Dr. Daniel "Rags" Ragsdale, the retired Army colonel who architected the nation's first National Cyber Workforce and Education Strategy at the White House, has joined Cyberstar's Board of Advisors, the company announced on June 29, 2026. The appointment brings immediate credibility to the defense contractor's mission at a critical moment when federal agencies face mounting pressure to transition from periodic workforce compliance reporting to dynamic, real-time capability tracking. Ragsdale most recently served as Deputy Assistant National Cyber Director at the White House Office of the National Cyber Director, where he led the implementation of the inaugural strategy that influenced more than $100 billion in federal contracting and secured commitments to create more than 35,000 new cybersecurity jobs.
The timing of Ragsdale's board appointment signals Cyberstar's confidence in its competitive positioning as defense organizations confront an urgent mandate to modernize cyber workforce management under Department of Defense Manual 8140.03. Marling Engle, Cyberstar's CEO, characterized Ragsdale's expertise as essential to the company's mission: "When you've sat at the table where national cyber workforce policy gets made, you understand what's actually at stake when organizations can't develop, quantify, and prove their force readiness at scale." Ragsdale emphasized in his own statement that passive compliance systems are insufficient, advocating instead for dynamic, capability-based tracking aligned with the Defense Cyber Workforce Framework. No executive search firm involvement was disclosed in the announcement.
Ragsdale's credentials span four decades of national security leadership. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1981 and earned a master's degree in computer science from the Naval Postgraduate School and a doctorate in computer science from Texas A&M University, where he later founded the Cybersecurity Center. During his 34-year Army career, he served as a combat veteran in Grenada, Afghanistan, and Iraq, ultimately retiring at the rank of colonel. Before his White House assignment in August 2023, Ragsdale spent two years at Two Six Technologies as vice president for Department of Defense strategy, having previously served as Principal Director for Cyber at the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. He also managed a $175 million research and development portfolio at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. During his nearly 15-year tenure at West Point, Ragsdale served as Vice Dean for Education, the principal deputy to the academy's chief academic officer. He received the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service. Ragsdale currently serves as founder of Full Spectrum Cyber Solutions and senior advisor at Cambridge Global Advisors.
Cyberstar, formerly known as WillCo Tech, is the industry-leading cyber workforce management platform for defense and federal organizations, with over 20 years of government contracting experience. The company provides real-time qualification tracking, automated verification, and workforce analytics specifically designed around DoD 8140 and the Defense Cyber Workforce Framework. Cyberstar achieved FedRAMP authorization in March 2025 and recently secured a significant multi-year contract with United States Special Operations Command to manage cyber workforce qualifications. The platform white-labeled as the Army Training and Certification Tracking System, actively supports over 1 million users across the federal government. In February 2026, Cyberstar announced a strategic partnership with Pluralsight to integrate training content with its workforce management capabilities.
Ragsdale's appointment reflects the intensifying focus on cyber workforce readiness as a national security imperative. The National Cyber Workforce and Education Strategy, which Ragsdale directly shaped, explicitly addressed the persistent gap between supply and demand in the cyber labor market, with approximately 500,000 positions remaining unfilled across the private and public sectors as of 2024. His move to Cyberstar's board suggests the defense establishment continues to prioritize technological solutions that move beyond manual tracking and siloed data systems toward integrated, auditable visibility into workforce capabilities. This endorsement from a senior policy architect carries weight in a sector where compliance automation remains contested, with many legacy defense systems still dependent on spreadsheets and inconsistent databases. Ragsdale's presence on the board may accelerate adoption among skeptical federal agencies and position Cyberstar as the trusted platform for executing the very workforce modernization strategy he designed.
