Paul Connelly has more than three decades in senior leadership roles focusing on technology risk at the White House, a big four public accounting firm, and a Fortune 100 company. He is now a professor, teaching and developing degree programs in cybersecurity at Belmont University, and serves on boards.

After starting his career at the National Security Agency (NSA), Connelly built the first cybersecurity programs at the White House and HCA Healthcare, leading them a combined 28 years in chief information security officer (CISO) roles. He was awarded the National Information Security Award (The Rowlett Trophy) by the NSA director for his work at the White House and was named Private Sector Information Security Executive of the Year for North America for his work at HCA Healthcare. In between those roles, Connelly spent six years building a cybersecurity audit and consulting practice and became a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Throughout his career, Connelly has been a developer of leaders, with forty members of his teams selected for CISO positions.

Connelly is now an independent director on the board of Fortified Health Security, technical advisor to the board of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, and an independent director at the not-for-profit Dismas House of Nashville. He also advises and mentors CISOs as a faculty member at IANS Research.