Judges 2025

Martin Smith MBE FSyI

Martin Smith SASIG

Martin Smith MBE FSyI is the Founder and Chairman of The Security Awareness Special Interest Group (SASIG). With nearly 40 years’ experience in the security and crime prevention industries, Martin Smith is a well-known and highly respected personality in the security industry.  He is an established and successful businessman, philanthropist, communicator, visionary, and internationally recognised author, blogger and speaker. Martin gained his degree in behavioural psychology before spending 15 years as a commissioned officer in the RAF employed on the whole range of policing and security duties.  After being awarded the MBE for this work, he left the Service to establish a second career in the commercial sector.  In 1997 he founded The Security Company (TSC)  to assist organisations in improving their security cultures and staff awareness. In 2004 he founded the SASIG, a free networking forum to improve trust online which now has more than 5,000 members from around the world. 

Dr. Iretioluwa Akerele

Dr. Iretioluwa Akerele is a cybersecurity leader. With over a decade of experience in Cybersecurity, she has excelled in the field and also carved a path for others to follow. Beyond her professional accomplishments, Dr. Akerele’s impact shines brightest in her role as a mentor and advocate for diversity in cybersecurity. As a career coach, she has been a guiding light for countless beginners, nurturing their talents and empowering them to realize their full potential in the field.

Driven by her unwavering commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion, Dr. Akerele co-founded CyBlack, a vibrant cybersecurity community dedicated to empowering Black professionals globally. Dr Akerele is also an advisory board member of Cybersafe Foundation, an organization focused on protecting the most vulnerable individuals and businesses from cyber-attacks.

Dr. Akerele is a director at Cybarik Limited. She is passionate about supporting organizations to improve their security posture. Additionally, she has supported several individuals by empowering them with the relevant skills to compete in the cybersecurity job market.

Nick Benson

Nick Benson is CEO of CREST, an international not-for-profit, membership body representing the global cyber security industry.

Nick has a track record of building and leading teams through transformation, having previously been the Chief Operating Officer of ORX, the largest global trade association supporting operational risk management in financial services (FS). In this role at ORX, Nick led a programme of fundamental organisational change whilst delivering strong growth and improved service quality.

Before ORX Nick worked in executive roles across finance and risk management divisions at Nationwide Building Society, one of the UK’s largest retail financial services providers.

Nick started his career at KPMG in their IT advisory divisions in London and Sydney, also qualifying as a Chartered Accountant (ICAS) in 2005. Nick earned a BA degree in accounting and finance from Exeter University.

James Bore

James Bore is a Chartered Security Professional with over two decades of experience and a MSc from Northumbria University. He regularly speaks at community conferences, keynotes for company events, and has guest lectured at Kingston and Geneva universities. He has written for textbooks published by Springer, articles in industry magazines, and HackerNoon among others. Currently his time is spent advising clients and providing crisis management exercises as the Director of Bores: a second-generation family security and technology consultancy, coaching security professionals to improve their public speaking, and working with retraining companies to bring more new entrants to cyber security.

Jill Broom

Jill leads the techUK Cyber Security programme, having originally joined techUK in October 2020 as a Programme Manager for the Cyber and Central Government programmes. She is responsible for managing techUK’s work across the cyber security ecosystem, bringing industry together with key stakeholders across the public and private sectors. Jill also provides the industry secretariat for the Cyber Growth Partnership, the industry and government conduit for supporting the growth of the sector. A key focus of her work is to strengthen the public–private partnership across cyber to support further development of UK cyber security and resilience policy.

Kim Chandler McDonald

Kim Chandler McDonald is a globally respected thought leader in disruptive innovation, transformational trends, and strategic foresight. As the visionary Co-Founder and CEO of 3 Steps Data, FlatWorld Integration, and KimMic International, she has led her companies to the forefront of technological advancements in cybersecurity, data sharing, observability, and governance across disparate systems.

Kim is the Global Vice President of the Cybersecurity Advisors Network (CyAN), the Paris-based, multidisciplinary, international trust network of cyber professionals. Kim oversees global operations, policy development and partnerships to further CyAN’s mission of fostering a safer, more resilient digital world and continues to take the lead in spearheading CyAN’s Combatting Technology-Facilitated Abuse and Violence initiative.

An award-winning author, Kim’s latest work, ‘An Interviewer’s Guidebook – Turning Conversations Into Captivating Stories’, joins her other titles: ‘Innovation: How Innovators Think, Act and Change Our World’, ‘Flat World Navigation: Collaboration and Networking in the Global Digital Economy’, and ‘Postcards From Tomorrow’ (with all proceeds from Postcards going to Lou’s Place, Sydney’s only daytime drop-in center for female victims of domestic abuse and coercive control). She is also the co-author of ‘Entrepreneurial Renaissance: Cities Striving Towards an Era of Renaissance and Revival’.

Toma Cîmpeanu

Toma Cîmpeanu, has more than 20 years’ experience in the ICT field, holding top positions in both public and private companies and contributing to several nationwide projects such as e-licitatie.ro, ghiseul.ro, Romanian National Point of Single Contact (PCUe), Ro-Net and other. Since 2015, he is the CEO of the National Association for Information Systems Security (ANSSI).

Costel Ciuchi

Costel Ciuchi, PhD, is a senior expert and cybersecurity professional with more than 20 years of experience in the ICT field in developing applications and infrastructures for the government and public sector. He is also an Associate Professor at the National University of Science and Technology POLITEHNICA Bucharest, where he conducts research projects in cybersecurity, decision-making, and risk management.

Tasha Cornish

Tasha Cornsh

Tasha Cornish is the Executive Director of Cybersecurity Association, Inc., a 600+ member organization committed to advancing the cybersecurity industry through advocacy and collaboration. As the Executive Director, she leads CAMI’s implementation of educational programming, community resource development, and cyber career networking opportunities. Tasha has a Masters of Science in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and nearly a decade of non-profit leadership experience.

Jason Dewar

Jason Leads Cyber Risk and Regulatory services at Accenture UK, Ireland and Africa working closely with large organisations to help ensure cyber compliance with legal, contractual and regulatory obligations. Additionally, Jason leads Accenture’s NCSC Assured Cyber Security Consultancy (ACSC)  services team, and as such is a member of the NCSC Head Consultant community.

A cyber security professional for over 20 years, Jason joined Context IS in 2003 where he led various consulting and security engineering teams, as well as holding the role of group security controller / Information Security Manager. Jason moved with Context between acquisitions by Babcock and then onto Accenture.

A former CLAS consultant, Jason holds two cyber security Charterships (Cyber Security Audit & Assurance, and Cyber Security Governance and Risk Management), CISSP and is a member of CIISec.

Based in London/Essex, Jason is an active member of the UK Cyber Security Council’s Technical Advisory Panel (TAP), which is establishing the new Chartership professional status for UK cyber professionals. He is also a board member of the Defence Industry Security Association (DISA) where he chairs the IT & Cyber Security sub-group.

Amanda Finch

Amanda Finch is the CEO of the Chartered Institute of Information Security (CIISec) and has specialised in Information Security management since 1991. She has always been an active contributor to the industry and for many years she has been dedicated to gaining recognition for the discipline to be recognised as a profession.

Over her career she has been engaged in all aspects of Information Security Management and takes a pragmatic approach to the application of security controls to meet business objectives. Through her work she has developed an
extensive understanding of the commercial sector and its particular security needs. In her current role she works with Industry, Government and Academia, assisting all sectors in raising levels of competency and education.

Amanda has a Masters degree in Information Security, Full Membership CIISec and is a Fellow of the BCS. In 2007 she was awarded European Chief Information Security Officer of the year by Secure Computing magazine, as well as most recently in June 2022 being awarded the inaugural ‘Editors Choice’ award by SC Media UK for her dedication to Diversity, Inclusion and Professional Standards within the industry. Amanda is frequently listed as one of the most influential women within the industry.

Chris Gibson

Chris brings a wealth of relevant and up-to-date experience in setting up and managing CERTs at the very highest levels of the worldwide Information and Cyber Security community.

Chris spent over 12 years working in the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) whilst at Citigroup and, for 10 years, was part of the leadership of the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST); 2 as Chair. Within FIRST he implemented the Fellowship program. This was created to fund CERTs from UN-designated “Least Developed Countries” (LDCs) allowing them both to join FIRST and attend conferences and training.

Chris joined the UK’s Cabinet Office, in 2013, to build, launch and lead the UK’s first formally chartered national CERT – CERT-UK. When CERT-UK was subsumed, in 2016, into the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre he left and joined Close Brothers as Chief Information Security Officer in November 2016, moved to Orwell Group as CISO in Jul 2018.

Chris joined FIRST as it’s Executive Director in May 2019. Chris’ experience has allowed him to work with colleagues from both inside some of the world’s largest global financial institutions with the complexities that brings and also with colleagues from the incident response community, with members ranging from Microsoft and Oracle through to the national CERTs of Azerbaijan and Indonesia.

Daniel Garnham

Founder and General Secretary of the UK’s trade union solely for security professionals, the Security Industry Federation. In 2022, Daniel was carrying out SIA training when he saw that there was no specific trade union for the security industry, now the SIF is a UK listed trade union and provides bespoke support for hundreds of security professionals across the UK. Daniel has been instrumental in lobbying the SIA and Government for meaningful change and legislation to protect UK security workers. Daniel is an ex UK police officer with 20 years’ service investigating transnational cybercrimes and providing trauma support after terrorist incidents, notably the 2017 Manchester Arena attack. Played a key role in implementing a digital transformation to a national UK police force and conducting training to hundreds of police officers across the UK in criminal investigations and digital forensics. Daniel is the CEO of GSG Consultancy and a cyber security consultant for Cybercrowd and an expert in the field of Cybercrime methodologies and typologies for the Global Online Harm Alliance providing expert advice and training to global partners into investigations of all types of online harm including cyber enabled romance fraud, human trafficking and child sexual exploitation. Trainer and advisor to Interpol, Council of Europe, CEELI and the American Bar Association in cyber investigations, the dark web and the criminal exploitation of virtual currencies and Blockchain technology. Providing training on a domestic and international basis to investigation teams throughout the world.

Vanessa Henneker

Vanessa joined the UK Cyber Security Council in June 2022. She joined to lead the work within the programme directorate related to careers, outreach, and diversity. In addition to this she was leading on establishing and managing key partnerships with organisations and businesses across the UK to drive forward our company mission. She became COO in November 2023.

Vanessa’s background spans the employment, education, recruitment, and skills sectors in both the public and private space, she has over 20 years’ experience managing a variety of national, local government Section 106 and grant funded contracts.

Vanessa is passionate about CPD and is a qualified careers advisor, teacher, supervisor and project manager.

Mike Hughes

Mike is a director of Prism RA and has a wide range of experience of technology and cyber: governance, risk, compliance and security, gained through roles both within mainstream IT and for over 30 years in consultancy, including 20 years with KPMG and for the last 12 years, with Prism RA. During his time with KPMG, Mike held a number of senior roles including leading the Midlands Information Security team. With Prism RA, Mike helps organisations to effectively understand their technology and cyber risks and help them to make their business resilient from the ever increasing cyber threat.

Mike also plays a leadership role with ISACA, both at the Local and International levels and he was honoured earlier this year, as one of this year’s five inductees into ISACA’s Hall of Fame.

Mike has served on the Board of the local Central UK Chapter since its formation in 1993 and his international roles include: a term as an ISACA International Board Director; and a member of the Finance Committee, Membership Board and GDPR Working Group and currently Mike is a member of the UK Advocacy Group. Mike has also been involved in the development of a number of ISACA’s publications and lectures on ISACA exam preparation courses for CISM, CRISC, CGEIT, CISA, CDPSE and Cyber Security Audit.

Mike led ISACA’s involvement in the creation of the UK Cyber Security Council (the Council) on behalf of DCMS, the UK government department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the National Cyber Security Centre and is currently a member of the Council’s Qualifications & Learning working group. Mike was a member of the ISACA team, who defined the Council’s Cyber Security Audit & Assurance Standard for the Council and was part of the Council’s first cohort to be awarded Chartered status, as a Chartered Cyber Security Professional (ChCSP).

Mike is also a Non-Executive Director of CyberQ Group, an innovative and award winning cyber security services provider and a member of the Institute of Directors.

Roy Isbell

Roy Isbell

Roy Isbell is a member of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists Security Panel, CEO of IAS Ltd., Publisher & Editor in Chief for Digital Forensics Magazine (DFM), and a part time lecturer and research at the Cyber Security Centre of the University of Warwick. Roy is an experienced secure communications engineer and cyber security specialist with over 35 years of experience.

Following a career in Defence & Intelligence working on secure communications and data systems including space systems he established an information security company where he designed and implemented secure information systems for both Government and Industry. As chair of the WCIT Cyber Security Panel he was instrumental is getting 16 of the leading UK Cyber Security Organisations to respond to the UK Government in establishing the UK Cyber Security Council. He jointly established one of the first University Cyber Security Centres that now resides at Warwick University, where his focus is on ensuring that the engineering aspects of cyber are fully understood and integrated into cyber thinking, along with ensuring that practitioner experience works alongside academia when teaching, researching, and developing cyber solutions, such that they have academic rigour alongside real world impact.

As Editor in Chief of DFM, Roy has developed a magazine dedicated to digital investigations providing a bridge between academic research and the practical application of digital forensic investigation tools and techniques. Roy was co-author on the Cyber Security Codes of Practice for Ports and Ports Systems, and Cyber Security for Maritime Platforms. Recent research activities include investigating the security and safety aspects of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV), cyber physical systems (CPS) and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), an Insider Threat capability using behavioural and linguistic markers and the development of a Cyber Security Maturity Model for the Digital Supply Chain.

He is an advisor to the UK Forensic Science Regulator and was previously an advisor to the UK MoD research organisation, Dstl for their Cyber & Influence Research Program. Roy is a Principal Member of the Register of Security Engineers and Specialists (RSES) looking after the National Critical Infrastructure. Roy has given keynote speeches at European and International level on various aspects of Cyber Security.

Jo Stewart-Rattray

Jo has over 25 years’ experience in the IT field some of which were spent as CIO in the Utilities and as Group CIO in the Tourism space, and with significant experience in the Information Security arena including as CISO in the healthcare sector. She underpins her information technology and security background with her qualifications in education and management. 
She specialises in consulting in risk and technology issues with a particular emphasis on governance and security in both the commercial and operational areas of businesses. Jo provides strategic advice to organisations across a number of industry sectors including banking and finance, utilities, manufacturing, tertiary education, retail, healthcare and government. 
Jo has extensive board and committee experience.  She has chaired a number of ISACA’s international committees including the Board Audit & Risk Committee, Leadership Development and Professional Influence & Advocacy.  She served as an Elected Director on ISACA’s international Board of Directors for seven years and was the founder of its global women’s leadership initiative, SheLeadsTech. 

Alastair Revell

Alastair Revell has been the Director General of the Institution of Analysts and Programmers since 2011, which is a founding member of the Cyber Security Alliance. The alliance won the bid to form the UK Cyber Security Council, which has recently launched. Alastair has been involved in this work from the Council’s inception in 2016. The Institution concentrates on Improving Software for Society, which increasingly means ensuring that software is secure by design.

Alastair Revell is a trustee of the UK Engineering Council and BCS The Chartered Institute for IT, where he is President for 2024/25. He is also Chairman of the Trustworthy Software Foundation and Revell Research Systems, the management and technology consulting practice that he established in 1985. He is a Chartered Engineer (CEng), Chartered IT Professional (CITP) and European Engineer (Eur Ing) as well as an IAP Fellow, a Chartered Fellow of BCS and a Fellow of the RSA.

He is passionate about promoting professionalism and high standards of ethics within IT, computing, digital and cyber security disciplines.

Sarb Sembhi

Sarb is the CTO at Virtually Informed and was the Global CISO for AirEye and the Noord Group. He has previous worked as a consultant covering most issues in risk and security. Sarb’s contributions to the industry include the Executive Steering Board of the IoT Security Foundation.

Other contributions include: Past President of the ISACA London Chapter, Chair of ISACA International GRA Region 3 Sub-Committee, Chair of ISACA International GRA Committee, ISSA UK Advisory Group member, InfoSecurity Magazine Editorial Group member. Sarb has also served on several Security Standards Groups, and continues to write for several publications and speak at risk and security events around the world.

Confidence Staveley

Confidence Staveley is a distinguished Cybersecurity Leader, Bestselling Author of API
Security for White Hat Hackers, Talent Developer, and Advocate for Gender Inclusion.
With multiple awards to her name, she stands out as a trailblazer in the field.

Confidence excels at making complex cybersecurity concepts accessible to a wide
range of audiences. Her YouTube series, API Kitchen, creatively uses culinary
metaphors to demystify API Security. She holds numerous industry certifications,
including CISSP, CSSLP, and CCISO. Her accolades include being recognized as a
Top 40 Global Thought Leader in Security and Safety (2024), one of the “150
Fascinating Females Fighting Cybercrime” (Women Know Cyber), a Top 25 Leader in
Cybersecurity (2024), Cybersecurity Woman of the World (2023), and many others,
including the ISC2 Global Achievement Awards and 40 Under 40 in Cybersecurity
(2023).

In addition to her advisory roles on various boards, Confidence is the founder of
MerkleFence, an Application Security Talent and Consulting company. She also
founded the CyberSafe Foundation, which runs the CyberGirls Fellowship—Africa’s
largest cybersecurity training program for women. Moreover, her initiative AI Cyber
Insights documents the latest developments at the intersection of cybersecurity and AI,
further expanding her impact in the industry.

Cliff Steinhauer

Cliff Steinhauer is a passionate information security and privacy professional. Currently based in Seattle, he has over a decade of experience in sales, marketing, and project management. With the National Cybersecurity Alliance, Cliff works to direct community engagement through live events, educates through thought leadership, and runs the Cybersecurity program for NCA. Cliff enjoys sharing the message of securing your digital life, protecting information systems and the people that run them, and mentoring young folks to promote interest in the field.

Dr. Ismini Vasileiou

Dr. Vasileiou is an Associate Professor at De Montfort University and Director of the East Midlands Cyber Security Cluster, where she leads efforts to advance cyber skills and resilience across sectors. Known for her expertise in human factors and cyber resilience, Dr. Vasileiou has developed approaches to cybersecurity that prioritise both comprehensive threat understanding and robust cyber resilience frameworks. Her work spans academia and industry, where she champions a collaborative, strategic approach to cybersecurity as a meta-discipline, crucial to supporting organisations in today’s evolving digital landscape.

Lisa Ventura MBE

Lisa Ventura MBE is an award-winning cyber security specialist, writer and keynote speaker. She is the Founder of Cyber Security Unity, a global community organisation that is dedicated to bringing individuals and companies together who actively work in cyber security to help combat the growing cyber threat. In addition, Lisa has worked with a number of cyber security and infosec organisations including Proficio Inc, Boost Technology Group, Pinsent Masons, Blue Voyant, CyBourn, the UK Cyber Security Council and currently Qualitest to name but a few.

Lisa is in high demand as a speaker and writer on various topics in cyber security including the cyber skills gap, career pathways into the industry, managing mental health and burnout, imposter syndrome, combatting bullying and abuse in the cyber security industry and the human factors/elements of cyber security. She is also a cyber security mindset and mental health coach and offers help and support to those affected by stress, burnout, bullying/abuse and mental health issues in cyber security and Infosec.

James Willison

James Willison is a distinguished international leader in Security Convergence and Enterprise Security Risk Management. He is founder of Unified Security Ltd and Co-Chair, SBE WG, IoT Security Foundation (IoTSF). As Project and Engagement Manager, IoTSF, 2022 – 2024, he led the dissemination and validation efforts for TechWorks in the UKRI Digital Security by Design Project, collaborating with notable entities like the University of Oxford, CISCO, and BT.

Named #8 Cyber Security Professional: IFSEC Global Influencers in Security and Fire 2020. Winner of the Imbert Prize 2011 for outstanding contributions to the Security Industry.
James has authored numerous articles on Security Convergence and several white papers on a converged security approach to Smart Cities and the value of Converged Security Centres. He works with globally recognised technology providers including AXIS Communications and Kaseware, to highlight the importance of cyber physical security risk management.

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