MERRITT BAER

Merritt (Twitter: @MerrittBaer) is Field CISO at Lacework. She advises CISOs on technical executive
cloud security for complex, regulated organizations– from Fortune 100 banks, to biotech start-ups.
She also helps inform the Lacework product pipeline of security threat detection and
contextualization capabilities, based on practitioner feedback and the security landscape.
Previously, Merritt served in the Office of the CISO at Amazon Web Services for over five years. She
served on a small team that collectively served as a Deputy CISO helped to secure AWS
infrastructure, at vast scale. She used this experience to provide security expertise to significant
AWS customers, and in 2022, she moved over $2B of deals across the line where security was a
blocker. She was also AWS Security’s most prolific public speaker, hosting her own Twitch show
“SecurityLIVE!”
Merritt has experience in all three branches of government and the private sector. Before Amazon,
Merritt served as Lead Cyber Advisor to the Federal Communications Commission. She has also
served at the US Department of Homeland Security, the Office of US Senator Michael Bennet, and
the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. Before joining the government, Merritt started a
business advisory for emerging tech companies.
Merritt speaks regularly on infosec, including cloud computing, AI/ML, quantum computing, and the
future of the Internet. Her insights on business strategy and tech have been published in Forbes,
The Baltimore Sun, The Daily Beast, LawFare, Talking Points Memo, and ThinkProgress. Her
academic work has appeared in the journals of Temple, Georgetown, Santa Clara, UPenn, and UVA.
Merritt is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Harvard College. She is admitted to the Bars of
New York, the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, and the United States Supreme
Court. Based in Miami, FL and Denver, CO, she has been a member of the Council on Foreign
Relations, a National Security Fellow at the Center for New American Security, and a Cyber Fellow at
the East-West Institute. She is founder of women’s tech expert network Tech & Roses; serves on
the Miami-Dade College Business Industry Leadership Team, has served as Adjunct Professor of

Cybersecurity at the University of Maryland and Penn State Law School; is a mother, and was an
amateur boxer.