Kim McAllister is a freelance journalist and event host, as well as a communications consultant for Connect. She has presented seven series of Clever About Cash on BBC Radio Scotland as well as contributing to other radio shows across the network. She writes business features for the Herald and has been published in many major newspaper titles. She spends a lot of her time producing podcasts for clients across the UK and is a trustee of The Yard, a charity for children and young people with disabilities. 

Hayden Edwards is the Director of the Scottish Wide Area Network (SWAN) for BT Business, with accountability for all aspects of BT performance including service, delivery, contract performance, service evolution and innovation. Before this, he led Business Development in Scotland for BT, including go to market strategy and leading strategic major business deals, across Health, Government, Emergency services, Local Councils and Universities.

Hayden has been at BT since 2009 and has worked in a variety of roles covering Major Deal Architecture, Programme Delivery, Contract Management, IT transformation and as Chief Technology Officer for Local Government. Having worked in public sector for over 20 years, he has developed significant insight into the challenges of transforming citizen experiences using technology and communication solutions.  A creative and innovative thinker, he enjoys bringing practical thinking to customer challenges, and firmly believes in not just doing the same things differently – but doing different things.

Hayden is a Community Councillor for his local Ward in East Lothian, taking a particular interest in digital inclusion and how technology can support education and place based transformation. An undergraduate and recent Masters graduate from the University of Aberdeen Business School, he now lives in Aberlady with his wife and two children. Oustide of work, he is a lifelong rugby fan, having played and refereed at all levels of the game.  Any other spare time is spent on his home golf course at Craigielaw.

A Series of Difficult Consequences: Helping Scotland navigate an increasingly complex threat landscape

Alan Gray is the Head of National Cyber Security and Resilience for The Scottish Government. A Security leader with over 15 years of experience within government, professional and public sector organisations, Alan has managed a wide range of security activities from strategic capability development to operational response. Previously as Chief Information Security Officer for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, with responsibility for the cyber security of all core technologies and services both at home and across posts and embassies worldwide, he was also a member of the Government Security Board as representative for the CISO community across government. Drawing on past experience in National Security, academia, central government and the private sector, Alan has joined the Scottish Government to drive the consolidation and expansion of Scotland’s cyber security and cyber resilience activities, and to lead the Scottish Cyber Coordination Centre (SC3). 

Jonathon is Director for Resilience and Future Technology at the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), having previously been the NCSC’s acting Policy Director. Jonathon is responsible for leading NCSC’s efforts to increase cyber resilience across the UK - within government, the critical national infrastructure, and businesses and organisations of all sizes, as well as delivering long-term resilience through securing the technology that the UK’s cyber security depends upon.  

Jonathon joined the civil service in 2004 and has held several senior leadership roles across the national security community. He has worked in a number of government departments, including the Ministry of Defence and the Cabinet Office.  

Jonathon holds a degree in Computer Science from Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford. He was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2022. 

Lorraine McCaffrey is head of the Northern Ireland Cyber Security Centre (NICSC) which acts as an amplification body for the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) in N.Ireland.  Lorraine has background in cyber security, information management and IT project management and has been a career civil servant for 25 years.  The NICSC is externally focused and supports SME’s, Charity/Voluntary sector, Local Councils and Citizens to make N.Ireland more cyber safe, secure and resilient.  

Jackie Wishart is the Head of Cyber Resilience in the Department of Finance in the Northern Ireland Civil Service. Jackie has worked in a variety of ICT roles within the NICS including Cyber Security, Service Delivery & Management, Project Management & Infrastruture. In her current role she is responsible for the co-ordination and implementation of numerous Cyber initiatives across the nine NI departments and works closely with both NCSC and the Cabinet Office. 

Paul has been a police officer for over 28 years spending most of his career as a detective investigating serious and complex crime. Paul joined the Metropolitan Police Force in April 1995, and over the next fourteen years he served in boroughs across London and central units. In 2009 Paul transferred to South Wales Police and was posted to the Major Crime Investigation Team where he took on the role of Senior Investigating Officer for murders and other serious and complex investigations.

In 2014 Paul transferred to Tarian, the Regional Organised Crime Unit that covers the three Southern Wales police forces where he was responsible for leading investigations by the Economic Crime Unit and the newly created Regional Cyber Crime Unit, including investigations into complex cyber-attacks across the three forces. During this time Paul worked closely with businesses to raise awareness of the cyber threat, securing funding from Welsh Government to implement Protect initiatives across Wales. Paul also spearheaded a partnership collaboration to create a Cybercrime Prevent package involving education, awareness, and law enforcement support across Wales.

In November 2020 Paul was given the role of setting up and managing the Cyber Resilience Centre for Wales, which has the aim of increasing cyber resilience across Wales, with a particular focus on supporting micro businesses, SMEs and third sector organisations. Paul is passionate about preventing cyber-crime and protecting businesses and communities across Wales. The Cyber Resilience Centre for Wales provides a unique opportunity to provide support to SMEs and micro businesses, working with academia and private sector experts to raise awareness and provide solutions that will reduce an organisations vulnerability to becoming a victim of cybercrime.

Clare is the Head of Cyber Resilience for the Scottish Government and the Chair of the CyberScotland Partnership. Clare leads on the development and implementation of the cyber resilience strategy for Scotland, working closely with partners across public, private and third sectors, as well as the UK Government and internationally. She is also currently overseeing the establishment of the Scottish Cyber Coordination Centre (SC3) to improve intelligence sharing and early warning and national cyber incident coordination. Clare has led numerous national initiatives and campaigns in cyber and is a strong advocate for offering security skills across the lifelong learning system, recognising the importance of reaching people from diverse backgrounds and making cyber careers attractive to young people and girls. 

Before starting her Civil Service career in the early 2000s, Clare worked in business development and education, in the UK, Japan, New Zealand and Germany. Clare has 20 years’ experience in policy development including writing Scotland’s cyber resilience strategies, contributing to the UK Cyber Strategy and writing Scotland’s first strategies for Adult Literacies and English for Speakers of Other Languages. 

Valerie Wilson, Service Operations Director at BT, holds a decade of experience leading Managed Service operations teams worldwide. Additionally, she holds a position as a non-executive director for itSMF UK, committed to promoting best practices in Service Management. 

William (Bill) J Buchanan OBE is a Professor in the School of Computing at Edinburgh Napier University, and a Fellow of the BCS and Principal Fellow of the HEA. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to cybersecurity. Bill lives and works in Edinburgh and is a believer in fairness, justice, and freedom. His social media tagline reflects his strong belief in changing the world for the better: “A Serial Innovator. An Old World Breaker. A New World Creator.” He also has a strong belief in the power of education and in supporting innovation from every angle, and currently leads the Blockpass ID Lab and the Centre for Cybersystems, IoT and Cyberphysical. Bill works in the areas of blockchain, cryptography, trust and digital identity. He has one of the most extensive cryptography sites in the World (asecuritysite.com), and is involved in many areas of novel research and teaching. Bill has published over 30 academic books and over 300 academic research papers. Along with this, Bill’s work has led to many areas of impact, including three highly successful spin-out companies (Zonefox, Symphonic Software and Cyan Forensics), along with awards for excellence in knowledge transfer and for teaching. Bill recently received an ”Outstanding Contribution to Knowledge Exchange” award and was included in the FutureScot “Top 50 Scottish Tech People Who Are Changing The World”.

As the Head of Cyber for ScotlandIS, Bev’s role involves developing initiatives aimed at fostering growth and innovation, addressing challenges posed by the dynamic cyber threat landscape and cultivating the skills pipeline within Scotland’s cybersecurity industry, playing the role of facilitator between, industry, academia and public sector. 

Bev initially joined the ScotlandIS team to lead the IT Managed Service Provider Programme which aimed to create a network within this community that actively shares best practices and lessons learned. The culmination of this effort was the launch of the ScotlandIS ITMSP Best Practice Charter on September 28th, demonstrating a commitment to elevating standards and fortifying cyber resilience throughout the supply chain.  

Before her role at ScotlandIS, Bev served as a police officer for 28 years, in front line and community roles.  She contributed significantly to the role of the cybercrime harm prevention team and played a crucial part in implementing Police Scotland’s Cyber Strategy through the “Policing in a Digital World” programme. This transition underscores her adaptability and commitment to positioning Scotland at the forefront of global cybersecurity endeavours. 

As Innovation Lead for the Digital Security by Design Programme within InnovateUK, UKRI, Nuala is accountable for driving the market development of the challenge and working in partnership with Government, Industry and Academia to gather the real industry benefits to create demand and onboard advocates for this transformational technology. Nuala presently manages the DSbD Technology Access Programme and is delivering the UK and International Engagement Strategy. Nuala has spent over 25 years promoting education/industry integration across the private, public and 3rd sector and has demonstrated expertise in Innovation Consultancy, Funding, Programme Management, Enterprise Development and Strategic Partnership Engagement. Nuala is a STEM and EDI ambassador and is an avid supporter of Women in Tech. 

From the public to the private sectors and back again, Scott has worked in information and cyber security for the past 20 years. Having held CISO positions in the private sector, he joined NHS Scotland NSS in the throes of the Coronavirus pandemic and as Head of Information and Cyber Security leads the mission to deliver a world class cyber security operations capability for Scotland’s Health Sector. He is excited by the opportunities that new technologies and ways of working bring to society and an advocate of cohesive security strategies presented in everyday language that’s understood by users and decision makers alike. 

Cheryl Torano is the Business Development Manager for Abertay cyberQuarter.

Her current role began in 2021 and is funded through Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Government.

Cheryl graduated from Abertay’s Ethical Hacking programme in 2017 having undertaken an accelerated BSc Hons degree.

Prior to that she studied HND Computer Networking and Internet Technology at Dundee and Angus College.

Following graduation, she worked in Abertay University’s digital marketing team until 2019 when she took up a role with Brightsolid as a Cyber Security Engineer. During this time, she completed an MBA in Business Administration in Cybersecurity.

Cheryl is on the Scottish Women in Cyber and Ladies Hacking Society committees, and a key member in the Scottish Cyber Cluster.

Jude McCorry is CEO of the Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland. She has over 20 years’ experience in the Technology sector and started her career with Dell computers in Ireland, she joined the Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland in April 2020 from The Data Lab where she was Director of Business Development working with industry and academia to maximise the value of data for Scotland.
She is one of the founders of the Unicef Data Hub for Children, and always ensures there is a social aspect to everything she does in order to benefit the people of Scotland or further afield. Jude is a board member of Parkinson’s Scotland and the Policy Board at SCDI.

Phil Ford is the Head of Digital Economy and Financial Services at Skills Development Scotland, leading a team to shape cross-sectoral strategies to ensure skills planning, investment and delivery are demand led in support of industry priorities.  Phil has previously worked as a Regional Skills Planning Lead for SDS in the south east and south of Scotland. This role involved close partnership working with a range of stakeholders, to develop Skills Investment Plans to ensure that regional supply meets current and future demand. He has previously worked in several senior roles in the Construction Industry Training Board and most recently as the Strategic Partnerships Director for Scotland. In this position he was responsible for driving forward a £2m Joint Investment Strategy with the Scottish Government to address skills and training needs in the construction industry and working closely with politicians to influence policy development.

Following a 32 year career in policing which included leading cyber investigations in 2013 Keith joined the Scottish Government to support the development of cyber policy and strategy. In November 2015 the Scottish Government launched Safe, Secure, Prosperous a Cyber Strategy for Scotland which was followed in 2021 by The Strategic Framework for a Cyber Resilient Scotland.

Keith was responsible for establishing the Cyber Scotland Partnership a collaborative leadership approach to focus efforts on improving cyber resilience across Scotland. He leads the Scottish Governments National Cyber Incident Co-ordination arrangements within the Scottish Cyber Co-ordination Centre (SC3) a collaborative function intended to support combating the accelerating threat of cyber attack to Scotland.

Detective Chief Inspector Stevenson is the Cyber Investigations and Digital Forensics lead for Police Scotland.  He has an extensive history in Local Policing and Serious Criminal Investigations over a lengthy career and now focuses on Cyber Threats, Response and Investigations.  Working closely with cyber partners and industry leaders across Scotland to Pursue and Prevent is a priority, as is the support to all sectors as they prepare or if they fall victim to cybercrime. 

Mojtaba Tefagh is the Blockchain Programme Manager in the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the Stanford University in 2019. He is interested in the Bitcoin revolution and the emerging decentralized consensus technologies afterwards. His current focus is on business development for the Blockchain Technology Laboratory, with a particular emphasis on industry and community engagement for the Edinburgh Decentralisation Index. 

Jan Heijdra is a seasoned technology executive with over 15 years of experience in the industry. Currently serving as the Field CTO for Security at Cisco in the Netherlands, he plays a pivotal role in evangelising the security strategy and ensuring the success of its customers. As Field CTO, Jan acts as a trusted advisor to Cisco’s customers and partners, helping them navigate complex security challenges and develop effective strategies to safeguard their digital assets. Jan is a thought leader in the security industry with a passion for innovation and a deep commitment to protecting organisations from cyber threats.

Chris Booth has worked in the public sector industry for over 30 years, specialising in IT and cyber security solutions and predominantly helping NHS organisations nationwide to understand how they can better secure their systems and data to protect patient care. Chris has been instrumental in helping 150+ organisations stay better protected through increased asset visibility and intelligence. 

As Head of Cyber Assurance at Waterstons, Craig has worked on leading technical security teams and building information security management systems, helping organisations identify and manage their cyber security vulnerabilities and data protection objectives, helping to address immediate issues and craft a strategy to future proof their business.

As co-creator of ‘Udder Disaster’, he developed a way to skilfully simulate business problems, strategic thinking, and the crucial aspect of considering consequences, in an engaging training setting.

Gwyndaf Davies has over 10 years experience as security professional across various roles, from implementing and customising security software to leading presales and services functions across EMEA. In his current role as a Senior Solutions Engineer, he works across the public and private sector helping organisations upskill and prove their human cyber capabilities through the Immersive Labs platform.

Matt Ford is a distinguished cybersecurity professional with over fifteen years of industry expertise. Specialising in threat intelligence, geopolitical analysis, and SOC (Security Operations Centre) automation, Matt has made significant contributions to enhancing digital defence strategies for organisations globally. His comprehensive understanding of emerging threats and innovative approaches to SOC automation has led to notable advancements in operational efficiency and threat detection capabilities. Moreover, Matt has showcased his expertise by working for Blackhat Events in their NOC (Network Operations Centre), where he played a pivotal role in ensuring the security and integrity of the event’s network infrastructure.