The Edinburgh headquartered cybersecurity services firm Adarma has become the latest industry heavyweight to give its backing to the newly launched “Empowering Women to Lead Cyber Security” programme.
The cross-sector initiative, supported by The Scottish Government, Scottish Digital Academy, and tech industry body ScotlandIS, has been developed to build a collaborative and powerful community of potential and emerging women leaders in cybersecurity and information governance roles across Scotland, helping to address the long-standing lack of women working within one of Scotland’s most critical and fastest-growing sectors.
The initial three-month intensive leadership programme brings together 20-24, early-mid career cybersecurity and information management professionals, who have been selected from a national open application process which attracted interest from applicants across sectors as diverse as financial services, energy and utilities, telecommunications, government, and health.
The final make-up of the participants will be decided by the initiative’s Programme Panel, which meets this week to review applications. That Panel is made up of senior figures in the cybersecurity community from across government and industry, including Ciara Mitchell, Head of Cyber Security at Scotland IS, The Scottish Government’s Head of Cyber Resilience Policy, Clare el Azebbi and Roz Britton, Head of Talent Attraction and Capability for the Digital Profession at The Scottish Government, alongside senior representatives from industry partners including Morgan Stanley, NCC Group and the newly joined Adarma.
Adarma, one of the leading independent cybersecurity service providers in the UK, has repeatedly stressed its commitment to improving levels of diversity and inclusion within the cybersecurity sector.
Commenting on the firm’s decision to support the “Empowering” initiative, their Chief Marketing Officer, Joanne Gilhooley said, “As an industry significantly underrepresented by women, we know that we can and must do better to ensure that a career in IT and cybersecurity is accessible to all. At Adarma one of our core values is to enrich our workforce with an inclusive and diverse set of skills. We are just starting on that journey and are committed to accelerating our efforts and partnering with this programme is one of the steps that we plan to take. We are delighted to be a part of this initiative and look forward to learning from these women as they progress their careers in CyberSecurity.”
Further information on the “Empowering Women to Lead Cyber Security” programme can be found here.