Laura Ann Jones, Ph.D.

As a distinguished Executive Risk Management Strategist with decades of impactful leadership, Dr. Laura A. Jones innovates in global risk management to enhance organizational resilience. She combines her extensive industry experience with an academic, corporate, and military background to provide cybersecurity and risk management thought leadership and operational excellence across Fortune 500 companies, government entities, and higher-level educational institutions. Her leadership experience includes a stellar 21-year career in the Army, where she led multinational teams. A risk and security strategist, practitioner, and postgraduate researcher, her sphere of influence is rooted in leading the development of risk management for security programs from start-up through global execution across a multitude of industries.

Dr. Jones serves in the academic space to elevate risk and security. Specializing in risk management, cybersecurity, quality assurance, and artificial intelligence, she currently serves as an adjunct faculty member at Wake Forest University, where she developed and taught a graduate-level Leadership and Risk Awareness course. Since 2019, as an adjunct instructor at Carnegie Mellon University, she has coached senior executives in the Chief Risk Officer Executive Education Program on enterprise risk management practices. Dr. Jones has also served as a Dissertation Chair at Capitol Technology University since 2021, guiding doctoral students pursuing degrees primarily in Cyber Leadership, Cyberpsychology, and Cybersecurity Forensics. She also serves as a member of doctoral defense committees. Dr. Jones previously served as a graduate school Associate Dean of Student Academic Affairs, specializing in business process improvement.

Aside from the higher education sector, Dr. Jones’ portfolio of leadership experience includes overseeing cybersecurity risk management for Rivian Automotive (RIV|$5B), an American electric vehicle manufacturer and automotive technology company. She also developed a Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) program for Hearst Media, a dynamic media conglomerate with over 360 businesses. She led McKesson’s (MCK|$308B|Fortune 7) vendor risk management program, which was also McKesson Technology’s highest-risk priority project with financial and regulatory implications. She also oversaw the development of the GRC program for Floor & Decor Outlets of America (FND|$2B). At Kimberly-Clark (KMB | $18B), she drove actionable, 3-tiered cybersecurity risk management execution and reporting across 100+ IT staff, earning distinction from the C-suite for enterprise-wide adaptation and a CSO50 award recognizing a best-in-practice risk security program. as a global management consultant, Dr. Jones led the development of risk management programs for multi-million-dollar risk projects at Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE: BAH|$18B), including serving as the risk leader to upgrade the Pentagon’s and the U.S. Army’s technical capabilities with a >1M population reach. Dr. Jones’ efforts resulted in industry-level recognition for two publicly traded companies for best-in-class risk and security programs for Floor and Decor (NYSE: FND|$4.3B), impacting a 12,000+ employee footprint, and Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB|$20.3B) with a 42,000 global employee base.

Dr. Jones led a risk-reduction and program controls improvement team, implementing public key infrastructure technologies that impacted more than 128,000 employees and contractors, as well as more than 19,500 seasonal employees at the Treasury and IRS. She established risk and quality programs for high-profile organizations, including the Department of Defense, the Treasury, the Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Army. She led the development of recommendations for congressional review to improve the DoD programs. Her leadership resulted in an Army agency achieving a 100% maximum score in its 1st external audit.

Dr. Jones has earned two doctoral degrees: a PhD in Cyber Leadership (focused on marginalized practices in risk management) and a PhD in Product Management (focused on reputation risk and potential profitability), as well as an MS in Quality Systems Management and a BS in Management Studies. She has completed executive education programs at Carnegie Mellon University (Chief Risk Officer’s Program), Harvard Kennedy School (Leadership Decision Making), and UC Berkeley Haas (Business Strategies and Artificial Intelligence). She holds numerous professional certifications. Additionally, Dr. Jones has published over 35 scholarly works on cybersecurity, risk management, governance, and artificial intelligence. With a core value of not overlooking any audience when it comes to security, she has also written a children’s book on online safety and cybersecurity. Dr. Jones speaks domestically and internationally about risk management and cybersecurity. She completed board service readiness training through the Black Boardroom Initiative (BBI), a Deloitte and Perkins Coie LLP initiative. She also completed board service preparedness through the Information Technology Senior Management Forum (ITSMF) Board Bound Academy in partnership with the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD). She currently serves on the advisory board for the University of Maryland Global Campus’ School of Cybersecurity and Information Technology.