Brian Ayala joins RWSA as Director of IT & OT, bringing more than 17 years of enterprise technology leadership to the organization. He most recently served as Director of Information Technology at Berry Corporation (NASDAQ: BRY), a publicly traded oil and gas company, where he led a 23-person team supporting IT, cybersecurity, ERP, data & analytics, and application development for more than 1,500 employees and contractors. In that role, he owned a $10M operating budget and $5M average capital budget, reported directly to the Executive Leadership Team and served on the Enterprise Risk Committee with regular Audit Committee and Board engagement.

Brian’s career reflects a rare combination of enterprise IT leadership and hands-on operational technology (OT) expertise. Earlier in his career, he served as Automation Supervisor for LINN Energy’s California operations, leading SCADA and industrial automation strategy across a large multi-site footprint, with direct engineering ownership of control systems, industrial networking, and field communications. This background in IT/OT convergence, combined with his enterprise security and infrastructure experience, positions him well to lead technology strategy for a critical infrastructure organization like RWSA.

At Berry Corporation, Brian built and modernized the company’s cybersecurity program, achieving compliance with SOX, NIST CSF 2.0, and SEC cyber disclosure requirements. He designed a hybrid multi-cloud architecture spanning Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, and AWS, led the IT integration of multiple mergers and acquisitions, and pioneered the company’s enterprise AI governance program. He also played a central role in Berry’s transition to a publicly traded company, co-leading IPO readiness and the organization’s first external public-company audit. Brian holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from California State University, Bakersfield.

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