Speakers

Mehran Koushkebaghi, Head of Product Security, Nationwide Building Society

Mehran is an accomplished certified engineer with over 15 years of experience in IT security and engineering, spanning across finance, construction, and publication industries. Currently, he holds the position of Head of Product Security at the Nationwide Building Society. Mehran emphasises the systemic nature of security concerns, stressing the need for a comprehensive... understanding of all system components. He has been instrumental in advocating secure-by-design software and implementing effective security controls in the initial phases of the development lifecycle. Mehran's educational background includes two MSc degrees, one in computer science and another in management and is currently pursuing a third MSc in systems thinking. In his free time, Mehran takes online courses to sharpen his technical skills, listens to audiobooks and writes blogs.more

Tanya Layng, Contract Lawyer, IQ-EQ

Tanya is a seasoned Legal Counsel at IQ-EQ, specialising in technology legal, compliance and regulatory affairs. With over 20 years of experience, she has built a distinguished career advising international financial institutions and technology companies on managing risk, navigating complex legal frameworks, and addressing regulatory challenges.

Her expertise... spans a broad range of legal and compliance digital areas, with a focus on global AI/technology, fintech, and financial services. Tanya has a deep understanding of commercial and corporate law, particularly in the IT and finance sectors. Her specialisation includes key areas such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, outsourcing, GDPR, digital commerce, e-commerce, intellectual property, and fintech, alongside associated regulatory and compliance frameworks.

Before joining IQ-EQ, Tanya held prominent roles, including Global Legal Counsel at HSBC and Senior Legal Counsel at BT. In these positions, she provided strategic counsel on high-stakes legal and compliance matters, earning recognition as a trusted advisor in the industry. more

Peter Smith, Chief Information Security Officer, Allica Bank

Peter is an experienced Information Security leader with 10+ years of leading teams and optimising cybersecurity for enterprises, with 4+ years in FinTech. He translates industry risks into ambitious technology roadmaps and robust security programs

Adam Avards, Principal for Cyber and Third Party Risk Policy, UK Finance

Adam Avards joined UK Finance in 2022 as Principal for Cyber and Third Party Risk Policy. He leads UK Finance’s engagement on the Critical Third Party regulatory pathway and chairs a number of industry forums and committees on Third Party Risk Management, Cyber Security and Cloud. Before joining UK Finance, Adam spent over 15 years within the UK’s Intelligence... Community, dealing with both physical and digital security, operations and policy.more

Praveen Singh, Head of IT Risk and Cybersecurity, ICBC Standard Bank

Praveen heads up the IT Risk and Cybersecurity at ICBC Standard Bank. He has spent over 20 years in the financial services sector, including 10 years in management consulting in UK, US, Europe, China and India..  He likes to speak about technology, risk, regulation, cybersecurity and transformation. He is also a fan of Formula 1 and cricket.
 

Gill Fenney, Head of IT Risk Governance, Bupa

Gill has had a long career in IT working across financial, retail and services sectors, initially in technical roles but with the last 17 or so years specialising in Information Security. She has worked as a consultant running compliance programmes such as SOx, ISO 27001 and PCIDSS for various companies during this time. She is now Head of IT Risk Governance for Bupa.

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. He is contracted to Global Fund.more

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).
 more

Zsuzsanna Berenyi, Senior Cyber Security Third Party Risk Manager, LSEG

Zsuzsanna is a Cyber Security Risk and Controls specialist, with over 15 years’ experience developing and executing strategies and frameworks that drive a positive risk culture across the organisation. Zsuzsanna currently heading up the Third-Party Assurance function at LSEG, embedding cyber security governance and compliance into the supply chain lifecycle management... process. Prior to joining LSEG, Zsuzsanna held key cyber risk positions at a number of enterprise organisations varying from transportation to insurance, focusing on the human side of cyber security to reduce risk and maintain regulatory compliance.more

Marcus Corry, Director, Tech&Ops, AFME

Marcus leads on Operational Resilience and Cyber Security policy at AFME, covering both EU and UK developments relating to wholesale capital markets. Current priorities include the EU’s milestone Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) and the Commission’s Cyber Security Package, encompassing the proposed Cyber Resilience Act and the ENISA Cyber Security Certification... Schemes.

The current role builds on over 10 years’ experience in Digital Finance regulatory affairs, working with the full range of financial services market participants on how to respond to the challenges and opportunities of digitalisation. This has included time in both London and Brussels, engaging closely with EU and UK officials on how Regulation can better reflect changing consumer/client behaviours and provide a secure environment for innovation.

Marcus has a legal background, with an LLM from UCL and has previously worked for legal self-regulator, the Law Society.more

Michael Jefferson, Head of Financial Services Public Policy UK, Middle East, Africa and Switzerland, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Michael Jefferson is head of Financial Services Public Policy UK, Middle East, Africa and Switzerland at AWS. He also covers Financial Stability Board (FSB) engagement. Michael leads on policy and engagement for issues relating to adoption and use of cloud across the finance sector. He has experience working in technology, investment banking, trade associations and... the UK Government. Before joining AWS, he led on capital markets policy at the Investment Association and prior to that at UK Finance, representing the UK-based banking and finance industry. Previously, he was head of Public Policy EMEA at Nomura and spent the early part of his career as a UK civil servant working on international trade and business issues, including working in the office of the UK Minister for Trade and Investment.
 more

Alistair Wardell, Director, Cloud Security, Deutsche Bank

Alistair heads up the Cloud Security Tribe within Deutsche Bank’s Chief Security Office. He leads a range of squads that implement and operate security controls for the Bank’s public cloud environments. He has previously worked in information security in the insurance, telco and government sectors.

James Kwaan, CIO - GS&S, Lloyds Banking Group

James Kwaan has worked for a number of blue chip companies in Simulation, Energy and Financial Services. He is a former director of Information Security (CISO) and Global data protection officer. In his spare time he is a supporter of women into cybersecurity by starting the ISACA "SheLeadsTech" initiative in 2019. He is a recognised expert in Information Security... and in 2017 was awarded three prizes for his contribution: Malcolm Turner Memorial Prize for outstanding contribution to Risk Management and Information Security, Wayne K. Snipes prize for best European Chapter and Cyber Evangelist of the year at the Scottish Cyber Awards. James is currently working for Lloyds Banking Group.more

Siân John MBE, Chief Technology Officer, NCC Group

Global cyber security expert, NCC Group welcomes Siân John as Chief Technology Officer.With 25 years of cyber security experience across strategy, business risk, privacy, and technology, Siân will drive innovation, insights and intelligence at NCC Group, defining the future direction of services through close interaction with clients, industry, and academia.As part... of the Executive Committee, Siân will lead the Group’s Commercial Research, Threat Intelligence and Commercial Product Management teams – central to the Group’s strategic goals of growing its global position and reputation as the first choice, go-to cyber security expert.A recognised cyber security thought leader and strategist, Siân joins NCC Group from Microsoft and is the current Chair of techUK’s Cyber Security Management committee and a council member for EPSRC, the funding body for Engineering and Physical Sciences Research in the UK.Siân John, comments: “I’m excited to be joining such a highly respected organisation as NCC Group and look forward to working with colleagues to continue to innovate our offerings to help our clients deal with the modern security challenges they face in our digitally transformed world.”Mike Maddison, CEO, NCC Group comments: “It’s with great pleasure that we welcome Siân to the Group and our Executive Committee. Siân’s experience and passion for cyber security alongside a real focus on making a difference to our clients and wider society fit perfectly with our purpose and vision for the future.”more

Chris Greany, Director of Security, Pay UK - on behalf of NCC Group

Chris has held senior positions in the public, commercial and consulting sectors, with a career spanning over 35 years.Most recent roles include building enterprise and cyber security programs in the financial and oil & gas sectors, leading the UK policing response to economic and financial crime and supporting the development of “Cyber UK”.  As Managing... Director with Templar Executives Ltd he has led the growth of its EMEA information risk consulting practice.An accomplished speaker, media commentator and thought leader he is a founding partner of the Global Cyber Alliance and was a former member of the Bank of England’s Cyber Security Board. Published, his most recent work on insider threats is contained in “Managing Cyber Security Risk 3” with Jonathan Reuvid Books (2019)A vocal advocate on the need to improve the UK response to counter cyber fraud, AML, and financial crime, he still advises the UK Government and International Authorities on the development of their existing and future policies to prevent and respond to these type of threats.more

Rory Malone, Principal, Global Privacy & Security Regulatory Compliance, Cloudflare

Since joining the organisations’ Security Team in 2019, he has built Cloudflare’s privacy compliance programme, including certification of the vast Cloudflare global network to ISO 27701, ISO 27018, the GDPR’s EU Cloud Code of Conduct – and shortly the Global CBPR and Global PRP systems.As well as international privacy laws, Rory also works with cybersecurity... regulations such as the Network and Information Systems in the UK, NIS 2 and DORA across the EU, and many other national critical infrastructure regulations.He is the security lead for Cloudflare’s London, United Kingdom office.more

Steven Wills, Senior Engineer, Abnormal Security

Steven Wills, a Senior Engineer at Abnormal Security, brings extensive expertise in AI-driven cybersecurity. With over 15 years in the industry, Steven excels in developing robust solutions to combat sophisticated threats. His dedication and innovative approach play a crucial role in protecting organisations from evolving cyber risks.

Brett Ayres, VP of Product, Teneo

Brett Ayres is VP of Product for Teneo. He has over 16 years of experience working with customers on network and security transformation projects, balancing technical, operational, and commercial requirements to deliver secure, optimised, and highly visible networks. Brett has held a range of commercial and technical roles during his time with Teneo. Recently he has... enhanced Teneo’s offerings by adding next-generation security solutions to the portfolio, designed to secure remote workforces accessing hybrid networks within a Zero Trust architecture. more

Nick Palmer, Senior Solutions Engineer, Censys

Nick Palmer is a security IT professional with over two decades of experience in Information Technology and Cyber Security. Nick is a cyber security technologist, security advocate and business problem solver. Previously he has worked for a variety of industry leading companies including: Attivo, Microsoft, TrapX Security, HP. In his role with the technology team... at Censys, he helps customers uncover threats and vulnerabilities before they become risks.more

Yonatan Khen, Security Research Team Leader, Hunters

Yonatan is an experienced Security Researcher with over 7 years of expertise in attack research and analysis of data in both the private and public sectors. Before joining Hunters, he served at a Security Consultant Firm and the Israeli Air Force. Currently, he is working as Security Research Team Lead at Hunters' Team Axon

Greg Duffy, M.Eng., Product Marketing Director, EMEA, Cato Networks, on behalf of Wavenet

Greg has extensive Vendor, MSP and Telco, experience across networking, security and IT services. He has previously built managed networking services for a major Telco and run the product and marketing functions for an innovative network and security MSP. His guiding philosophy has been to understand the challenges his customers are facing and build services to help... them. Greg now acts as Product Marketing Director at Cato Networks, where his passion is to bring SASE services to market and evangelise the benefits to businesses as they transform their IT and leverage the Cloud.more

Justin Kuruvilla, Chief Cybersecurity Strategist, Risk Ledger

Justin joins Risk Ledger after a career supporting the US Government in cyber security. He worked as a technical director for cyber security operations at the US Department of Defense (DoD), which included a secondment to the UK National Cyber Security Centre. Most recently, he advised senior executives of top global corporations and investment firms on enhancing... their management of cyber risk. more

Danielle Kinsella, Technical Advisor EMEA, Gigamon, on behalf of Fortem IT

Danielle Kinsella leads sales engineering across Europe at Gigamon, an organisation who help protect your hybrid cloud infrastructure and applications from unseen threats while enhancing operational efficiency. Our deep observability pipeline enhances security tools, eliminates blind spots, accelerates threat detection, ensures compliance, and significantly reduces costs.

Ryan Searle, Director of Product Management, Snyk

Ryan is a product management leader with strong experience building technical products for developers. At Snyk, he leads a team of PMs for Snyk Open Source — a leading product in the software supply chain security and vulnerability intelligence market. Recently, he joined the Industry Working Group for OWASP’s CycloneDX project. Prior to Snyk, he spent 4+ years... in Product Management and Engineering at two successful startups in the enterprise learning space. Previously, Ryan spent 4+ years at the Royal Bank of Canada, where he worked as an Enterprise Architect with a large focus on Security and Risk. Ryan is based in London’s east end. In his spare time can be found at home tinkering with his espresso machine or out exploring new restaurants and wine bars.
 more

Muhammad Ali, Cyber Security Solutions Engineer, Exponential-e

Muhammad Ali is a seasoned professional with over 6 years of expertise in solution design, specialising in Network Security and automation. With a strong foundation in computer architectures and cybersecurity, he has extensive experience in Cyber Threat Intelligence, delivering innovative and secure solutions tailored to diverse needs.

Leor Golan, Director of Sales EMEA, Blink Ops

Leor's security background varies from established companies as large as Palo Alto Networks to startups as small as Secdo. Leor has worked on many projects revolutionising security operations with a range of ground-breaking automation tech.
After discovering Blink and the enormity of improvement it can have on customers struggling with traditional security automation... tools (e.g. SOAR), Leor moved over to Blink. Leor is currently Blink's Director of Sales for the EMEA region. When Leor isn't helping customers achieve automation paradise, Leor can be found spending time with his wife and two young children.more

Ketan Pyne, Pre Sales Team for UK&I, Thales Group

Ketan is a Pre Sales Consultant with over 40 years of experience in the field of IT/CyberSecurity. Currently employed at Thales, a renowned global leader in advanced technologies, he specialises in providing expert guidance and support to clients in identifying and implementing cutting-edge security solutions.
 

Matthew Santos, Pre-Sales Engineer UK & Ireland, Thales

With a solid foundation in data security and cryptography, Matthew is focused on understanding both traditional and emerging cyber threats. Determined to showcase that security does not have to be a blocker, Matthew is keen to help Thales customers navigate towards a safer and more resilient digital future.