Leah McLean

Leah McLean is Vice President, Cybersecurity Specialist at Mastercard. She is focused on implementing strategy and programs to evolve cybersecurity risk management approaches and cybersecurity awareness and training. She actively contributes to community working groups to advance cybersecurity risk management and third-party risk. Leah is also a mentor to candidates breaking into cybersecurity careers and collaborates with employers to rethink their workforce and hiring strategies.

Leah is a co-founder at Whole Cyber Human Initiative, a non-profit focused on redefining how we identify, train, equip, advance knowledge, and build workforce development within IT and Cybersecurity. She also volunteers for Cyber Future Foundation, a non-profit driving workforce development initiatives and private and public sector collaboration.

Previously Leah held senior level roles at Armor, a cloud security company, Apstra (acquired by Juniper Networks), A10 Networks and Cisco Systems. Leah serves on the Board of Advisors for Cloud Defense, Inc., a cloud data security startup and is on the board for the Cloud Security Alliance North Texas Chapter. She serves as Chair of the Texas Elevate Xchange, hosting tabletops with CISOs, CIOs and CTOs.

Leah holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, with an emphasis International Relations from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is an active outdoor junkie always chasing adventure.