Vinh Nguyen

Vinh X. Nguyen is senior fellow for artificial intelligence (AI) at the Council on Foreign Relations. His mission is to partner with leaders to develop trustworthy, scalable AI infrastructure that strengthens U.S. security and prosperity. He brings decades of experience from the highest levels of U.S. intelligence and national security.

Recruited at age seventeen into the elite Stokes Program at the National Security Agency (NSA), Nguyen became the youngest employee in agency history promoted to the senior executive ranks. He served as the NSA’s first chief responsible AI officer and chief data scientist for operations, leading AI adoption across intelligence and cybersecurity missions. He also served on the National Intelligence Council as the intelligence community’s most senior cyber analyst, advising the director of national intelligence on cyber threats and geopolitical implications.

Over decades of service under four presidents, Nguyen built the NSA’s mission to counter China’s cyber threats, oversaw election security analysis, and shaped cyber, counterterrorism, and warfighting campaigns. He received the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, the intelligence community’s highest honor, and Distinguished and Meritorious Presidential Rank Awards. Drawing on this experience, he founded Aligned Intelligence Advisory to help executives and boards integrate trust into enterprise AI infrastructure, aligning innovation with measurable outcomes and long-term competitiveness.

He holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and George Washington University’s Elliott School, with executive programs at Harvard Kennedy School and University of Michigan’s Ross School.