CMMC accreditation body establishes advisory council for industry to provide feedback

The accreditation body behind the Pentagon's Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program is creating an Industry Advisory Council composed of private-sector leaders from organizations that will be seeking to get certified to compete for DOD contracts.

"The CMMC-AB IAC mission is to provide a unified voice as representatives of Organizations Seeking Certification (OSCs) to supply key feedback, input and recommendations for implementing CMMC back to the DOD and the CMMC-AB," the accreditation body said in an announcement today, calling the new group "one of the strongest and most important Industry Advisory Councils (IAC) ever assembled in cybersecurity."

The task force will be chaired by current CMMC-AB board treasurer Yong-Gon Chon, who "was previously CEO of Focal Point Data Risk and currently sat on the boards of RiskRecon (acquired by MasterCard) & Cloudentity and fellow at the Culinary Institute of America. Mr. Chon also led the cyber division of Kratos Defense and Security Solutions after its acquisition of SecureInfo," according to the accreditation body's website.

The task force includes Accenture Federal CISO Nicole Dean, who left the CMMC-AB board last month. All of the CMMC-AB board members are volunteers. The accreditation body announced the hiring of Matthew Travis, a former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency deputy director, as its first CEO last month.

The other IAC members are:

• Ted Steffan, Sr. Security Partner Strategist Amazon Web Services
• Darren Death, CISO, ASRC Federal
• Jeffrey Dodson, CSO, BAE Systems
• Timothy Trickett, CTO, BDO
• Jake Williams, IT Security Manager, Doncasters Group
• Michael Baker, CISO, General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT)
• Adam McNair, COO, Highlight Technologies
• Neil Brink, Cybersecurity Specialist, Rolls-Royce
• Brian Thompson, Director of GovCloud Security & Compliance, Salesforce
• Michael Rohde, Deputy CISO - Federal, ServiceNow
• Allison Krache Giddens, President, Win-Tech, Inc.

"The IAC will serve as a crucible for industry dialogue, bringing the best and brightest together to address cyber readiness challenges in the DIB and strengthen CMMC to it maximum potential," CMMC-AB board chair Karlton Johnson said in a statement. "And just like the volunteer professionals in the AB, the IAC volunteers have chosen to serve a higher cause. Their leadership, skill, and professional expertise will greatly contribute to the overall success of the CMMC program."