Combiz is a national security lawyer; an emerging technologies and innovation leader at Deloitte Consulting in the Government & Public Services practice; a former regulator & policymaker; and has served across government at the U.S. Departments of State, Treasury, The White House and Senate. Combiz has 13 years of public and private sector experience working with industry & government executives on shaping the business, policy, legal, & regulatory dimensions of blockchain & DLT, artificial intelligence and cognitive, cloud computing, digital assets, identity, & cybersecurity. Combiz has advised, implemented, operationalized, and scaled blockchain and AI-powered systems for procurement, financial management, KYC, fraud prevention, healthcare, identity management, supply chain traceability and transparency, cybersecurity, governance and consortia-building in the U.S. & internationally. Combiz speaks several languages including Turkish, Persian (Farsi and Afghan-Dari), Arabic (MSA and Lebanese), Azerbaijani, & has a working proficiency in Spanish. He is a recipient of the FCW Rising Stars Award which recognizes the top 20 government IT innovators and emerging leaders; an Executive Secretary and Planning Committee Member for AFCEA’s Federal Identity Forum & Expo, which is the key identity technology conference for the federal government; and he serves on numerous professional boards and associations including the American Council for Technology (ACT) and Industry Advisory Council (IAC) as an ACT-IAC Partner, Strategic Advisor, and Industry Chair for Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Automation, Blockchain, Emerging Technology, & Identity. Combiz is a graduate of UCLA; American University of Beirut; and Georgetown Law, receiving his B.A., J.D. and LL.M. He aspires to follow in the footsteps of an American hero, Ambassador Col. Charles W. Hostler, USAF (ret.), and serve as our country’s Ambassador.