Nation’s Top Cybersecurity Leaders Convene at the “Davos of Cybersecurity,” the 5th Annual Global Cyber Innovation Summit

Exclusive ‘invitation-only’ event keynoted by Chief of NSA’s Cybersecurity Collaboration Center Kristina Walter; featured Harry Coker, Jr., Former National Cyber Director, ONCD and Secretary of Commerce, State of Maryland, among other renowned speakers

Nation’s Top Cybersecurity Leaders Convene at the “Davos of Cybersecurity,” the 5th Annual Global Cyber Innovation Summit

Media Contact:
Leslie Kesselring
Kesselring Communications for Global Cyber Innovation Summit
leslie@kesscomm.com

The annual Global Cyber Innovation Summit (GCIS), often hailed as the “Davos of Cybersecurity,” marked its fifth consecutive year, bringing together an elite gathering of Global 2000 CISOs, trailblazing cyber technology innovators, influential policy experts, and key members of the cyber investment community. The summit continues to serve as a premier platform for high-impact discussion and strategic collaboration amongst peers to drive forward-thinking solutions shaping the future of cyber innovation.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250213320382/en/

Bob Ackerman, Chairman of the GCIS forum, Founder and Managing Director of cybersecurity venture capital firm AllegisCyber Capital, and Co-Founder of DataTribe, and Harry Coker Jr., State of Maryland Secretary of Commerce, discuss the standardization of cyber regulatory requirements across industries. (Photo: Business Wire)

The “invitation-only” Global Cyber Innovation Summit—featuring representatives from the National Security Agency (NSA), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)—kicked off with opening remarks from Bob Ackerman, Founder & Chairman of the Global Cyber Innovation Summit, and a special welcome by Ricardo Benn, Deputy Secretary, Department of Commerce, State of Maryland.

Featured speakers included Chief of the NSA Cybersecurity Collaboration Center Kristina Walter, Former National Cyber Director, ONCD and State of Maryland Secretary of Commerce Harry Coker Jr., Former Director of the CIA Center for Cyber Intelligence Andy Boyd, and Former NSA Cybersecurity Director and DataTribe Venture Partner Rob Joyce, among others.

“The Global Cyber Innovation Summit is a unique, trusted, and non-commercial forum that brings together the industry’s preeminent thought leaders, cyber innovators, CISOs, policy makers, and experts from the investment and intelligence communities,” said Bob Ackerman, Chairman of the GCIS forum, Founder and Managing Director of cybersecurity venture capital firm AllegisCyber Capital, and Co-Founder of DataTribe, the cybersecurity and data science startup studio. “The level of collaboration on display this year demonstrates the shared mission to drive meaningful discussions and accelerate the development of next-gen cyber defense technologies, partnerships, and strategies needed to address the urgent cyber threats to our national security and digital economy.”

The GCIS proceedings are under Chatham House Rules to offer a trusted, confidential cybersecurity venue for top-tier intellectual discourse and collaboration amongst peers. The Summit included a series of keynote presentations, panel discussions, fireside chats, and briefings by cyber security practitioners and thought leaders operating at the very cutting-edge of their fields.

Summit topics this year included: “Cybersecurity – The New Frontier”; “Cybersecurity in 2025: Cybersecurity Landscape Overview”; “Reflection Point & The Future for Regulatory Normalization”; “Digital Resilience”; “The Weaponization of Generative AI in the Cyber Domain”; “Point & Click: How the Browser has Become the Best Tool to Compromise an Enterprise”; “Tracking the Typhoons: Observations on the Evolution of State Sponsored Cyber Operations; “After Life–The Focus & Forecast Post-CISO”; “Cyber Informatics - Real Time Cyber Visibility”; “Managing Insider Threats”; “Cyber Identity & Security Architecture in 2025”; “Dodging Debacles: Dealing with Tomorrow & Defensive Insights from the Offense”; “Identity in a Post-Human World”; “Mitigating Threats to Critical Infrastructure”; “Building Top Performance Teams”; “Reflection Point: The CISO Response to the Cyber Climate”; “Rewired: The McKinsey Guide to Outcompeting in the Age of Digital and AI”; “Preparing for a Post-Quantum World”; “CISO Crossroads: Innovation & Disruption–What this Means for Cyber”; “Board Leadership & Cyber Strategy.”

The strategy and direction of the 2025 Summit was led by Chairman Bob Ackerman and an advisory council that includes:

Oliver Newbury, CISO, Barclays
Roland Cloutier, Former CISO at TikTok
Phil Venables, CISO, Google Cloud
Tom Wilson, VP and CISO at Southern Company
Rich Baich, CISO at AT&T
Deborah Wheeler, CISO at Delta Airlines
Adam Fletcher, CISO at Blackstone
Mike Janke, Co-Founder of DataTribe
Katie Gray, Partner of In-Q-Tel

Honoring Five Disruptive Innovators

The Summit highlighted five promising early-stage cybersecurity startups—dubbed the “Disrupt 5"—recognized for their innovative solutions to emerging industry challenges. Selected by the community to deliver TED-style talks, these companies presented diverse technologies addressing critical security needs. Their solutions ranged from enhancing overwhelmed cybersecurity teams' capabilities to automated software hardening for critical infrastructure. The winners also showcased advances in post-quantum cryptography, mathematically-proven security guarantees for crucial platforms, and fortified execution and communication pathways between essential software modules.

The 2025 GCIS Disrupt 5 Award Recipients include:

Andesite
Dreadnode
Frenos
QuSecure
RunSafe

This year’s Summit took place February 5-6, 2025, at The Sagamore Pendry Hotel, Baltimore, MD.

The 2026 Summit date has been set for February 25-26, 2026, as the event returns to The Sagamore Pendry Hotel, Baltimore, MD.

For consideration for an invitation, please contact info@GlobalCyberSummit.org

About the Global Cyber Innovation Summit

The annual Global Cyber Innovation Summit convenes the Global 2000 CISO community, cyber technology innovators, policy thought leaders and members of the cyber investment community for exchange of ideas, discussion and collaboration designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of cyber security strategies and solutions.