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Tom Ridge Speaks at Cisco Conference
First Homeland Security Secretary Addresses Cisco Global Sales Audience
August 16, 2007 - The Honorable Tom Ridge spoke at the annual Cisco Global Sales Conference, held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The first U.S. Homeland Security Secretary and two-term governor of Pennsylvania keynoted three sessions with audiences totaling more than 800 account managers and system engineers.
Known for leading the most critical transformation of government since the Truman Administration, Tom Ridge’s vision of homeland security changed the role for technology and networking solutions worldwide.
As governor of Pennsylvania, Ridge spearheaded a number of e-government projects that changed the way the Commonwealth served its citizens and, for those efforts, the state portal won several national awards.
A leader in teaming technology with cost efficiency and good governance, Ridge discussed the evolution of public safety and homeland security – from silos to seamless technology integration. He also addressed the importance of public-private sector partnerships.
“The Cisco Global Sales Conference was a productive forum,” said Ridge. “The Internet Age has long belonged to companies such as Cisco who did not simply see a tool to do the usual a little bit faster and a little bit better, but were able to inspire the dreams of individuals to do something fundamentally new and different – be it a new way for a business to market and sell its products or a new way for a child to learn.
We need that same spirit of imagination to enliven the public/private partnership to secure cyber space. And when it does, the threshold of dependability we need to take the next great leaps of innovation will soon follow.”