Judgment under marketing
How to read a quantum announcement the way an assessor reads it, what a qubit count leaves out, and where the distance between a lab result and a product usually hides.
Quantum Academy · Quantum Leadership Track
Certified Chief Quantum Officer
The executive program and the CCQO certification
Six live Saturday sessions, an independently marked capstone, and the Certified Chief Quantum Officer credential, for the executive who owns quantum as a portfolio. A Quantum Academy program.
The program
Why this program exists
The writing on this site works through what a Chief Quantum Officer is and who actually needs one. This page is about the program built on those answers. The Certified Chief Quantum Officer Program is a live executive cohort from Quantum Academy, and it finishes in the credential the role deserves, the CCQO.
Quantum tends to arrive in an organization in pieces. The security team meets it as a compliance deadline, the infrastructure team as a cloud product with an odd pricing page, the strategy office as a question on an analyst call. The board meets it last, as a line item somebody has to defend. The pieces rarely meet in one head, and we built the program for the one executive holding all of them at once.
Cohort dates, enrollment, and a ready-to-adapt letter for whoever signs off on your training budget all live on the course page at Quantum Academy.
6 × 4hLive Saturday sessions
24 hContact hours, zero working days
0Exams. Capstone assessed, independently marked
3Reference texts included in full
The curriculum
What the six Saturdays cover
Value, honestly mapped
Which problem classes have a credible quantum story, which do not, and how to size a pilot proposal without redoing the science yourself.
Readiness as a capability
Building the talent bench, the partnerships, and the cloud access that let an organization act the moment acting becomes worth it, not a year later.
The deadline side
Why harvest now, decrypt later makes the cryptographic migration urgent years ahead of any large quantum computer, what ML-KEM and ML-DSA replace, and the sponsorship a CISO actually needs from the top.
Money, governance, and the board
Funding models that outlive a budget cycle, supplier and procurement exposure, and reporting that keeps a multi-year program alive.
The capstone workshop
The final Saturday belongs to your own work. You present it, defend it, and leave with the critique that sharpens the submission.
No exam
The assessment, from enrollment to result
Your assessment starts on enrollment day, which is also delivery day for the capstone brief and the full marking rubric. Knowing exactly how the work will be judged is not a loophole here but the design.
The task is a full quantum strategy, with a three-year roadmap attached, for a fictional multinational we build for the purpose. It arrives complete with a sector, revenue lines, a regulator, and internal politics you will recognize from your own career. Your employer's confidential material is never requested and would not help.
Marking sits deliberately at arm's length from teaching, and a pass makes you a CCQO.
- EnrollThe brief and the marking rubric arrive with your welcome materials.
- Six SaturdaysLive sessions, with the final one devoted to presenting your capstone work.
- Two weeks laterSubmissions close.
- Two assessorsIndependent scoring against the published rubric, by instructors who did not teach your cohort. A third settles any disagreement.
- Ten business daysYour result. A clarification round pauses the clock, and one resubmission is part of the fee.
- CCQOThe credential and its verifiable badge, on a pass.
All-inclusive
What lands on your desk
- The complete course handbook, written to be read rather than projected, with the instructor commentary folded in.
- The three reference texts below in full, at no added cost.
- The capstone brief and rubric, reusable as the template for a real strategy exercise.
- On passing, the CCQO credential and its verifiable badge at ccqo.pro.
Pricing
The investment
| Option | Price |
|---|---|
| Live online cohort, all-inclusive | US$8,499 |
| In-person cohort, all-inclusive | US$9,499 |
| Private executive cohort | Custom quote |
Prices are in US dollars. One fee covers the sessions, the handbook, the three books, the capstone marking, and the credential. Validity runs three years, maintenance is US$149 a year across all Quantum Academy credentials you hold, and renewal takes 60 CPE per cycle.
The audience
Built for the executive who has to decide
CTOs and CIOs with quantum newly added to their remit, and CISOs who own the migration and need the argument to land upstairs. Equally, strategy and innovation leaders placing quantum in a capital plan, and directors who will approve a number and answer for it later.
No credential is required to enroll, and no physics is assumed or taught. And for anyone not yet sold on the role itself, the writing further down this page argues both sides properly.
The CCQO sits at the summit of the Quantum Leadership Track. Executive level, no prerequisite, capstone assessed.
Verify at ccqo.proOwn the portfolio. Prove it.
The CCQO is a private professional credential issued by Quantum Academy, a trade name of Post-Quantum Institute. It is not a government-issued license, an accredited academic degree, or academic credit, and completing the program does not guarantee employment, promotion, regulatory approval, or any other specific outcome.
Books
Three reference texts, included with the program
Quantum Sovereignty
Strategic Leadership in the Quantum Era
An evidence-based strategic assessment of what quantum technologies mean for national power — what they can and cannot do, the realistic timelines, and a concrete playbook for policymakers, defense planners, and national security leaders.
Learn more
Quantum Systems Integration
Building Quantum Computers from Modular Components
A strategic and engineering guide to assembling a quantum computer from independently sourced, best-of-breed components — the Quantum Open Architecture model, the full signal chain, real costs, and the supply-chain constraints that set your timeline.
Learn more
Quantum Ready
The Practitioner's Complete Guide to PQC Migration
The practitioner-grounded guide to planning, executing, and governing enterprise-wide post-quantum cryptographic migration — from executive mandate and cryptographic inventory through CBOM, risk scoring, hybrid pilots, and lasting crypto-agility.
Learn moreFrom the blog
Writing on the Chief Quantum Officer role
The Case for a Chief Quantum Officer
You do not have to bet on when a quantum computer breaks encryption. Between fixed migration deadlines and real hardware progress, the case for a dedicated quantum leader…
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Reporting Quantum to the Board
A quantum update that reads like a physics lecture gets the program cancelled, and one that reads like vendor marketing deserves it. What belongs in the quarterly pack…
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From Chief Electricity Officer to Chief Quantum Officer
Every transformative technology seems to spawn a temporary C-suite title, from the Chief Electricity Officer to the Chief AI Officer. The Chief Quantum Officer is the newest, and…
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The Chief Quantum Officer Job Description
A job description you can adapt and use: what a Chief Quantum Officer is accountable for, who they report to, the rare profile to hire for, and how…
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How to Interview a Chief Quantum Officer
Hiring boards usually know less about quantum than every candidate in the room. Here are the questions that work anyway, the follow-ups that puncture rehearsal, and the one…
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Do You Really Need a Chief Quantum Officer?
I have spent this series making the case for the role. Here is the other side. The case against a Chief Quantum Officer, the signals that you do…
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