Rizwan Ali

Rizwan Ali is an internationally recognized thought leader in global defense and cybersecurity. He is a retired Colonel from the US Air Force and has extensive work experience in Europe, Asia, and Africa. During his three-decade military career, Riz led four large organizations, including a combat communications squadron, an airbase communications squadron, a 1,500-person combat support group and a 1,000+ person Air Force-level center. His other assignments took him from field units to combat...See more

Rizwan Ali is an internationally recognized thought leader in global defense and cybersecurity. He is a retired Colonel from the US Air Force and has extensive work experience in Europe, Asia, and Africa. During his three-decade military career, Riz led four large organizations, including a combat communications squadron, an airbase communications squadron, a 1,500-person combat support group and a 1,000+ person Air Force-level center. His other assignments took him from field units to combat headquarters to The Pentagon. His work has had national as well as international impact. He was on the inter-agency teams that wrote the President's National Security Space Policy and the Secretary of Defense's Space Policy. Additionally, he was on the international teams which wrote NATO's Enhanced Cyber Defense Policy and the Supreme Allied Commander Europe's cyber strategy. For this work, Riz was honored with NATO's highest award by the NATO Secretary General. Currently, Riz is Managing Director for cyMars, where he advises multinational technology companies and boards on large-scale, mission-critical projects. He is also a Cybersecurity Policy Fellow at New America, a non-partisan think tank in Washington DC and a Member of the Board at the Cybersecurity Forum Initiative (CSFI). He has been invited to speak around the world to include the Berlin Security Conference, the George C. Marshall Center for European Security, the Australian Cyber Summit and Carnegie Mellon University. See less