Lisa Costa
Seasoned Board Director, Global Executive
Lisa Costa is a senior executive and experienced board director with expertise in artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, global information technology (IT) infrastructure, and space sciences. With over 35 years of experience spanning both industry and government sectors, Costa has consistently delivered exceptional results in high-stakes environments, earning her reputation as an accomplished technologist, scientist, and strategist. Her federal career has uniquely positioned her to provide invaluable guidance to established and emerging organizations.
As the chief technology and innovation officer for the US Space Force, Costa spearheads advanced scientific, analytic, and operational initiatives impacting more than 600,000 personnel. Prioritizing $6 billion annually for research, she navigates complex commercial partnerships for space resiliency. She also leads the publication of space 2060 strategy. She holds a top secret / sensitive compartmented information clearance with polygraph.
Previously, Costa served as the director of the communications directorate and chief information officer for the US Special Operations Command, overseeing the fourth-largest IT enterprise in the Department of Defense. In this capacity, she provided no-fail support to elite military units across more than 150 countries and thousands of operations, managing an annual IT budget exceeding $1.2 billion.
Prior to her roles in the federal government, Costa was senior director of innovation and technology at Engility Corp., a senior executive role in AI and machine learning. In this role, she built offerings across client verticals and advised the CEO on mergers and acquisitions and capture. As senior vice president of intelligence and chief scientist at Planet Risk, she provided subject matter expertise to Fortune 500 companies (e.g., Target, Hilton, Starbucks, Cheniere, and FedEx) on risk mitigation, insider threat, cyber, and supply chain, and she led profit and loss for early warning.
She also spent 25 years in senior positions at MITRE Corp. She positions included director of counter violent extremism and weapons of mass destruction, executive director of National Security Engineering Center integration, director of nontraditional information and knowledge exploitation cell, chief scientist to the combatant command and defense/service intelligence agencies, chief engineer for US Central Command and the US Special Operations Command, program manager for MITRE support to US Central Command, and special technical advisor for the US Special Operations Command.
Her extensive board experience includes serving as a board director for CarParts.com (Nasdaq: PRTS), an e-commerce company, where she chaired the technology subcommittee and contributed to the audit and the nominating and governance committees. She also served on the nonprofit boards for Hiring Our Heroes and AFCEA International.
Beyond her professional achievements, Costa is an award-winning keynote speaker and author. She has contributed her expertise to Hollywood blockbusters including Netflix’s Mosul and Extraction.
Costa has a bachelor of science in mathematics from Rollins College, a master of business administration from Tampa College, and a doctorate in computer science from Union Institute & University.