Kirstjen M. Nielsen

Kirstjen M. Nielsen is an internationally recognized expert and proven leader on security issues critical to our nation’s highest priorities, including enterprise risk, resiliency, cybersecurity, and emerging threats. As an attorney, public servant, successful entrepreneur, subject matter expert, and regular public speaker, she brings over two decades of domestic and international experience in the homeland and national security sectors.

Nielsen’s breadth of experience stands at the crossroads of policy, strategy, and operations, providing her with a unique perspective across complex enterprise environments, and influencing her position on the importance of stakeholder engagement, the role of technology as a force multiplier, and the need to address today’s threats while still assessing and preparing for those of tomorrow.

In 2017, Nielsen was sworn in as the sixth Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to lead the 250,000 law enforcement, civilian, and military employees of the third-largest cabinet agency and oversee development and expenditure of its $75 billion in total annual budget authority. During Secretary Nielsen’s tenure, she reorganized key parts of DHS around critical mission areas to better protect the nation against evolving threats across land, air, sea and cyber domains and to ensure DHS’ dedicated employees were equipped with the right tools, resources, and authorities needed to better protect the homeland. Nielsen proudly served as the Service Secretary for the U.S. Coast Guard. In addition to working with Congress to create the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and creating the Office of Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction and the National Risk Management Center, Ms. Nielsen guided the Department through several key initiatives, including:

 • Maturing physical and cyber critical infrastructure security and resilience efforts to address systemic risks in our hyperconnected era, hardening digital defenses, leading a global push to replace complacency with consequences against cyber adversaries, and preventing the hacking of U.S. elections while guarding against foreign interference in U.S. democracy

• Initiating historic efforts to secure our nation’s borders, counter human trafficking, staunch the flow of illicit drugs, and hold transnational criminal organizations and individuals accountable for breaking our nation’s laws

• Modernizing homeland security preparedness efforts to enable decisive response and recovery during times of record-breaking natural disasters to help Americans rebuild

• Launching new and sophisticated efforts to block terrorists and criminals from reaching the United States by air, land or sea and to protect the homeland from violent extremism and targeted violence, including in our schools and gathering places

• Directed the identification and assessment of new and emerging threats, including the adversarial use of quantum and AI, and sought and received new authorities to enable DHS to execute new seen and unseen security measures to protect Americans against such threats, from weaponized drones to chemical and biological weapons

Prior to her role as DHS Secretary and National Security Cabinet Member, Nielsen was commissioned to serve as the White House Principal Deputy Chief of Staff during which time she was responsible for advising the President of the United States on all policy, interagency, state, local, and international matters across various stakeholder groups. She also served as DHS Chief of Staff. In that role, she was the principal advisor to the Secretary for all homeland risk, policy and operational issues, was privileged to oversee DHS staff, work across the interagency to ensure mission alignment and adjudicate any conflicting plans, strategies or policies.

In the private sector, Nielsen has advised government agencies, private sector companies, international organizations, and NGOs on assessing their risk posture and increasing their resiliency, developing crisis communications plans, understanding various policy environments, and identifying and mitigating hazards. From 2012-2016, she was the President of Sunesis Consulting, a security management firm focused on developing and executing preparedness strategies, plans, tools, and tabletop exercises to prevent, protect against and respond to catastrophic events with a focus on cybersecurity and critical infrastructure interdependencies. Prior to founding Sunesis Consulting, Secretary Nielsen worked as the General Counsel and President of the Homeland Security and Private Sector Preparedness practice at Civitas Group llc, a strategic advisory and investment firm focused on homeland and national security.

In 2004, Nielsen was commissioned by President Bush to serve as Special Assistant to the President for Prevention, Preparedness, and Response on the White House Homeland Security Council, where her responsibilities included the development, coordination, and oversight of U.S. Government homeland security policy and Presidential directives and policies related to critical infrastructure security and resilience, emergency preparedness and response, counterterrorism, and continuity of government. There, she also served as a crisis manager and oversaw numerous interagency operations and the interagency response to more than 300 disasters and emergencies.

After our nation was attacked on September 11, 2001, Ms. Nielsen helped to stand up a newly created government agency, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) where she established and led the Offices of Legislative Policy and Government Affairs. Before her work at TSA, she practiced corporate transactional law for Haynes and Boone LLP and worked for Senator Connie Mack III on defense, aviation, foreign affairs, and government affairs issues.

Today, as the President and Founder of her newest venture, Lighthouse Strategies, Nielsen advises investors and technology companies — from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies — on new and emerging threats to the homeland, enterprise risk assessments and resiliency, government mission requirements, new technology use cases across the public and private security spectrum, and the mitigation of potential threats or vulnerabilities posed by new technologies. She serves on the Board of D-Wave Quantum Systems, Inc (QBTS), Chairing the Cybersecurity Committee and is a Senior Policy Advisor to Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP. Ms. Nielsen also sits on the Advisory Boards of emerging tech companies focused on cybersecurity, artifical intelligence, digital identity, drug and biothreat detection, decentralized finance, space, and emergency communications and emergency response.

Nielsen has worked across the globe as a speaker, author and thought leader to promote government, non-profit, and private sector collaboration believing strongly that, with today’s threats, ‘if we prepare individually, we will fail collectively’. Nielsen is active on a variety of advisory and policy boards, promoting government, non-profit, and private sector security collaboration. She is a member of the National Defense University FoundationBoard, the Board of Advisors for the Global and National Security Institute at the University of South Florida, a Board Member of the Global Resilience Federation, and an Editorial Board member of Homeland Security Today. She is also a Board member of a donor advised nonprofit and the Vision of Children Foundation. Nielsen previously served as a Member of the President’s National Infrastructure Advisory Council, the Chair of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Agenda Council on Risk and Resilience, a Member of the U.S. Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Board, a Member of Australia’s Cybersecurity Advisory Board, a Member of the Penn State Homeland Security Advisory Council for Strategic and Global Security Programs, Senior Fellow at the George Washington University’s Center for Cyber and Homeland Security, a civilian expert at NATO, a Safety and Security Advisory Board Member for the Center for Naval Analysis, and an Advisory Board Member for the WEF Centre for Cybersecurity.

She holds a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.