Rod Beckstrom
Rod Beckstrom is an American author, high-tech entrepreneur, and former CEO and President of ICANN. He previously served as Director of the National Cybersecurity Center.
Education and early work
Beckstrom received his BA with Honors and Distinction and an MBA from Stanford University, where he served as the Chairman of the Council of Presidents of the Associated Students of Stanford University.In August 2007, Beckstrom and Peter Thoeny, author of TWiki co-launched TWIKI.NET, a Web 2.0 company that supports TWiki, an open source wiki. Beckstrom became Chairman and Chief Catalyst. He was also co-founder, Chairman and CEO of CATS Software Inc., a derivatives and risk management software company which went public on NASDAQ and later was sold to Misys PLC.
Author
He is co-author of the best-selling book The Starfish and the Spider, which lays out a new organizational theory for considering all organizations as existing on a continuum between centralized to decentralized, with different implications and strategies for each firm based upon their position on that axis. In interviews with The Washington Post and USA Today, Beckstrom explains how, using the 'Starfish' concept illustrated in The Starfish and the Spider, the U.S. Government can take a different approach in their dealings with Al-Qaeda. Beckstrom is also the formulator of an economic model for valuing networks, Beckstrom's law, which was presented at BlackHat 2009 and Defcon 2009.National Cyber Security Center
On March 20, 2008, Beckstrom was appointed to run the newly created National Cybersecurity Center, a position requiring "advanced thought leadership in areas like coordination, collaboration and team work in order to best serve the mission".On March 5, 2009, less than a year after the position was created, he stated that he would resign as the Director of the National Cybersecurity Center on Friday, March 13, 2009. He has recommended the Deputy Director Mary Ellen Seale as his successor. He stated that a lack of cooperation from the NSA and insufficient funding led to his resignation. He stated that he received $500,000 which funded five weeks of operation. He has stated that he supports a more decentralized approach and opposes the NSA's move to try to "rule over" the NCSC.