Backstory

General Paul M. Nakasone, U.S. Army (Retired) is one of the nation’s top experts in cybersecurity. Paul is from an Army family whose three generations of service dates back to World War II. His father served with the famed Military Intelligence Service during the Occupation of Japan. He spent nearly four decades in the United States Army, serving within the U.S., the Republic of Korea, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Paul concluded his career as the Director of the National Security Agency and Commander, U.S. Cyber Command. This final assignment — spanning nearly six years — allowed him to lead the largest element of the U.S. Intelligence Community and Defense Department’s cyber forces during three national elections, a global pandemic, and increased threats to our homeland. Throughout his career, Paul brought innovative and transformative leadership to solve complex challenges.

In addition to his advisory role at Ballistic, Paul is the founding director of Vanderbilt University’s Institute for National Defense and Global Security and serves on the OpenAI board of directors.

Paul and his wife, Susan, are the proud parents of four children, who form the nucleus of “Team Nakasone.”