Grosvenor House, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Speakers – 6th CISO 360 Middle East 2025

The 2025 programme is currently being developed, the latest event flyer and programme can always be found on the downloads tab.

If you would be interested in getting involved as a Speaker, please let us know. We would also welcome your input on companies, topics or specific persons you would like to see included on the agenda this year. We welcome your input into shaping the agenda sara.hook@pulseconferences.com.

Speakers 6th CISO 360 Middle East 2025 (partial list) 

Chuks is a certified high-impact leader (Cambridge institute of sustainability and leadership (CISL), a Certified digital risk expert (Harvard University),  an enterprise risk management expert (University of Cape town), from Data to decision expert (Imperial College, London), Digital Supply chain and logistic expert  (IMD), a Digital investigation and forensic computing expert, (University College, Dublin), a telecommunication and internet engineering expert (University of Applied Sciences, Project Management profession (PMP – PMI Institute, USA), Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH – EC-Council).  His Leadership Roles include USA Today Bestselling author – Game on Leadership that lasts, Judge of the top 100 global CISO, 2021 top 100 global CISO , Global Chief Information Security and compliance officer,  Brenntag Se, Non-Exec Board Member CyberVolt, Co-Chair DACH-CISO,  Evanta, a Gartner Company, Co-founder: Conscience Matters. Over 20 years of experience in balancing agility with governance while building innovation, people, processes, and a technology-focused digital security ecosystem. Engaged in providing transformation and strategic leadership in managing information security risks with regard to adaptive and proactive threat intelligence insights, risk appetite/tolerance adaption,  technical and organizational countermeasures, etc. as the enterprise’s digital boundaries become blurred

Senior Information Security Officer / Deputy CISO at 

Jason Lau is currently the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Crypto.com where he drives the global cybersecurity and information privacy strategy. Jason led his team to become the first cryptocurrency company in the world to have company-wide certifications in ISO 27001:2013, ISO 27701:2019, ISO 22301:2019, PCI:DSS 4.0, SOC2 Type 2 and meeting the highest “Adaptive” tier of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and NIST Privacy Framework. Prior to this, Jason was a regional Cybersecurity Advisor at Microsoft, leading Microsoft’s cybersecurity initiatives in Asia Pacific. Jason holds the title of Adjunct Professor of cybersecurity and data privacy at one of Asia’s leading business schools, a member of the global ISACA Board of Directors, Advisory Board for BlackHat and former Asia Advisory Board, Co-Chair and faculty member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). Jason also sits on the advisory board of Tencent’s Finance Academy, advising on FinTech and cybersecurity ecosystem development in the region. Jason has over 24 years in consulting experience for Fortune 500 companies in the fields of management consulting, cybersecurity, IT governance, privacy and risk management, and holds certifications such as CISSP, CDPSE, CGEIT, CISA, CISM, CRISC, CIPP/E, CIPM, CIPT, CEH, CNDA, CSM, HCISPP and more. Jason has won multiple awards including the “Cybersecurity Professional Award”, and “Outstanding Financial Technologist of the Year (Data Privacy)”, and voted a “Top 50 global thought leader and influencer on cybersecurity”, selected by industry peers into the “Global CISO 100” and most recently, Business Magazine Executive of the Year for Cybersecurity and multiple CSO Online “CISO 30” winner. Jason also sits on industry advisory groups and participates on various global security and privacy think tanks like the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network, Centre for Information Policy Leadership (CIPL). Jason has over a decade in the Healthcare industry across 5 continents safeguarding highly sensitive Protected Health Information (PHI) for hospitals and healthcare providers, and is a certified HealthCare Information Security and Privacy Professional (HCISPP). Jason also sits on various industry committees on the cybersecurity risks and ethical use of Artificial Intelligence. Jason holds a bachelor degree in engineering (Honors) and bachelor degree in commerce, and completed executive programs at Stanford and Harvard.

Jake Bernardes is a seasoned CISO with extensive experience spanning technical consultancy, advisory roles, and executive leadership. Throughout his career, Jake has worked and lived across the globe, amassing deep insights into building and scaling security programs for growth-stage and enterprise organizations alike. A proven expert in developing robust security and IT functions, Jake equally specializes in driving go-to-market strategies for security-focused products, particularly for international companies expanding into the U.S. market. His holistic approach to cybersecurity enables businesses to align their security posture with operational and strategic goals, ensuring resilience in today’s evolving threat landscape. Jake’s dedication to innovation and his practical understanding of security challenges make him a trusted partner to companies navigating complex regulatory environments and seeking scalable security solutions. He was an early adopter of many GRC solutions and have served in multiple customer advisory boards prior to joining Anecdotes, where he continues to lead with a vision of empowering organizations through smarter, data-driven compliance

Manny Khan serves as Director of Cybersecurity at BitGo, the 2nd largest crypto custodian in the world operating across 60+ countries with over $100B+ in assets under custody. He is an internationally recognized cybersecurity executive across North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East with over 16+ years of global experience protecting critical infrastructure, leading technical security, regulatory assurance, and compliance-driven innovation across the financial services and digital asset sectors. Manny leads global cybersecurity strategy spanning product security, infrastructure protection, and regulatory assurance. His leadership focuses on taking a shift left approach to security by design into decentralized financial systems while aligning with evolving requirements from regulators including the SEC, BaFin, MAS, NYDFS, and VARA. He specializes in global strategy and architecting technical and operational control frameworks for digital custody, tokenization, real-world assets (RWA), and Web3 transaction workflows. A former cybersecurity leader at Elsevier, Sony, A+E Networks, and KPMG, Manny has built and led global 24/7/365 distributed security departments, commanded cross-jurisdiction security incident response, and deployed enterprise-wide vulnerability remediation and threat detection programs. He serves on the Global Technical Advisory Board at Cyberhaven, advises industry partners on insider threat prevention, and contributes to regulatory engagement efforts around crypto risk governance. He is a certified CISM, CISA, CBSP, PMP, and ITIL practitioner, and holds an Executive MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management. His credentials also include ISO 27001 implementation and Governance, Risk, and Compliance program modernization in highly regulated environments. Manny is an internationally recognized expert and speaker on Security. He is also a frequent speaker and member of InfraGard, ISSA-LA, ISACA, the Cloud Security Alliance, and the FBI’s CyberHood Watch. He is known for bridging board-level risk priorities with execution, driving trust in digital assets through secure design and compliance maturity.

Lady Olga Maitland, Founder, Defense and Security Forum and Chairman, Copenhagen Compliance – has wide experience in all major Governance, risk Management and Compliance issues in general and global Fraud and Corruption problems in particular. She is a special adviser to a number of dignitaries and a widely sought after speaker at all Major Conferences on several Corporate Governance issues. Lady Olga is a former British MP for the Conservative party. Prior to her political career she was a reporter for the Fleet Street News Agency, a columnist in the London.

Robert has over 35 years of audit, risk and cybersecurity experience and has held a number of senior leadership positions, including CISO for the NHS and health & care system, GSK, National Grid, and Merrill Lynch and Head of InfoSec at Royal Bank of Scotland, and he was a partner at KPMG. Robert is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Assurance Research and Engineering at George Mason University, Washington DC. He is also an Honorary Professor at UCL. He was awarded a PhD in psychology by the University of Leeds for his work on the perceptions of information and IT risk and has published and presented on this and other topics. He continues to undertake research in these areas. He was also awarded an MBA from Manchester Business School. Robert also holds a number of commercial board positions including Chair of the Crossword Consulting Ltd Board, Non-Executive Director of Crossword Cybersecurity PLC, and Chair of the Board at Think Cyber Ltd and advisor to the Government of Singapore Ministry of Health. He is also a Governor/Trustee and Audit Committee Member of the University of Brighton.

Dr Leivesley, sally@newrisk.com works on generic solutions to catastrophic risks to critical infrastructure across all disciplines and contributes practical applications to government policy and business. She has been a Panel adviser to for the British IET and CPNI supported publication for Cyber Security in the Built Environment.
As an Advisor to companies and governments on protection of people and infrastructure and strategies for security and business Dr Leivesley has worked across industry sectors gas and petrochemicals; power distribution; hazardous goods transportation by rail; underground and aboveground rail; underground mines; bulk shipping and banks.
As an international media commentator she has commentated for BBC World Service and other news outlets on extreme threats – Chinese spy balloon over USA nuclear missile site, uranium package at London Heathrow airport,
cyber; terrorism; aviation losses; nuclear reactor explosions; Kabul 2021 evacuation; South China Sea; Polonium-210 and Novichok poisonings, Beslan siege; Iran; DPRK; USA Presidential security abroad; Covid-19, unexplained incidents such as MH370 and chemical incidents.

Dr Leivesley has held international scientific meetings on issues of catastrophic risk including risks of emerging nuclear weapons, infrastructure resilience including cyber, Covid-19 solutions and hazardous near-earth objects.
She was director of two disaster recovery units in Australia (weather and chemical incidents) and trained by British Home Office as Scientific Advisor holding a Cold War appointment as on all aspects of nuclear war.
PhD London University; Member of the Register of Security Engineers and Specialists RSES; International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigator; Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies, and the British Information Assurance Advisory Council Community.

Steve is a cybersecurity and risk adviser to several leading enterprises, as well as a security contributor to ABC News and an honorary professor at King’s College, London. He was previously Group CISO at Credit Suisse and, before that, their global head of technology, cyber and third party risk management. He retired from the UK government in 2017, where he had served as Deputy Director responsible for cyber in the National Security Secretariat in the Cabinet Office and in various national security roles for over 30 years (including in the British Embassy, Dubai). He graduated from Jesus College, Cambridge.

Sudha is the founding member of Post quantum working group at FSISAC and specialises in financial sector Cryptography focused architectures such as digital assets, confidential compute and post quantum cryptography. Experienced visionary with a demonstrated history of building high performing teams that deliver mission-critical results for financial industry risk reduction. A people focused leader with ultimate focus on results in production through inspirational approaches. Ability to leverage strong understanding on complex business, technical and risk baselines and apply quantitative techniques to collaboratively create solutions to business problems. Deep expertise in building measurable and scalable ROI focused risk remediation strategies, operating models in financial space to prepare the industry and my current enterprise towards the next digital readiness.

Qasim Raza is an accomplished Technology Programme Delivery Lead at Barclays, with over 15 years of experience across the IT and Financial Services sectors. His expertise lies in leading complex technology programmes, driving Digital Transformation, and implementing Strategic Technology Solutions within highly regulated environments.

Qasim began his career in engineering as a Database Engineer at Capgemini, later progressing to lead Deloitte’s Microsoft Technical Support team for external audits. His journey into Financial Services has seen him evolve from a Technology Risk Manager to a Senior Leadership role at Barclays, where he now leads the delivery of major technology initiatives across Infrastructure Services.

His core areas of expertise include Cloud Migration strategy, Cyber Remediation, IT Audit and Compliance, and Regulatory Transformation. He has successfully delivered technology programmes with budgets of up to £20 million, including workplace and collaboration tools deployed to over 400+ employees. Qasim is known for his ability to manage global teams, engage senior stakeholders including CIOs and Audit Partners, and deliver results in high-pressure, high-impact environments.

Beyond his professional commitments, Qasim served on the Advisory Committee for AI 2030, contributing to conversations around responsible and innovative technology adoption. He is driven by a passion for helping people and championing technical innovation. Outside of work, he is an avid hiker and runner, having recently completed the UK’s Three Peaks Challenge within 24 hours.

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