Prof. Steven B. Lipner

Steven B. Lipner is executive director of SAFECode, a non-profit industry organization dedicated to improving software assurance and is an adjunct professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. He has almost fifty years’ experience as a researcher, engineering manager, and general manager in cybersecurity. Lipner retired in 2015 as partner director of software security at Microsoft, where he created and led Microsoft’s Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) team and was responsible for the definition, tools development and company-wide execution of Microsoft’s internal SDL process and for tools and programs that made the SDL available to organizations beyond Microsoft. Lipner was also responsible for Microsoft’s corporate strategies and policies for supply chain security and for strategies related to government security evaluation of Microsoft products. He served as the Microsoft member and board chair of SAFECode.

Lipner has been involved throughout his career as a contributor to the development of government policies related to cybersecurity. He is now serving his third term on the United States Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board and currently serves as the board chair.

Lipner was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2017 and has served on numerous National Academies committees. He was elected to the National Cybersecurity Hall of Fame in 2015. Lipner holds twelve U.S. patents for inventions in the field of computer and network security. He received an S.B. and S.M. in civil engineering from MIT and attended the Harvard Business School’s Program for Management Development.