Brandon Wales

Brandon Wales is the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) first Executive Director, serving as the senior career executive helping oversee the execution of CISA operations. He is responsible for leading long-term strategy development, managing CISA-wide policy initiatives, and ensuring effective operational collaboration across the Agency.

In February 2022, Wales was appointed as the lead for the Federal Government’s domestic preparedness and response related to the Russian-Ukraine crisis. In this capacity, Wales was responsible for establishing and leading an interagency Unified Coordination Group (UGC) to ensure unity of effort, building U.S. government-wide strategic objectives, identifying and resolving gaps in operations and interagency coordination, and coordinating with federal, state, and local, tribal, and territorial officials, as well as representatives of the private sector and non-governmental entities.

From November 2020 through July 2021, Wales was the Acting Director of CISA. In this capacity, he led CISA’s efforts to defend civilian networks, manage systemic risk to national critical functions, and work across both the public and private sectors to raise the security baseline of the Nation’s cyber and physical infrastructure. During his tenure as the acting Director, he led the agency’s response to the SolarWinds Orion Supply Chain Attacks, Microsoft Exchange vulnerabilities, the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack, Pulse Connect Secure vulnerabilities, and the Kaseya VSA supply chain ransomware attack, among many others, while completing the stand-up and reorganization of the Agency following the passage of the CISA Act of 2018, which established CISA as an independent agency.

From August 2017 to December 2019, Wales directly supported the Secretary of Homeland Security beginning as the Senior Counselor to the Secretary for Cyber and Resilience, Wales was responsible for advising on cybersecurity, emergency management, incident response and building a more resilient nation. Following that assignment, he served as the Deputy Chief of Staff (Acting), developing and advancing the Department’s strategic priorities. In June 2019, Wales assumed the role of Chief of Staff (Acting), assisting the Secretary in overseeing the Department, ensuring close coordination across its operational components and managing interagency relationships.