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Contact UsCybersecurity Leadership
Chris Cochran is the Field CISO and Vice President of AI Security at the SANS Institute, where he stands at the intersection of frontier AI innovation and real-world cybersecurity defense.
A Marine Corps veteran and former leader at organizations like Netflix, Mandiant, the U.S. House of Representatives, Axonius, and NSA, Chris has spent his career translating complexity into clarity, whether guiding organizations through emerging AI threat landscapes, pioneering defensive AI workflows, or shaping the next generation of AI-security practitioners. His work blends deep operational cyber experience with cutting-edge research in AI governance, model risk, multi-agent systems, and adversarial AI, positioning him as one of the few leaders equally fluent in shaping AI strategy and securing it.
Known for his storytelling, community leadership, and ability to distill fast-moving technical shifts into actionable insight, Chris is helping build the future where AI systems are both powerful and safe.