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James Ryan

His mom was on her way to become a nun - until she met his dad. James Ryan likes to say that he learned to study important books from his Mom and to achieve the unthinkable from his Dad.

By combining strong research skills with practical leadership skills, James often finds himself in super smart teams who are driven to achieve – even when the trail has not yet been blazed. By way of example, he has had the privilege of enjoying exciting work with gifted teams where he was:

• Pioneering with a Fortune 500 Defense Industrial Base firm to earn D.o.D. trust when cyber security became a front-office issue to meet shifting customer demand

• Leading the development of a revenue-generating two-factor credentialing product for a Fortune 500 financial services firm

• Defining an Identity and Access Management Strategy with NASA and HP to allow the Federal Government to achieve target mission objectives as stated in executive orders

• Transforming a Cyber Security Program in 1.5 years to allow Federal Agencies to rise from an F to an A grade in their congressionally-reported FISMA score card

As the middle child between two sisters, he was naturally a peacemaker and diplomat. Well, he might question ‘naturally’, but he once read that we can master anything after 10,000 hours of deliberate practice, so he does have the reps!

James has a collaborative leadership style and natural curiosity to see the opportunity, multiple perspectives, find the YES, ‘make things work’, and anticipate needs. He leads, follows, coaches, teaches, and pitches in – whatever it takes to achieve positive outcomes.

To share his message and cyber security expertise, he is also a public speaker and author. He has appeared on the History Channel and he has shared the stage with luminaries such as the Honorable Howard Schmidt and Patrick Reidy. His articles have been published in a broad range of publications including business journals, contracts magazine, and security management magazines.

James graduated Summa Cum Laude from Virginia Tech as an Electrical and Computer Engineer in 1997 and later earned his Masters. He joined Lockheed Martin in 1997 as a member of its prestigious Engineering Leadership Development Program (ELDP) and joined the .COM craze in 1998 to build high-tech telecommunications companies and managed service providers. In 2001, he founded Litmus Logic (http://www. litmuslogic.com) to deliver strategic cyber security services. In 2012, he partnered with Gopal Khanna, Minnesota’s first CIO, to build the first cyber security summit, and he continues to serve on summit’s board of advisors. In 2014, he founded the Digital Leadership Review (www.dlreview.org), an online magazine to give a podium to digital leaders, and partnered with John Maxwell to teach advanced leadership skills.

In his downtime, James plays competitive table tennis and volunteers to coach children in the USA and Ethiopia. You can connect with him online at: [email protected] or: [email protected].