Kiersten Todt Biography

Kiersten E. Todt is the resident scholar at the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security. She is also the president and managing partner of Liberty Group Ventures, LLC (LGV), a role in which she develops risk and crisis management solutions for cybersecurity, infrastructure, homeland security, emergency management, and higher education clients in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Todt advises senior executives and boards on cyber risk management, including the development and execution of tabletop exercises and relevant senior-level education and training programs. She also provides strategic advice and counsel to senior leaders in industry and government.

She recently served as the executive director of the Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity, which helped carry out President Barack Obama’s Cybersecurity National Action Plan. In this capacity, Todt was responsible for convening six public commission meetings and leading the 12 commissioners—leaders from industry, government, academia, and law enforcement—to develop a consensus document of cybersecurity recommendations. The commission delivered its report on cybersecurity and the digital economy to President Obama on December 1, 2016. Many of the commission’s recommendations were included in President Donald Trump’s cyber executive order signed on May 11, 2017.

Todt also was a member of the team supporting the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the development of the Voluntary Cybersecurity Framework called for in President Obama’s 2013 Executive Order 13636 on cybersecurity. She has served in senior positions in both the executive and legislative branches of government. Todt has commented on homeland security, cybersecurity, and sport security issues in multiple media outlets, including NBC, NPR, Bloomberg, and The Wall Street Journal. Her work on crisis management and sport security has been published in relevant journals.

Prior to LGV, Todt was a partner at Good Harbor Consulting and was responsible for building and managing the company’s North America crisis management practice. Clients included states and localities, large corporations, maritime entities, and college and university systems. Before joining Good Harbor, she worked for Business Executives for National Security (BENS) and was responsible for integrating the private sector into state and local emergency management capabilities. She also developed and executed federal and regional port and cyber security projects. Prior to BENS, she was a consultant for Sandia National Laboratories and worked with the California governor’s office to develop the homeland security preparedness plan for the Bay Area. Todt was also an adjunct lecturer at Stanford University.

Todt served as a professional staff member on the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, working for committee chair Joseph Lieberman, and was responsible for drafting the cybersecurity, infrastructure protection, emergency preparedness, bioterror, and science and technology directorates of the legislation that created the Department of Homeland Security.

Before working in the U.S. Senate, Todt served in Vice President Al Gore’s domestic policy office and was responsible for coordinating federal resources with locally defined needs, specifically focusing on energy and housing issues. She was also the senior adviser on demand-reduction issues to Director Barry R. McCaffrey at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Todt graduated from Princeton University with a degree in public policy from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. She holds a master’s degree in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and was selected to be a Presidential Management Fellow in 1999.

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