Cyber Resilience Council

John Zangardi

John Zangardi is an internationally recognized IT, cybersecurity, and data analysis leader and executive. John is a regular conference speaker and has testified before US House and Senate committees on topics such as IT modernization, cybersecurity, supply chain, and space. 

John is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Redhorse Corporation, a technology services company. He also serves as a Director on the Board for Qualys, Forcepoint, and Symetrica. Previously, he worked at Leidos as a senior vice president responsible for business initiatives and strategic partnerships on key strategic areas such as digital transformation, security products/services, and logistics. 

John enjoyed a distinguished career in government service spanning more than thirty years, concluding with his role as Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a presidential appointment.

His work garnered recognition by Federal Computer Week for his work in transforming DHS into, “one of the federal government’s top IT performers.” John led multiple initiatives at DHS including implementation of advanced cybersecurity technology, cloud computing and data analytics, identity management and telecommunications. 

He transitioned to DHS from the Department of Defense where he served as Acting CIO, a position he assumed from his role as Principal Deputy CIO. During this time, John represented the Department at NATO’s C3 Board. He previously served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Information Operations, and Space (DASN C4I, IO, and Space), and as the Department of the Navy CIO. 

John began his career in government service with the U.S. Navy. He retired after serving as a squadron commander and in various staff assignments throughout his military service. 

Upon retirement from the Navy, John was appointed to the Senior Executive Service (SES) as Deputy Director Warfare Integration Programs (N6FB) in the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations Communications Network (N6) Directorate. He subsequently served as Director for Program Integration and as Deputy to the Director for Concepts, Strategy, and Integration for the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations Information Dominance (N2/N6). 

A native of Scranton, Pa., he graduated from the University of Scranton. He earned a Master of Science degree from the Naval Postgraduate School and a Doctor of Philosophy degree from George Mason University.  John has received numerous military and civilian service awards as well as a Fed 50 Golden Gov Lifetime Achievement Award and Washington 100 Award.