Rear Admiral (ret.), David Simpson

Professor, Virginia Tech, Pamplin College of Business Leadership and Cybersecurity Programs

Rear Admiral (ret.), David Simpson

Speaker Bio

Rear Admiral Retired David Simpson has influenced National Defense and Homeland Security policy and provided cutting edge Information, Communications Technology and Cybersecurity solutions for more than 30 years. He previously served as Chief of the Federal Communications Commission’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau from 2013 to 2017.
As Bureau Chief, he oversaw public safety, homeland security, and cybersecurity activities for more than 30,000 commercial companies in the telecommunications sector. Simpson served as the vice director of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) from 2011 to 2013. In that capacity, he helped lead an organization responsible for planning, developing and providing interoperable global communications for the Defense community. He also served as a senior delegate to the 2012 ITU World Radio Telecommunications Conference and to the World Conference on International Telecom (WCIT). Simpson’s extensive career includes assignments with responsibility for networks, IT, and crisis communications for afloat and other deployed forces in the United States, Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America.
Admiral Simpson is responsible for cybersecurity course and program development in the Master of Information Technology and the Master of Business Administration programs and leads research initiatives for telecommunications and cybersecurity. He has published numerous papers and articles to include a recent research report for The Brookings Institute: "5G is Smart; Now Let’s Make it Secure”.