On this edition of Columbia Technology Partners Ready To Prime, Allen Scott is joined by the executive director of the Presidents’ Commission on National Security. The commission has been tasked with making recommendations to update and protect our cyber infrastructure. The group, made up of 12 cyber and technology professionals from a broad spectrum of industry, will deliver a report to President Barack Obama on Dec. 1, but what will it contain? More importantly a new administration will be in power next year, so how will these recommendations sit with them? We’ll answer those questions and more on this edition of Ready to Prime.

Prior to her appointment at the Commerce Department, Kiersten Todt was the president and managing partner of Liberty Group Ventures, LLC (LGV). She developed risk and crisis management solutions for cybersecurity, infrastructure, homeland security, emergency management and higher education clients in the public, private and non-profit sectors. She has served in senior positions in both the executive and legislative branches of government.

Todt was a partner at Good Harbor Consulting and was responsible for building and managing the company’s North America crisis management practice. Clients included states and localities, large corporations, maritime entities, and college and university systems. Before joining Good Harbor, she worked for Business Executives for National Security (BENS) and was responsible for integrating the private sector into state and local emergency management capabilities. She also developed and executed federal and regional port and cyber security projects. Prior to BENS, she was a consultant for Sandia National Laboratories and worked with the California Governor’s Office and Bay Area Economic Forum to develop the homeland security preparedness plan for the Bay Area. Todt was also an adjunct lecturer at Stanford University.

Todt served as a professional staff member on the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. She worked for the Committee Chairman, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), and was responsible for drafting the cybersecurity, infrastructure protection, emergency preparedness, bioterror, and science and technology directorates of the legislation that created the Homeland Security Department.

Before working in the Senate, Todt served in Vice President Al Gore’s domestic policy office and was responsible for coordinating federal resources with locally-defined needs, specifically focusing on energy and housing issues. She was also the senior adviser on demand-reduction issues to Director Barry. R. McCaffrey at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).

Todt graduated from Princeton University, with a degree in public policy from The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. She holds a master’s degree in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and was selected to be a Presidential Management Fellow in 1999. She earned the Outstanding Service Award at ONDCP.

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