With over 25 years’ experience in cyber security across global, regional and local roles, Neil’s focus is on creating material and sustainable improvements to cybersecurity outcomes for the community. In order to do that, the challenge has to be addressed at scale. Nowhere was this more evident than at his time at Telstra, where Neil created Cybersecure Australia, a strategy to raise the baseline security level for Australia.
Neil cut his cyber security teeth as a Federal Agent with the computer crime team at the Australian Federal Police, where the team investigated cybercrime and pioneered forensic computing techniques. However the majority of his extensive expertise stems from working as global head of security at Dimension Data (now NTT Ltd.) and then Telstra, where he led teams of up to 600 people. His skills also lie in business growth and development, where at both organisations, he built each security practice well above market rates (over 30% compound annual growth rate).
As part of generating that growth, Neil relies on his strong brand building experience, where he has regular analyst and media engagements across online, print, radio and television. He also built deep relationships with executive teams across the major cyber security technology vendors at a global level. And finally, Neil was Chairman of the Board for a $50M+ Telstra joint venture, SNP Monitoring, managing the business through to profitability.
At Telstra, Neil retained overall ownership of Telstra’s product strategy, roadmap and delivery, across Cyber and Electronic Security. In just 18 months, he built the team, adding both development and operational capabilities, from just 17 to over 130, whilst creating Telstra’s first ever product based on open source software.
At Dimension Data, Neil ran the organisation’s Security Business Unit at a global level. He was also in charge of managing vendor relationships at a global level, including; Cisco, Check Point, Blue Coat, Intel Security and Palo Alto Networks.
Neil is a technology enthusiast and, occasionally to his family’s chagrin, operates an extensive home network that he uses to keep his skills current and dabble in areas such as IoT, Cloud and virtualisation. In his now-distant youth, Neil represented Australia in volleyball and participated in athletics at a national level.
