{"id":31585,"date":"2021-09-12T12:21:12","date_gmt":"2021-09-12T16:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/polisci\/?post_type=cu_people&#038;p=31585"},"modified":"2026-02-18T14:36:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T19:36:01","slug":"alum-sem-ponnambalam","status":"publish","type":"cu_people","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/polisci\/people\/alum-sem-ponnambalam\/","title":{"rendered":"Sem Ponnambalam"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"mb-6 cu-pageheader cu-component-updated md:mb-12\">\n    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 pb-5 after:w-10 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px\">\n                    \n             \n                \n            <\/h1>\n\n    \n    <\/header>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/polisci\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/212\/SemPonnambalam_800x800.jpg\" alt=\"A photo of Sem Ponnambalam, A Carleton University Political Science Alumni of 2006\" class=\"wp-image-29379\" srcset=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/polisci\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/212\/SemPonnambalam_800x800.jpg 800w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/polisci\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/212\/SemPonnambalam_800x800-160x160.jpg 160w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/polisci\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/212\/SemPonnambalam_800x800-240x240.jpg 240w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/polisci\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/212\/SemPonnambalam_800x800-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/polisci\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/212\/SemPonnambalam_800x800-400x400.jpg 400w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/polisci\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/212\/SemPonnambalam_800x800-200x200.jpg 200w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/polisci\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/212\/SemPonnambalam_800x800-360x360.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"sem-ponnambalamco-founder-and-president-of-xahive\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sem Ponnambalam<br>\nCo-founder and President of xahive<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BA Honours in Political Science, Concentration in International Relations (2002); MA in Legal Studies, 2006<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span lang=\"en-CA\">At xahive, Sem is primarily responsible for global operations, including cybersecurity audits, business, and market development. With 18-plus years&#8217; experience in private and public sectors, Sem has been instrumental in building relationships &amp; between xahive and SBDC California, New York, Select USA, London &amp; Partners, P20, New York Academy of Sciences, HIMSS, BlackBerry, RedHat and IBM globally.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span lang=\"en-CA\">Sem has co-authored three books on cybersecurity, co-authored several articles &amp; white papers on cybersecurity, including two published in medical journal articles. She has been interviewed about the importance of cybersecurity by both print and television media in Canada. Also, Sem continues to lecture and facilitate an introduction to cybersecurity governance workshops and courses for businesses, associations, and academic institutions in the US, Canada, and Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span lang=\"en-CA\">Sem was a panelist, representing xahive at the World Economic Forum in NY, speaking about the importance of cybersecurity. Also, Sem was part of a trade mission to Italy with the Prime Minister of Canada. Finally, Sem was selected as a delegate and panelist to represent Canada at the G20 Youth Summit in Berlin.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span lang=\"en-CA\">Sem is also a proud mother to a 2 year old daughter.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cu_people_first_name":"Sem","cu_people_last_name":"Ponnambalam","cu_people_initials":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_people_type":[54,101],"cu_people_expertise":[],"class_list":["post-31585","cu_people","type-cu_people","status-publish","hentry","cu_people_type-alumni","cu_people_type-ba"],"acf":{"cu_people_job_title":"","cu_people_degree":"","cu_building":false,"cu_people_office_num":"","cu_people_pronoun":"none","cu_people_designation":"","cu_people_email":"","cu_people_phone":"","cu_people_phone_ext":"","cu_people_linkedin":"","cu_people_bluesky":"","cu_people_twitter":"","cu_people_instagram":"","cu_people_facebook":"","cu_people_website":"","cu_people_orcid":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/polisci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/31585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/polisci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/polisci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_people"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/polisci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/polisci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/31585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31586,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/polisci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/31585\/revisions\/31586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/polisci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_people_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/polisci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people_type?post=31585"},{"taxonomy":"cu_people_expertise","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/polisci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people_expertise?post=31585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}