Chris Krebs – 2020

Chris Krebs likes to joke he’s an “accidental director,” which makes sense because his favorite advice for aspiring leaders is to “be humble.” But since helping establish CISA in 2018, he’s worked to improve governmentwide threat information sharing particularly on the election security front. As the coronavirus outbreak reached pandemic proportions, Krebs warned agencies and businesses to be wary of increased hacking activity taking advantage of the crisis. And most recently, he’s set his sights on protecting industrial control systems (ICS) through a strategy combining data analysis, training and better technology. “We’re going to ask more of the ICS community, but we’re also going to deliver more to you,” Krebs said. That includes more in-depth discussions with industry executives about their needs. The director said he “couldn’t be happier” with his role and where CISA is headed.