Mark Ryland

Mark Ryland is the new Vice President of Artificial Intelligence at Istari Digital, having joined in May 2026. Istari is an early-stage company that provides AI-driven software infrastructure for no-fail industries such as aerospace and defense. Istari’s technology enables engineering teams to connect critical data across tools, organizations, and security boundaries.

Ryland has more than 35 years of experience in the technology industry across a wide range of leadership roles in information security, artificial intelligence, software engineering, distributed systems, technical standardization, and public policy. Until recently he was Director, Office of the CISO at Amazon Web Services, a team he founded in 2018. Prior to that, he was the Director of Solutions Architecture and Chief Solutions Architect for the AWS Worldwide Public Sector team, a team he founded in 2011 and grew to a large global organization. Before AWS, Ryland spent more than 12 years at Microsoft, led engineering efforts at two startups, and served as Vice President of a Seattle-based public policy think tank.

Ryland has been married to his college sweetheart Katherine Kiley Ryland for almost 43 years. They have been blessed by nine children and thirteen grandchildren (so far). He has been privileged to support and advise many Catholic institutions over the years, including the founding board of FOCUS, the boards of Christendom College, Thomas Aquinas College, and the International Theological Institute in Austria (ITI), and the ITI-USA, as well as boards of advisors at the Catholic Information Center, Gonzaga University, and the Catholic University of America School of Philosophy. At present he is an investor in and advisor to the Catholic AI startup Truthly.ai. Learn more at http://linkedin.com/in/markryland.

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