This year’s sponsor of the Senate Luncheon is William (Bill) F. Conner (NYSC – Arkansas in 1977). Bill is the former CEO of Entrust-a security software company that he ran for 13 years until last December when he sold the company for $500M. He is now consulting. Bill’s career spans more than 30 years across numerous high-tech industries. He is among the most experienced security, data and infrastructure executives worldwide. He led key divisions at ATT, he led Nortel into data with an $9B acquisition of Bay Networks, and has led the effort to protect digital identities around the world in over 60+ countries while the CEO of Entrust. He has been at the vanguard of three Digital Information Age’s most transformational digital technology shifts. Bill has been recognized with the Federal 100 Award-which the government bestows to the top 100 individuals and organizations impacting the U.S. Government, and he has also be recognized with the Corporate CEO of the Year as well as the Marketer of the Year. He received the NYSC Alumnus of the Year from the NYSF in 2013. Senator Rockefeller noted that Conner is one of the 100 most important advisors to the United States Senate
As part of Bill’s efforts to secure national critical infrastructure, he launched and co-chaired the Business Software Alliance Information Security Governance task force which released an information security management framework for industry. He also co-chaired the Corporate Governance Task Force of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security National Cyber Security Partnership, which released a report-“information security governance: a call to action.” He has shared his expertise on Capitol Hill by testifying before Congressional hearings on topics of critical infrastructure protection, security for small and medium businesses, and national security.