Andrew J. Grotto founded Sagewood Global Strategies LLC in 2018 to help companies navigate the crosscurrents of geopolitical risk and regulatory policy for new and emerging digital technologies. During his two decades in Washington, D.C. working in two U.S. presidential administrations and in the U.S. Senate, he observed a widening gulf between the business and policy communities in their characterizations of the risks and rewards of digital innovation, even as the importance of this innovation ecosystem to U.S. and global security and economic prosperity was rapidly growing.

He sits on the Board of Directors of Slamfire, Inc., parent company of Turtle Rock Studios, as outside security director pursuant to a CFIUS National Security Agreement between the U.S. government and Tencent, which acquired Slamfire in 2021. He is also an outside advisor to Cygnvs, Inc. and Cybervore.

Grotto also leads research and teaching initiatives at Stanford University, where he is the founding director of the Program on Geopolitics, Technology, and Governance at Stanford University’s Cyber Policy Center, a William J. Perry International Security Fellow, and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. He serves as the faculty lead for the Cyber Policy and Security specialization within Stanford’s Ford Dorsey Master’s in International Policy Program and teaches the core course, Fundamentals of Cybersecurity and Policy.

Before coming to Stanford in 2017, Grotto worked in public service. He advised two Presidents on sensitive cybersecurity and related topics at the nexus of technology, innovation and national security as Senior Director for Cyber Policy on the National Security Council (NSC) at the White House. In that role, he chaired interagency NSC proceedings at the Assistant Secretary level on cybersecurity and related technology policy matters. Areas of responsibility and/or leadership included critical infrastructure cybersecurity (e.g., finance, energy, health care, transportation and communications), regulatory policy; Federal IT cybersecurity; data protection and privacy; cyber incident preparedness, response and recovery; encryption; trade-related aspects of digital technologies; artificial intelligence; and military, intelligence and diplomatic issues relating to technology. 

Before the White House, he was Senior Advisor for Technology Policy to Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker. He advised on all aspects of technology policy, from innovation, spectrum and trade to privacy, cybersecurity, and international dimensions of these areas. He served as the department’s representative at the Assistant Secretary level for White House- and Director of National Intelligence- led comprehensive reviews of signals intelligence targeting and policy and in interagency NSC proceedings on cybersecurity and related technology policy matters. He also advised the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Commerce on sensitive technology-related matters before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and the Export Administration Review Board (EARB). He also led a team that received the Secretary’s Gold Medal — the highest honorary award given by the Department — for successful development and timely implementation of the International Trade Data System (ITDS), a major Presidential initiative.

Grotto came to the executive branch from Capitol Hill, where he served as a Professional Staff Member of the Senate Select Committee in Intelligence (SSCI). He advised the Chairman, Vice Chairman, and members of the SSCI on sensitive and classified U.S. intelligence operations, analysis, and related matters. He led the committee’s initiatives on cybersecurity legislation and was the principal architect of legislation that President Obama would eventually sign in 2015 on cyber threat information sharing. He also led the SSCI’s staff oversight of the National Security Agency’s multi-billion dollar budget and classified operations as the committee’s NSA Budget Monitor; was a member of the SSCI team responsible for staff oversight of covert action programs; and was a co-author of the committee’s report on CIA’s use of enhanced interrogation methods.

He received his JD from the University of California-Berkeley, his MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and his BA from the University of Kentucky.