Melissa Hathaway

Melissa Hathaway, President of Hathaway Global Strategies, LLC, and Senior Advisor at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center. She brings a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional perspective to strategic consulting and strategy formulation for public and private sector clients. She also serves as a Senior Fellow and member of the Board of Regents at Potomac Institute for Policy Studies and she is a Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Canada. Recently, she was appointed to the Global Commission for Internet Governance (Bildt Commission). In addition to these initiatives, she serves as a member of the board of directors for CyrusOne, a NASDAQ listed company; a member of the Intelligence Advisory Board for Sandia National Laboratory; a member of the University of Maryland University College Cybersecurity Think Tank; a member of the Council of Experts at the Global Cyber Security Center in Italy; a member of the Strategic Advisory Board of the Advanced Cyber Security Center in Boston, Massachusetts; a member of GovInfoSecurity.com's Board of Advisors, a member of the Advisory Board for Mission Link, and a member of the Board of Advisors for the National Economic Security Grid. Additionally, Ms. Hathaway serves as a strategic advisor to a number of Fortune 500 companies. In the government sector, Ms. Hathaway provides strategic advice to the U.S. Government, NATO, and Interpol, as well as numerous governments around the world as they develop and refine their national strategies for cybersecurity.

Formerly, she has served as a member of the Board of Directors of Terremark Worldwide Inc., a NASDAQ listed company that was acquired by Verizon Communications in March 2011; a strategic advisor to NetWitness Corporation, which was acquired by EMC Corporation in April 2011; a strategic advisor to Six3Systems, which was acquired by CACI International Inc. in November 2013; and a member of the Board of Directors of EastWest Institute.

At Harvard, Ms. Hathaway is participating and contributing to the joint MIT-Harvard Project Minerva. She is contributing to the interdisciplinary research program by developing methods to measure, model, interpret and analyze challenges and responses in cyberspace. She is also a regular guest lecturer at both universities.

From February 2009 to August 2009, Ms. Hathaway served in the Obama Administration as Acting Senior Director for Cyberspace in the National Security Council. In that capacity she assembled a team of experienced government cyber experts to conduct the 60-Day Cyberspace Policy Review. In May 2009, the President presented the elegant blueprint of the Cyberspace Policy Review, announced cybersecurity as one of his Administration’s priorities, and recognized Ms. Hathaway’s leadership in conducting the review. In the ensuing months, Ms. Hathaway stood-up the Cybersecurity Office within the National Security Staff to commence the work called for in that blueprint. During the last two years of the administration of George W. Bush, Ms. Hathaway served as Cyber Coordination Executive and Director of the Joint Interagency Cyber Task force in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence where she led the development of the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI). She built a broad coalition from within the Executive Branch and established an unprecedented partnership with Congress to obtain bipartisan support for addressing cybersecurity priorities. She developed and created a unified cross-agency budget submission for FY 2008 and for 2009-13, assembling disparate funding sources into a coherent, integrated program. At the conclusion of her government service she received the National Intelligence Reform Medal in recognition of her achievements. At the conclusion of her government service she received the National Intelligence Reform Medal and the National Intelligence Meritorious Unit Citation Medal in recognition of her achievements.

Previously, Ms. Hathaway was a Principal with Booz Allen & Hamilton, Inc., where she led two primary business units: information operations and long range strategy and policy support, supporting key offices within the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community. Earlier in her career she worked with Evidence Based Research, Inc. and the American Foreign Service Association.

Ms. Hathaway is frequent keynote speaker on cybersecurity matters, and regularly publishes papers and commentary in this field. Academic Credentials.

Hathaway has a B.A. degree from The American University in Washington, D.C. She has completed graduate studies in international economics and technology transfer policy and is a graduate of the U.S. Armed Forces Staff College, with a special certificate in Information Operations.