In this episode, we sit down with Mark “Squiz” Squirrell, keynote speaker from Global Frontline, as he shares insights from his journey from Arafat to Everest. Mark emphasizes the importance of making early decisions and being flexible when dealing with unforeseen variables. He discusses the critical role of soft skills in building effective relationships, both within and outside organizations, to mitigate crises. Mark also highlights how training and preparation under simulated pressures can enhance decision-making abilities and resilience. He delves into managing stress in high-pressure situations, advocating for recognizing stress levels and ensuring time for recovery.

From car bombings, the Ebola Outbreak to meeting Yasser Arafat and making it to the summit of Mount Everest, Mark ‘Squiz’ Squirrell OAM has experienced more than many can dream about.

Squiz was awarded the coveted “Green Beret” whilst serving with the Australian Commando’s.  His tenure with the military provided him with the skills and courage to succeed amongst adversity and turmoil. It was the perfect grounding for a career as an International Aid Worker.

Squiz escorted food convoys through the Gaza Strip, negotiated with the Liberation Tigers of Tamel Eelam (Tamil Tigers) and brokered deals with Somali Clansmen to ensure the safe delivery of United Nations food aid.  In doing so, he has mastered the challenges of performing under pressure, communicating effectively and building relationships.

In addition to this, Squiz has taken the concept of being motivated at work to an all new high.  He was inspired by his organisation, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), and the impoverished people that it feeds, to climb to the top of the world to help raise awareness of the global hunger crisis. After a gruelling six week ordeal, Squiz raised the WFP flag on the summit of Mount Everest. The inspiring and thrilling recount across glaciers and up exposed cliffs reveal the motivation, habits and adversity skills that facilitated his success.

Squiz has a Bachelor of Business (HRM) and has published a memoire titled From Arafat to Everest. In 2019 Squiz was recognised in the Australia Day Honours List with an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for “service to the international community through humanitarian aid”. He continues to deploy on short term assignments to emergency zones, such as the Ebola Outbreak in West Africa and Nepal Earthquake.

Now based out of Melbourne, Squiz provides keynotes, workshops and team building activities to develop workplace performance.

In this episode, we sit down with Kobi Leins and Kate Carruthers, directors from Info Sphere Education, as they delve into the intertwining issues of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. Kobi discusses how AI can expedite security breaches and the need for cybersecurity professionals to understand and mitigate AI-induced vulnerabilities. Kate expands on this by highlighting the utilization of generative AI by attackers and the importance of data and AI governance within organizations. They both explore the challenges companies face in managing these technologies, emphasizing the necessity of upskilling and proper communication between AI and cybersecurity professionals.

Kate Carruthers is an experienced data and technology leader who has expertise in analytics, AI, data management, Data Governance and AI governance. She is a passionate educator who loves sharing her knowledge and helping people to develop their own AI and data expertise.

Kobi Leins is a reformed lawyer, academic in tech and law, and is a technical expert for Standards Australia. She loves to teach, learn and be challenged at the edges of tech and governance.

The Essential Eight

The mitigation strategies that constitute the Essential Eight are:

patch applications

patch operating systems

multi-factor authentication

restrict administrative privileges

application control

restrict Microsoft Office macros

user application hardening

regular backups.

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Ivano Bongiovanni, General Manager at AUSCERT, as he discusses how to get the most from maturity-based and risk-based approaches in the cybersecurity arena. Ivano delves into the importance of balancing both approaches to enhance cyber resilience, the role of organizational size and industry mandates, and the need for critical assessment of cyber risks. We also explore the challenges of decision-making in risk management, the impact of subjective judgment, and the significance of quality data sources. Ivano emphasizes a collaborative approach involving various organizational constituencies and the crucial role of effective communication and storytelling in cybersecurity leadership.

Ivano is the General Manager of AUSCERT. He is also a researcher, consultant, author, and speaker whose work focuses on the managerial and business implications of Cybersecurity.

A Lecturer in Information Security, Governance and Leadership with the UQ Business School and a member of UQ Cyber, Ivano helps business leaders and executives make evidence-based decisions in cybersecurity. With a professional background in risk and security management, Ivano’s work bridges the gap between technical cybersecurity and its repercussions across organisations. He has advised ministers, policy-makers, board members, and senior executives on strategies, governance structures, policies, and training programs for effective cybersecurity management. Ivano is also an experienced facilitator in the fields of Design Thinking and Design-Led innovation, having run since 2015 more than 50 design-led workshops and longer projects for public and private sector organisations.

Prior to UQ, Ivano worked as a Research Fellow with the Adam Smith Business School (University of Glasgow) and a Postdoctoral Fellow with the PwC Chair in Digital Economy (QUT). In this role, he worked with public and private sector organisations in projects aimed at facilitate their transition into the Digital Age. Ivano obtained his PhD from QUT in 2016, with a thesis on safety and security management in Australian airports. His academic career includes stints with Bocconi University and SDA Bocconi School of Management (Milan), where he worked as a faculty member and consultant for three years.

He also worked as a Deputy Venue Security Manager at the XX Winter Olympic Games – Turin 2006 and as a Police Officer for the Italian Ministry of Interior.

He has a double MSc in Management of Public Administrations and International Institutions (Bocconi University, Milan) and International Security (Sciences Po, Paris).

In this episode, we sit down with Jarrod Lucia, Evangelist Architect, AI and SP Infrastructure, APJC from F5, as he discusses securing AI-centric infrastructures, specifically the emerging AI factories powering today’s workload. Jarrod delves into the rise of AI factories, large data centers purpose-built for AI workloads, and the advanced sustainability measures being considered in their design, such as green energy mandates and innovative water recirculation systems.

We also explore the unique security demands of AI factories, explaining the need for both traditional data center precautions and modern zero-trust models. Jarrod shares insights on the various stages of AI factory development and integration, emphasizing the importance of securing data throughout its lifecycle within these specialized environments.

As a seasoned industry professional with over 25 years of experience in Service Provider and Cloud Engineering, Jarrod has developed a unique blend of technical expertise and leadership skills. His background in Mobile and Satellite technologies has equipped him with a deep understanding of network design, implementation, and troubleshooting.

He’s passionate about staying at the forefront of emerging technologies, particularly Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its applications in Cloud, Service Providers, and IoT at scale. The convergence of Edge Networks, Cloud capabilities, and AI Factories will revolutionise industry and how applications are delivered and he’s excited to explore the potential of AI infrastructure and its impact on the future of technology and business.

In this episode, we sit down with Venkat Balakrishnan, CISO from TAL Australia, as he discusses the evolving concept of platformization in cybersecurity. Venkat explores how consolidating various cyber functions and tools into single platforms can drive efficiencies, reduce costs, and simplify management efforts. He emphasizes the maturity of network security and endpoint security operations as key areas ready for platformization, while also discussing the fragmented nature of identity and access management.

Venkat is an experienced cyber security and technology risk executive with expertise in building cyber resilience, safely enabling business growth and inspiring customer trust. Adept in building relationships and influencing stakeholders at all levels across organisations with strong customer focus to deliver pragmatic and innovative solutions to derive business value. Passionate people leader with demonstrated success of developing diverse and high performing teams. Experienced in building security practices from grassroots with innovative approaches for modernisation and by accelerating into scalable and sustainable operations.

In this episode, KB brings us the inside track at the AUKUS Advanced Technology Dialogue in Australia. Starting off with 2020Partners’ Founding Partner Greg Sim, who shares the significance of this strategic collaboration, KB also sits down with Paddy McGuinness, Former UK Deputy National Security Advisor (Intelligence Security and Resilience); Senior Advisor at Brunswick Group, Toby Jones, Founder from TJC, and Beth Sanner, Former Deputy Director for Mission Integration (ODNI); Director, Geopolitics and Strategy, International Capital Strategies as they discuss what it means to be ‘quantum-ready’, the convergence between government and industry, and the ‘Grey Zone’.

Paddy McGuinness, Former UK Deputy National Security Advisor (Intelligence Security and Resilience); Senior Advisor at Brunswick Group

Paddy McGuinness is a Senior Adviser at Brunswick Group, supporting clients on crisis and resilience and the interplay between geopolitics, national security and their transactions. He works closely with the Firm’s regional and specialist leads across Technology, Cyber, Aerospace and Defence, Litigation, Geopolitical, Activism and Competition and Regulatory Affairs.

From 2014 – 2018, Paddy was the UK’s Deputy National Security Advisor for Intelligence, Security and Resilience and Government Chief Security Officer advising two successive British Prime Ministers on UK Homeland Security policy, capabilities and related legislation. This included the UK’s National Risk Assessment and ability to respond to and recover from all hazards and threats, national crisis response and coordination, cyber strategies and programmes, counter terrorism and approach to managing hostile state activities, including the resilience of Critical National Infrastructure. He chaired the Investment Security Group reviewing FDI and M&A for National Security purposes.

As a Foreign Service officer Paddy led variously on Counter Terrorism, aspects of Cyber, the Middle East, Iran, Counter Proliferation and Africa. He served overseas in the Middle East and Europe and was an envoy on matters as diverse as Yemen, Counter Terrorism, and National Security and Law Enforcement access to data.

Away from Brunswick Paddy works with Governments on their Resilience and with Private Equity on emerging technologies, nuclear energy and space. He is a

Toby Jones, Founder from TJC

Toby is CEO of TJC and until recently was Head of UK’s Accelerated Capability Environment (ACE). TJC founded, mobilised and led ACE for the UK Home Office from

Toby is known as an inspiring and innovative leader who created ACE and who has had a multi-faceted career, grounded in national security and public safety, as a senior civil servant, in private sector with a global professional services firm and founder of a successful values-

Beth Sanner, Former Deputy Director for Mission Integration (ODNI); Director, Geopolitics and Strategy, International Capital Strategies

Beth Sanner is the Director of Geopolitics and Strategy at International Capital Strategies. She has held a wide range of national security positions for over 35 years, including in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security

Beth’s last government role was as the Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Mission Integration, where she oversaw the integration of Intelligence Community collection, analysis, and programs and served as the President Trump’s intelligence briefer.

Prior to this role, Beth was the Director of the President’s Daily Brief, Vice Chair of the National Intelligence Council, and a senior executive in CIA’s Directorate of Analysis. Beth continues to inform both business and government leaders and everyday Americans about foreign affairs through consulting, speaking engagements, writings, and as a CNN national security contributor.

She also is a Distinguished Fellow at the German Marshall Fund, a Non-Resident Senior Fellow with the Intelligence Program at Harvard University’s Belfer Center, and a Senior Fellow at the U.S. Chamber Foundation.

In this episode, KB brings us the inside track at the AUKUS Advanced Technology Dialogue in Australia. Starting off with 2020Partners’ Founding Partner Greg Sim, who shares the significance of this strategic collaboration, KB also sits down with Antony Reynolds, Vice President, Federal and National Security at Bridgeworks, Malcom Purcell, Vice President APAC, at Fivecast, and Jeff Lindholm, Chief Revenue Officer at Lookout Technologies as they discuss faster data delivery, how OSINT can address and ultimately reduce national security challenges, and why the the ‘bad guys’ are focusing on mobile edge.

Antony Reynolds, Vice President, Federal and National Security at Bridgeworks

Tony leads Public Sector and Global Channels for British AI Data Software Vendor,Bridgeworks Ltd and has extensive knowledge of enterprise software and high performance and super computing solutions. He previously worked in a variety of leadership positions with IBM to include Global

He supported deployment of Air Traffic Control and Interception Cells, (QRA), during the 2012 London Olympic Games. As well as detachments to the prestigious RAF Aerobatic Display Team, (The Red Arrows), and 32, The Royal Squadron, Tony deployed on J-2 Operations in Afghanistan, pre-deployment exercises in Africa and a humanitarian mission in the Caribbean. One of Tony’s final ceremonial duties was to represent the Royal Air Force at the parade of the Coronation of King Charles III on 6 May 2024 at Buckingham Palace.

Malcolm Purcell, Vice President APAC, at Fivecast

Malcolm is an experienced strategy and business development executive with broad experience working in the defence, security and intelligence sectors. Commencing his career as an Army Officer he had operational service in Iraq with the Combined Joint Special Operations Taskforce in 2003. Following a short period working for the Attorney-General’s Department, he has spent the past 18 years in sales leadership roles with multinational organizations including WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff and KPMG. Malcolm moved to Washington DC in 2020 and was instrumental in establishing Fivecast’s open-source intelligence business in North America – working closely with US & Canadian Government agencies. He currently leads the Canberra office for Fivecast, with market responsibilities across Asia Pacific region.

Jeff Lindholm, Chief Revenue Officer at Lookout Technologies

As the Chief Revenue Officer at Lookout, Jeff oversees all aspects of the company’s global sales, including the Americas, EMEA, and APAC regions, as well as Channel Sales, Commercial Sales and Sales Engineering. He brings a wealth of experience in networking and security sales leadership, having previously served as President and CEO of Plixer, a company focused on network traffic analysis and visibility solutions. Before that, Jeff led sales operations at both Brocade and Juniper Networks. As the Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales at Brocade, he oversaw a $2.5 billion global sales operation until the company’s acquisition by Broadcom Inc. At Juniper Networks, he served as Chief Revenue Officer, managing $2.5 billion in revenue.” He has also held significant global sales roles at Arbor Networks (the security division of NETSCOUT) and BigBand Networks. Jeff is based in Boston and holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College.

In this episode, KB brings us the inside track at the AUKUS Advanced Technology Dialogue in Australia. Starting off with 2020Partners’ Founding Partner Greg Sim, who shares the significance of this strategic collaboration, KB also sits down with Michael Loewy, Co-Founder at Tide, Daniel Churches, Sales Director, at ColorTokens, and Simon Hodgkinson, Advisor at Semperis as they discuss why the industry is broken, ‘breach-readiness’, and identity being the foundation of the digital ecosystem.

Michael Loewy, Co-Founder at Tide

Michael is a Co-founder of Tide Foundation, a deep tech start-up reimagining trust in the digital world. He’s a seasoned entrepreneur with a rich C-Level history leading the productization and commercialization of transformational software for organizations like Dell, Yahoo!, News Limited, NetRegistry, Telstra, Motorola through to greenfield startups. Michael was an academic professional at the University of Illinois, and currently serves on the advisory board of the Children’s Medical Research Institute.

Daniel Churches, Sales Director, at ColorTokens

Dan is an Australian and Asia Pacific Sales Leader with over 25 years’ IT experience in Hardware and Software Solutions and Services, Business Development, Enterprise engagements and Executive Relationships. He has worked for IBM, NTT Global and Verizon Enterprise Solutions driving business and building teams in Hardware, Software, Professional Services, Managed Services, Hybrid Cloud, PaaS, SaaS, Data Analytics, Security and Digital Transformation.

With ColorTokens, Dan is driving market penetration, brand development, partner engagement and client services and support. He is responsible for industry and buyer alignment and understanding of the ColorTokens “Breach Ready” messaging focusing on halting the spread of ransomware and malware attacks across IT/OT, IoT and Legacy environments providing customers a viable Cyber Resilience ‘Uptime’ compliance capability they can report to market.

Dan brings a wealth of experience to his role and to startup growth. He has worked with several startups as well as global organisations from around the world. His grasp of industry, cultural relevancies, and buying behavior are proven assets when winning trust and rapport with employees, partners and customers. He has built and delivered IT sales and coaching development programs in India, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, China, Japan, Philippines, Australian, New Zealand, England and Germany.

Dan grew up in Denver, Colorado, lived in Bavaria, Germany for many years and is now an Australian citizen, living in Sydney, Australia. Dan continues to learn and build leadership skills and insights taking courses with Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan. In addition to this, he finds time to travel with his wife and family, drink red wine and make homemade pasta.

Simon Hodgkinson is the former Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at bp. He was responsible for cybersecurity including strategy, governance, architecture, education, counter threat operations, and incident response. He joined bp in 2002 and has held several senior IT leadership roles.

Prior to becoming CISO, he was the VP for Infrastructure & Integration Services at bp. During this time, he drove a significant improvement in IT operational integrity, led a transformation program and spearheaded the commitment to improve employees’ IT experience. He led the CISO function in bp Supply & Trading, where he delivered a program to improve cyber-controls, many of which have been implemented across the bp group. Before joining bp, Simon worked in IT for a dotcom, an investment bank, and commercial software companies.

In this episode, we sit down with Leon Langlais, Chief Product Officer APAC at Genetec, as he discusses the pervasive cybersecurity gaps in both home and corporate networks. Leon delves into the consequences of inadequate updates and the critical need for secure, trusted devices, especially for critical infrastructures. We also explore regulatory debates, the role of state-owned vendors, and the integration of security from a product’s inception.

Leon has been with Genetec for five years having previously served in a multitude of technology leadership roles at Tyco across a near fifteen year tenure. Leon has previously worked as Senior Director of Growth Markets and Regional Strategy at Tyco Security Products, and Director of Product Management at Tyco Safety Products. Leon is an alumnus of the prestigious Universite de Sherbrooke and Polytechnique Montreal.

In this episode, we sit down with Dean Frye, Solutions Architect at Nozomi Networks, as he discusses the complex landscape of IT, IoT, and OT security challenges.

Dean delves into the critical importance of avoiding an “us vs. them” mentality between IT and OT teams, and how security interruptions can severely impact business continuity. We explore industry-specific vulnerabilities, such as those in factory chicken farming and Tasmanian salmon farming, and emphasize the necessity for executives to have a deeper technical understanding of cybersecurity. Dean also highlights the value of telemetry and real-time reporting, the evolving role of cloud solutions in OT environments, and the importance of a well-integrated, multidisciplinary team to effectively manage cyber risks.

Dean Frye is a Solutions Architect for Nozomi Networks in Australia and New Zealand. Dean is an experienced security professional with a demonstrated history of providing compliance strategy, pragmatic risk mitigation, security project delivery, threat abatement and vendor interface solutions with a significant commercial background. Covering more than twenty years, his previous roles span consulting and senior leadership, including a stint at Armis as solutions architect, and another tenure at Cisco as director of security for the APJ region.