Ms. Liesyl Franz is senior policy advisor in the Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues at the U.S. Department of State. There, she is a senior member of the team coordinating international engagement and policy, particularly working on cyber issues with the European region and contributing to Internet governance issues and processes. She leads on cyber discussions with the European Union institutions as well as Member State bilateral and sub-regional engagements (e.g. Germany, France, UK, Portugal, and Baltic and Nordic countries), is responsible for interagency coordination on the annual Internet Governance Forum (IGF), and served as deputy head of delegation for the U.S. government’s participation in the preparatory process for the UN General Assembly’s 10-year review of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS+10 Review).
Previously, Ms. Franz was vice president for cybersecurity and global public policy at TechAmerica, a trade association representing global high technology companies; deputy director for outreach and awareness and director for international affairs and public policy at the National Cyber Security Division (NCSD) at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; director for global government affairs at EDS Corporation; and program manager at the Coalition of Service Industries where she managed industry’s participation and input into services trade negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Ms. Franz holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Texas at Austin and an MA from the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University.