President and CEO
Security Innovation
Why Nominated: A highly respected veteran of the cybersecurity industry, Security Innovation CEO Ed Adams has taken on several new leadership roles in the last year or so. Last April, he was named to board of directors of the International Consortium of Minority Cybersecurity Professionals (ICMCP), and in August 2018 he joined the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley’s BoSTEM (Boston science, technology, engineering and math) Leadership Committee. In 2014, Adams was named a Privacy by Design Ambassador by the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Canada, and has been a strong supporter of his company’s sponsorship of the Women in Security & Privacy initiative.
Profile: A software quality and security expert with over 20 years of leadership in the technology industry, Adams has been guiding Security Innovation since 2003, transforming the company into a leading provider of application security training and assessment services.
Adams is a distinguished Fellow of The Ponemon Institute, and founded the Application Security Industry Consortium, Inc. (AppSIC), a non-profit association now known as SAFECode. His industry leadership experience also includes joining the board of the National Association of Information Security Groups (NAISG), serving as vice president and board member of the International Secure Software Engineering Council (ISSECO), and participating in numerous other organizations including OWASP.
Prior to Security Innovation, Adams held senior management positions at Rational Software, Lionbridge, Ipswitch and MathSoft. Early in his career, he was an engineer for the U.S. Army and Foster-Miller.
Because of his widely recognized expertise in the field along with his keen presentation skills and charisma, Adams is a sought-after speaker for some of the largest cybersecurity conferences in the world. This past year alone, he has presented at SACON, RSA Conference, Horasis Global Meeting, Conexxus and Cybersecurity Ireland, just to name a few.
What colleagues say: “Ed is a forward thinking security subject matter expert who always keeps ahead of the game. He has vast experience in identifying new threats as well as new technologies and methodologies to address them. From AI to connected devices, software security related threats and many more, he has always been a pioneer in security.” – Mathieu Gorge, founder and CEO, VigiTrust
