Stephen Gilfus

Stephen Gilfus is a serial entrepreneur, company builder, board director, and platform architect operating at the confluence of AI, cybersecurity, digital trust, vibe coding, innovation, entrepreneurship, and online learning. He is best known as a co-founder and pioneer behind BlackboardCo-Founder (NASDAQ: BBBB), where he helped originate the product and business architecture behind one of education technology’s most influential enterprise platforms — growing the business to more than $650M in ARR in roughly seven years, serving approximately 150 million users across 17,000 institutions in 80 countries, and moving the market from isolated course websites to institutionally managed learning platforms.

Across 30+ years of company building, Gilfus has worked at the intersection of product invention, enterprise growth, platform strategy, governance, M&A, strategic transactions, and market creation — giving boards, investors, and leadership teams a practical vantage point on how emerging technologies move from concept to category.

He serves on the board of ISACABoard Committee Chair, the world’s largest professional association for cybersecurity, governance, and AI assurance, supporting over 460,000 members. As Chair of the Innovation and Technology Committee, he helps guide global governance over innovation, enterprise technology, and emerging AI frameworks for a rapidly changing professional community.

He is also the founder of High Peak StudioFounder, a not-for-profit rapid innovation studio using AI to accelerate idea-to-execution, and Founder and Chairman of Gilfus Education GroupFounder & Chairman, a Washington, D.C.-based strategy and research firm. A seasoned operator, he has a proven track record scaling high-growth organizations and executing strategic transactions for entities serving Fortune 1000 corporations and government institutions.

His public sector impact includes serving on the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services Cybersecurity and AI Task Force and advising The City University of New York.

An influential author and speaker, Stephen has published over a dozen foundational industry whitepapers. He is a regular contributor to Forbes and Entrepreneur Media and a guest lecturer at Cornell, George Washington University, and Arizona State University. He also serves on the Entrepreneurship@Cornell Advisory Council and supports the Upstate New York innovation ecosystem through Upstate Venture Connect and Upstate New York Silicon Valley.

Stephen holds a B.S. in Managerial Economics and Entrepreneurship from Cornell University’s Dyson School, where he founded the Cornell Entrepreneur Organization as a student. He is a Harvard Certified Corporate Director and continues his executive studies at The Wharton School.