Theresa Payton
Boards approve digital transformation programmes. They rarely have the intelligence to know what those programmes expose. The gap between the investment in innovation and the investment in protection is where most serious breaches begin. Organisations that conflate cybersecurity with IT compliance are solving the wrong problem – and senior leaders often don’t know enough to challenge that framing.
Theresa Payton – the first female White House Chief Information Officer and founder of Fortalice Solutions – helps boards and executive teams close the gap between digital ambition and the governance structures needed to protect it.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Theresa Payton
- She has held the most accountable technology seat in the world – not as an adviser, but as the operator responsible for securing the Executive Office of the President. That is a different class of credential from the vendor or think-tank backgrounds most cybersecurity speakers bring.
- Her book Manipulated – on The Guardian’s Top 10 Books About Cybercrime list, maps the specific mechanics of AI-driven disinformation, deepfakes, and election interference; organisations working on trust, governance, or brand integrity get a strategic framework they can act on.
- As a patented inventor of security designs and co-founder of a cybersecurity product company (Dark3, acquired by Celerium), she brings the practitioner’s perspective, not the theorist’s: she has built the solutions, not just described the problem.
- She translates threat intelligence into board-level language. Her seventeen years across banking technology, government, and private advisory work means she can speak credibly to risk committees, technology leaders, and general business audiences in the same event.
Biography highlights
- First female White House Chief Information Officer, serving under President George W. Bush, 2006–2008
- Founder and CEO of Fortalice Solutions, ranked in the Global Cybersecurity Top 500 by Cybercrime Magazine
- Prior senior technology executive roles at Bank of America and Wells Fargo
- Author of Manipulated: Inside the Cyberwar to Hijack Elections and Distort the Truth, The Guardian Top 10 Books About Cybercrime list; revised edition published 2024
- Co-inventor on an approved U.S. patent in security design
- Recipient of the FBI Director’s Award for Community Service; 2020 CISO MAG Cybersecurity Crusader of the Year; 2019 Woman Cybersecurity Leader of the Year
- Starred as Deputy Commander of Intelligence on the CBS reality series Hunted
- Regular security commentator on the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, CBS News, Fox News, and MSNBC
Biography
Theresa Payton ran cybersecurity for the White House. From 2006 to 2008, as Chief Information Officer for the Executive Office of the President under George W. Bush, she was accountable for the security of IT systems used by the President and 3,000 staff: not as an adviser, but as the person responsible. Before that, she spent sixteen years in senior technology roles at Bank of America and Wells Fargo. The combination is unusual: operational authority at the highest level of government, built on a banking technology foundation.
That background shapes how she approaches cyber risk with corporate audiences. The question she puts to boards is not whether their organisation will face a breach, but whether their governance structures are designed to know about it, act on it, and contain it. As CEO of Fortalice Solutions, listed in the Global Cybersecurity Top 500, she has spent fifteen years working through exactly that question with Fortune 100 clients.
Her book Manipulated, named one of The Guardian’s Top 10 Books About Cybercrime, examines how AI-generated deepfakes, self-replicating chatbots, and coordinated disinformation campaigns are used to compromise institutions from the outside in. A revised edition was published in 2024. She is also a co-inventor on an approved U.S. patent in security design, and previously co-founded Dark3, a cybersecurity product company later acquired by Celerium.
Her profile extends beyond the conference circuit. She has testified before government bodies, served as Deputy Commander of Intelligence on the CBS series Hunted, and is a regular security analyst on networks including CNN, CBS News, and MSNBC. For organisations where the board genuinely needs to understand what it owns and what it is exposed to, she is one of the few speakers who has actually sat in that seat.
Key speaking topics
- Cybersecurity governance and board-level risk
- AI-driven threats and deepfake manipulation
- Secured digital transformation
- Election security and information integrity
- Data privacy and digital identity
- Fraud and social engineering
- Cybersecurity leadership and workforce
Ideal for
- Boards and non-executive directors navigating cyber and AI governance
- CISOs, CIOs, and CTOs developing organisation-wide security strategy
- Risk, compliance, and audit committees in regulated sectors
- Technology and transformation leaders in financial services, healthcare, and government-adjacent industries
Audience outcomes
- A board-ready framework for assessing the gap between digital investment and security governance
- Practical understanding of how AI-driven threats – deepfakes, disinformation, autonomous attack tools – operate in practice, not just in theory
- Clearer accountability structures for cyber risk at executive level
- Awareness of the specific ways social engineering and fraud are evolving, with concrete defensive steps
- Language and framing to take cybersecurity from a technical department concern to a strategic leadership conversation
Talks
An accessible, jargon-free examination of how AI is reshaping organisational security, business operations, and individual decision-making – drawing on law enforcement intelligence and live demonstrations of current attack methods.
Key takeaways:
- How AI is altering the threat landscape for organisations, from deepfake fraud to autonomous attack tools
- The specific mechanics of modern cybercriminal tradecraft, illustrated with anonymised law enforcement cases
- A practical framework for deploying AI responsibly while maintaining customer trust and data integrity
A practical framework for driving digital innovation at pace without creating the security exposures that most transformation programmes inadvertently introduce.
Key takeaways:
- How to balance innovation velocity with security governance across a transformation programme
- Real-world case study lessons from organisations that have managed – and mismanaged – digital transformation risk
- Actionable steps for leaders responsible for both driving change and protecting critical assets
A personal leadership keynote drawing on experience in the highest-stakes technology roles to explore resilience, purpose, and accountability under pressure.
Key takeaways:
- Leadership principles shaped by responsibility at the most senior levels of government technology
- How to navigate high-pressure decision-making without losing clarity or composure
- Reflections on aligning professional ambition with personal values and long-term purpose
Videos
Testimonials
Books
Fees
| EUR | GBP | USD | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Country | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Asia Pacific | €40000 to €90000 | £35,001 - £75,000 | $50000 - $100000 |
| Europe | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Middle East & Africa | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| South America | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| United Kingdom | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| US East Coast | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| US West Coast | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Virtual | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |