Dr. Yawo O. Kondo
My path into cybersecurity was not a straight line, and that has turned out to be the point. International studies, health informatics, technology leadership, and doctoral research each added a layer to how I understand risk — not as a technical problem in isolation, but as something institutional, economic, and human.
Five stages, one through-line
Each stage answered a question the previous one had raised.
International Perspective
I began in International Studies, with a double concentration in International Business Management and Global Strategy Studies. What I was really learning was how global systems hold together — policy, economics, institutions, and the relationships between states. As a child I had wanted to work for an international organization solving urgent global problems: poverty, health, conflict. That ambition set the direction long before technology entered the picture.
Health & Human Services
Working for a nonprofit supporting the community integration of people with developmental disabilities, I saw the problem up close: healthcare urgently needed better ways to acquire, store, retrieve, and above all protect information. That led me to Health Informatics, and into the acceleration of electronic health record adoption. It was the first time I understood that data protection was not an IT concern — it was a question of whether people could trust the systems caring for them.
Technology Leadership
Health informatics gave me the domain, but not the full scope of tools needed to address in-depth security of patient information. Strategic Leadership in Information Technology closed that gap — enterprise and network architecture, systems analysis and design, data modelling, and the practice of leading technology change inside organizations rather than merely advising on it.
Cybersecurity
My doctoral work focused on cybersecurity, information assurance, and organizational risk, with a dissertation examining the strategies nonprofit organizations use to protect against cyberattacks. Nonprofits were a deliberate choice: they carry sensitive data and serve vulnerable people, but rarely have the budgets or in-house expertise that enterprises take for granted. The gap between exposure and capacity is where the real risk lives.
Global Cybersecurity Leadership
Cybersecurity → Digital Trust → Resilience → Development. Today I work with leaders and institutions on cybersecurity strategy, digital trust, and cyber resilience, with a growing focus on developing and emerging economies — where the security of digital systems increasingly determines economic opportunity and institutional trust. The international ambition I started with and the technical depth I built along the way finally point in the same direction.
Where the work happens
Four degrees, four capabilities
Each degree was chosen to close a specific gap. What matters is not the credential but what it made possible.
Bachelor of Arts in International Studies
What it gave me: the ability to read global systems — world politics, governing policies, NGOs, the private sector, diplomacy and policy development — and to understand the social and historical forces behind global development. It is the reason I approach cybersecurity as a development question, not only a technical one.
Master of Science in Health Informatics
What it gave me: the ability to evaluate an organization's IT systems, design and apply EMR/EHR software, convert and analyse medical and health data, and train clinicians in the systems they depend on. It also taught me what happens to trust when sensitive personal data is handled badly.
Master of Information Technology, Strategic Leadership
What it gave me: the technical and leadership grounding to integrate systems and lead change at scale — proactive and reactive security planning, operating system and network architecture, enterprise systems architecture, systems analysis and design, and data modelling.
Doctor of Information Technology (DIT)
What it gave me: research discipline applied to security and privacy, information assurance, data modelling, security planning, systems analysis and compliance. The qualitative multiple case study behind it examined how IT managers and directors responsible for security in nonprofit organizations actually defend against cyberattacks.
The technical depth behind the advisory
Executive advice is only credible if it is grounded in the work itself. These are the frameworks, tools and platforms I have worked in directly.
Selected track record
Let's talk about the problem you're facing
Whether it's executive advisory, a global development partnership, a speaking engagement, or research collaboration — I'd welcome the conversation.