Aruneesh Salhotra

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About

I'm a technologist, founder, and investor working at the intersection of software, security, and AI. I've spent my career building products and companies, and I'm currently founding Zenjin AI alongside backing early-stage teams and contributing to open source security research.

I care about building healthy technical communities — helping practitioners share what they learn, and making sure the tools we build for AI and security are open, well-governed, and genuinely useful.

Community

I organize and support communities of security and AI practitioners — through OWASP chapters, meetups, and mentorship — because the best ideas in this field are still being worked out in the open, together.

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Experience & Ventures

2025 — Present
Founder · Zenjin AI
Building at the intersection of AI and cybersecurity.
2023 — Present
Limited Partner · Emergent Ventures & Preface Ventures
Backing early-stage cybersecurity and enterprise infrastructure founders as an LP in venture funds.
2015 — Present
CEO & Principal · SNM Consulting Inc.
Fractional CISO and security advisory practice — application security, AI security and assessments, DevSecOps, and cloud security.
2015 — 2025
Global Head of Application Security · Nomura
A decade at the investment bank, rising from DevSecOps program management and the Office of the CTO to leading application security globally, then the US practice for third-party cyber risk.
2024 — 2025
Co-Founder · Suraksha Catalyst
Co-founded an early-stage security venture.
2011 — 2012
Co-Founder · Stealth Startup
Co-founded an early-stage startup through to a successful exit.
2007 — 2015
TPM, DevOps Lead, Developer & Trade Reporting Architect · Liquidnet (now TP ICAP)
Eight years in New York across engineering and program leadership — moving from developer to DevOps Lead running release management, then Technical Program Manager, and ultimately Trade Reporting Architect for the firm.
2005 — 2007
Enterprise Architect · Miletus Trading
2004 — 2005
DevOps Lead & Release Management · FatWire (now Oracle)
2002 — 2003
Development Lead · Lucent
2002
Development Lead · Sony
2001
Lead Developer · Ciena
1999 — 2001
Developer · Nortel Networks
1999
Global Consultant · DCM Data Systems (now DCM Infotech)

Boards & Councils

Forbes Technology CouncilMember
GlobalCISO Leadership FoundationCo-Chair, Governing Board
AI & Cloud Governance CouncilCouncil Member
RiskProfilerInvestor & Advisory Board
DazzAdvisory Board Member
Virsec SystemsAdvisory Board Member
Pocket SecurityStrategic Advisor
AI Security AcademyStrategic Advisor
Institute of MERITAdvisory Board Member
StrategioAdvisor

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Open Source

I help build the open standards behind application and AI security — through OWASP and the Cloud Security Alliance.

OWASP FoundationProject Lead

OWASP AIBOM

Defining a standard AI Bill of Materials — a machine-readable inventory of the models, data, and dependencies that make up an AI system — so organizations can track provenance and manage risk.

OWASP FoundationCo-Lead

OWASP AI Exchange

A collaborative, open knowledge base on AI security — bringing together guidance from standards bodies and practitioners into one place to help teams build and deploy AI systems safely.

OWASP FoundationContributor

Agent Control Standard

The runtime control plane for AI agents — declarative, portable controls enforced at runtime, so agent actions can be governed and audited before they reach production.

OWASP FoundationCore Member

OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications

The first open, industry-standard list of security risks for applications built with generative AI, curated by 400+ experts. Co-author for the supply-chain risk.

OWASP FoundationProject Lead

OWASP Serverless Top 10

Educating practitioners and organizations on the most common serverless application security risks, with practical techniques to identify and defend against them.

Cloud Security AllianceCore Contributor

CSA AI Controls Matrix

A vendor-agnostic control framework for cloud-based AI systems — 247 control objectives across 18 security domains for building and operating AI securely and responsibly.

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