Gary McAlum

Gary recently retired as the global CISO of American International Group (AIG), an American multinational finance and insurance corporation with operations in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions. In that role, Gary led a team of over 700 employees and contractors responsible for developing, implementing, and operating an information security strategy to address AIG’s cyber risks across their international footprint. He was also responsible for interacting with multiple Boards, regulatory agencies, and external rating agencies.

In 2021, Gary retired from USAA, a financial services company focused on the military community, where he served as their Chief Security Officer for over 11 years. In that role, he led a team of more than 1,000 personnel spanning Information Security, Privacy, Fraud Operations, Business Continuation, Physical Security Operations, and Corporate Investigations. While at USAA, he served a long tenure on the Board of the Internet Security Alliance (ISA), including Chairman, and contributed to several of their publications.

Prior to USAA, he served 25 years in the US Air Force, retiring as a Colonel. Throughout his military career, he worked in a variety of leadership and staff positions within the information technology and cyber career fields including: cybersecurity operations, telecommunications, satellite communications, deployed network operations, and information security. He was on the front line of cyberspace operations for the Department of Defense where he supported the establishment and evolution of the Joint Task Force Global Network Operations (JTF-GNO), the organization that was the focal point for the operation and security of DoD information systems & networks and a pre-cursor organization to US Cyber Command.

He holds a B.A. in Mathematics from The Citadel, an M.S. in Management Information Systems from the University of Arizona, and an M.S. from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), a former Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), and has completed the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) Cyber Risk Oversight certification course and the Wharton Security Executive Development Program. In addition, he attended the FBI’s CISO Academy and Domestic Security Executive Academy, both in Quantico, VA.