Howard A. Schmidt, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Cyber Security, Office of the U.S. President Howard A. Schmidt has had a long distinguished career in defense, law enforcement, and corporate security spanning more than 40 years. He brings together talents in business, defense, intelligence, law enforcement, privacy, academia and international relations through his distinguished career. He currently is Special Assistant to the President and the Cybersecurity Coordinator for the federal government. In this role Mr. Schmidt is responsible for coordinating interagency cybersecurity policy development and implementation and for coordinating engagement with federal, state, local, international, and private sector cybersecurity partners. Previously, Mr. Schmidt was the President and CEO of the Information Security Forum (ISF). Before ISF, he served as Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer and Chief Security Strategist for eBay Inc., and formerly operated as the Chief Security Officer for Microsoft Corp. He also served as Chief Security Strategist for the US-CERT Partners Program for the Department of Homeland Security.