Jake Braun is Executive Director of the Cyber Policy Initiative at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and CEO and Co-Founder of Cambridge Global Advisors, a national security consulting firm. He most recently served in the White House as acting Principal Deputy National Cyber Director. Prior to that role, Mr. Braun was appointed by the President as Senior Counselor to the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Braun is the author of Fentanyl: Fighting the Mass Poisoning of America and the Cartel Behind It (Bloomsbury, 2025), and Democracy in Danger: How Hackers and Activists Exposed Fatal Flaws in the Election System (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019).

Mr. Braun’s career has spanned a litany of modern hybrid threats facing America, from counter terrorism to cybersecurity to election interference, fentanyl, cartels and AI security. While at the White House, he oversaw implementation of the National Cybersecurity Strategy, including efforts to secure our water systems, modernize the federal cyber workforce, enhance cyber cooperation with allied nations, and develop AI security policy. During his most recent tour at DHS, he advised on multiple cross-cutting initiatives to mitigate hybrid threats. He helped spearhead the first DHS-wide counter-fentanyl strategy and worked on the National Security Council team that developed the first U.S. government-wide counter-fentanyl strategy. He also helped lead the effort to resettle nearly 150,000 Afghan allies during the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

In 2009, Mr. Braun was appointed by President Obama as White House Liaison to the Department of Homeland Security. He was instrumental in the effort to gain passage in the European Parliament of the largest data-sharing agreement in history between the United States and the European Union to combat terrorism. In addition, before his tenure as White House Liaison, Mr. Braun served on the Presidential Transition Team for the Obama Administration as Deputy Director for the National Security Agencies Review.

In addition to his role at the University of Chicago, Mr. Braun co-founded the DEF CON Voting Machine Hacking Village. In that capacity, he co-authored two award-winning reports on election interference: the DEF CON 25 and 26 Voting Village Reports. Most recently, he partnered with DEF CON, the world’s largest and longest-running hacker conference, to launch “Franklin,” a program to memorialize the most innovative and impactful findings from DEF CON in the annual “Hackers’ Almanack.” “Franklin” also recruits cyber volunteers to support underresourced water utilities.

Mr. Braun began his career in politics and journalism. He has worked on five presidential campaigns and, separately, as a journalist for newspapers in Illinois and Taiwan. He holds an MA in International Relations from Troy St. University, an MA in Secondary Education from National-Louis University, Chicago, and a BA in Philosophy from Loyola University of Chicago.