WASHINGTON: The chief executive of MasterCard Inc, the former head of the National Security Agency and officials from Microsoft and Uber will join a commission to strengthen U.S. cyber defenses, the White House said on Wednesday.

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After high-profile hacks in the private sector and an embarrassing theft of information from government personnel files, President Barack Obama this year set up a Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity.

The commission, due to make long-term recommendations by early December on tightening cyber security in the private sector and government, is part of Obama`s $19-billion proposal to boost defenses against hackers.

The panel will hold its first public meeting on Thursday at the Commerce Department, joined by Obama`s counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, the White House said in a blog post.

As previously announced, the panel will be co-chaired by Tom Donilon, Obama`s former national security adviser, and Sam Palmisano, former CEO of IBM. The panel, selected by Obama and congressional leaders from both parties, also includes:

- Retired General Keith Alexander, former director of the National Security Agency, now CEO of IronNet Cybersecurity

- Ajay Banga, CEO of MasterCard

- Peter Lee, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Research

- Joe Sullivan, Chief Security Officer of Uber, former Chief Security Officer of Facebook

- Maggie Wilderotter, Executive Chairman of Frontier Communications

- Steven Chabinsky, General Counsel and Chief Risk Officer of CrowdStrike

- Annie Antón, chair of the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech

- Patrick Gallagher, Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh, former Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology

- Herbert Lin, Senior Research Scholar for Cyber Policy and Security at the Stanford Center for International Security and fellow at the Hoover Institution

- Heather Murren, former member of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and co-founder of the Nevada Cancer Institute.