Speakers

Yair Kler, Vice President, Security Architecture, DHL Group

Yair is a seasoned cyber‑security executive with over 20 years of experience leading security architecture and solution design for cutting‑edge enterprises and Fortune 500 companies. He serves as Vice President of Security Architecture at DHL Group and is recognized globally as a subject‑matter expert in cyber‑resiliency, cloud security, and the security implications... of artificial intelligence.Throughout his career, Yair has held senior leadership roles including Executive Director and Head of Security Architecture at Standard Chartered Bank, Head of Security Architecture for Huawei’s Telco‑Cloud (4G/5G) across EMEA, and security lead for TeraData’s cloud transformation. He has also directed the development of multiple enterprise‑grade security solutions.Yair is a former member of the GSMA Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure (CVD) Panel of Experts and contributes regularly to industry forums shaping the future of secure digital transformation.more

Claire Schrader, Senior Responsible AI Lead, AI Centre of Excellence, Lloyds Banking Group

Strategic and operational leader driving transformation across AI security and broader change initiatives within Lloyds Banking Group, leveraging threat intelligence expertise to ensure decisions are threat-led. Proven success in supporting secure innovation, embedding governance frameworks, and aligning cross-functional teams to deliver scalable, compliant, and business-aligned... solutions. Recognised for bridging technical and business domains, fostering collaboration, and shaping enterprise-wide security posture. Career history includes a lengthy time in the threat intelligence field, with a geopolitical focus, shifting into cyber threat intelligence and more recently relationship management to ensure security features in change delivery across the LBG. Experience also includes leading an AI security task forced on the secure adoption of AI technology.more

Daniyal Naeem, Distinguished Engineer, Principal Security Authority - AI, BT

Daniyal Naeem is an experienced Cybersecurity Professional with extensive expertise in cyber threat research, specialising in complex cybercriminal and nation-state threat actors. He has built and led global Cyber Incident Response and Threat Intelligence programmes, strengthening organisational resilience against advanced threats.Daniyal also brings expertise in... the security and governance of emerging technologies, including Artificial Intelligence and AI-enabled security tooling, with a focus on secure-by-design principles, AI risk management, and adversarial threat modelling. He is a critical thinker, a MITRE contributor, an astute problem solver, and an effective translator between technical and non-technical stakeholders.He holds a Master’s degree in Information Security from Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), and is CISSP, CISM, and CCSP certified.more

Natalia Shevchuk, SVP, AI Security Architect Citi

Natalia is an experienced Security Architect with a specialised focus on AI Security. With over a decade of experience in the cyber security field, Natalia's expertise spans cyber operations, penetration testing and security architecture. Her deep understanding of both offensive and defensive strategies, combined with her academic background in Computer Science and... Machine Learning, gives her a unique perspective on securing modern AI-based systems.more

Manit Sahib, Ethical Hacker & Former Head of Penetration Testing & Red Teaming, Bank of England

Manit is an experienced offensive security expert who is certified by UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) as well as His Majesty’s CESG Check scheme (HMG CHECK). He has over ten years professional experience in both UK Government and private offensive security operations. Formerly, Manit was the Head of Penetration Testing & Red Teaming at the... Bank of England.more

Robert Cooper, IT Security Engineering Lead, easyjet

Robert Cooper is a cybersecurity professional with over ten years of experience safeguarding enterprise environments across aviation and technology sectors. As IT Security Engineering Lead at easyJet, he leads strategic security initiatives, designs technical controls, and enhances organisational cyber resilience. He has extensive experience delivering risk assessments,... vulnerability management, and penetration testing coordination, alongside supporting regulatory and ISO27001 compliance. Robert has successfully driven secure cloud migrations, developed security processes, and partners with business stakeholders to embed security into technology decisions.more

Jonathan Armstrong, Partner, Punter Southall Law

Jonathan is an experienced lawyer with a concentration on technology and compliance. His practice includes advising multinational companies on matters involving risk, compliance and technology across Europe. He has handled legal matters in more than 60 countries involving emerging technology, corporate governance, ethics code implementation, reputation, internal investigations,... marketing, branding and global privacy policies. Jonathan has counselled a range of clients on breach prevention, mitigation and response. He has also been particularly active in advising multi-national corporations on their response to the UK Bribery Act 2010 and its inter-relationship with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Jonathan is one of three co-authors of the LexisNexis definitive work on technology law, “Managing Risk: Technology & Communications”. He is a frequent broadcaster for the BBC and other channels and appeared on BBC News 24 as the studio guest on the Walport Review. In July 2023 Jonathan was appointed to the New York State Bar Association Presidential Task Force on Artificial Intelligence. Jonathan sits on the Task Force with leading practitioners, regulators, judges and academics to develop frameworks for the use and control of AI in the legal system.more

Ali Shepherd, Director of Cyber & Operational Resilience (CISO), FCA

Ali Shepherd is the Director of Cyber & Operational Resilience (CISO) for the FCA, and is co-leading the FCA’s internal AI adoption. Ali has over twenty years of experience working in security and incident response, both inside government and in the private sector. This has included extensive experience of managing organisational responses to sophisticated cyber... intrusions by nation state and organised crime groups. Prior to joining the FCA, Ali was a Managing Director at Mandiant, heading up teams across EMEA providing advice and expertise on cyber security to governments and private sector companies, including major incident response services.more

Ioan Nascu, GenAI Security Assurance specialist, Citi

Ioan is a seasoned cybersecurity professional with extensive experience across financial services, healthcare, and regulatory environments. He is currently Vice President for GenAI Security Assurance at Citi, where he helps drive the secure adoption of generative AI technologies within a global financial institution. Prior to this, he held leadership roles at IQVIA... and AXA, focusing on information security assurance, vulnerability management, and security strategy.
With a diverse background spanning security operations, architecture, and vulnerability management, Ioan built broad expertise early in his career through roles at ClearBank, the Financial Conduct Authority, and Winton Group.
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Orlando Fernandez, Senior Technical Specialist at the Recovery, Resolution & Resilience team, Prudential Policy Directorate, Bank of England (BoE)

Orlando Fernández is a Senior Technical Specialist at the Recovery, Resolution and Resilience team in the Prudential Policy Directorate of the Bank of England (BoE). He has been with the BoE working on a range of policy areas for 13 years. 
In his current role, Orlando focuses on cyber, operational resilience and third-party risk management. In that capacity,... Orlando was one of the key architects of the upcoming new regime for critical third parties to the UK financial sector, which was developed jointly by the BoE/Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA); and PRA Supervisory Statement on ‘Outsourcing and third-party risk management’ (SS2/21).
On the international front, Orlando has represented the BoE at the Financial Stability Board (FSB) where he was a major contributor to the third party risk management toolkit for financial authorities and financial institutions published in 2023. Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, where he was part of the expert group that developed the draft Principles for the sound management of third-party risk published earlier this year. European Banking Authority (EBA) expert group that produced the 2019 Guidelines on Outsourcing. 
In his previous role at the Bank/PRA Orlando played a leading role in the development of the BoE/PRA’s policy on corporate governance and individual accountability, namely the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR).
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Adaora Ezennia, GRC Lead, THG PLC

Adaora Ezennia is the GRC Lead at THG PLC, a global e-commerce group operating through two leading consumer businesses: THG Beauty and THG Nutrition. A specialist in cybersecurity governance, compliance, and risk management with a Master’s in Cloud and Network Security and ISO 27001:2022 ISMS certification. Passionate about AI governance and privacy risk management.

Jon Harrison, Tech Lead, Local AI Division, Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government

Jon has worked in public sector analytics, data science and AI for over a decade, following a career in academia. He is currently the Tech Lead for the Local AI division at the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, where he leads a multidisciplinary team that is developing AI products to support local government priorities.

Paul Jerram, Compliance and Responsible AI Officer, Keolis UK & Ireland

Paul is Compliance and Responsible AI Officer at Keolis UK & Ireland, specialising in the practical governance of AI in complex operational settings. He develops and scales agentic AI for regulatory, legal, commercial, HR, due diligence and research use cases, with a particular focus on traceability, evidence and responsible deployment. With experience across... banking, fintech, iGaming, and transport infrastructure, he brings a broad background in compliance, information security, data privacy and financial crime prevention. He is particularly interested in how organisations can use AI in ways that are not only effective, but also well governed, accountable and trusted.more

Sam Watts, Product Lead for AI Agent Security, CheckPoint Software Technologies

Sam is product lead for AI Agent Security at Lakera, a Check Point company. He has spent the last decade building software and companies at the intersection of security and compliance with deep tech. Working with a team of world-class software and machine learning engineers, Sam helps develop security for autonomous AI agents, securing the AI transition for major... global enterprises to cutting edge startups.more

Etay Maor, VP Threat Intelligence and Founding Member of Cato CTRL, Cato Networks

Etay Maor is the VP, Threat Intelligence at Cato Networks, a Founding Member of Cato CTRL, and an industry-recognized cybersecurity researcher. Prior to joining Cato in 2021, Etay was the Chief Security Officer for IntSights (acquired by Rapid7), where he led strategic cybersecurity research and security services. Etay has also held senior security positions at Trusteer... (acquired by IBM) and RSA Security’s Cyber Threats Research Labs. Etay is an adjunct professor at Boston College and a guest lecturer at MIT. Etay holds a Master’s degree in Counterterrorism and Cyber-Terrorism and a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from IDC Herzliya.more

Ryan Rubin, Senior Managing Director - Cyber Security, Privacy and AI Security, Ankura

Ryan brings over 23 years of global Big 4 and boutique experience to help clients holistically manage complex cyber and tech challenges from the boardroom to the network. He has a passion for helping others reduce their risks and is curious about making the digital and physical world safer to live in. Ryan has partnered with many global information security, risk,... internal audit and general councils throughout his career. He has led specialist proactive and event-driven matters covering cybersecurity strategy and execution, governance, e-crime investigations, compliance, data and technology advisory and assurance, IT resilience, incident response, data privacy, due diligence, eDiscovery and regulatory compliance. Before Ankura, Ryan set up Cyberian Defense, supporting virtual CISO, breach response and non-exec board positions; as well as partnering with Accenture on cyber insurance pre and post breach services. Prior to Cyberian Defense, he was an EY equity assurance partner, leading EMEA cyber-crime, DFIR services and responsible for UK cyber services in TMT. Specific engagements include cybercrime investigations, cryptocurrency frauds, ransomware, BEC, breaches, software and shadow audits, insider threat programs, strategy reviews, cybersecurity audits, due diligence, and blockchain security. more

Ahsan Qureshi, Managing Director - Cyber Risk Advisory and AI Security, Ankura

Ahsan Qureshi is a Managing Director at Ankura’s global cyber security practice and focuses on proactive services in EMEA .Ahsan has over 18 years’ experience of Big 4 and industry in helping organisations establish robust cybersecurity environments, strategies and security transformation programmes.Ahsan holds an MSc in Information Systems Security and has worked... with a number of organisations across industries including Legal, technology and professional services, financial services, FinTech and Transport.more

Max Berg, Principal Solutions Engineer, BeyondTrust

Max is a Principal Solutions Engineer at BeyondTrust and has worked with the organization for 10 years. With a wealth of experience working across sectors Max has worked with some of the largest names in the Finance and Consultancy, Defence, Pharmaceutical, Public Sector and Commercial markets.  Max works alongside customers... to integrate comprehensive Identity Security solutions effectively, enabling them to better secure, enable, and align their environments with regulatory and compliance frameworks.more

Donato Capitella, Principal Consultant, Reversec

Donato Capitella has worked in software engineering, security, and penetration testing for over a decade, specializing in GenAI security. Since joining Reversec, Donato has led efforts in secure software development, adversary simulation, and AI security research, with findings presented at industry conferences. They also design training programs for developers... and have built sandbox environments for hands-on security testing and CTF events.more

John Wood, Leader, Next-Gen Application Security, Contrast Security

John Wood, Leader, Next-Gen Application Security, at Contrast Security, has been a leading figure in Application Security since 2006. He played a pivotal role in establishing one of the first SAST vendors in the United Kingdom and Europe, contributing significantly to the evolution of the industry. With extensive experience across a range of Application Security projects... – both successful and challenging – John has developed a deep understanding of how development teams operate. He has continually adapted to new methodologies, fostering innovative approaches to align security with evolving development practices.A graduate of Portsmouth University and Queensland University of Technology, he holds degrees in Economic History, Entrepreneurship, and Technology Management.more