Cybersecurity

Cyber, AI and Data Governance for International Finance Corporation

Samantha Kappagoda was invited to speak at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Nominee Directorship Center Webinar on Cyber, AI and Data Governance on February 19, 2026. The session explored how board directors can reinforce AI, cybersecurity and data governance frameworks, to foster robust technology adoption & deployment, build trust, resilience, and long term value, while remaining in compliance with global regulations. The panel was moderated by Jakob Rusinek of the IFC, and Samantha’s fellow panelist was Lauren Anderson, Board Director and Former Senior FBI Executive.

The IFC Nominee Directorship Center was established to guide equity teams in strategically and effectively exercising our nomination rights and supporting nominee directors in performing their fiduciary duties in the best interest of the companies they serve, in line with IFC’s values and mandate. The Nominee Directorship Center maintains a growing network of seasoned diverse board directors with interest in becoming IFC Nominee Directors, sourcing candidates for board positions and providing nominated directors with on-boarding, continuing education, and knowledge resources.

Samantha Kappagoda, Co-Founder of Risk Economics, and Independent Director of the Credit Suisse Funds, serves as an Independent Director / Trustee, Nominating Committee Chair, and Audit Committee Member of Credit Suisse Funds, which are comprised of closed-end funds (NYSE: DHY and CIK) and open-end funds investing in commodity, high yield and credit strategies. She is also Chief Economist and Co-Founder of Risk Economics^®, Visiting Scholar at Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences NYU, advising research activities at RiskEcon^® Lab for Decision Metrics @ Courant Institute, and a Member of the Business Board of the Governing Council at the University of Toronto.

About Risk Economics, Inc.
Risk Economics^® specializes in economic analysis of risk and liability. It provides advisory services at the intersection of commercial business-process engineering and risk engineering with a particular focus on coupling commercial reinsurance and financial technology, through the rigorous application of agent-based, demographic, and statistical methodologies to microeconomic and macroeconomic analysis. The RiskEcon^® client roster is diverse and includes governmental and quasi-governmental agencies, global insurance and reinsurance firms, leading law firms, technology firms, global banking institutions, asset management firms, multinational corporations with interests in natural resources, commodities, and energy, as well as government agencies and regulators. For additional information, please visit https://riskeconomicsinc.com/.

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Samantha Kappagoda was Speaker on AI Governance for CEO Trust

Samantha Kappagoda was a Speaker on AI Governance for CEO Trust

Samantha Kappagoda, Chief Economist of Risk Economics, Inc. and Independent Director of the Credit Suisse Funds, was invited to speak at the CEO Trust two day event Board Trust: Cyber, AI and Emerging Tech on June 23-24, 2025. She participated in a panel on AI Governance, moderated by Gail Syman of CEO Trust, with fellow panelists, Myrna Soto, board director, Bill Syrros National AI Leader of BDO Canada and Barry Hensch, CTO of General Bank of Canada.

Samantha is frequently invited to speak on governance topics including AI and data governance, cybersecurity, and financial market volatility and global economic trends.

Samantha Kappagoda serves as an Independent Director / Trustee, Nominating Committee Chair, and Audit Committee Member of Credit Suisse Funds, which are comprised of closed-end funds (NYSE: DHY and CIK) and open-end funds investing in commodity, high yield and credit strategies. She is also Chief Economist and Co-Founder of Risk Economics^®, Visiting Scholar at Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences NYU, advising research activities at RiskEcon^® Lab for Decision Metrics @ Courant Institute, and a Member of the Business Board of the Governing Council at the University of Toronto.

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Samantha Kappagoda was a Speaker on Cybersecurity for NED on Board

Samantha Kappagoda, Chief Economist of Risk Economics, Inc. and Independent Director of the Credit Suisse Funds, was invited to speak at the NED On Board Cyber Scenario webinar on June 10, 2025. NED On Board is a UK based membership organization serving sitting and aspiring Non-Executive Directors. Samantha is frequently invited to speak on governance topics including AI and data governance, cybersecurity, and financial market volatility and global economic trends.

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Samantha Kappagoda was a Speaker on Cybersecurity at the Diligent NextGen Board Leaders Summit at NYSE

Samantha Kappagoda, Chief Economist of Risk Economics, Inc. and Independent Director of the Credit Suisse Funds, was invited to speak at the Diligent Institute NextGen Board Leaders Summit at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on June 2, 2025. The event aimed to foster innovation in corporate governance by convening directors with executive experience across a range of domains, reflecting key trends in modern boardrooms.

Samantha participated in the Cybersecurity Tabletop Exercise: Data Breach Scenario | When AI Attacks. The interactive session was designed to simulate a cybersecurity breach launched subsequent to receiving a deepfake message claiming to come from the company CEO. The attendees had the opportunity to explore board obligations and responses as the simulation evolved. Samantha was joined on the panel by Monica Landen, Chief Information Officer of Diligent.

Samantha is frequently invited to speak on governance topics, and has participated as a panelist at Generative AI Governance: A Guide for UK SMEs, with Diligent Institute and Institute of Directors, the Diligent AI Innovations Visionary Forum in May 2025 in New York, as well as the Diligent AI Virtual Summit in April 2025.

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David K.A. Mordecai and Samantha Kappagoda Participated in NYU CSAW 2019

David K.A. Mordecai and Samantha Kappagoda were invited to participate as judges at NYU Tandon School of Engineering’s Sixteenth Annual Cyber Security Awareness Week (CSAW) Competition, November 6-8, 2019 at the MetroTech Center in Brooklyn, NY. RiskEcon^® Lab @ Courant Institute has proudly co-sponsored this competition since 2018.

Academic entrants of all levels, from Post-Doctoral fellows and Ph.D. candidates to high school students took part in the three-day cybersecurity event, which was made up of several distinct competitions including the following:

Applied Research Competition
Capture the Flag
Embedded Security Challenge
Hack 3D
HackML
Logic Locking
Policy Competition
Red Team Competition
Security Quiz

David Mordecai and Samantha Kappagoda joined the panel of judges for the HackML competition, while Dr. Mordecai also served as a judge for the Applied Research competition.

The HackML competition challenged teams to design new, more powerful backdoor attacks on neural networks, and to develop novel defenses and detections. The Applied Research award reviewed papers on any topic related to the application or implementation of security technologies or security systems published or camera-ready between September 1, 2018 and August 31, 2019.

About CSAW
CSAW, established at NYU Tandon School of Engineering (originally Polytechnic Institute of New York) in 2003, is the largest student-run cyber security event in the world, featuring international competitions, workshops, and industry events. Competitions are developed by undergraduate and graduate students associated with the OSIRIS Lab and the Center for Cyber Security at NYU Tandon School of Engineering in collaboration with student teams from across the globe. These students represent some of the leading security programs and academic institutions worldwide. The CSAW competition now runs annually in five other countries; at the Grenoble INP-Esisar in France, the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, the Ben-Gurion University and University of Haifa in Israel, NYU Abu Dhabi in Mena and University Iberoamericana Mexico City in Mexico.

About NYU Tandon School of Engineering
NYU Tandon School of Engineering is a comprehensive school of engineering, applied sciences, technology and research, and is rooted in a 165-year tradition of invention, innovation and entrepreneurship. The institution, founded in 1854, is the nation’s second-oldest private engineering school. In addition to NYU’s main campus in Manhattan, NYU Tandon in downtown Brooklyn also offers programs at sites throughout the region and around the globe. Globally, NYU Tandon has programs in Israel, China and is an integral part of NYU’s campus in Abu Dhabi. NYU Tandon’s mission is to excel as a leading high-quality research institution engaged in education, discovery, and innovation with social, intellectual, and economic impact in the New York region, the nation, and the world. For more information, visit: https://engineering.nyu.edu.

About RiskEcon^® Lab @ Courant Institute
The mission of RiskEcon^® Lab for Decision Metrics @ Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences NYU is the development of experimental testbeds and analytics that employ high-dimensional datasets from innovative sources by applying a range of computational and analytical methods to commercial and industrial sensor networks and edge computing embedded systems, focusing primarily on research and development (R&D) of remote- and compressed- sensing, anomaly detection, forensic analytics and statistical process control. By employing applied computational statistics within the context of robust and scalable data analytic solutions, the goal is robust and reliable integration of machine learning with signal processing for measurement and control, in order to conduct research fundamental to large-scale, real-world questions in risk and liability management.

RiskEcon^® Lab enables, facilitates and coordinates academic research focusing on these patterns and trends, through the development of commercially-viable, analytic applications employing computational statistical tools in conjunction with innovative and non-traditional data structures. In addition, the lab’s activities involve the advancement of applied mathematical statistics and computational economics, through interdisciplinary post-doctoral, postgraduate, graduate research and education in data science and social computing.

RiskEcon^® Lab for Decision Metrics was established in 2011 at Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, an independent division of New York University (NYU). Courant is considered to be one of the world’s leading mathematics educational and scientific research centers, and has been ranked first in research in applied mathematics. RiskEcon^® Lab is the cornerstone of the Computational Economics and Algorithmic Data Analytics (CEcADA) cooperative at New York University, established concurrently in 2011.

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Samantha Kappagoda and David K.A. Mordecai Participated in NYU CSAW 2018

Samantha Kappagoda and David K.A. Mordecai were invited to participate as judges at NYU Tandon School of Engineering’s Fifteenth Annual Cyber Security Awareness Week (CSAW) Competition, which ran from November 8-11, 2018 at MetroTech Center in Brooklyn, NY.

Academic entrants of all levels, from Post-Doctoral fellows and Ph.D. Candidates to high school students took part in the four day cybersecurity event, which was made up of several distinct competitions including the following:

Applied Research Competition
Capture the Flag
Cyber Journalism Award
Embedded Security Challenge
Hack 3D
Hack-Ams Challenge
Policy Competition
Red Team Competition
Security Quiz

David Mordecai joined the panel of judges in the Applied Research Competition. Eligible submissions included any paper published between September 1, 2017 and August 31, 2018 on any topic related to the application or implementation of security technologies or security systems.

Samantha Kappagoda joined the panel of judges for the Policy Competition. This year, the NYU Policy Case Competition Committee joined CSAW to develop a cybersecurity policy focused competition to encourage students from various educational backgrounds who are interested in the nexus of policy and emerging technology issues to think critically about major policy issues affecting society, challenge the status quo, and impact the cyber industry by presenting their ideas to leaders within the field.

About RiskEcon^® Lab
The mission of RiskEcon^® Lab for Decision Metrics @ Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences NYU is the development of experimental testbeds and analytics that employ high-dimensional datasets from innovative sources by applying a range of computational and analytical methods to commercial and industrial sensor networks and edge computing embedded systems, focusing primarily on research and development (R&D) of remote and compressed sensing, anomaly detection, forensic analytics and statistical process control. By employing applied computational statistics within the context of robust and scalable data analytic solutions, the goal is robust and reliable integration of machine learning with signal processing for measurement and control, in order to conduct research fundamental to large-scale, real-world questions in risk and liability management in the public interest.

About CSAW
CSAW, established at NYU Tandon School of Engineering (originally Polytechnic Institute of New York) in 2003, is the largest student-run cyber security event in the world, featuring international competitions, workshops, and industry events. Competitions are developed by undergraduate and graduate students associated with the OSIRIS Lab and the Center for Cyber Security at NYU Tandon in collaboration with student teams from across the globe. These students represent some of the leading security programs and academic institutions worldwide. The CSAW competition now runs annually in five other countries; at Higher School of Communication of Tunis in Tunisia, IIT Kanpur in India, Grenoble INP-Esisar in France, University Iberoamericana (IBERO) in Mexico and Ben Gurion University in Israel.

About NYU Tandon School of Engineering
NYU Tandon School of Engineering, is a comprehensive school of engineering, applied sciences, technology and research, and is rooted in a 156-year tradition of invention, innovation and entrepreneurship. The institution, founded in 1854, is the nation’s second-oldest private engineering school. In addition to NYU’s main campus in Manhattan, NYU Tandon in downtown Brooklyn also offers programs at sites throughout the region and around the globe. Globally, NYU Tandon has programs in Israel, China and is an integral part of NYU’s campus in Abu Dhabi. NYU Tandon’s mission is to excel as a leading high-quality research institution engaged in education, discovery, and innovation with social, intellectual, and economic impact in the New York region, the nation, and the world.

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