Ismael Valenzuela

Ismael Valenzuela is the Vice President of Threat Research and Intelligence at Arctic Wolf, where he leads advanced research focused on tracking adversaries, uncovering emerging threats, and helping organizations build proactive, defensible security strategies. Prior to his current role, Ismael was responsible for leading offensive and defensive security roles for Foundstone, Intel, McAfee and BlackBerry Cylance, among others, and founded one of the first IT security consultancies in Spain. Ismael has also served as an advisor to large government and private sector organizations, including the EU, U.S. government agencies and critical infrastructure operators in New York. Ismael is also one of the few holding the highly regarded GIAC Security Expert (GSE) certification in the world. In 2025, Ismael is serving as a co-chair of a new advisory panel under the international Counter Ransomware Initiative (CRI), focused on enhancing public-private collaboration to combat ransomware through intelligence sharing, joint disruption efforts, and policy innovation. His work bridges technical depth and strategic vision, helping shape resilient cyber defense strategies across industries and governments worldwide.