Raja Mikkili
Vice President, Core Technologies and Security, Arcutis Biotherapeutics
Raja Mikkili leads cybersecurity strategy, data analytics, AI, and technology initiatives at Arcutis Biotherapeutics (Nasdaq: ARQT), which he joined in 2021. His career spans aerospace and defense, pharmaceuticals, private equity, and construction, with prior leadership roles at ARCO, EaglePicher Technologies, and Zydus Pharmaceuticals, where he ran IT modernization and security programs under DoD and FDA compliance.
An engineer by training, he describes risk as the constant across every industry he has worked in, and frames the security leader’s job as enabling a business to reach its goals without losing control. He holds an M.S. in electrical and computer engineering from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and is an ISACA Certified Information Security Manager.
Mikkili appeared on Open Door Salon with intellectual property litigator Anne Elise Herold Li to discuss what nation states actually target in biotech, how to run vendor risk management down to the roots of a supply chain, and what AI-accelerated attack reconnaissance changes for small and mid-size companies.
Frequently Asked Questions About Raja Mikkili
Who is Raja Mikkili?
Raja Mikkili is Vice President, Core Technologies and Security at Arcutis Biotherapeutics, which he joined in 2021. He leads cybersecurity strategy, data analytics, AI, and technology initiatives there. An engineer by training, he has worked across aerospace and defense, pharmaceuticals, private equity, and construction, and he describes risk as the constant across every one of those industries.
What does Raja Mikkili do at Arcutis Biotherapeutics?
Raja Mikkili is Vice President, Core Technologies and Security at Arcutis Biotherapeutics, a medical dermatology company he joined in 2021. The role puts cybersecurity strategy, data analytics, AI, and technology initiatives under one remit. He frames the security leader’s job as enabling a business to reach its goals without losing control. Before Arcutis he held leadership roles at ARCO, EaglePicher Technologies, and Zydus Pharmaceuticals, where he ran IT modernization and security programs under DoD and FDA compliance.
What is Raja Mikkili’s professional background?
Raja Mikkili is an engineer by training whose career spans aerospace and defense, pharmaceuticals, private equity, and construction. He held prior leadership roles at ARCO, EaglePicher Technologies, and Zydus Pharmaceuticals. He holds an M.S. in electrical and computer engineering from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and he is an ISACA Certified Information Security Manager.
How does Raja Mikkili approach vendor and third-party risk?
Raja Mikkili describes vendor risk management as a full lifecycle program. On Open Door Salon he said it is “a continuous monitoring because things change, landscapes change, systems change, people change.” In that conversation he also walked through how to run vendor risk management down to the roots of a supply chain, and what AI-accelerated attack reconnaissance changes for small and mid-size companies.
What does Raja Mikkili say nation states target in biotech?
Raja Mikkili describes nation state activity in biotech as an effort to assemble a full picture of a company. On Open Door Salon he said such attackers are “looking at a full roadmap for an organization.” He also discussed what AI does to the reconnaissance phase of an attack, asking “If an 11-year-old can actually do this, what can an attacker do with AI?”
On Open Door Salon
“Raja Mikkili and Anne Herold Li on Why Nation States Target Small Biotechs”
Raja Mikkili & Anne Herold Li · July 29, 2026
Episode page & show notes on Open Door Salon
In this episode
- What nation states actually target in biotech
- Why small biotechs are the bigger prize
- The West Pharmaceutical wake-up call
- Auditing your supply chain down to the roots
- Honeypots, dummy data, and vendor firewalls
- AI attacking AI: recon at machine speed
- The COINS Act and who gets audited
- Data ownership: the four-sentence vulnerability
Topics
Watch on Open Door Salon
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