I work at the intersection of cyber defense, AI safety, and emerging risk, where the threats are converging and the playbooks are still being written.

My career has taken me from the Marine Corps to NSA, U.S. Cyber Command, the U.S. House of Representatives, Mandiant, and Netflix. Across every role, one throughline: understanding adversaries, building high-trust teams, and translating complex problems into strategies leaders can act on.

Today, I advise organizations, governments, and research institutions on AI governance, agentic threat preparedness, and unifying safety and security into a single discipline. I contribute to global standards efforts including the EU AI Act (via OWASP AI) and lead executive education on cybersecurity and AI strategy at SANS.

If you’re navigating the future of AI risk or security strategy, let’s connect.

Chris Cochran

As a U.S. Marine who spent years working alongside special operations teams, I learned that different missions require radically different mindsets.

Everybody loves the Navy SEAL archetype: aggressive, adaptive, and masters of improvisation.

But if you deploy AI agents with that mindset, you are inviting disaster. AI doesn’t have the judgment to improvise. When it tries, it makes mistakes.

In high-stakes business environments, you don't need the "bang" of chaos; you need the "whisper" of control. You need more of a Delta Force methodology.

In my latest article, I break down why AI requires more determinism, and less heroism, and introduce CONTROL for governing agentic AI.

Read the full strategy below. 👇

Field CISO & VP, AI Security @ SANS | Bridging Cyber Defense and Frontier AI Risk | Ex-NSA, Netflix, Mandiant | US Marine Veteran

Let me set the tone clearly: This is not a debate about which group is "better." Both are elite. Both accomplish the impossible. As a US Marine, I res

Open article: Why You Need to Manage AI Agents Like Delta Force, Not Navy SEALs by Chris Cochran • 4 min read

Why You Need to Manage AI Agents Like Delta Force, Not Navy SEALs

What is your current view of AI in cybersecurity? I bet its a mixed bag. 

Foster Nethercott wants to hear directly from you. 

Make your voice heard. 

Just want the TLDR? Rob T. Lee and Foster will be hosting a livestream July 15th to cover the insights. 

Links to both in the comments. 

SANS Institute

Marketing Queen 👑 | Human-First Growth & Bold GTM Strategies | Builder of Demand & Brands | SOUL Framework™

I’m a full-stack marketing leader and founder, building growth engines that scale startups into industry contenders. Currently Head of Marketing, I lead the full marketing spectrum—demand gen, brand, content, product marketing, RevOps, and creative—with one goal: making marketing a direct driver of revenue and reputation.

I also run Strategy with Soul, my boutique consultancy where I bring Fortune 500 frameworks and a decade of hypergrowth SaaS expertise to emerging companies. Through fractional leadership and sprint engagements, I help founders and executive teams turn messy GTM motions into modern, soul-infused strategies that actually deliver pipeline and brand equity.

Across both worlds, I’ve:

Built demand gen, RevOps, and marketing ops functions from scratch

Launched global brand campaigns and thought-leadership platforms

Driven measurable pipeline impact with hybrid attribution models

Scaled cross-functional teams through frameworks, not fluff

Used marketing as a lever for both growth and equity

At my core, I merge data discipline with creative disruption. I believe marketing isn’t just about generating leads—it’s about building systems that buyers trust, teams can scale, and companies can rally around.

And I bring more than numbers to the table. As a DEI advocate, I believe marketing leaders have a responsibility to use their platforms to elevate diverse voices and challenge the status quo.

Ragen D.

i started in marketing ops.
now i’m head of marketing.

and here’s the most frustrating thing i’ve learned:

every organization i’ve touched has the same issue — they don’t understand marketing.
not because they’re “dumb.”
because they’ve been taught a lie:

marketing is a department.
it’s not.

marketing is an operating system that connects four things most companies keep separate:

1) the market (what people actually want)
2) the message (what you’re actually known for)
3) the motion (how demand is created + captured)
4) the measurement (how you prove it’s working)

when that OS is broken, you get the same symptoms every time:

“we need more leads” (but nobody agrees what a good lead is)

“paid isn’t working” (but sales cycles are longer than your patience)

“brand is fluffy” (but your pipeline is starving because nobody trusts you)

“marketing isn’t strategic” (but marketing is treated like an internal design studio)

“show us ROI” (but attribution is a house of mirrors and everyone knows it)

here’s the ops lesson that changed my career:

most marketing problems are not channel problems. they’re definition problems.
if you don’t define reality the same way across the business, you can’t fix it.

so if you want marketing to finally “work,” stop asking for more tactics.

build a marketing OS:

✅ one ICP (not 6 “personas” nobody uses)
✅ one set of lifecycle definitions (lead → qualified → pipeline → revenue)
✅ one revenue model everyone trusts (volume * conversion * time)
✅ one feedback loop with sales (weekly, not quarterly therapy)
✅ proof on repeat (customers, outcomes, receipts — not vibes)

because when leadership says “marketing isn’t working,” what they usually mean is:

we never agreed what marketing is supposed to do.

mic drop:
you can’t measure your way out of a strategy you never had.

what’s the most common “marketing misunderstanding” you see inside companies right now? 👇


#b2bmarketing #demandgen #growthmarketing #marketingops #revops

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The Battle

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