The
Quantum
Director
A governance agenda for officers and directors — defending the threat, capturing the opportunity.
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The state of play.
Advances in quantum technology are poised to revolutionize modern computing, sensing, and networks. The implications for the global economy and the mechanisms of commerce could not be more significant.
For three decades, the digital security methods protecting virtually every sensitive transaction in the modern economy — online banking, medical records, intellectual property, attorney-client communications, the software updates that run on your laptop — have depended on a defined set of cryptographic puzzles that everyday computers are unable to break in any useful amount of time. Quantum computing harnesses technology that has the capability to break today's encryption standards in seconds. In anticipation, nations have started introducing new encryption standards as well as classifying quantum alongside semiconductors and artificial intelligence as a strategic technology, with the regulatory, export-control, and investment-screening footprint to match.
The same computational power that poses an existential threat to today's encryption standards will also dramatically accelerate drug discovery, materials science, financial optimization, logistics, and certain classes of machine learning. Companies in pharmaceuticals, chemicals, financial services, and advanced manufacturing are already running quantum pilots, filing patents, and signing commercial partnerships. The race is on.
For every government and private entity on the planet, the confluence of risk and opportunity posed by quantum technology cannot be ignored. The leaders of these organizations serve a pivotal role in stewarding their organization through periods of significant technological change. Whether you are an officer or director at a private company or hold an executive leadership or oversight role for a public entity, this white paper was written to help you develop a comprehensive framework for hardening your organization against the defensive risks while bolstering its ability to seize the next era's opportunities.
Capturing the quantum opportunity.
Directors, CEOs, general counsel, audit committees, and founders.
Written with the non-technical executive or director in mind. Part I addresses what quantum technology actually is, the cryptographic threat, the fiduciary framework, the regulatory landscape, fundraising risks, and the governance program organizational leaders must own. Part II addresses strategy, talent, intellectual property, export controls, and the longer-horizon trajectory.
Four takeaways worth remembering.
Quantum is a governance issue — not just an IT or CISO issue.
Organizational leaders have an important role to play in hardening their organization's quantum resiliency and ability to optimize. The board's duty is informed oversight; the c-suite's is execution.
Fiduciary, securities, and sectoral duties already apply.
Fiduciary duties under state law and the SEC's current cybersecurity disclosure rule, and a growing set of sector-specific mandates, impose mandatory obligations on companies and their boards that should be assumed to encompass the Quantum Director.
The opportunity is now — and it is generational.
The race to secure new talent pipelines, vendor partnerships, and intellectual property rights has already started. The convergence of artificial intelligence and quantum technology presents a generational opportunity. Organizations that view quantum as just a risk to manage will miss out entirely.
Capitalizing requires a coordinated, resourced posture.
To capitalize, organizational leadership should collaborate to develop strategic initiatives for hardening the organization's resiliency against the risks posed by advancements in quantum technology, for optimizing its existing capabilities, and for allocating resources promoting prompt implementation.
Inside this paper.
Click any section title below to read it on this site.
- IWhat Is Quantum Technology? A Primer for the Non-Technical Reader
- IIThe Cryptographic Threat, in Plain Terms
- IIIWhy This Is a Board Issue, Too
- IVThe Current Regulatory Landscape
- VStartups and the Pre-IPO Path
- VIGuidelines for Boards and Executive Leadership
- VIIAn Example Roadmap for Organizational Leadership