“Empowering Women to Lead Cyber Security”, the new initiative designed to tackle gender diversity in cyber security, has been meeting in person for the first time in Edinburgh this week.
The programme is a collaboration between leadership coaching consultants Empowering-You and communications consultancy I to I Communications, with the support of industry body ScotlandIS, The Scottish Government’s Digital Directorate and the Scottish Digital Academy, and has the long term aim of building a community of emerging women leaders in cyber security and information management/assurance roles across all industry sectors, in a bid to tackle the historic lack of women in the sector.
The 3-month Programme is free of charge to participants, with funding provided from industry partners including Adarma, Lloyds Banking Group, Morgan Stanley and NCC Group.
In addition to forging new relationships and networks with their peers and starting their collaborative work to address the challenges they’ve been set, the group have also been hearing from established female leaders in the cyber security industry about their own personal leadership journeys.
Presenting on the final day of the gathering is Lloyds Banking Group’s Director of Intelligence and Incident Response, Maggie Titmuss MBE. Maggie’s experience spans over 30 years in international law enforcement and financial services, and has held senior positions at the National Crime Agency (NCA), the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and HSBC, prior to joining Lloyds.
Commenting on the support from Lloyds Banking Group for the Programme, Maggie said, “At Lloyds Banking Group we fully recognise that gender diversity is key to our success and that of our people. As an organisation we need to reflect the society we serve and that is why we are thrilled to be part of this initiative to encourage women to develop their careers in IT and Cyber Security leadership. The low proportion of women in the UK cyber workforce really highlights the challenge we have and if we want to remove the barriers to women as they embark on and progress their careers in Cyber Security, and help them overcome their challenges, programmes like this are instrumental in achieving this.”
The Autumn cohort is due to run from September to November, with a joint graduation and Challenge presentation scheduled for early December. For more details on the programme and stay informed on developments for future cohorts, go to the website.