You can add two-time Oscar-winning actor, writer and director Sean Penn to the list of distinguished, often surprising, closing keynote speakers at RSA Conference. Penn will sit down for a one-on-one discussion with RSA President Amit Yoran on Friday, March 4, to close this year’s event in San Francisco. 

Penn was most recently in the spotlight for his Rolling Stone interview with notorious drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, but he has a long history of activism and journalism—and a talent for creating conversation—in addition to his highly distinguished Hollywood career. 

He has been a vocal advocate for same-sex marriage, was instrumental in the repatriation of Jacob Ostreicher from Bolivia and traveled to New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and to Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake to help with rescue efforts. In its wake he founded the J/P Haitian Relief Organization (www.jphro.org) which currently employs approximately 250 predominantly Haitian staff and Penn has received numerous honors and awards for his ceaseless efforts on behalf of the people of Haiti. He has also been an advocate for Internet privacy.  

Yoran will talk with Penn about his work as an actor, producer and director, about his philanthropy and public advocacy, and about the complicated relationship between Hollywood stardom and privacy.  

As with our keynotes in recent years from Alec Baldwin and Stephen Colbert, we hope the conversation with Sean Penn helps our community think about our industry—and our world— in new ways.