David Peattie

David Peattie is the Chief Executive Officer for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. He was appointed in 2017, following a 33 year career in a number of technical, commercial and senior management positions in the oil and gas industry. David also Co-Chairs the Cyber Security Oversight Group, a group focused on the cyber security of the Civil Nuclear Industry. David has significant global experience of leadership in the energy, oil and gas industries, and a strong track record in tackling complex commercial and engineering challenges in the UK and internationally. Prior to taking up his role at the NDA, David was Chief Executive Officer at Fairfield Energy, where he led the successful turnaround of performance of North Sea assets and oversaw the start of the decommissioning project for the Dunlin Alpha Platform. He has also served as Chairman of Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd since 2017. David supports the Woman in Nuclear work of improving gender balance in the nuclear industry and was appointed Patron of Women in Nuclear UK 2020 to May 2022. He also personally established and funds undergraduate bursaries for Engineering students at Dundee University. David is a Chartered Engineer and Member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (IOM3).

Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw is the Managing Director at Mercury Technology Limited working on a number of programmes that provide benefit to Healthcare home and abroad including Australia, Canada and the Middle East. Previously, Rob was appointed as NHS Digital’s Deputy Chief Executive from August 2017, after serving as Interim Chief Executive in early 2017 and Chief Operating Officer since April 2016. He was awarded the CBE for his services to Health and Social Care in 2018. As part of his role he was Managing Director of Platforms, Infrastructure and Live Services and the organisations Senior Information Risk Owner (SIRO), he was the accountable executive for the technical resolution of WannaCry, the largest cyber-attack to impact the NHS. During this period Rob worked across NHS England, NHS Improvement, Dept of Health and Social Care, NHS Trusts, Primary Care Providers to help to manage not only the incident itself but to help bring services back in priority order. He has been a witness as Public Accounts Committee and an expert witness at a Joint Select Committee looking at systemic impact of Cyber-attacks and the problems of Public Sector recruiting and retaining staff. He managed input from multiple external organisations such as National Cyber Security Centre and Private Sector providers such as Templar Executives.

Sir Jon Thompson

Sir Jon Thompson is Chief Executive of the Financial Reporting Council and leads the delivery of the FRC’s regulatory remit over corporate reporting, corporate governance and audit of the UK’s largest companies. Prior to joining the FRC Sir Jon was the CEO of Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs, the UK Tax Authority, collecting more than £625billion, employing more than 65,000 people and driving reform of the UK tax system. Sir Jon led the first wave of digitisation of the UK tax system, Making Tax Digital, delivering a much better service to customers, raising revenues and reducing the scope for error. Before HMRC, Sir Jon was Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence, jointly leading the £36bn organisation with the Chief of the Defence Staff.  Jon has had a lengthy finance career including as Director General, Finance at the MoD, Director General, Corporate Services at the Department for Education and Finance Director of Ofsted. Before joining the Civil Service in 2004 Jon held a number of corporate services and finance roles in the public and corporate sectors. Sir Jon is Chair of Crown Hosting Data Centres Limited and a Non-Executive Director of High Speed Two, delivering the biggest infrastructure project in Europe.

John Cook

John Cook has led the Accreditation function in Defence for ten years, during which time he led on the data handling review for the department, the response to Sir Edmund Burton’s review and the subsequent change programme that led to the ICO lifting the enforcement notice on the MoD, imposed as a result of the review. He has worked extensively with other Government departments and Cabinet Office to develop risk management and technical assurance methods. A common theme throughout this work was helping board members understand cyber risk and to prioritise investment. Prior to moving to Accreditation and Assurance he spent 6 years as the MOD’s Information Advisor where he was accountable for Information Strategy and the Programme Management of a portfolio of IS enabled departmental change programmes, including Defence Electronic Commerce. John’s early career was as an electrical engineer, specialising in ground radar and communications systems before moving onto systems analysis and design.

Juliette Wilcox

Juliette Wilcox is the Cyber Security Ambassador for UK Defence and Security Exports at the Department for International Trade. Juliette spent over 30 years as a British Diplomat before joining DIT in March 2022. She held a variety of positions in the UK and overseas, including postings to Beijing, Hong Kong and Singapore. Since 2013 she has served in Director-level roles focused on national security and international relations, including leading cyber and science and technology development, capability and delivery. Juliette holds an MA (Law) from the University of Cambridge, and speaks (previously fluent) Mandarin Chinese.

Louisa-Jayne O'Neill

Louisa-Jayne O’Neill is an experienced policy and strategy adviser with a career spanning diplomacy, central government, commercial consultancy and the non-profit sector.  Her background is in global political risk, managing uncertainty and delivering strategic change. She has delivered advice at Ministerial level and to the Boards of FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 corporations on regulatory, political and reputational issues in jurisdictions including UK, EU, India and China.  Working closely with the Cyber Security, Information Assurance and Information Governance community, she has also led transformation and outreach programmes in both Government and NGO environments. Her analytical skills, often requiring the assimilation of large volumes of material to tight deadlines, are complemented by a clear and persuasive communications style.  Louisa-Jayne is comfortable presenting information to a range of audiences, translating complex technical messages to make them comprehensible to the layperson, at all points in the hierarchy.  A demonstrable self-starter, Louisa-Jayne has experience of leading and developing teams and works with a number of mentoring initiatives. 

Chris Gibson

Chris Gibson 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 Nations” (LDCs) allowing them both to join FIRST and attend conferences and training.

Chris joined the UK Government's CERT-UK team in November 2013 to build and launch the UK’s first formally chartered national CERT, joined Close Brothers as Chief Information Security Officer in November 2016, moved to Orwell Group as CISO in Jul 2018 and 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.

Marco Ryan

Mark (Marco) Ryan is the SVP digital (customers and markets) for BP globally, responsible for all of the digital activity in Gas, Low Carbon, Renewables, Financial Trading, shipping, Electric vehicles, Castrol, Aviation and Mobility and Convenience. He accountabilities include all the digital, software engineering and technology solutions – including cyber resilience – across this significant portfolio. He was previously CDO bp (Downstream) and before that the CDO and CISO for Wärtsilä- a maritime and energy company. he has held a Non-Executive Directorship of Fortum Oy Abp, the Nordics leading energy company. He holds a UK GCHQ Accreditation in Cybersecurity for Non-Executive Directors. He is an acknowledged global digital executive and leader, digital strategist, conference speaker, start-up mentor and lecturer that was recognised by Forbes Magazine in 2014 as one of the top 10 global marketing influencers. His focus is on leading organisations through cyber secure digital transformation to drive profitable growth, return on Investment and EBITDA improvement.

Mark Milford

Mark Milford is the global Vice President Cybersecurity for Wärtsilä, a global leader in innovative technologies and lifecycle solutions for the marine and energy markets. Mark’s cyber leadership journey began in military and government service before taking over his current role for a multinational company. He is now leading a team of dedicated cyber professionals responsible for all aspects of the company’s cyber security provision.

Edward Wolton

Edward Wolton is the Deputy CEO of Templar Executives and Managing Director of Templar Assure & Advise; in addition he has accountability for Templar Executives’ extensive intelligence and technical capabilities. He has a career in Information and Cyber Security spanning a quarter of a century.

Edward was appointed the Independent Reviewer at a secure Department of State and he was a Cyber Security Advisor to The Royal Household for nine years. He has worked for the Cabinet Secretary and the Prime Minister’s Security Advisor and provided a number of responses to Parliamentary Questions and to the Public Accounts Committee. Edward has been interviewed for broadcast and print media on both sides of the Atlantic, and supported trans-Atlantic and European Law Enforcement programmes as well as high-profile investigations.

Having qualified from the Université de Paris with a Diplôme D'Etudes Supérieure de Technologie en Informatique (equivalent to a British MPhil in Computer Science), with a further bachelor’s degree and four diplomas from UK and US universities, Edward is also highly credentialed in Information Security and was GCHQ’s first qualified Certified Trainer. Edward has chaired a number of industry bodies and associations, including the GCHQ-founded Information Assurance Collaboration Group and the London Cyber Security Cluster. Edward now mentors a number of business seniors as well as younger people; but he derives his greatest enjoyment from the simple pleasure of coaching rugby to children at his local rugby club.

Frank Rainford

Frank Rainford joined the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) in 2017 and has responsibility for Security, Cyber, Information Governance, Digital and ICT, as well as leading transformational change programmes within his Chief of Staff remit. Frank is the NDA SIRO and a NED on the Magnox Ltd Board, following 3 years as a Trustee Director on the Board of the Combined Nuclear Pension Plan (CNPP). Immediately prior to joining the NDA, Frank was Product and Programme Executive Director for a General Electric Aviation business, working with the US and UK Ministry of Defence, as well as commercial aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing and Airbus. Frank has worked at Director Level within other global organisations such as BAE Systems and provided independent consultancy services to various sectors. Frank has nuclear, aerospace and defence, and consultancy sector experience with a bias toward engineering/technology projects and programmes. Frank has an MBA and Master's in Project Management from Lancaster University and has completed the Cabinet Office Major Project Leadership Academy (MPLA).

Paul Fyfe

Paul Fyfe is currently the Director of Security and Safeguards the United Kingdom’s Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), responsible for the regulation of the civil nuclear sector’s protective and personnel security, and Cyber Security & Information Assurance. He is also responsible for regulation of civil nuclear Safeguards and the UK’s State System of Accountancy for and control of Nuclear Materials. He came to ONR from the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) where he was the Chief Security & Resilience Officer. Paul joined the MoD from a Career in the Royal Air Force where he served in senior positions within: Defence Intelligence; Defence Cyber Operations Group; Chief of the Air Staff’s Office and various roles within the RAF Police including ultimately the Deputy Chief of the Air Force Police and Chief of Staff. He deployed to various operational theatres throughout his RAF career including to Afghanistan as the Director of Afghan Police Strategic Planning with NATO in Kabul. He has also been seconded to both the Home Office and Security Service (MI5) in personnel security and counter terrorism roles respectively. Paul holds a distinction Master's Degree in Corporate Security and Risk Management, and is a member of various professional security and management bodies. He is a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Director General’s Advisory Panel for Security.

Martin Howlett

Martin Howlett is an NCSC Certified Trainer who has experience of a wide range organisational support across critical infrastructure organisations in both the public and private sector. He advises on information governance policy development and Cyber Security leadership and strategy. With a background in education, academia, and the not-for-profit sector he has been involved in government policy implementation on national skills strategies and has developed skills programmes in Cyber Security across the UK. Martin is Vice Chairman of the UK Information Assurance and Advisory Council. Working with international, national, regional bodies, and private sector parties, he focuses on developing cyber resilience strategy across a range of clients. Martin is a recipient of National Cyber Security Awards for his work with young people and Cyber Security skills pipeline development.

Mohamed Essaaidi

Mohamed Essaaidi is Chief of Party of Interactive Digital Center Morocco (since November 2020) and a Professor and past Dean of ENSIAS School of Computer Science of Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco (since 2011), Past Director of International Cooperation at the Ministry of General Affairs & Governance, Morocco (2019), and past faculty member (Professor & Assistant Professor) at the Faculty of Science of Abdelmalek Essaadi University, Tetuan, Morocco (1993-2011).

He is the founder and past Chairman of the IEEE Morocco Section (2005-2016), co- founder and chair of IEEE Morocco APS/MTT-S joint Chapter (2005-2010), IEEE Communications / Computer Society Chapter (2006-2008) and IEEE Education Society Morocco Chapter chair from 2007 to 2009.

Essaaidi holds 10 patents in the ICT field. Some of these patents received several international innovation awards.

He has authored and co-authored 10 books and more than 200 papers in international refereed journals and conferences in the field of Electrical and Computer engineering and its diverse applications including cybersecurity.

He has supervised several Master's and PhDs theses and has been the principal investigator and the project manager for several research projects in the framework of national and international programs dealing with several research issues related to cybersecurity and privacy.

Brian Luining

Brian Luining comes from a military and diplomacy background. Brian is an international growth expert with over 20 years of corporate and scale-up experience. He is an executive board member and investor in innovative technology driven companies including cybersecurity and advanced systems. He has an extensive track record in digital transformation within government, Fortune 500 and publicly listed companies. Brian has successfully lead large critical public safety and defence programs within Europe and abroad. He is the secretary of a military order and a member of several security entities.

Sir Ian Andrews

Sir Ian Andrews A former MOD Second Permanent Secretary from 2002-2008, Ian continues to pursue a wide range of security interests. From 2009-2013, he was Non-Executive Chairman of the UK Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) – now part of the National Crime Agency – and a Non-Executive Director of NHS Digital from 2013-2018, where he took a particular interest in Information Assurance and Cyber Security.

For much of the last twenty years he has been closely involved in the leadership of transformational change in large and complex organisations in the national security space. Appointments have included as a Managing Director of a major Trading Fund (the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency) and Chief Executive of the then Defence Estates Agency. As 2nd PUS, he was a member of all three single service Management Boards, as well as the Defence Management Board. He has been a senior adviser to the Transparency International Defence and Security Programme and is a Vice-Chairman of the National Preparedness Commission. He has contributed to various UK Defence Engagement and public sector and academic leadership initiatives.

Rekha Babber

Rekha Babber is the Managing Director for Templar’s Cyber Academy, which offers a wide range of Cyber Security training and development solutions.

Rekha has led the development of the Academy’s strategy and offering, covering the full learning cycle. The Cyber Academy now offers an extensive portfolio of courses certified by the NCSC – including Board and Leadership training and mentoring, and specialist role-specific and general training.

As a NCSC Certified Trainer, Rekha has extensive experience of delivering courses and workshops to global Boards and management across the private and commercial sector.

Her training expertise is consolidated by experience in Consultancy, delivering Audits, leading Transformation Programmes, and Mentoring. Rekha is also a certified ISO27001 Lead Implementor.

Previously, Rekha was responsible for Leadership and Management training and development globally at British Airways, as well as running a successful Learning Consulting and Coaching business.