Alissa “Dr.Jay” Abdullah

Alissa “Dr. Jay” Abdullah is Mastercard’s deputy chief security officer. In this role she leads Regional Security and the Emerging Corporate Security Solutions team and is responsible for protecting Mastercard’s information assets as well as driving the future of security. Dr. Jay joined Mastercard in 2019 after serving as the chief information security officer of Xerox where she established and led a corporate-wide information risk management program. She also served as the deputy chief information officer of the White House where she helped modernize the Executive Office of the President’s IT systems with cloud services and virtualization. She currently hosts Cybercrime Magazine’s Mastering Cyber podcast and is a cybersecurity lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Information. Dr. Jay is also a member of Smartsheet’s Board of Directors as well as a member of the board for Girls in Tech. Dr. Jay holds a PhD in Information Technology Management from Capella University, a master’s degree in Telecommunications and Computer Networks from The George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Savannah State University.