Mr. George Laskey (USN, Ret)

National Security Agency Chair/Visiting Professor

George Laskey started his federal government career three days after graduating from high school, attending Navy Basic Training. As a Navy Reservist, he worked as an intelligence specialist at Naval Intelligence Command. He received his commission as an Engineering Duty Officer and completed his qualifications while assigned to various Naval Sea Systems Command units. At the Naval Research Laboratory, he supported the classified projects and researched combat identification. He transferred to the Information Warfare community in 2005 and was assigned to Navy Information Operations Command - Washington as the Deputy Chief of the Operations Department and Chief of Staff. In 2007, he was mobilized to the Combined Joint Task Force Troy in Baghdad, Iraq, for a year as the Signals Intelligence Liaison Officer and Officer in Charge of the Anti-Armor Improvised Explosive Devices cell. After a year on the Admiral’s Navy Net Warfare Command staff, he has been the commanding or executive officer at Fleet Cyber Command and US Cyber Command units for the last decade, leading reserve support to their signals intelligence, cyber operations, and Department of Defense level exercises. He is currently the Deputy Commander of Navy Information Force Reserves – Region Washington, DC.

George started his civilian federal career at Military Traffic Management Command as a Co-Op student working to determine how many containers it would take to fight a war in Europe. He transferred to Naval Sea Systems Command as a systems engineer and project manager. He led the design and test of ship mission management systems for aircraft carriers and other ships. In 2003 he joined the National Security Agency (NSA) first as a system engineer on the Signals Intelligence Directorate staff, then chief of the Detection and Exploitation branch. Upon returning from Iraq, he was the liaison between Operations and the Capabilities Directorates for a major system acquisition. As the Engineering and Technical Services deputy division chief in the Data Acquisition group, his team earned the Director of National Intelligence Meritorious Unit Commendation. As Chief and Technical Director of the Systems Integration, Test, and Engineering Division, he led the development and verification of critical data acquisition systems. As chief of the Data Management and Governance Division and then deputy chief of Data Routing and Provenance Solutions, he led the design and operations of critical systems to transport and enrich collected signals intelligence and cyber security data to support warfighters and senior US Government decisionmakers. As deputy chief of Mission Systems Engineering and then chief of Enterprise Test and Assessment in NSA’s Chief Systems Engineer’s Office, he led divisions to improve the design and verification of NSA’s largest acquisition programs.

George earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in electronics engineering as well as a master’s degree and two graduate certificates in systems engineering from George Mason University. He is a licensed Professional Engineer (PE), Certified Systems Engineering Professional (CSEP), Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), and Program Management Professional (PMP). He is a member of the Department of Defense Acquisition Corps, certified level 3 in the program management and engineering career fields. CAPT Laskey is a member of the Department of the Navy Space Cadre. He completed the Command and Staff Officer Course at the Naval War College and completed a master’s degree in National Security Strategy at the National War College.