An experienced leader and enterprise security expert with over 40 years in the public and private sectors. Brian is often called on as a practical strategic and operational advisor. Most recently he served in critical executive roles including Chief Information Security Officer for American Airlines, and Chief Information Security Officer to NewsCorp. He has served as Virtual CISO to Mission Cloud, Eastpointe Health, HEB and Red Five. He is a senior advisor to McKinsey & Co., Ernst & Young and Security 50. As former Rackspace Chief Security Officer, Brian Kelly looked out for the safety and security of Rackers, facilities, infrastructure and data/information worldwide while also protecting over 300,000 customer organizations.

Brian has three plus decades of leadership experience in security, special operations/intelligence, and business operations with the U.S. government, Department of Defense (DoD), and private sector. He previously led the Giuliani Advanced Security Center in New York and served as CEO of iDefense, the first cyber threat intelligence provider for the private sector.

A native Bostonian who has kept his accent, Brian graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy, where he earned a degree in management and lettered in three varsity sports: hockey, lacrosse, and boxing. Brian was also selected for a prestigious Department of Defense fellowship in Washington, D.C. He later earned an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a MS from the Air Force Institute of Technology.

In the Air Force, Brian rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel, and managed highly sensitive operations around the globe. Brian often briefed senior US Officials, Heads of State, Ambassadors and the President of the United States. As a DoD Fellow, he advised the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Defense, regarding information warfare strategy, concepts and war-fighting doctrine and received a DoD Meritorious Service Medal.

Brian left the Air Force in 1995 and moved to San Antonio to lead business operations for Trident Data Systems, which provided support to the intelligence community and developed information warfare tactics, strategies and technologies. He later served as a partner (select) at Deloitte and Touche, president of Newbrook Technologies, and Executive Director of IT risk transformation for Ernst and Young. In each role, he honed his skills in executive leadership, personnel, data and facility security, incident response, and forensic evidence collection. He has also worked closely with senior executives for leading companies in global financial services, technology, health care, and manufacturing. He has led physical security assessments for sensitive government and corporate facilities including ship yards, gunpowder production, international banks, international manufacturing and power production and distribution.

Mr. Kelly has served on a number of Committees and Boards to include a sub-panel of the President’s Commission for Critical Infrastructure under President Clinton; Department of Commerce’s Communications & Information Security Working Group; Executive Program Manager to Financial Services Technology Consortium and the Information Technology Information Sharing & Analysis Center. In 2012 he was recognized as one of twelve global recipients of EY’s Chairman’s Values Award out of 167,000 employees.

American Airlines, Chief Information Security Officer (Interim)

NewsCorp, Chief Information Security Officer (Interim)

Mission Cloud, Chief Information Security Officer(Interim)

Eastpointe Health, Chief Information Security Officer (Interim)

HEB, Chief Information Security Officer (Interim)

Red Five, Chief Information Security Officer (Interim)

McKinsey & Company, Senior Advisor

Rackspace, Chief Security Officer

Ernst & Young (EY), Managing Director

iDefense, Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Deloitte & Touche (Deloitte), Partner [Elect]

Trident Data Systems, Business Operations Leader

United States Air Force, Lieutenant Colonel

United States Air Force Institute of Technology, Master of Science – Major Systems Acquisition and Contract Management

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Lally School of Management, Master of Business Administration (MBA)

United States Air Force Academy, Bachelor of Science – Business Management and Operations Research