Belisario Contreras

Belisario Contreras possesses a deep understanding of international legislative and policy-making processes involving information technology and cybersecurity and has fostered fruitful partnerships with various stakeholders, including high-level government officials, the private sector, and civil society representatives. Mr Contreras is highly experienced in designing, managing, and monitoring international cooperation projects. He previously served as the manager/head of the Organization of American States (OAS) cybersecurity program, where he spearheaded strategic partnerships with key international actors and positioned the organization’s program as a leading initiative on cyber capacity-building issues across the Americas and the world.

Mr Contreras has a demonstrated history of advancing thought leadership on such issues as cloud security, cyber regulation, data privacy, 5G security, financial inclusion, and international norms, among other relevant policy and technical topics. As an Oxford University Martin Fellow, he oversaw the outreach and dissemination of top practices to promote the Cybersecurity Capacity Building Capability Maturity Model’s development and implementation in 32 Latin American and Caribbean countries. Mr Contreras previously served as a co-chair of the Global Future Council on Cybersecurity and was a member of the Global Cybersecurity Advisory Board at the World Economic Forum (WEF). He was also part of the FinCyber Initiative High-Level Advisory Group at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he provided crucial technical input on the international strategy for cybersecurity and the Global Financial System (2021–2024) presented to the G7 and G20 presidents.