The Next Level
and catering to clients while using a system that didn’t work as she desired, Soto became what her boss called a “squeaky wheel.” In response, she gave her time and a limited budget to get IT training.
Taking a line from the Oscar-winning film, Casablanca, the native Miam- ian turned that introduction into “the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” She combined her knowledge of busi- ness and IT to step onto an escalator to senior management at two Fortune 500 companies.
Soto advises would-be IT specialists that the focus of any enhancement must be on IT business application. “The experi- ence I had in their position set a career path for me. I am constantly tying what we do on the IT side back to what it means to and for the business stake- holder. I really appreciate their perils,” says Soto.
To do tech right, learn business But understanding this alliance wasn’t enough. Soto, who already had a B.A. in psychology, wanted equal status at the decision-making table. So she earned a master’s degree in business administra- tion from Nova Southeastern University in 1999 and a master’s certification in project management from the George Washington University in 2000. She says, “the push for E-Commerce was important then and I wanted to get that edge and be able to talk about IT’s value in it, in front of stake holders whether they were in marketing or other areas.”
Since the early 2000s Soto has mastered a game of three-dimensional business chess with IT projects at companies of increasing size and complexity. In 2004, the woman who had been selected as one of Hispanic Engineer & Information Technology’s Most Important Hispan- ics in Technology and Business, joined the Mandalay Resort Group. It merged with MGM Mirage and by 2007 Soto had been promoted to vice president, IT Governance and chief information security officer at the parent company, now called MGM Resorts International.
www.hispanicengineer.com
Last year, the Fortune 500 ranked the gaming, hospitality and resort company as number 360 on its list with $6 billion in revenue.
While in Las Vegas, Soto’s portfolio included providing IT security and guid- ance for 16 wholly-owned Las Vegas casino restaurants, and she supported the development and opening of the $9 billion “CityCenter” complex. She had a budget of $95 million and about 500 employees.
Next Stop: Philadelphia Her great leap upward occurred in 2009, when she joined Comcast, which ranked 59 on last year’s Fortune 500, with revenues of $36 billion. The Philadelphia cable TV giant is one of the country’s “largest video, high-speed Internet and phone providers to residen- tial and business customers.” Last Janu- ary it gained control of content as well, with a merger with NBCUniversal.
Soto, an avid sports and lover of Ha- waii’s top golf courses, has not had a lot of free time since moving to Philadel- phia. Her responsibilities include ensur- ing the security of all infrastructure, network, design, enterprise, access and controls for all employees. This means she oversees the management of every security tool responsible for maintaining IT compliance, governance, and data security requirements.
Now, the first-generation American daughter of parents from Cuba and Puerto Rico is a direct report to senior management at Comcast headquarters. She manages 112 employees that have their own teams in Philadelphia, New Jersey, Virginia and Denver. Plus Soto’s infrastructure team manages the secu- rity of the server delivery network for products and customers. Its backbone and core are 22 network centers that monitor and provide infrastructure for customers.
Comcast has a presence in more than 39 states, 23 million video subscribers, 16 million high-speed data users, eight million phone subscribers and more
than 100,000 employees who service, work with, use, or help secure all of the above.
The next big thing on her plate is, well, everything. Comcast must be ready to provide, and secure, all its products and services across the spectrum of phones, PDAs, pads, televisions, and computers, and the thousands of business applica- tions that are being written for them. No wonder Soto is a regular attendee of the Black Hat conferences, where the latest virus, hacks and other tech nas- ties are explored, theorized about and destined for destruction.
Soto’s unconventional ascent has put a twist on her advice to IT security students. She says that they should con- sider an educational path that deviates slightly from tradition. She sees great value in obtaining security certification of different types but she prefers to hire individuals with a broad technology background and curiosity. A problem before them may appear to be software, hardware, or architectural in nature but those systems are intertwined and need to be seen from all angles. “There is often a lot of focus on the obvious, Web protocols and such but sometimes you can lose sight of the network. When you look at the problem, you must under- stand what is behind it as well,” Soto says.
The consummate networker also be- lieves that making connections across tech, and business platforms, will enhance one’s career. She considers her greatest strength as the ability to build relationships.
Away from the office, Soto is a board member of a nonprofit in Philadelphia that tries to keep students from drop- ping out of high school, and she men- tors two students that are interested in STEM careers.
Soto loves what she is doing, but also has dream jobs. Many years from now she’d like to either be the chief informa- tion officer of a professional sports team or to own and operate a golf course.
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