Founder & CEO

Dr. Chris Pierson

Dr. Chris Pierson is the Founder & CEO of BlackCloak. 

Having served in various cybersecurity and privacy leadership roles over the past 20-years, Chris saw firsthand the emerging gap forming between enterprise security teams and the need to protect corporate executives, high-profile and high-net-worth individuals and their families from financial fraud, cybercrime, hacking, reputational damage, privacy exposure, and identity theft. Chris’ inability to find solutions to reduce risk to this burgeoning threat led him to launch BlackCloak and bring to market the industry’s first Concierge Cybersecurity & Privacy Protection Platform.

Prior to BlackCloak, Chris served for over a decade on the Department of Homeland Security’s Privacy Committee and Cybersecurity Subcommittee, and is a Distinguished Fellow of the Ponemon Institute. He has also held leadership roles as the Chief Privacy Officer for Royal Bank of Scotland, the world’s 3rd largest bank, leading its US privacy and data protection program; as the Chief Information Security Officer for two FinTechs, and as President of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Arizona InfraGard.

Previously, Chris was a founding executive of Viewpost, a FinTech payments company, serving as their CISO and General Counsel. Chris began his career as a corporate attorney for Lewis and Roca, where he established its CyberSecurity Practice representing companies who were hacked and fell victim to data breaches.

Chris is a globally recognized keynote speaker on digital executive protection, a cybersecurity thought leader, and board advisor for startups. He is frequently quoted by prominent trade and mainstream media such as Bloomberg, Business Insider, CSO and the Financial Times, and selected to speak at international events such as RSA, ISSA and SecureWorld, among others.

Chris received his B.A. and M.A. from Boston College and his Ph.D. and J.D. from the University of Iowa.