Alicia Lynch brings over 30 years of intelligence, security, and cyber experience with the Department of Defense, the Defense Contracting community and the private sector. Alicia retired as a Colonel from the US Army in 2012 where she served as both an Intelligence and Cyber Officer. Alicia earned respect as a dynamic leader of soldiers in combat as well as garrison environments in assignments around the world.  As both a qualified intelligence professional and cyber specialist, she served in every echelon from Company to National while leading units from team-sized to commanding a Brigade. Since 2012 she has leveraged her technical experience in commercial executive level positions focused on cyber and security. She has recently held titles including the SVP Chief Security Officer and Chief Information Security Officer at Cognizant, Chief Information Security Officer at SAIC, Deputy Chief Information Security Officer at Accenture Federal Services, and VP of Enterprise Solutions at a Cyber startup. 

Alicia is an active member and supporter of many organizations such as the Northern Virginia Technology Council where she is on the Cybersecurity & Privacy Committee as well as the Leadership Board. Alicia served as the founding Chairwoman of the Washington Exec CISO Council.  Alicia is a Graduate Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in the Women’s Global Leadership Program. She is on the CISO Advisory Board for several companies and she has been named numerous times to the Top CISOs to watch in Washington, DC. 

Alicia holds an MBA from the University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of Business and a CIO Program Certificate from the College of Information and Cyberspace, National Defense University. She is also a graduate of the FBIs Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Academy at Quantico. She maintains the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification.