- Rod Beckstrom
Rod Beckstrom is an author, high-tech entrepreneur, and
Fulbright scholar . He previously served as Chairman and Chief Catalyst of [http://twiki.net TWIKI.NET] , a company which supportsTWiki , an open source wiki. He was also co-founder, Chairman and CEO of CATS Software Inc., a derivatives and risk management software company which went public onNASDAQ and later was sold toMisys PLC.He is co-author of the best-selling
The Starfish And the Spider , which lays out a new organizational theory for considering all organizations as existing on a continuum between centralized to decentralized, with different implications and strategies for each firm based upon their position on that axis. In interviews with "The Washington Post " [cite news | title=Follow the Leader, or Think Like a Starfish? | work=The Washington Post | pages=A11 | date=2007-01-01 | url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/31/AR2006123100832.html] and "USA Today " [cite news | title=Can small businesses help win the war? | work=USA Today | url=http://www.usatoday.com/money/2007-01-02-terror-war-business-usat_x.htm] , Beckstrom explains how, using the 'Starfish' concept illustrated in "The Starfish And the Spider ", the U.S. Government can take a different approach in their dealings withAl-Qaeda .An active participant in the non-profit arena, Beckstrom serves on the board of trustees of
Environmental Defense Fund , an organization involved in designing, advocating and implementing environmental policy solutions such as theKyoto Protocol and the California Climate Act. He also a trustee of [http://www.jamiibora.org/ Jamii Bora Trust] , a micro-lending group with 170,000 members, based in Nairobi.Beckstrom, a pioneer in the field of
derivatives trading and firm-wide risk management, was coached by Nobel Laureate Dr. William F. Sharpe, which resulted in the first book on a new theory, "Value at Risk."In August 2007, Beckstrom and Peter Thoeny, author of
TWiki co-launched TWIKI.NET, a newWeb 2.0 company.On
March 20 ,2008 , Beckstrom was appointed to run the newly createdNational Cyber Security Center [cite news | title=Outsider to Run Cyber-Security Initiative | work=The Wall Street Journal | pages=A8 | date=2008-03-20 | url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120595975180949553.html?mod=googlenews_wsj] though by all accounts, Beckstrom is not a cyber-security expert. [cite news | title=White House Taps Tech Entrepreneur For Cyber Defense Post | work=The Washington Post | date=2008-03-27 | url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/19/AR2008031903125.html]References
External links
* [http://www.beckstrom.com beckstrom.com]
* [http://twiki.net TWIKI.NET]
* [http://lewisshepherd.wordpress.com/2008/03/24/expect-some-new-thinking-on-cyber-security/ Discussion of Beckstrom's NCSC appointment, at Shepherd's Pi]
* [http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/10/30/061030fa_fact1 New Yorker article on Jamii Bora]October 30 ,2006
* [http://www.usatoday.com/money/2007-01-02-terror-war-business-usat_x.htm USA Today article]
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