Join our sister chapters of Central Maryland, Northern Virginia, DC and Blue Ridge for a special presentation by two national security experts.

Pre-registration required. Click here.

We will hear Mark Weatherford, Chief Strategy Officer at the National Cybersecurity Center and California’s first CISO,  and Riley Repko, Founder of CAFE Search Engine who just left a 3-year-plus stint as Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Air Force on Technology Innovation. They will speak on cybersecurity priorities and goals for the incoming administration.  Mark recently wrote a Forbes article advocating for a National Cyber Security Advisor to the President, restoring the State Department Cyber Ambassador position made famous by Chris Painter, as well as establishing secure election voting systems across the US. Meanwhile, Riley is intimately familiar with the Department of Defense’s efforts to establish a truly resilient and cross-branch communications system to support battlefield operations as well as the struggle to establish meaningful public-private cyber partnerships.  This should be an interesting dialog by two experts with insight into where the Biden Administration needs to place emphasis in the first 100 days.

About the Speakers

Mark Weatherford is the Chief Strategy Officer at the National Cybersecurity Center and a Partner at Aspen Chartered where he provides cybersecurity consulting and advisory services to public and private sector organizations around the world. He is also a member of the DHS Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC). In 2008 he was appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to serve as California’s first Chief Information Security Officer and in 2011 he was appointed in the Obama Administration as the Department of Homeland Security’s first Deputy Under Secretary for Cybersecurity. Mark is a former U.S. Navy Cryptology Officer, where he led the United States Navy’s Computer Network Defense operations and the Naval Computer Incident Response Team (NAVCIRT).

Riley Repko left his position as Strategic Adviser to the Air Force Secretary and Chief of Staff on innovation and modernization issues leaders in January. He founded CAFE Search Engine, which combines a Google-like search functionality with Yelp-like user reviews to help military users find useful AI-solutions. Before returning to the Pentagon, Riley worked as a Director for Government Affairs at Oracle in DC and Tokyo. He served in the Air Force as an officer, taking assignments in space operations, modeling and simulation wargame/exercise support. He held senior Reserve positions as a mobilization assistant both at Air Force Space Command, on the U.S. Strategic Command staff and at Headquarters Air Force. In March 2004, he deployed to Balad, Iraq as the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Vice Commander and Director of Staff.