A few years ago, when I was Assistant Director, Office of the CIO at Queen Mary University of London, I was in an important meeting when I received some dreadful news. Some of our confidential data was reportedly available on the dark web. I was in disbelief at first. In the next few hours, I went through a rollercoaster of emotions – and even more in the following days. Eventually, after several months’ hard work by my team and numerous others across the university as well as external partners, we got back on our feet.

I recently gave a candid presentation about this cyber event at HEPN South 2025, which invited a flood of questions from the audience representing the higher education sector.

One of the reasons why I joined Quorum Cyber was to help people and teams who are in a similar position to I was at the university. I know exactly what it’s like to learn that the organisation I worked so hard to defend had been compromised. I experienced the stress, the anxiety, the uncertainty and the pressure – as did many other people in the organisation during those weeks and months before Quorum Cyber’s team helped us recover.

I wouldn’t want anyone else to go through the same experience. And if they do, I’d like to be able to support them in some way, help them stay calm in the chaos of the storm, and reassure them that we’ve got their back. In a nutshell, I’d like to give back some of the exceptional support I received during the worst period of my career in cyber security and IT.

Now I’m on the other side of the fence, so to speak, as a Field CISO at Quorum Cyber, I know I’m in the best position to do just that. Working with an amazing 400-strong team of experts, in fields from phishing simulation to threat intelligence right through to ransom negotiations, enables me to fulfil my mission and purpose – “to strengthen cyber security health for UK organisations”. Everyone here – even those who aren’t on the frontline of cyber security – is passionate about fighting bullies and helping good people win.

While the company has grown quickly due to rising demand in the past few years, Quorum Cyber has remained true to its roots in the UK. I’ve seen first-hand that the company wants to defend and protect as many organisations up and down the country as possible. We safeguard charities and law firms in Scotland to regional councils in the south-east and south-west of England.

Large or small, from financial services companies driven by monetary targets to councils serving their communities, to not-for-profits working tirelessly to support vulnerable people, we’re here to ensure their IT systems, their data, and their customers or citizens are safe from cybercriminals.

Even before I joined the business, I’ve seen it expand into North America, acquiring two businesses in the US and Canada along the way. The result: deeper expertise, faster response, and more eyes on the global threat landscape – so UK organisations get earlier warnings and tighter defences.

These developments have made Quorum Cyber stronger, adding new capabilities and expertise, strengthening its threat intelligence and incidence response teams, adding ransom negotiation skills and gaining deepening its partnership with Microsoft. This growth has empowered and grown its team in the UK so it can provide even greater protection for British organisations around the clock, 365 days a year.

I can empathise with CISOs and security teams whose budgets are getting stretched while cybercriminals become more sophisticated, especially with the advancements in artificial intelligence (AI). I know what it’s like to have to fortify security while balancing the books – and worrying what might occur overnight. And all this while, of course, justifying spend and asking for a bigger budget from the board of directors who don’t always see a return on the investment.

If you’d like to contact me directly about any of these points, you can do via my LinkedIn page. And, of course, you can get in touch to learn more about our services and how we can help you.