Quad9 appoints Mary O'Brien as Foundation Council

Noted engineer and cybersecurity executive Mary O'Brien has joined Quad9's Foundation Council, the governing board that oversees the global public-benefit internet security service.

"We're thrilled to have Mary's participation in the Council to move the needle towards our mission to protect the free Internet," Quad9 general manager John Todd says.

"Mary's input will be important for Council issues that will continue to progress the safety and security of the Web in the coming months and years."

O'Brien graduated from Dublin City University with an electrical engineering degree, which she put to work at British semiconductor manufacturer GEC Plessey in Swindon.

In 1994 she moved to Motorola, where she worked on their carrier products, developing GSM, GPRS, and UMTS ASICs and software in their Swindon and Cork sites.

In 2007 she joined IBM, and in 2012 moved to IBM Security in Atlanta as director of threat product development. Two years later, she became research and development vice president, and in 2018 she was named IBM Security general manager, headquartered in Boston.

Today she runs the global organisation of more than eight thousand people from its Cork offices in her native Ireland.

"I'm deeply honoured to have the privilege of welcoming Ms. O'Brien to Quad9's Foundation Council," Foundation Council chairman Bill Woodcock says.

"Her expertise and understanding of the cybersecurity ecosystem are invaluable to us as a body, and her oversight will benefit Quad9's users throughout the world."

O'Brien brings more than thirty years of experience as an engineer and security executive to Quad9's Foundation Council, where she fills the seat vacated by Dorian Kim, who passed away earlier this year and returns the foundation to its full strength of five councillors.