About Us
We work as a Partnership with a diverse and highly experienced cohort of Cyber Security Specialists.
Leading the Partnership
Mike Hawthorne OBE FCMI FBCS
CEO and Founder
Mike has over 20 years of experience working with nuclear submarines and is a former nuclear Submarine Captain. For the last 20 years he has worked in the Cyber Security and Information Technology sectors. During this period, he was seconded to a UK National Agency where he developed novel cyber security techniques and led the formation of the UK’s Cyber Reserves. He is adept at translating the technical nuances of cyber security into meaningful business actions, including options that optimise the public/private partnership approach to cyber security, improved workforce cyber security through culture awareness and training, intelligence-led cyber security, managing the insider threat and identifying options to improve a firm’s cyber resilience, based on national and international standards. Expert in cyber security and crisis management
In the last few years, Mike has managed a CBEST assessment for a major insurance company, post an FCA sanction; a CSC CIS Top 20 Controls review for the UK’s leading processor of safeguarding data, completed the first cyber security assessment for a leading worldwide NYSE listed shipping company; led the cyber resilience response for a major UK food supplier, post a significant ransomware attack; assessed the implementation of appropriate technical and organisational measures, training serials and GDPR compliance activities for numerous Pension funds and start-ups in the Space and FinTech sectors.
He is a Fellow of the British Computer Society and the Chartered Management Institute. He is a “Younger Brother” of Trinity House and was awarded the OBE for services to Cyber Security in 2016.
Penny Jackson
Director, Strategy, Resilience and Human Risk Management
Penny began her career as a broadcaster working for the BBC World Service achieving Senior Broadcast Director status. Penny continued to develop her career and skills from within the BBC, leading on major change management programmes both on the design side of staff engagement projects and as a key facilitator. Since leaving the BBC Penny built up a successful portfolio career in learning and development and communications. In the last 25 years, she has gained demonstrable experience leading and implementing large-scale communications/engagement programmes in support of delivering cultural shifts. Her career has spanned both permanent and strategic advisory roles within the public and private sector, including HMRC, Government organisations and pensions funds.
Over the last 7 years Penny has become a respected leader in cyber security awareness and engagement. She led the engagement and communications for the Cyber Operational Readiness Support Programme on behalf of NHS digital, working in tandem with ten Trusts and UKHSA. Her most recent permanent role was within the Security Senior Leadership team, advising directly to the Executive as the Security Awareness Strategic Leader for the John Lewis Partnership.
Her strategic focus has been to help businesses and organisations to articulate the behavioural governance, policy and processes required to achieve organisational cultural shift to improve business resilience through effective Cybersecurity engagement. Penny’s unique experience enables her to work with boards to review and exercise their business resilience during and after a Cyberattack. Her insights and experience delivering cybersecurity board level crisis command exercises particularly help boards focus on employee behavioural response and communications during a cyber crisis. She has worked with multiple critical national infrastructure organisations, private businesses, and the banking sector.