Director, National Security Cyber Division
Donald E. Yeske serves as the Director of the National Security Cyber Division (NSCD) in the DHS Office of the Chief Information Security Officer. As the Director of NSCD, Mr. Yeske is responsible for governance of National Security Systems (NSS) across the DHS enterprise, management of communications security (COMSEC) for all DHS networks and infrastructure, and leadership of zero trust implementation across DHS.
Prior to joining DHS, Mr. Yeske served in the Office of the Department of the Navy (DON) Chief Information Officer (CIO), most recently as the DON Chief Technology Officer (CTO). There, Mr. Yeske and the CTO team produced a series of Design Concepts operationalizing the DON’s Information Superiority Vision; designated the first enterprise information technology (IT) service for DON-wide use (the Naval Integrated Modeling Environment—providing collaborative digital engineering capabilities for the Navy and Marine Corps); and provided leadership for ongoing efforts to operationalize Zero Trust principles throughout the DON and Department of Defense (DoD). This included the stand-up of the DoD’s Zero Trust Portfolio Management Office and ongoing implementation of the Navy’s Flank Speed environment—a cloud-native platform built to embody zero trust principles that now serves over 500,000 sailors and civilians worldwide.
Before joining the DON CIO, Mr. Yeske served in a number of critical leadership positions for the Navy and Marine Corps. At Headquarters Marine Corps, Deputy Commandant for Information (2019-2022), Mr. Yeske led the team that developed a plan to synchronize technical and management actions across more than 57 Marine Corps programs, projects, and initiatives and more than $1.6B in spending to transform the Marine Corps Enterprise Network in support of Force Design 2030 and other strategic initiatives.
During his civilian career, Mr. Yeske has deployed three times, for a total of three years, into active combat zones.He has been recognized with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joint Civilian Service Commendation Award (for his service in Afghanistan) and the Marine Corps Commendation for Meritorious Civilian Service (for his work on the Marine Corps Net Mod Plan). Mr. Yeske began his career in the United States Air Force as a Strategic Communications Technician.
Mr. Yeske currently holds an Associate of Applied Science from the Community College of the Air Force and a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology Software Engineering from the University of Phoenix, and he is currently completing a Master of Science in Government Information Leadership, with concentration on National Security and Cyberspace Studies, at National Defense University College of Information and Cyberspace.
