Mark Weatherford is an American cybersecurity professional who has held a variety of executive level positions in both the public and private sectors. He was appointed as the first deputy under secretary for cybersecurity in the Obama administration at the US Department of Homeland Security from 2011 to 2013.DHS: Secretary Napolitano Appoints Mark Weatherford as Deputy Under Secretary for Cybersecurity As of August 2025 he is the Head of Cybersecurity Policy and Strategy at NVIDIA,LinkedIn: Announcement about the new position having been before that vice president of policy and standards at Gretel until April 2025.Gretel website - page About Us
Weatherford is a graduate of the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona, and holds a master's degree from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He also holds the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification. He is a former of US Navy cryptologic officer and led the Navy's Computer Network Defense operations and the Naval Computer Incident Response Team (NAVCIRT).
Before joining the DHS, he served (2010–11) as the vice president and chief security officer of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC),NERC: Chief Security Officer Accepts Appointment to Department of Homeland Security Position where he directed the organization's critical infrastructure and cybersecurity program for electric utilities across North America. He was also appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as the state of California's first Chief Information Security OfficerOffice of the State CIO California Releases First-Ever Information Security Strategic Plan in the Office of Information Security (2008–09), and was also the first Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)Colorado State CISO Contact Information for the State of Colorado (2004–07), where he was appointed by both Governor Bill Owens and Governor Bill Ritter. Most notably, he helped establish the state's first cybersecurity program and spearheaded some of the nation's first cybersecurity legislation aimed to protect citizens.
After leaving the DHS, he was a principalChertoff Group: Mark Weatherford Joins Chertoff Group As Principal with the Chertoff Group in Washington DC, and senior vice president and chief cybersecurity strategist of vArmour.Press release by vArmour.
Weatherford was one of Information Security magazine's "Security 7 Award" winners in 2008TechTarget.com: Security 7 Award winners tackle important information security issues and was awarded SC Magazines "CSO of the Year" award in 2010,SC Magazine: CSO of the Year In 2012 and 2013 he was named one of the "10 Most Influential People in Government Information Security" by GovInfoSecurity.GovInfoSecurity: Top 10 Influencers in Government IT Security (slide 6) He is a member of the Marysville High School, Marysville, California, Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) International Hall of Fame in October 2018.
References
External links Chertoff Group