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National Cyber Partnership is a 501 (c) (3) based in Tampa, Florida founded in 2013 by Rick Michaels, Chairman & CEO, and Michael Shapiro, President and Executive Director. The Partnership began when Rick Michaels and Michael F. Shapiro, an engineer with senior management, information technology and intelligence skills concluded the need for veterans to be employed when they return to civilian life.
Both Rick Michaels and Michael Shapiro agreed that veterans were owed more than that, and they decided to work together to do something about it. This effort started with founding the National Cyber Partnership.
The success of the Cyber Foundations TM approach in training veterans, transitioning military as well displaced workers and disadvantaged youth has served as a model for the National Cyber Partnership to go national with the Cyber Studies Consortium. This groundbreaking alliance to share cyber resources is professionally managed by Michael F. Shapiro, the organization's co-founder and Executive Director.
CyberStratos is a company formed by Rick Michaels and Jeff Snyder to provide advisory and consulting services to Cyber companies. The firm will also focus on Cyber mergers and acquisitions. In 2022, Carlo Tortora Brayda di Belvedere joined the firm as an Advisor and Equity Partner.
Jeff Snyder also holds the position of Senior Advisor - Cyber Security for CEA Group and is the Founder & Vice Chairman of CyberStratos LLC, a firm that focuses on Cyber strategy consulting, opportunity pipeline and business development, and Cyber mergers and acquisitions.
During the past 20 years, Snyder has held increasingly responsible positions involving strategic planning, business development, operations and M&A activities with a variety of high-technology firms. Prior to founding CyberStratos, Snyder was vice president of Cyber programs at Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN). During his 8 years at Raytheon, Snyder was instrumental in leading the firm’s Cyber growth strategy and close to a $4B investment in building a portfolio of Cyber capabilities, technologies and products.
Carlo Tortora Brayda, Advisor and Equity Partner, is also the founder and Executive Chairman of Tortora Brayda Institute for Partnership Excellence, a global Think Tank to promote collaboration. He is also the CEO of Gorilla Corporation. Since 2012, Carlo Tortora's focus has been on supporting Partnership Excellence within all areas of technology growth, including the Think Tank's core tracks: Cybersecurity, Cloud/Data Center, Artificial Intelligence, and Robotics. Mr. Tortora Brayda, a co-Founder of the US National Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity ISAO has also been invited by NATO Strategic Communication CoE to participate in proceedings.
CEA also provides advisory and investment banking services to companies engaged in aspects of Cyber, Intel, Intel Security and Government Services.
The National Cyber Institute (NCI) is a Florida not-for-profit organization which will file with the IRS for a 501(c) (3) designation. The concept is a consortium of universities and institutes focused on applied research programs in cybersecurity which may benefit from information sharing, joint projects, and/or proposals for economic development. Its purpose is to encourage its membership to jointly promote and seek research grants in the cybersecurity arena. Its secondary purpose is to share ideas and develop programs for education (including continuing education), training, certification, and to work on programs with the Federal Government and industry to expedite security clearances for students interested in entering the field of cybersecurity.
In 2012, NCI entered into an agreement with the University of South Florida as a “co-founder” to establish a not-for-profit organization that will form a consortium of institutions with a national focus on cybersecurity, specifically education, training, certification, and clearances.
The current goal of NCI is to recruit a consortium of a limited number of universities and institutes each with their particular unique areas of strength, which have an interest in, and significant focus on, the cybersecurity industry, with particular emphasis on research universities as members.
Another goal of NCI will be to promote university sponsorship and/or participation in cyber centers as well as cyber research parks. Member universities will cooperate on economic development programs, which address the rising opportunities for employment in the cybersecurity industry. As a non-profit, NCI will be supported through membership fees, corporate sponsorship, seminars, and potentially from State and Federal grants.
Until such time as NCI has sufficient resources to employ an Executive Director and staff, it could be managed by the National Cyber Partnership, a 501(c) (3) not-for-profit, or Old Port Capital, under a short-term management agreement. Old Port Capital has expended substantial funds and have dedicated resources for the development of NCI, which is headquartered in Tampa.
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