Richard Salgado is a partner and founder of Salgado Strategies, a consultancy providing guidance to organizations navigating the complex geopolitical, cybersecurity, and surveillance environment in which they operate. He is also a consultant to the United Nations and an Advisory Board Member of the Tech Law and Security Program at American University Washington College of Law.

Prior to founding the consultancy, Richard served as Google’s Director of Law Enforcement & Information Security for over 13 years. He oversaw Google’s response worldwide to national security and law enforcement demands for data and assistance, and legal matters relating to cyber and physical security, information sharing and investigations involving serious crime on the platforms, among other duties. Richard served as a subject matter expert representing Google externally, including by testifying before the US Congress numerous times on significant issues of public policy, law and company practice including foreign information operations, election security, extremist content, and government surveillance.

Before joining Google, Richard was with Yahoo!, focusing on international security and law enforcement compliance work. He also served as senior counsel in the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the United States Department of Justice. As a federal prosecutor, Richard specialized in investigating and prosecuting computer network cases, such as computer hacking, illegal computer wiretaps, denial of service attacks, malicious code, and other technology-driven privacy crimes. Richard also worked as a trial lawyer with Cooley LLP.

In 2005, Richard joined Stanford Law School as a legal lecturer on computer crime, Internet business legal and policy issues, and modern surveillance law; he previously served as an adjunct law professor at Georgetown University Law Center and George Mason Law School and as a faculty member of the National Judicial College. Richard was also a senior instructor with the SANS Institute, teaching on the legal issues in computer forensics and network investigations. Richard received his JD from Yale Law School.