Ian Wallace

Ian serves as BENS’s Chief Program Officer, responsible for overseeing the full portfolio of programs and services that deliver value to the national security community. A member of the executive team, he partners with the BENS Board of Directors and broader membership to define a clear vision and strategy across all of the organization’s service lines.

Prior to joining BENS, Ian was a senior official at the Department of Homeland Security, most recently serving as Deputy Chief Strategy Officer at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). In that role, he represented CISA in interagency national security deliberations on topics such as cybersecurity, infrastructure protection, artificial intelligence, and supply chain security.

Before CISA, Ian was a Senior Adviser in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, where he focused on cybersecurity capacity building and led the Department’s support for Ukraine’s cyber defense—including in the aftermath of Russia’s re-invasion in February 2022.

Previously, Ian contributed his expertise at several leading think tanks. He began as a Visiting Fellow for cybersecurity at the Brookings Institution, went on to found and direct the Cybersecurity Initiative at New America, then served as a Senior Fellow in the Digital Innovation and Democracy Initiative at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and most recently was a Fellow at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.

Earlier in his career, before becoming a U.S. citizen, Ian served as a senior official in the British Ministry of Defence. His roles included several Whitehall-based policy positions—such as Assistant Private Secretary (i.e., Deputy Chief of Staff) to the UK Defence Secretary—and three operational tours (Pristina, Basra, and Baghdad) as Policy/Political Adviser to senior UK commanders. He led the team providing policy guidance to the UK’s Chief of Joint Operations during the early stages of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. His final posting was as Defence Policy & Nuclear Counsellor at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., where he led teams managing the UK–U.S. defense policy, nuclear, and military cyber relationships.

Ian holds a Master of Arts in Ancient and Modern History from Oxford University and became a U.S. citizen in July 2016.