Vinton G. Cerf, Chair

Vinton G. Cerf has served as vice president and chief Internet evangelist for Google since October 2005. In this role, he is responsible for identifying new enabling technologies to support the development of advanced, Internet-based products and services from Google. He is also an active public face for Google in the Internet world.

Widely known as one of the “Fathers of the Internet,” Cerf is the co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet. In December 1997, President Clinton presented the U.S. National Medal of Technology to Cerf and his colleague, Robert E. Kahn, for founding and developing the Internet. Kahn and Cerf were named the recipients of the ACM Alan M. Turing award in 2004 for their work on the Internet protocols. The Turing award is sometimes called the ‘Nobel Prize of Computer Science.’ In November 2005, President George Bush awarded Cerf and Kahn the Presidential Medal of Freedom for their work. The medal is the highest civilian award given by the United States to its citizens. In April 2008, Cerf and Kahn received the prestigious Japan Prize.

Vint Cerf served as chairman of the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) from 2000-2007. Cerf also served as founding president of the Internet Society from 1992-1995 and in 1999 served a term as chairman of the Board. In addition, Cerf is honorary chairman of the IPv6 Forum, dedicated to raising awareness and speeding introduction of the new Internet protocol.

Esther Dyson, Treasurer

Esther Dyson is a prominent entrepreneur, philanthropist, commentator, and angel investor. She is a trained cosmonaut and was backup to Charles Simonyi, who flew in March of 2009.

She sold her business, EDventure Holdings, to CNET Networks in early 2004. Previously, she had co-owned EDventure and written/edited Release 1.0 since 1983. She led CNET networks’ Anti-Spyware workshop, and accompanied it with a comprehensive report about four leading adware companies (only one of which is still active).

Aside from space training, her primary activity is investing in start-ups and guiding many of them as a board member. To that end, she travels broadly and speaks four languages (English, Russian, French and German.) Her board seats include 23andMe, Airship Ventures, Boxbe, CVO Group (Hungary), Eventful.com, Evernote, IBS Group (Russia, advisory board), Meetup, NewspaperDirect, Voxiva, Yandex (Russia) and WPP Group (not a start-up).

Dyson is also an active player in discussions and international policy-making concerning the Internet and society. From 1998 to 2000, she was founding chairman of ICANN (the organization responsible for overseeing the Domain Name System). A variety of government officials worldwide turn to her for advice on Internet policy issues. In 1997, she wrote a book on the impact of the Net on individuals’ lives, Release 2.0: A design for living in the digital age. She also donates time and money as a trustee to the Sunlight Foundation, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the Eurasia Foundation. She was chairman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation for several years. She has a degree from Harvard in economics.

Brett McDowell, Clerk

Brett leads PayPal’s ecosystem security team tasked to accelerate the evolution of the Internet into a safer, more reliable and trustworthy environment for PayPal’s 117+ million customers worldwide. Brett currently serves as the Identity Ecosystem Steering Group’s Management Council Chair, an officer of the National Cyber Security Alliance Board of Directors, on the StopBadware Board of Directors, and recently served as the founding Chair of the DMARC.org Working Group. Before joining PayPal, Brett was in senior management positions for a number of technology consortia including Kantara Initiative, Liberty Alliance Project, VoiceXML Forum, and the Open Mobile Alliance.

Maxim Weinstein, President & Executive Director

Maxim Weinstein has been leading StopBadware since 2007. He is a regular speaker and panelist on topics related to end user and website security. He also serves on numerous cross-industry working groups and on the Massachusetts Educational Technology Advisory Council. In 2009, he was recognized by SC Magazine as one of the year’s “information security luminaries.”

Prior to joining StopBadware, Maxim worked in a variety of positions involving technology, communications, education, and leadership across a range of industries. Most recently, he served as technology director and national management team member of Year Up, a Fast Company Social Capital Award winner.

Maxim is a graduate of Tufts University, from which he earned a master’s degree in teaching and a bachelor’s degree in quantitative economics and environmental studies.

Michael Barrett

Michael Barrett is the chief information security officer for PayPal. In this role, he is responsible for ensuring the security of PayPal’s 149 million accounts worldwide. He oversees the information systems and services that protect the integrity and confidentiality of PayPal customer and employee information.

Before joining PayPal, Barrett was vice president of security and utility strategy at American Express, where he helped define the company’s information-security program and directed its Internet technology strategy.

Barrett was twice named one of the 50 most powerful people in networking by Network World magazine and was recently listed as one of ITSecurity.com’s 59 top influencers in the security industry. He is a certified information systems security professional (CISSP) and a certified information security manager (CISM). He graduated from Brighton University (U.K.), where he earned a bachelor of science degree in computer science.

Philippe Courtot

Philippe is chairman and CEO of Qualys, Inc. Demonstrating a unique mix of technical vision, marketing and business acumen, Philippe Courtot has repeatedly built innovative companies into industry leaders. As CEO of Qualys, Philippe has worked with thousands of companies to improve their network security. Philippe received the SC Magazine Editor’s Award for bringing on-demand technology to the network security industry and for co-founding the CSO Interchange to provide a forum for sharing information in the security industry.

Before joining Qualys, Philippe was the Chairman and CEO of Signio, an electronic payment start-up that he repositioned to become a significant e-commerce player. In February 2000, VeriSign acquired Signio for more than a billion dollars. Today, VeriSign’s payment division, based on the Signio technology, handles 30% of electronic transaction in the U.S., processing $100 million in daily sales. Prior to Signio, Philippe was President and CEO of Verity, where he re-engineered the company to become the leader in enterprise knowledge retrieval solutions. Under Philippe’s direction, the company completed its initial public offering in November 1995. Philippe also turned an unknown company of 12 people, cc:Mail, into the dominant email platform provider, achieving a 40% market share while competing directly against IBM and Microsoft. Acknowledging the market leading position of cc:Mail and the significance of email in corporate environments, Lotus acquired the company in 1991. In 1986, as CEO of Thomson CGR Medical, a medical imaging company, Philippe received the Benjamin Franklin award for his role in the creation of a nationwide advertising campaign promoting the life-saving benefits of mammography. Philippe served on the Board of Trustees for The Internet Society, an international non-profit organization that fosters global cooperation and coordination on the development of the Internet. French and Basque-born, he holds a master's degree in physics from the University of Paris. He came to the U.S. in 1981 and has lived in Silicon Valley since 1987.

Eric Davis

Eric is responsible for setting and driving implementation of Google's global public policy and industry relations strategy for security, user protection and related subject matter.  Eric serves as a board member for the National Cyber Security Alliance, and the Messaging Anti Abuse Working Group (MAAWG).  Eric began his career at Google nine years ago and quickly became Google's lead on search and advertising syndication policy, including worldwide user trust and safety policy.  He then developed and led Google's company-wide efforts to prevent malware in ads ("anti-malvertising") resulting in the launch of a new detection system for Google's ad properties and increased industry awareness. Prior to Google, Eric was an international trust and safety product manager at eBay, and managed international product expansion at Netscape. Eric is the co-author of two security-related patents.

Alex Eckelberry 

Alex Eckelberry is a leading industry expert on security issues and is currently an independent advisor and board member to a broad range of companies. Most recently, he was president of the security business unit of GFI Software, subsequent to GFI’s acquisition of security innovator Sunbelt Software. Previously, he was the CEO of Sunbelt Software for over eight years, where he transformed the company into one of industry’s leading security providers for both business and homes. He has over 25 years of experience in technology and related areas, having worked for Borland International, Quarterdeck Corporation, Mijenix Software and Kroll Ontrack. Mr. Eckelberry also spent several years working in private equity at Bulldog Capital Management (now part of Monitor), where he invested in a wide range of technology companies. Mr. Eckelberry has written and spoken extensively on the subject of security, personal protection and trends in malware and has been publicly recognized by Google for contributions to Google’s security and product safety. His community involvement includes co-founding Phishing Incidence and Response Termination (PIRT) and the Julie Group, which seeks fairness in the intersection of technology and law.