Rod Beckstrom

Rod Beckstrom is a well-known cyber security expert, Internet leader and authority on organizational leadership and social networking. He is the former President and CEO of ICANN, the global organization that help keeps the Internet secure, stable and unified, and was the founding Director of the U.S. Government’s National Cybersecurity Center. He is co-author of the critically acclaimed book The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations, which has been translated into 16 languages, and is a frequent international media commentator and public speaker.

A preeminent thinker on technology issues, Rod was named one of PC World’s “Puppet Masters of the Internet” in April 2012 and included in “2012’s Digital Power 50” by The Hollywood Reporter. In 2011 he was named a “Tech Titan” by The Washingtonian magazine, and in 2010, one of the “25 Most Influential People in Intellectual Property”by the American Lawyer. He is currently Vice Chairman of the Global Council on the Future of the Internet at the Swiss-based World Economic Forum.

As a much sought-after expert, Rod has spoken at high-profile events for a wide range of organizations in more than forty countries, including Google, Microsoft, eBay, Infosys Technologies, Black Hat, DEFCON, RSA, U.S. STRATCOMM, GITEX Dubai Leaders’ Summit, Futurecom Latin America Infosys, CIO Magazine Leadership Summit, Morgan Stanley, Starbucks, TED, the Monaco Media Forum, Sogeti Consulting, The Hay Group, American Organization of Nurse Executives, United Business Media Group, the White House, the United Nations, the World Economic Forum at Davos, the Aspen Institute, Harvard University, Stanford University and the Center for Strategic International Studies and numerous YPO, EO, WPO events around the global.