This week, Cambridge Global Advisors (CGA) was honored to announce that Jake Braun, founding Partner and former CEO of the firm was appointed by President Biden to be Senior Advisor to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Management Directorate. The move marks Jake’s second time serving in the federal government. He previously served as the DHS-White House Liaison during the Obama Administration.
In 2013, Jake founded CGA as a bipartisan national security strategic advisory firm with former federal government officials Christopher Burnham and Jane Holl Lute. He brought with him experience from DHS on a variety of high-profile issues including efforts to modernize the DHS cybersecurity workforce, coordinate crisis communications around the 2010 Deep Water Horizon Gulf Oil Spill, and advance a historic data sharing agreement between the United States and the European Union.
CGA Chairman and Founding Partner, Christopher Burnham, said, “Jake’s been here since the beginning and his tenure at CGA has been marked by extensive growth and expansion of new service offerings especially in cybersecurity assessments, cyber training and election security. Jake’s dedication and exceptional work ethic have bolstered the firm’s footprint in the public and private sectors, as well as expanded the firm’s work abroad, most recently in Latin America and Asia.”
In 2017, in the wake of news of Russian attempts to interfere with the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, Jake co-founded the Voting Village at DEFCON, the world’s foremost award-winning effort to bring vulnerabilities in election equipment and voting infrastructure to light. A year later he launched the Cyber Policy Initiative (CPI) at the University of Chicago to advance discussion, research and programs at the nexus of politics, technology, national security and cyber policy. He is also the author of the 2019 book about election security entitled “Democracy in Danger.”
“Jake has not only been a tireless champion for our growing set of clients over the years, but he has also personally and professionally expanded the discourse around cybersecurity and critical infrastructure, especially election security,” said CGA CEO Douglas Lute. “He’ll be missed at CGA, but there’s no question he is going to bring his deep expertise to DHS Management to strengthen the agency’s and our nation’s IT and cyber posture.”
Earlier in his career, Jake served on the Presidential Transition Team for President-elect Obama as Deputy Director for the National Security Agencies Review overseeing agency review programs for all national security agencies including the State Department, DOD, DHS, CIA, USAID, and others. He has also served as the Deputy National Field Director in the 2008 Obama for America Campaign.
