Principal Financial Group has appointed Russ Ayres as vice president – chief information security officer. In this role, Ayres will be responsible for leading the company’s information security strategy and operations, ensuring the protection of company and customer data assets. Ayres fills the role previously held by Meg Anderson, who retired after 17 years. With more than 30 years of technology and cybersecurity experience, Ayres brings expertise in information security leadership. He most recently served as deputy chief information security officer and global head of cyber at Equifax, where his responsibilities included insider threat, cyber intelligence, threat and vulnerability management, and fraud monitoring. While at Equifax, he also served as senior vice president of global security architectural engineering and interim chief security officer. Ayres previously held leadership positions at IXI, Claritas and Nielsen, where he focused on product development and engineering. Ayres earned a bachelor of science in computer information systems from Jacksonville State University.