Tom Cesso

CISO

MA Exec. Office of Administration & Finance

Thomas Cesso is Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Administration & Finance (A&F). He is also faculty member at Boston University School of Law, where he teaches Cybersecurity & Privacy in the Banking and Tax LLM program.

Mr. Cesso brings deep expertise in cybersecurity, technology, risk, and compliance across higher education, state government, and the private sector. He most recently served as Lead for Risk & Compliance for the BEST Program at the Massachusetts Office of the Comptroller and previously held the role of CISO at Salem State University.

He chaired the Higher Education Information Security Officer Council, a consortium dedicated to cybersecurity collaboration across Massachusetts colleges and universities. As Principal Investigator, Mr. Cesso secured $1.2 million to establish a Cybersecurity Lab at Salem State University.

His public service also includes membership in InfraGard, the FBI-affiliated program focused on protecting critical infrastructure from cyber and physical threats.

In the private sector, Mr. Cesso led major IT and recovery efforts, including as Global Head of Technology for Citigroup during the 9/11 recovery, and as Global CIO for Telerate/Reuters. He also served as CIO of First Marblehead, where he was featured in a Harvard Business School case study and the book Adventures of an IT Leader. Previously, Mr. Cesso provided Technology Advisory Services for Fortune 500 firms as Principal Consultant for Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Mr. Cesso holds three degrees from Boston University: a Bachelor of Science in Engineering, a Master of Engineering, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA). He is also a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).