Sarah Armstrong-Smith
Microsoft Chief Security Advisor, Independent Board Advisor, Best-Selling Author, Keynote Speaker and Fellow British Computer Society,
Operating at the forefront of the cybersecurity industry, Sarah Armstrong-Smith is the Chief Security Advisor at Microsoft. She has led a long and impactful career, guiding businesses through digital attacks and teaching organisations how to protect their people and data.
Sarah’s previous positions include Group Head Business Resilience & Crisis Management at The London Stock Exchange Group and Head Continuity & Resilience, Enterprise & Cyber Security at Fujitsu. Such high-profile roles earned Sarah a place in the Most Influential Women in UK Tech and Most Influential Women in Cybersecurity.
In 2022, Sarah released her first book ‘Effective Crisis Management’ which reached number two on the Amazon Best Sellers List. With a new way to share her expertise with a large audience, her leading insight into technology and security is respected by many throughout the industry.
Sarah’s latest book ‘Understand the Cyber Attacker Mindset’ explores the psychology of cyber warfare and how organisations can defend themselves from attack. The human aspects of cybersecurity have never been more critical.
Deborah Meaden
Entrepreneur and Dragons Den Investor,
The Highly succesfull entrepreneur and Dragons Den Investor spends her time between London and her Somerset Home which she shares with her husband Paul, 2 cats, 3 Dogs, 6 Horse, 3 Pigs, 4 sheep numerous birds and 3 very Angry geese.
From a very early age Deborah knew she wanted her own business. Having left school after O-Levels she studied at business college and at the age of 19, with very little capital she launched her own glass and ceramics import company supplying upmarket stores like Harvey Nichols. But despite having sole agency rights, the goods started appearing in other high street shops and, without the finances for a legal fight, Deborah walked away.
After this Deborah embarked on a number of other business ventures including a franchise for Italian clothing company Stefanel and a prize bingo concession at Butlins.
With several successful businesses in the leisure and retail sector under her belt, Deborah decided to take up a position in the family amusement arcade business. Starting on the shop floor she worked her way up to Operations Director before moving across into the holiday park side of the business, Weststar Holidays. Within two years she had been promoted to Managing Director and grew the company to provide high-quality UK family holidays for over 150,000 people per year.
In 1999, keen to secure her future, Deborah undertook a management buyout borrowing the necessary funds from Lloyds to takeover the business. "Highly-geared but happy to be in control" , Deborah's long term plan had been to grow the business and a period of substantial investment marked the early years of TGGL, her newly formed group.
With three prime sites achieving high occupancy rates in a fragmented marketplace, Weststar soon found itself the target of several takeover approaches. She finally sold the company to Phoenix Equity Partners in 2005 in a deal worth £33m, whilst retaining a 23% stake and an active role within the firm. She sold her remaining stake in the business when Weststar was sold to Parkdean Holidays for £83m.
Deborah joined the panel of investors for series three of the BBC2 programme 'Dragon's Den' and has since invested in a number of businesses.Today Deborah's portfolio of investments ranges from Dock and Bay, ultra fast drying towels to Hope and Ivy, gorgeous fashion inspired by nature.
Deborah actively supports a number of environmental charities and initiatives including the annual Observer Ethical Awards, which she has judged since 2008. Deborah is a fellow of the WWF, the world's leading environmental organisation and she also acts as a Patron and Trustee for Tusk Trust. In addition Deborah is an Ambassador for Lendwithcare, the Roundhouse, and Marine Conservation Society a Fellow with the RSA and Patron for the www.microloanfoundation.org.uk.
Today Deborah strives to achieve a life that balanced between her business interests, the projects and causes she feels passionately about and spending time with her family, friends and animals.
Alasdair Allan
Scientist, author, hacker, and journalist. He used to work for Raspberry Pi and was the person responsible for writing things down.,
Alasdair Allan works as a consultant and journalist focusing on open hardware, machine learning, data science, and emerging technologies — with expertise in electronics, especially wireless devices, distributed sensor networks, and embedded computing. He is known for benchmarking the new generation of machine learning accelerator hardware, and for hacking hotel radios. He previously worked at Raspberry Pi where he led the team responsible for documentation that ranged from beginner-friendly tutorials to register-level documentation of new silicon. Originally an astrophysicist, he has published over a hundred papers, eight books, and has authored several standards dealing with real-time events and application interoperability. As part of his work, he built a distributed peer-to-peer network of telescopes that, acting autonomously, reactively scheduled observations of time-critical events. Notable successes included contributing to the detection of what — at the time — was the most distant object yet discovered. In the past he has mesh networked the Moscone Center, caused a U.S. Senate hearing, and been mentioned on South Park. But more than ten years on, he is probably still most well known for causing one of the first big mobile privacy scandals.
Emma Godfree
DPO & Skills Coach,
I have been working in the Data Protection and Governance sector now for 4 years. Before this, I worked as a Customer Services professional, developing my communications skills and striving to provide customers with an empathetic, professional and prompt level of service at all times.
I have a passion for Data Protection and the protection of data subjects, specifically when it comes to communication. It is my mission to make Data Protection as simple as possible for those who do not understand it as many of us do. Which is why I create Privasaurous and Lego video's explaining Data Protection in a simple and yet informative way.
During the course of my career, I have developed excellent organisational skills and am a flexible and efficient member of any team. I take pride in my attention to detail and collaborative skills, and am a hardworking and tenacious individual, with a friendly and approachable disposition, and a good sense of humour.
I have been lucky enough, throughout the course of my life, to work in many sectors where Data Protection and the GDPR have been key to the success of the business. These include working for the Military Police, as a foster carer, repatriation of cruise line passengers and working within the insurance industry.
I now work as a Data Protection consultant for many clients ranging from large, global organisations and smaller charities. Both require excellent organisational skills and a flexible and efficient work ethic.
I am always willing to learn and do not shy away from challenge, which is why I completed the Data Protection & Information Governance Practitioner Apprenticeship and the ISO27001 Lead Implementer Course.
Graeme Cantu-Park
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) | Keynote Speaker,
Graeme is the CISO at Matillion, a VC-Backed SaaS ETL Platform aimed at making data business ready, faster. A former UK Special Forces Communications Officer, Graeme has held senior security roles at other high growth, product based tech organisations across FinTech, Software, HealthTec and Retail.
Janette Bonar Law
Information Security Manager Culture and Awareness, Channel 4
Harriet Rogers
Strategic Cyber Threat Intelligence Specialist |TechWomen100 Winner,
Cyber Security Specialist at BAE Systems.
MA in Terrorism, Crime and Global Security. My research interests include the geopolitics of cyber conflict and Russian and Chinese approaches to grey zone conflict.
12 years experience in the RAF as an Aerospace Battle Manager.
Richard Parlour
CEO, Financial Markets| Money Laundering| Terracide| Compliance| ESG| Crypto| Training| Expert Witness| Speaker| Lawyer, FMLI - Financial Markets Law International
I help you solve your financial markets, regulatory and compliance wants and aspirations, your fears and frustrations. Email me on [email protected]. Call +44 1727 845897. I believe in getting your business working as it should, and protecting against money laundering and financial crime. Results include transforming financial institutions, setting up new financial institutions and business lines, new derivatives and cryptoassets, and getting the compliance function to work properly with the business model so as to increase effectiveness and profitability. I also help you understand who you are really dealing with, not just to keep away from financial crime, but also to develop new partnerships and settle disputes via case building or expert witness input. Network covers 140 countries worldwide. Latest challenge is aligning the planetary agenda (climate, biodiversity, environment, pollution, ESG, etc.,) with the global financial crime agenda (anti money laundering, corruption, fraud, etc.). Further detail at www.fmli.co.uk. Looking forward to hearing from you!
Javvad Malik
Lead Security Awareness Advocate, Knowbe4
Javvad Malik is the Lead Security Awareness Advocate at KnowBe4 and is based in
London. Malik is an IT security professional with over 20 years of experience as an IT security
administrator, consultant, industry analyst and security advocate. He is also a multi-award
winner and is currently a Guinness World Records holder for the most views of a cybersecurity
lesson on YouTube in 24 hours.
Malik is passionate about helping people understand the value of cyber security and how every
department and individual can play their part. He often educates his audience through blog
posts, videos, podcasts and at public speaking events. Malik holds the SACP and CISSP
certification.
Kash Valji
Senior Director of Consulting Systems Engineering, Fortinet
Kash Valji is a Senior Director of Consulting Systems Engineering. He has more than 18 years of experience in the network security industry. His areas of focus include; authentication, threat intelligence, denial of service and malware analysis. Kash has a BA honours degree in Information Systems and Masters of Science in Distributed Computing Systems from the University of Greenwich.