Panama, Cisco, the xGTT Board, and Oakwise CEO Alessio Hagen recognized for advancing trusted technology and strengthening partnerships across the free world
WASHINGTON, DC — The Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue announced today the recipients of its 2026 Trusted Tech Awards. The Institute presents the awards each year to leaders and organizations advancing the development, deployment, and adoption of trusted technology to strengthen freedom, security, and prosperity. This year’s honorees will be recognized at the Institute’s annual Trusted Tech Summit on Friday, November 13, 2026, in Washington, D.C. The Summit convenes senior U.S. and allied government officials, technology executives, investors, and strategic partners to advance the alliances, standards, and strategies that will shape the future of trusted technology.
This year’s recipients represent leadership across the trusted technology landscape: securing the digital infrastructure that underpins the global economy, strengthening international partnerships around critical technologies, establishing a common standard for evaluating trusted technology, and expanding access to the education needed to navigate emerging technologies. In an era in which technological leadership defines global power, they exemplify how innovation, grounded in democratic values, can strengthen the free world’s technological leadership and ensure technology advances freedom.
“Technology is shaping the future of our economies, our security, and our way of life. The people and organizations being recognized this year are making important contributions to ensuring that the future is built on trust,” said Keith Krach, Chairman and Founder of the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue. “Their work demonstrates what is possible when innovation is guided by democratic values and a commitment to advancing freedom.”
“Trusted technology is essential to the strength and security of the U.S. and its allies,” said Michelle Giuda, CEO of the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue. “This year’s honorees are helping build the capabilities, partnerships, and knowledge needed to ensure that critical technologies protect individual liberties, strengthen economies, and uphold the values that underpin free societies.”
Government of Panama – International Trusted Tech Leadership Award
Panama is fast becoming a trusted technology partner and a hub of digital innovation in the Americas. Under President José Raúl Mulino, Panama joined the U.S.-led Pax Silica partnership, aligning with a growing group of nations working to secure the supply chains behind artificial intelligence, semiconductors, digital infrastructure, and other critical technologies. Panama is matching that international commitment with action at home. This summer, the government launched its National Agenda for Advanced Technologies, anchored by a new National Artificial Intelligence Strategy focused on developing talent, expanding digital infrastructure, driving innovation, and setting a regulatory framework for emerging technologies. The agenda also includes a national strategy for semiconductors and microelectronics and a new National Commission on Critical and Emerging Technologies. Panama is also investing in the people who will carry this agenda forward. Through a partnership with the Krach Institute’s Tech Diplomacy Academy, Panama is preparing its officials and future leaders to navigate the intersection of technology, security, and diplomacy. By pairing its strategic location and world-class logistics platform with trusted technology and talent, Panama is strengthening and leading the partnerships and supply chains that connect the Americas.
Cisco – Trusted Tech Industry Leadership Award
Cisco is helping secure the digital infrastructure that underpins the free world. Led by Chairman and CEO Chuck Robbins, the company has made security, privacy, and trust central to its technology and operations, strengthening the resilience of governments, businesses, and critical infrastructure. By bringing together networking, cybersecurity, and observability, Cisco is helping organizations address increasingly complex security challenges in the AI era. Its work to build quantum resilience across its core portfolio further demonstrates a commitment to anticipating emerging threats and protecting the digital foundations of the future. Cisco exemplifies how technological innovation and security must advance together to ensure a trusted digital future.
The Global Trusted Tech Standard (xGTT) Board of Governors – Trusted Tech Distinguished Service Award
The Global Trusted Tech Standard (xGTT) Board of Governors is being recognized for its leadership in developing and advancing the world’s first open standard for trusted technology. This evidence-based framework helps governments, businesses, universities, civil society, and other institutions assess the trustworthiness of companies operating across critical and emerging technology sectors. As these technologies become increasingly important to economic growth and national security, decision-makers need reliable ways to identify partners they can trust. The Board’s work is helping lay the foundation for a shared approach that can strengthen confidence in technology partnerships, support cooperation in the free world, and help ensure that the technologies shaping the future reflect democratic values.
The xGTT Board of Governors includes:
Audrey Tang, Chair of the xGTT Board; Taiwan’s Cyber Ambassador-at-Large
Roberto Baldoni, former Deputy Director General of Italian Intelligence; founding Director General of Italy’s National Cybersecurity Agency (ACN)
Isabel Cane, former Head of OECD Trust in Business Initiative and Blue Dot Network
Alex Capri, Senior Fellow and Lecturer at NUS Business School in Singapore
Dan DeLaurentis, Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and EVP for Research at Purdue University
Mike Derrios, Executive Director, Greg and Camille Baroni Center for Government Contracting, George Mason University
Rick Echevarria, Senior Vice President, Keyfactor
Obiageli “Oby” Ezekwesili, former Nigerian Minister of Education and Minister of Minerals; former World Bank Vice President for Africa
Fernando Garibay, GRAMMY® and BMI award-winning producer, songwriter, entrepreneur, author; Chairman and CEO, The Garibay Institute
Melanie Garson, Associate Professor in International Security, University College London
Dan Goldin, former Administrator, NASA
Yasmin Green, CEO, Jigsaw
Takashi Oda, Director of Business Strategy, NTT
Roman Pačka, Chief Advisor to the Director of the Czech National Cyber and Information Security Agency (NÚKIB)
Heather Petersen, former Head of Trust Strategy and Marketing at DocuSign
David Roberts, former CEO, Applied Research Institute
Harsh Shringla, Member of India’s Parliament; former Ambassador to the U.S.
Tom Sonderman, CEO, SkyWater Technology
Yigal Unna, former Director General, Israel’s National Cyber Directorate
Ken Urquhart, former Vice President for 5G Strategy, Zscaler
Alessio Hagen, CEO of Oakwise – Trusted Tech Education Impact Award
Alessio Hagen is being recognized for his leadership in advancing education in trusted technology and expanding the impact of the Krach Institute’s Tech Diplomacy Academy. As emerging technologies reshape business, government, and the global economy, ensuring that leaders in government and civil society have the knowledge to understand their opportunities and implications is increasingly important. Hagen’s contributions have helped grow the Tech Diplomacy Academy’s learning community across Mexico and Central America and expand education on critical topics, from artificial intelligence and the future of energy to quantum computing. His support is helping equip more people with the knowledge needed to make informed decisions about technology and its role in advancing freedom, security, and prosperity.
The 2026 honorees join a distinguished group of past Trusted Tech Award recipients. The Institute’s 2025 honorees included Atomic Industries, ReElement Technologies, Strider Technologies, and the Government of Sweden. Previous recipients include Palantir CEO Dr. Alex Karp, Google President and CIO Ruth Porat, Africell CEO Ziad Dalloul, former President of Taiwan Tsai Ing-wen, former President of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid, and Dan Goldin, NASA's longest-serving Administrator, among other public and private sector leaders.
For more information on the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue, please visit https://techdiplomacy.org.
About the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue
The Krach Institute is the world’s preeminent trusted technology accelerator. As the leader in the new category of Tech Diplomacy, the Institute integrates technology expertise, Silicon Valley strategies and foreign policy tools to build the Global Trusted Tech Network of governments, companies, organizations and individuals to accelerate the innovation and adoption of trusted technology and ensure technology advances freedom.
Visit the Krach Institute online at TechDiplomacy.org and follow on X, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. Enroll in the Tech Diplomacy Academy to learn what you need to know now about key emerging technologies and their impact on business, policy and the global economy. Subscribe to the Institute’s weekly newsletter Tech Diplomacy Now for the latest news at the intersection of high tech and foreign policy.
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