The CISO's Guide to Securing a Board Seat
George Kurtz, Adam Zoller, Phil Venables
RSA Conference 2025 · Day 2 · West Stage
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz made a pointed prediction from the RSA Conference main stage: within a decade, every public company will have a CISO on its board — or will wish it had. Drawing a direct parallel to the CFO revolution triggered by Sarbanes-Oxley in 2002, Kurtz argued that breach-driven regulation is creating the same structural shift for security expertise, and laid out a three-part playbook for CISOs ready to make the leap. The session included candid case studies from CrowdStrike CISO Adam Zoller, now on the board of $20 billion health system AdventHealth, and former Goldman Sachs CISO Phil Venables. ---
AI review
Kurtz abandons the AI keynote format and delivers something actually useful: a structured, evidence-backed playbook for CISOs who want board seats, with the CFO post-Sarbanes-Oxley precedent as the analytical backbone. The Zoller and Venables case studies are specific enough to be actionable. A career-development session disguised as a keynote — and better for it.