We are delighted to announce three new members who have joined the SECRC Advisory Group. Welcome Michael Hynes, Information Assurance Manager at Guildford Borough Council, Agnes Bailey, Headteacher at Ash Manor School, Surrey, and Nick Harris, Cyber and Innovation Head at Oxford Nanopore Technologies.
Michael Hynes CISSP, CCSP and ITIL
Information Assurance Manager at Guildford Borough Council
Michael is a CISSP, CCSP and ITIL qualified Information Security Specialist with extensive expertise in the delivery of information security, complex IT services, ensuring efficiencies, and leading change projects across large corporate environments.
With roles at HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, and VTB Investment Bank, Michael has worked developed a varied range of technical skills with the ability to lead and engage with people of diverse and global backgrounds.
Michael is currently the Information Assurance Manager at Guildford Borough Council where he holds the responsibility for the development, implementation, delivery, and support of the enterprise-level information security compliance strategy, with a focus on embedding ISO 27001 and being responsible for the Council’s compliance with GDPR, PSN, and PCI-DSS.
On joining the SECRC Advisory Group, Michael said: “I am excited to join the Cyber Resilience Advisory Group acting as a nexus between Policing, the private sector, and academia to improve the cyber security landscape in the South East.
“This is a new and innovative initiative, and I am looking forward to influencing and advising on the strategy and objectives as we expand across the region. With a wealth of talent and experience on the Advisory Group, hopefully, we can engage and make a real difference.”
Agnes Bailey, Headteacher at Ash Manor School, Surrey
Agnes taught her first maths lesson in 1984 in Scotland. She moved to Berkshire in 2002 as Head of Mathematics before becoming an Advanced Skills Teacher. She has worked in East Ayrshire, Bracknell Forest, Wokingham, Hackney, and Merton in a range of pastoral and curricular roles. Her move into school leadership has seen her work across a range of contexts including single and mixed-sex schools; areas with relative affluence and those with socio-economic challenges.
In all these roles she has put a passion for young people to achieve at the heart of her work, which in turn has seen an upturn in the students’ academic and social outcomes. She has been headteacher of Ash Manor School in Surrey since January 2016 and is incredibly proud of what the young people in her school achieve.
When asked about why she joined the SECRC Advisory Group, Agnes said: “In November 2018 we had a potential ransomware situation in Ash Manor School and the support received at that time from the Cyber Security Team was invaluable. I feel privileged to be included in this initiative to ensure that the particular needs of schools are considered at the planning stages.”
Nick Harris, Cyber and Innovation Head at Oxford Nanopore Technologies
Nick Harris is passionate about realising a team’s full potential through effective leadership and has extensive cyber security experience across the public sector, consultancy, and SMEs. After 12 years in IT and security in the Royal Air Force in the UK and overseas, Nick worked with clients on their security operations, and risk and compliance while at Deloitte.
Moving to the Oxford University Press, and enthusiastic in the application of Lean and Six Sigma to improve efficiency, he invested in a preventative (shift-left) strategy to remove errors early, delivering application security testing and staff awareness, and the full spread of GRC capabilities alongside his leadership coaching.
Nick is now heading the cyber and information security team at Nanopore Technologies, continuing to focus on preventative resilience strategies and pragmatic technologies to return the most benefit for the necessary cost.
On his appointment, Nick commented: “I am excited about being part of the South East community, through the CRC. By empowering the connections between the NCSC, regional police, SMEs in all industries and vendors, there is fantastic potential to draw best practice, insights and help get the best value from the available technologies to keep businesses resilient in an ever complex cyber environment.”