Life At Protiviti

Molly Aganza

Cloud Security Manager, San Francisco

Molly Aganza is passionate about keeping people – and Whale Sharks – safe. Whether through deploying end-user protection for her clients as a data privacy manager in Protiviti’s data privacy and security practice, or as part of a marine wildlife research team in the Maldives, Molly exemplifies our commitment to Care by making a meaningful impact at work and in the community.

"I feel lucky to have a job I love, the chance to make an impact in the world, and a way to fulfil my passion."

Connecting Passion with Purpose

As a cloud security manager, Molly plays a key role in helping Protiviti’s technology clients strengthen their privacy compliance and data protection practices. Her work centers on evaluating how effectively organisations safeguard user data—both from a security and regulatory standpoint. Currently, she’s contributing to a high-impact project involving the Federal Trade Commission, where she supports a comprehensive cloud security assessment to ensure alignment with privacy requirements.

Outside of work, Molly is a certified scuba driver who recently joined a scientific research team in the Maldives to collect baseline data on Whale Sharks to better protect them and their marine environment. As part of the team, she studied and tracked key data to help better the living conditions of marine megafauna and their environment.

Reflecting on her Maldives experience, Molly recalls, “The trip gave me the perspective I needed to find the right balance between life and work. Protiviti is great at giving you opportunities to break outside the box and challenge yourself, whether it’s in the work you do in the office, or your interests outside. I feel lucky to have a job I love, the chance to make an impact in the world, and a way to fulfil my passion.”

Conservation through Data Collection and Research

The Maldives has strict laws protecting marine megafauna, but it’s been harder to police it in the wild, especially when hundreds of tourist boats descend upon Whale Shark habitats. The Maldives Whale Shark Research Project (MWRP) studies and tracks the habits of Whale Sharks and other sea creatures to help influence and strengthen existing protection laws.

“My partner and I had discussed taking our scuba experience to the next level by free diving – without an air tank. We also shared a dream of free diving with Whale Sharks. While they are generally very nomadic creatures, there is a spot in the Maldives where you can find them year-round. So, we decided to take the trip to free dive with Whale Sharks and get involved with their conservation efforts as a way to achieve our personal goals and give back,” explains Molly.

Molly and her partner lived on one of MWSRP’s research boats for 10 days, where they, alongside other volunteers and staff, tracked shark and human activity in the area for up to eight hours a day.

“We also collected data on other sea animals like Manta Rays and Sea Turtles. In addition, we tracked human behavior including how many and what types of boats were in the water, how many people were onboard, etc.”

All this data is tracked via coordinates and time of day to extrapolate trends. Several key learnings came up, including, unsurprisingly, that an increase in boat presence correlates with decreased Whale Shark spotting.

Merging Passions at Protiviti

At home, Molly has been a longstanding member of her Protiviti local office iSustain team, participating in beach clean-ups and other environmentally focused volunteer activities. While on the board of the national iSustain team, she was responsible for coordinating Earth Day activities across the firm.

Molly’s dedication to creating meaningful impact—on the job and in the world around her—reflects our commitment to Care for our clients and our communities.

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