Lauren Bedula joined Beacon Global Strategies in 2015. She is a Managing Director and leads the firm’s National Security Technology Practice, focused on advising disruptive technology companies on partnerships with the national security community. Ms. Bedula is Co-Host of the Business Executives for National Security (BENS) podcast “Building the Base”, focused on the evolving defense industrial base. Ms. Bedula currently serves on the Board of Directors of BENS and and on the Executive Board of the Silicon Valley Defense Group. She is a Senior Fellow at the National Security Institute at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School and serves on the Board of Directors of the Women’s Foreign Policy Group. Ms. Bedula also serves on the Stimson Cener’s Alfred Lee Loomis Innovation Council. Prior to joining Beacon, Ms. Bedula served as the Director for Policy, Emerging Threats at BENS. Ms. Bedula oversaw the domestic security and counter threat finance portfolios, working closely with federal, state and local law enforcement, the Department of Defense, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and Department of Homeland Security. Previously, Ms. Bedula worked as a research analyst for a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. She also previously worked as a Research Associate for the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. Ms. Bedula previously served on the Board of Directors for the Young Professionals in Foreign Policy and as a Fellow at George Washington University’s Center for Cyber and Homeland Security. Ms. Bedula graduated from the American University, with a double major in Public Communication and Interdisciplinary Studies C.L.E.G.: Communications, Legal Institutions, Economics, and Government.

Ayan Islam serves as the Director of Cyber Workforce at the Office of National Cyber Director (ONCD) and supports the development of the upcoming National Cyber Workforce and Education Strategy. Previously, she was the Associate Policy Director for R Street’s Cybersecurity and Emerging Threats team, where she supported the oversight and development of the Cybersecurity and Emerging Threats program, and provided subject matter expertise in public policy strategy development and implementation. Prior to R Street, she was the Critical Infrastructure Portfolio Lead at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and also served as the CISA COVID Task Force Tier 0 Project Lead, Operation Warp Speed Liaison, and Cybersecurity Strategist for the Aviation Cyber Initiative (ACI) during her tenure.

Kathryn Neal is the Director of International Policy for Microsoft within the U.S. government affairs team, where she works to deepen the company’s engagement on international policy priorities with the Administration, Executive Branch agencies, and NGOs. She leads the company’s engagement with the State Department and USAID, and coordinates Microsoft engagement in U.S.-led multilateral and bilateral summits. Prior to this role, she built and led Microsoft’s University Relations team, helped form a Cities engagement team, and was the company’s Policy Planning Director. Before joining Microsoft, she worked as the Director of International Policy for Boeing Commercial, as an investment analyst in Bangkok, as a consultant to the Asian Development Bank in Vietnam, helped start the European-American Business Council, and taught international economics at several graduate schools. Kathryn is a graduate of Vanderbilt and Johns Hopkins SAIS and her doctorate in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics focused on the role of companies in building international economic norms.