Yvette Kanouff

Partner and Chief Technology Officer, SAFE Security

Yvette Kanouff is an Emmy award winning technology pioneer and Partner at JC2 Ventures, a venture firm founded by Silicon Valley legend John Chambers. Yvette headed the service provider business at Cisco Systems, the worldwide leader in IT, networking, and cybersecurity solutions.  The revenue for the business led by Yvette was $13B ($7B direct).   She has held CTO and President roles at various companies and has focused on leading technology innovation and invention, particularly in AI/ML, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies.  Yvette has pioneered technologies that were instrumental in creating video streaming, app stores, MPEG standards, encoding standards, CDNs, and the DVD.   
Yvette has received numerous industry awards including a Lifetime Achievement Emmy for her contributions to television engineering and technology, being named on the Forbes 50 list in 2025, the National Cable and Television Association's Vanguard Award for Leadership in Science and Technology, being named an Industry Pioneer, an Emmy for her work in Video on Demand with SeaChange and another for her work in cloud DVR, being named an Industry Wonder Woman, and Top Techie; she has been named one of the 11 most influential women in the Television industry, and has consistently been ranked as one of the top 100 media/cable/broadband industry executives. She has been named a Streaming Video Technology Alliance Fellow and was inducted into the Cable Hall of Fame in 2024. 
Yvette began her career in digital signal processing and early AI work. She has a bachelor's and master's degree in mathematics, and an honorary doctor in science.  Yvette holds several patents and is on various company and industry boards.  She is a long-standing leader in industry organizations, foundations, and standards bodies, and she has chaired several industry boards including the SCTE, Cable Pioneers and IEEE Ibuka medal award committee.   She currently serves on the selection committee for the IEEE Jagadish Chandra Bose Medal in Wireless Communications.