Speakers

The Honorable Kirsten A. Davies was sworn in as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Department of War (DoW) on December 23, 2025, following her presidential nomination and U.S. Senate confirmation. As the principal advisor to the Secretary of War on all matters relating to information management, information technology, cybersecurity, and information assurance, her core mission is to accelerate decision advantage for the warfighter and ensure America’s technological superiority.

As CIO, Ms. Davies exercises enterprise-wide leadership over the Department’s information technology and cybersecurity strategy, budget, and execution. She is responsible for ensuring the resilience and operational effectiveness of the digital infrastructure that underpins warfighting, readiness, and strategic deterrence. Her authority extends to modernizing legacy environments and strengthening cyber resilience against a contested threat landscape. Her mandate includes oversight of critical capabilities such as C4 systems, position, navigation, and timing, and electromagnetic spectrum management. Furthermore, she exercises authority, direction, and control on behalf of the Secretary of War over the strategic direction of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), the NSA’s Cyber Security Directorate (CSD) Information System Security Program (ISSP), and the Department of War Cyber Crime Center (DC3).

Ms. Davies brings nearly two decades of executive leadership experience at the intersection of cybersecurity, enterprise technology, and large-scale organizational transformation. Prior to her federal service, she served as Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for Unilever, where she led global cyber resilience for one of the world’s largest consumer goods enterprises. Her distinguished career includes technology and cyber roles at The Estée Lauder Companies, Barclays-Africa Group, Hewlett Packard Enterprises, and Siemens. Across these roles, she built high-performing teams to defend complex global operations—from manufacturing and supply chains to financial networks—against advanced persistent cyber threats.

In addition to her corporate leadership, Ms. Davies is the founder of the Institute for Cyber, a nonprofit organization dedicated to citizen safety and security in the digital universe. Ms. Davies holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Politics and Government from the University of Puget Sound. She has pursued advanced studies in international law, business, and human rights at John Hopkins University and the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, and holds a professional certification in change management from the Prosci Institute.

Tom Tapley specializes in securing software supply chains for Federal environments, bringing deep expertise in aligning agency security, compliance, and operational requirements with modern technology solutions. With a proven track record in supporting mission-critical systems, he bridges the gap between evolving federal mandates and scalable, secure software practices.

In this role, Tom is responsible for leading Peraton’s information technology (IT) organization and its strategy, ensuring proactive and consistent technology support to the growth, financial, employee experience, and operational objectives of the company. Additionally, he serves as the senior IT advisor to Peraton’s executive leadership team.

Tom returned to Peraton having most recently served as senior vice president and chief information officer at ASRC Federal. While there, he led all aspects of its IT function and strategy execution. Following the acquisition of Perspecta in 2021, he became Peraton’s vice president of information technology. Earlier in his career, he held IT leadership roles at Vencore, BAE Systems Inc., and AIG.

Tom earned a bachelor’s degree in information systems with a concentration in homeland security from Strayer University.

JR Williamson is the Senior Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer of Leidos. In that role, he is accountable for all aspects of information security strategy, governance, risk, and full lifecycle cybersecurity operations for the corporation.  Specific duties include the governance and defense of the corporation’s computing environments: protection of unclassified and classified intellectual and digital assets against existing and emerging cybersecurity threats; developing and implementing effective risk-based security policies, procedures, and operating practices; executing cyber risk assessments and designing appropriate remediation plans; development and retention of our global cybersecurity workforce, and the evolution of our global information security technology and innovation processes.  

Mr. Williamson is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional and a Six Sigma Black Belt.  He chairs the Leidos Security Council; is a long-term member of the Executive Security Action Forum; the Security 50; the Gartner Advisory Board; the Defense Industrial Base Sector Coordinating Council; a member of the NSA Enduring Security Framework; Chair of the WashingtonExec CISO Council; the Customer Advisory Boards for Palo Alto, F5, Okta, Netskope, and Crowdstrike; and is the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Internet Security Alliance. 

Mr. Williamson is frequent public speaker on cybersecurity matters and is a co-author of four books including Cybersecurity for Business (2023), Fixing American Cybersecurity (2023), the National Association of Corporate Directors Cyber Risk Handbook (2026, 5th edition), and the Cybersecurity Social Contract (2016).

Mr. Williamson is blessed with a wonderful family of five and spends his free time with them and engaging in all things soccer (he is a professional soccer coach with a US Soccer National C license and a senior certified referee, and referee instructor and mentor).