About David Schwed

My role as CISO, Brokerage & Money at Robinhood is the culmination of a lifelong, continuing quest to master the complex risks and opportunities of our digital era. While my professional roots are in cybersecurity, I’ve taken on a series of new challenges that helped me add legal, operational, and entrepreneurial expertise to my arsenal.

I began my career in earnest at Citibank, where I took on expanding responsibilities in security and risk oversight. But within just a few years, I realized that being a world-class expert in just one thing wasn’t enough for me. While working in high-stakes cybersecurity at BNY Mellon following my time at Citi, I also began pursuing my law degree (JD) from the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University. 

I was motivated in part to follow in the footsteps of my father, a lawyer who would often take me along to court – an experience that convinced me early on that lawyers knew just about everything. That belief didn’t last long after entering law school, but I still came away ready to navigate the complex intersection of technology, law, and security.

During the same period, I also honed my skills as an entrepreneur, as Co-Founder, General Counsel, and Chief Information officer at MASS Communications. MASS, a telecommunications firm, was later acquired by Windstream Enterprise, a Fortune 500 company. The experience deepened my expertise in information technology and legal compliance, and taught me firsthand how to guide a company from inception to a successful acquisition.

Even while pursuing law school and co-founding a startup, I was cutting my teeth in cybersecurity and risk management at BNY Mellon. That experience in turn led me deeper into the new frontier of digital assets, as Managing Director and Chief Information Security Officer at Galaxy Digital, a leading-edge digital asset investing and asset management firm. With my new skillset, I was then invited to rejoin BNY Mellon – this time as Global Head of Digital Assets Technology and eventually as COO at Halborn.

My law school experience also added another arrow to my quiver – education. As a slightly older student, I found myself frequently mentoring my fellow classmates at Hofstra, an experience that opened my eyes to both the promise and problems of academia. That led me to later take on the role of Professor and Founding Director at the Cybersecurity Master’s Program at Yeshiva University’s Katz School of Science and Health. In that capacity, my aim is to create a program that bridges the gap between academic theory and real-world security challenges.

In addition to my corporate responsibilities, I proudly serve as a Director on the boards of two esteemed non-profit organizations, Catholic Guardian Services and the Disaster Accountability Project. These roles lead me to apply my strategic and operational expertise to the mission-driven goals of these philanthropic entities.

I’m also an active early-stage investor in promising blockchain and fintech startups. My recent investments include Lava Network, Utila, Tres, Bitpulse, and Hexagate. I am also an advisor to Dfns, a digital wallet service, and have served as an expert witness in a variety of computer forensics, cybersecurity, and cryptocurrency litigations.

I am deeply convinced that cybersecurity is a key challenge for human advancement in the 21st century. My lifelong quest has taught me that solving it requires more than technical know-how: it requires an understanding of the larger systems cybersecurity measures protect, the leadership to get solutions implemented, and a commitment to educating the next generation of experts and leaders.