Secretary of Homeland Security (2017-2019)
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.
Ms. 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 December 2017, Ms. Nielsen was sworn in as the sixth Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to lead the 240,000 law enforcement, civilian, and military employees of the third largest cabinet agency and oversee development and expenditure of its $70 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. Ms. Nielsen guided the Department through several key initiatives, including:
Maturing physical and cyber critical infrastructure security and resilience efforts to address the 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, staunch the flow of illicit drugs, hold individuals accountable for breaking our nation’s laws, and respond decisively 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 and to protect the homeland from violent extremism and targeted violence, including in our schools and gathering places
Sought and received new authorities to enable the Department to execute new seen and unseen security measures to protect Americans against emerging threats, from weaponized drones to chemical and biological weapons
Prior to her role as DHS Secretary, Ms. 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 and on all policy, interagency, state and 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 on all homeland risk, policy and operational issues, was privileged to oversee DHS staff and to work across the interagency to ensure mission alignment and to resolve any conflicting plans, strategies or policies.
In the private sector, Ms. Nielsen 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, a strategic advisory and investment firm focused on homeland and national security.
In 2004, Ms. 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, Ms. Nielsen advises 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.
Secretary Nielsen has worked across the globe to promote government, non-profit, and private sector collaboration believing strongly that, with today’s threats, ‘if we prepare individually, we will fail collectively’. She is currently a Member of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, the Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Board, and the Homeland Security Experts Group. She is also a risk expert at RANE, a network of risk and security professionals focused on more efficiently responding to emerging threats and managing complex risk.
Ms. Nielsen has served as the Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Risk and Resilience, Chair of the Homeland Security Advisory Council for Strategic and Global Security Programs at Penn State, Senior Fellow at the George Washington University’s Center for Cyber and Homeland Security, expert at NATO, a Founding Member of a key East-West Institute initiative, and a Safety and Security Advisory Board Member for the Center for Naval Analysis. She holds a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and a J.D. from the University of Virginia’s School of Law.