OUR COMPANY
The BECKSTROM team includes outstanding principal actors, from around the globe, in cybersecurity, geopolitics and technology who have deep experience in leadership, architecture, crisis management, policy and innovation.
Members of our team include a security expert known as the world’s number one hacker; a cryptographer with an Erdős number of 1; the former chief security architect for the world’s largest credit card company; the head of threat intelligence at a top financial services company; the former director of the U.S. National Cybersecurity Center; a member of the Senior Advisory Group to the Director of National Intelligence; one of the top 25 legal IP experts according to The American Lawyer magazine; experts in Internet and DNS operations around the world; and experts in cybersecurity risk management.
Our team members also include the former CISO of the world’s leading online payments platform; the CEO of one of the world’s primary Internet coordination organizations; the founder of BlackHat and DEFCON security conferences; the founder of a leading artificial intelligence company for network security; the founders of multiple successful technology companies: the leaders who managed the worldwide crisis response to the only credible threat to take down the global Internet; and Track II diplomacy practitioners who contributed to ending the 1999 Indo/Pak war, and contributed to peace processes in Lebanon, Israel/Palestine, Kashmir, Japan/Korea, U.S./China and U.S./Iran, among others.
BECKSTROM also includes a top derivatives trader and quant at Morgan Stanley; the father of the new gTLD program at ICANN and the steward of the root of the Internet; authors of more than two dozen security and technology patents; and a published expert in global risk management who was named one of Risk Magazine’s 50 pioneers in risk management.
These experts can add incalculable value to any business or technology challenge. They thrive on untying Gordian knots and supposedly impossible organizational conundrums.
BECKSTROM does not list our experts publicly. We have more than a dozen on board at any time to work on projects that are fascinating and challenging, warranting their extraordinary skills and expertise. We custom assemble one-of-a-kind teams made up of these unique, exceptional experts around specific projects for our clients.
ROD BECKSTROM
Our founder
Rod Beckstrom is a veteran Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor, well-known cybersecurity authority, Internet leader and expert on organizational leadership.
He was the founder, CEO and Chairman of C•ATS Software Inc., a publicly-listed NASDAQ risk management software company. Rod is the former President and CEO of ICANN and the founding Director of the U.S. National Cybersecurity Center, as well as Senior Advisor to the Director of National Intelligence. He is co-author of the best-selling book The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations. He is also a frequent international media commentator and public speaker.
Rod Today
Rod is Founder and CEO of BECKSTROM, which advises top global companies and institutions. BECKSTROM also shapes and builds technology companies. These include Stealth Security, a network security technology company where Rod serves as Co-founder and Chairman, and HitCheck, a concussion testing and database company where he serves as Executive Chairman. He also chairs the Advisory Board of the Stanford University Cybersecurity Policy Program (CISAC), which is an interdisciplinary joint effort between Stanford University and the Hoover Institution.
As founding Director of the U.S. National Cybersecurity Center, Rod was the federal government’s top cybersecurity coordinator, helping to integrate activities across key departments and agencies to combat the increasingly sophisticated cyber threats to America’s interests at home and around the world.
Speaker and Commentator
As a much sought-after expert on leadership, the Internet, cybersecurity and geopolitics, Rod has spoken at high-profile events in more than 40 countries for a wide range of organizations, including the White House, Stanford University, Harvard University, the World Economic Forum at Davos, Google, Microsoft, eBay, Infosys Technologies, BlackHat, DEFCON, Morgan Stanley, RSA, U.S. Department of Defense, World Government Summit in Dubai, Public Relations Society of Shanghai, Futurecom, Latin America Infosys, CIO Magazine Leadership Summit, Starbucks, TED, the Monaco Media Forum, Sogeti Consulting, The Hay Group, American Organization of Nurse Executives, United Business Media Group, the United Nations, the Aspen Institute, Tsinghua University, The Center for Strategic International Studies, Risk Magazine, and numerous Young Presidents’ Organizations (YPO), Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) and the World Presidents’ Organization (WPO) events around the globe.
Rod is a frequent and insightful media commentator on cybersecurity, organizational leadership and technology, with appearances on BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, PBS, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, NPR, FOX and C-SPAN. Rod has been interviewed by Reuters, Xinhua, Associated Press, Kommersant, The Washington Post, The Financial Times, The Times of India, Bloomberg, Nikkei Shimbun, Gulf Times, O Globo, Handelsblatt, Le Monde and many more.
Information on The Starfish and The Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organization and Rod’s recent media interviews.