On the lighter side of things , we ask the industry experts what makes them tick . . . .

I founded Security Centric in 2012 because I saw a significant opportunity in the enterprise space . Having worked for a defense contractor for several years , I was familiar with information security practices in highly classified environments and it struck me that the business world had yet to adopt the same mature approach .

We ’ ve strived to educate our clients about the benefits of doing so . After a recent boardroom presentation of our recommended strategy , the CEO remarked that it was the first time they ’ d truly understood cyber and how it could support their organization ’ s objectives . Hearing feedback like that , which validates our approach and acknowledges the value we provide , is incredibly rewarding .

What first made you think of a career in technology ?

What style of management philosophy do you employ with your current position ?

There ’ s a cartoon that often features in articles on leadership . It depicts someone who ’ s labelled ‘ a manager ’, sitting on top of a cart being pulled by others while they crack the whip .

Then there ’ s a second cartoon labelled ‘ the leader ’ and it shows a person in front of the cart with the team , pulling everyone forward . That juxtaposition really resonates with me . I try to emulate the latter individual , leading by example and steering the business and my team in the right direction .

Developing talent and promoting from within are priorities and that means not constraining high performers to their current roles and responsibilities but , rather , making sure there is some room for them to take a step up , when they ’ re ready .

As a child , I was always into tinkering – my first memory of doing so was at the age of six when I disassembled the family answering machine to see how it operated ! Understanding how things worked was a perennial fascination and I ploughed my way through my mother ’ s medical textbooks before turning my attention to even more complex systems : computers . I got into the industry by way of a bachelor of engineering , majoring in computer systems and telecoms , and earned my stripes in the enterprise IT environment before segueing into cyber .

www . intelligentcio . com INTELLIGENTCIO APAC 79