Even when AI or another exciting technology is at the center of the project, people are still people, and they’re the most important part.

I’m a technologist at heart, but the reason I got into this field was the intersection of people and technology. People come first. You owe it to them to communicate because osmosis isn’t really a thing when it comes to learning.