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Armis appoints Christina Kemper to Vice President of International

2024-09-12T11:53:18+10:00

Asset intelligence cybersecurity company Armis has appointed Christina Kemper to VP of International.

Armis says that in her role, Kemper will accelerate international sales growth and expand Armis’ global presence “forging strategic partnerships with organisations across EMEA and Asia Pacific to help businesses manage their cyber risk exposure in real time”.

“Christina brings a wealth of experience and a track record of success in the industry,” said Alex Mosher, Chief Revenue Officer, Armis. “Her strategic vision and deep understanding of the global market will be invaluable as she leads our international expansion efforts, supporting customers to effectively balance innovation and security as they embrace digital transformation. I’m confident that we will achieve great success in the international market with her leadership, expertise and passion.”

Armis notes that London-based Kemper brings over 20 years of sales and leadership experience with global technology enterprises. Most recently, Kemper served as Vice President of EMEA at threat intelligence company Recorded Future - and prior to this, Kemper spent 11 years at sales performance solutions provider CallidusCloud, now part of SAP, where she rose through the ranks of the sales team, ultimately serving in the role of Senior Vice President of Sales for EMEA.

Kemper holds an MBA from Columbia Business School.

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“I’m thrilled to join the Armis team at such an exciting time in the company’s journey,” said Kemper. “On a global scale, Armis is achieving remarkable growth, driven by its world-class technology, dedicated team and commitment to helping enterprises of all verticals to protect the ever-expanding attack surface. I’m eager to dive right in and look forward to contributing to Armis’ success and to making an impact working with our customers and partners internationally.”

Armis notes that the news of Christina Kemper’s appointment follows the recent announcement that the company surpassed US$200M in annual recurring revenue (ARR) globally, doubling ARR in less than 18 months.

“Armis is one of just a few companies that has achieved this rapid scale, not just in the cybersecurity market, but of any SaaS company worldwide. Armis’ explosive growth has been driven by its award-winning AI-powered cyber exposure management platform, Armis Centrix™, which has been adopted by the world’s leading organisations, including 35 of the top Fortune 100 companies.

“Armis is expanding globally to provide unparalleled cybersecurity solutions and to protect its customers’ digital assets in an ever-evolving threat landscape. Find open career opportunities here,” concluded Armis.

University of Waikato halves IT energy demands using Nutanix cloud solution

2024-09-12T11:18:12+10:00

The University of Waikato claimed it has halved its IT energy demands with a hybrid multicloud strategy centred on Nutanix Cloud Platform solution.

When the University’s previous on-premise IT infrastructure was up for renewal, University of Waikato associate director of architecture and applications Glenn Penfold decided to take a completely new approach—one that would set it up for the future, derisk the organisation from vendor changes, and further improve its sustainability credentials.

Penfold recalls, “Traditionally, we had run and hosted our own data centre. Through the refresh process we identified data centres had become commoditised, and that we would be better off letting a professional organisation run ours.”

“For us, the ongoing capital investment and maintenance in running a data centre was prohibitive. This also caused us to focus on the wrong areas, and it was taking us away from adding digital value.”

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Penfold said one of the risks identified was the impending acquisition of VMware, which was the University’s incumbent infrastructure vendor.

“Our refresh project started in November 2023, so although we didn’t know exactly what the acquisition would mean for us, the writing was on the wall,” Penfold said. “It was enough of a risk for us to make sure we considered alternatives.”

After a tender process, the University selected Nutanix Cloud Platform and the AHX hypervisor since “Nutanix complemented the University’s desired hybrid multicloud strategy and energy efficiency targets.”

It also provided the flexibility and scalability required for the University’s future plans.

“Nutanix hit the mark for us as it was simple and easy to use, ticked all the boxes on our hybrid multicloud strategy, and from a sustainability point-of-view it was quite attractive,” he said.

“Through the implementation, we’ve consolidated our infrastructure needs from 14 physical racks to just seven, requiring much less power without sacrificing performance.”

Enabling the University’s hybrid multicloud strategy was a non-negotiable for Penfold. He said the University would always have a requirement for some on-premise infrastructure, given data sovereignty requirements around its research data, but public cloud and SaaS were preferred where it made sense.

“We’re heavy Microsoft Azure users, particularly for custom development applications and data integration, while Moodle – our Learning Management System – is fully hosted by Catalyst IT,” Penfold said.

“While we use cloud wherever it fits, we will always have a physical presence due to the sensitivity of some of our data and the incompatibility of some business-critical apps – like our student management system – to run on the cloud.”

“For us, that means our future is hybrid multicloud. With that in mind, Nutanix was a perfect fit as it enables application mobility across our environments where we need it, as well as providing a single pane of glass to manage and maintain our various clouds – whether public, private, or hosted.”

Penfold said the implementation was completed on an ‘aggressive timeline’ and completed during a period of peak demand.

“We made our decision in November 2023, had the platform up-and-running before Christmas, and finished migrating workloads by March,” Penfold said. “Our first semester starts in late February; it's our busiest time of year, and we were able to complete the whole migration of production workloads during this time with zero disruption.”

Penfold said the University’s relationship with local partner ASI Solutions was key to the project’s success.

“ASI has a good niche at finding these strategic technologies that are a perfect fit. They have a large education customer base, so they truly understood our business and the challenges we face.”

During the project, the University sold its data centre to Spark NZ. Its primary Nutanix cluster is now housed there with a disaster recovery cluster in Spark’s Takanini data centre in Auckland.

The University is now in the initial stages of a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure project where it plans to decommission up to 1200 high-powered lab computers.

It is also exploring the Nutanix GPT-in-a-Box solution for future machine learning projects.

Nutanix APJ sales general manager and vice president Aaron White said the University had future-proofed its business with a true hybrid multicloud strategy.

“Our recent Enterprise Cloud Index report found hybrid multicloud cloud strategies would see the highest growth over the next three years – more than doubling from 15% to 35% of deployments – but many organisations are only in the early stages of this journey,” White said.

“This puts the University of Waikato well ahead of the curve and sets themselves up for an even brighter, greener, and smarter future.”

One of New Zealand’s leading institutions for teaching and research, the University of Waikato has 13,500 students and 2,500 staff across two vibrant campuses in the North Island: in Hamilton and a downtown Tauranga, as well as a joint institute in Hangzhou, China.

ECI Software Solutions appoints industry veteran Ray Wizbowski as chief marketing officer

2024-09-12T09:41:43+10:00

ECI Software Solutions strengthens its senior leadership team, announcing the appointment of Ray Wizbowski as chief marketing officer, effective August 01, 2024.

With more than 20 years of marketing experience spanning multiple industries and both small-to-medium businesses (SMB) and enterprise customers, Wizbowski will lead ECI's marketing strategy and ensure its alignment with business objectives and drive brand growth, enhance customer engagement and optimise ECI’s marketing positioning.

Trevor Gruenewald, chief executive officer, ECI Software Solutions said “We’re excited to welcome Ray to the ECI team.

“Ray’s extensive experience building high-performing marketing teams and driving growth in diverse industries perfectly aligns with our strategic goals. His proven track record in developing and executing innovative marketing strategies will be invaluable as we expand our market presence. We are confident that Ray's leadership and vision will help us achieve new levels of success. We look forward to the fresh perspectives he brings to ECI.”

Wizbowski joins ECI from Diligent, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company specialising in governance, risk and compliance, owned by Insight Partners. During his tenure at Diligent, Wizbowski played a pivotal role in value creation by significantly increasing pipeline coverage across the company’s five business lines. He also led a comprehensive company rebranding initiative that integrated multiple acquisitions and successfully aligned the go-to-market functions between marketing and business development representatives to drive growth.

Ray Wizbowski, chief marketing officer, ECI Software Solutions said "I'm honoured to join ECI in supporting SMBs as they grow and strengthen their competitive edge.

“Having grown up in a family of small business entrepreneurs, I understand the challenges of building a sustainable business. I’ve seen firsthand how technology can make a crucial difference in helping SMBs stand out. I’m excited to help our customers drive success and support their entrepreneurial journeys."

Pronto Software leadership changes to strengthen company operations

2024-09-11T12:39:41+10:00

Pronto Software has announced two executive appointments as the company continues to deliver on its growth strategy and commitment to customers.

Mark Hilder has been appointed as the new General Manager of the New South Wales branch. Mr Hilder has been a core member of the Pronto Software team for 17 years and moves into the role from his previous position as a Business Relationship Manager for NSW.

Pronto Software is also pleased to announce that Anthony Nicholl, formerly General Manager of the South Australia and Western Australia branches, will be stepping into the National Branch Operations Manager role.

This appointment will expand Mr Nicholl’s remit to include responsibility for Pronto Software branches in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia.

Anthony Nicholl, National Branch Operations Manager

The leadership changes align with Pronto Software’s growth ambitions and commitment to customers, with appointments set to strengthen operations, deliver national efficiencies, and bolster customer satisfaction.

“I am very pleased to announce these two appointments,” said Chad Gates, Managing Director at Pronto Software.

“Mark has been with us for 17 years and is highly regarded by team members and customers alike. I am always delighted to promote from within, and I know Mark will dedicate himself to furthering the success of the NSW business.

“Anthony’s appointment will strengthen our focus on branches as we further execute on our strategy. Anthony knows the business, customers and product intimately and has been involved with Pronto Software for well over 20 years. He has my full backing in the new role.”

Commenting on his appointment, Mr Hilder said he was elated to have been promoted to the General Manager position in New South Wales.

“Pronto Software is a wonderful company to work at and my team are already in a solid position to continue to grow the Pronto Software brand, delivering value for our clients,” he said.

Mr Nicholl also expressed delight at the expansion of his remit as National Branch Operations Manager.

“It is a privilege to be appointed in this new role at Pronto Software,” he said.

“We have an amazing team, and I look forward to leading our branches at a national level and continuing to build on the solid foundation Pronto Software has established over the last 45 years.”

TBM Council Announces New Executive Director

2024-09-11T12:48:30+10:00

Technology leader to usher in new era of TBM

The Technology Business Management (TBM) Council, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to advancing the discipline of TBM through education, standards and collaboration between IT leaders and business partners, has announced its new Executive Director, Matthew Guarini. Guarini previously served as the Vice President and Senior Research Director for Forrester Research’s Technology Executive Service and will use his expertise to support the Council’s strategy, finances and operations.

TBM connects business value to technology investments by giving finance, technology, and business leaders comprehensive visibility, benchmarking, optimisation, billing and planning of their investments regardless of technology stack, delivery or development model. The TBM Council provides best practices for leaders to leverage so they can react quickly to changing market dynamics and optimise cloud and agile strategies to deliver on business objectives.

In his role, Guarini will be focused on leading the modernisation efforts of TBM through some of the biggest updates to the core standards since its launch. These updates include an entirely new Framework 2.0 that positions TBM as a unifying framework for technology value management, allowing organisations to understand the trade-offs between various dimensions of value including performance, risk, sustainability, and costs. Additionally, there will be work on a significant 5.0 update to the TBM Taxonomy, the most well-known element of the TBM discipline, that will add support for cost modelling Generative AI (GenAI) solutions and elevate visibility to on-prem and cloud costs among other changes. Together, the new standards will be aimed to allow organisations to optimise for value across complex hybrid cloud environments and estimate ROI, develop fully burdened investment models, and realise value from AI investments – a key outcome the industry has been increasingly in need of solutions to address.

“The speed of innovation in technology is forcing companies to be more agile and strategic when it comes to their technology investments and how they bring value to the organisation as a whole,” said Matthew Guarini, Executive Director, TBM Council. “I am looking forward to joining an industry-leading organisation at the precipice of reshaping TBM to best align with the goals of businesses across industries as they continue to navigate the complexities of the evolving technology landscape.”

“Matthew is known for his energetic leadership style that can rally teams effectively toward a shared goal,” said Ajay Patel, General Manager, Apptio (an IBM Company) & IT Automation. “His passion for TBM really comes through when you talk with him, and it’s clear he will be a powerful voice for the future of technology management and how it can add strategic value for businesses in all industries.”

For more information about the TBM Council, its membership, and the education and standards it offers, please visit the TBM Council website here.

Humanforce Helps to Reduce Staff Turnover for Story House Early Learning

2024-09-12T11:51:26+10:00

Humanforce, an Australian-borne global provider of human capital management (HCM) solutions, has successfully partnered with Story House Early Learning to elevate their visibility and efficiency of its operations, when it comes to people and workforce management. Story House is a national early childhood education and care provider with a growing number of services across Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria.

Katie Ludwig, Head of People and Culture at Story House Early Learning, highlighted the transformative impact of Humanforce’s HCM suite on operations. "When I joined Story House almost three years ago, our HR processes were highly decentralised and manual, making it difficult to manage our dispersed workforce. Implementing Humanforce has given us the transparency and efficiency we needed. Now, our team members, who we call ‘Story House-ers’, have easy access to their employment information, and we have centralised oversight to ensure compliance and streamlined administrative tasks."

Through the adoption of Humanforce’s comprehensive HCM suite, Story House has achieved real improvements in employee engagement and retention. This is helping to increase retention in an industry that faces ongoing challenges with staff turnover. These challenges were illustrated in a United Workers Union (UWU) report released in October last year, which found about 95 per cent of the nearly 1,000 Australian early childhood centres surveyed said they have had staff leave in the past 12 months and, of those, 78 per cent have had more than three educators leave.

"We’ve seen a year-on-year decline in turnover of more than 5%, which is significant in our industry. Humanforce’s tools have played a key role in this by creating a supportive and efficient work environment," Ludwig continued.

Story House Early Learning, which currently operates circa 50 services with 1,500 team members, had unique HR needs due to the nature of its work. "Our focus is on educating and caring for children, so any systems or processes we implement need to free up our team members to focus on their core roles," Ludwig explained. "Humanforce has been instrumental in achieving this by reducing the administrative burden on our leaders and providing tools that support our staff's wellbeing and efficiency."

Humanforce has improved efficiency in managing shifts and scheduling, with the ability for managers to quickly offer shifts to team members via the mobile app. It allows Story House leaders to focus on their primary roles rather than being tied down by administrative tasks. The 95% of employees who currently use the Humanforce app can also access a range of self-service features, such as their roster, clocking in and out, and applying for leave. This has led to a more engaged and satisfied workforce.

For Story House, another standout feature has been Humanforce Thrive. Thrive allows Story House employees to access a portion of their already earned wages when they need it, providing financial autonomy and reducing the need for payday loans or credit cards.

“Humanforce Thrive allows childcare operators to improve their employee value proposition (EVP) by bringing a wellbeing and benefits proposition to employees. It offers individual workers more control over their day-to-day lives, with one powerful example being on-demand access to pay, which liberates cash flow in ways that can make a meaningful difference to employees’ lives,” explained Clayton Pyne, CEO of Humanforce. “We’ve also been able to help Story House effectively and efficiently manage compliance, a critical aspect in the heavily regulated early education sector. With Humanforce, they can now easily track qualifications, manage expiry dates, and automate notifications, ensuring the company remains compliant without the need for manual record-keeping."

Humanforce has also enabled Story House to gather meaningful insights from its workforce, which again improves employee engagement. Story House has seen a 65% response rate to its onboarding surveys, allowing the company to continuously improve the candidate and onboarding experience. Story House has also seen a 40% response rate to the regular surveys it sends to employees through Humanforce (up from 10% using a third-party platform). This continuous feedback model allows Story House to assess how employees are feeling in their roles and what learning and development opportunities they might need. This data is crucial for making informed decisions and ensuring the company’s strategic goals align with the needs of Story House-ers.

"Humanforce has been a game-changer for us. Their solutions have not only streamlined our HR processes and improved compliance but also empowered our staff by giving them greater control over their work and finances. The ability to access real-time data and feedback has been invaluable in helping us create a supportive, efficient, and compliant work environment," concluded Ludwig.

Avalara Names Kevin Sellers Chief Marketing Officer

2024-09-11T11:25:34+10:00

Sellers’ deep expertise in demand generation, digital marketing, and brand positioning will further propel Avalara’s worldwide market position in tax compliance automation

Avalara, Inc., a leading provider of tax compliance automation software for businesses of all sizes, today announced Kevin Sellers has been named Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer.

Sellers brings more than 25 years of broad-based global marketing expertise to Avalara with a proven track record of driving growth and relevance for world-class brands and moving buyers to action. As CMO of Avalara, Sellers will be responsible for all aspects of marketing including driving demand generation, digital marketing, brand identity, partner marketing, product marketing, prospect marketing, and corporate communications.

"We’re delighted to welcome a proven marketer like Kevin Sellers to Avalara,” said Kimberly Deobald, Chief Revenue Officer at Avalara. “Kevin brings decades of go-to-market marketing expertise from global technology players and has incredible branding and storytelling skills that will benefit Avalara in our next phase of growth.”

Prior to Avalara, Sellers has held CMO positions at Ping Identity and Avnet and spent more than 20 years at Intel in various global marketing and investor relations leadership roles. He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and an MBA from Brigham Young University.

The appointment of Sellers follows the April 2024 announcement of Ross Tennenbaum as the company’s President, responsible for driving company-wide improvements and ensuring the success of every Avalara customer around the globe.

About Avalara

Avalara makes tax compliance faster, easier, more accurate, reliable, and valuable for 41,000+ business and government customers in over 75 countries. Tax compliance automation software solutions from Avalara leverage 1,200+ signed partner integrations across leading ecommerce, ERP, and other billing systems to power tax calculations, document management, tax return filing, and tax content access. Visit avalara.com to improve your compliance journey.

Tesserent CEO calls for authentic conversations on R U OK day as cybersecurity teams face burnout under pressure

2024-09-10T22:15:23+10:00

Thursday 12 September 2024 is R U OK day, and this year cybersecurity and cloud services provider Tesserent reminds us all to check in on our security teams after another year with relentless cybercriminals.

R U OK day is a national day of action highlighting the importance of meaningful conversations, held on the 2nd Thursday of September each year. It's the initiative of R U OK?, an Australian non-profit suicide prevention organisation. The key thrust of the organisation is, as you might guess, to check in with people around you and ask if they are ok.

Some take a cynical view that the day is unauthentic and tokenistic. Yet, the day's not for them. It's for the hidden people working and living amongst us who put on a brave face but are facing struggles and turmoils. We wouldn't even realise; they've become skilled at masking their pain. And even if your boss asking, "R U Ok?" before getting onto the days agenda may not be totally earnest, it's better to have a hundred of these than risk not having the sincere conversations.

And this year Kurt Hansen, the CEO from one of the largest cybersecurity companies in Australia, Tesserent, wants to encourage people to check in on the wellbeing of the company's Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and the cybersecurity team.

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Cyber attacks are relentless; iTWire reports regularly of breach after breach. We report the ongoing research into cybersecurity showing ransomware is still profitable, and that even nation states are getting in on the act for their own political purposes.

Imagine owning a bricks-and-mortar store and finding at every moment, of every hour, of every day, of every week that criminals are right at your doors and windows testing every possible access point. The criminals are lined up behind each other in a never-ending queue.

This is the reality for cybersecurity defenders, except the walls are electronic not physical, and the bad guys aren't simply there in person but from far-flung corners of the world.

We've seen high-profile destructive data breaches in Australia in recent years. There are many we don't see because they are less prominent. However, there are loads more we don't see because they didn't happen. Make no mistake, the attackers tried, but were thwarted by an observant, prepared, and sharp-thinking cybersecurity team.

When the attackers only need to get it right once to breach your defences, but you have to get it right every single time to defend, it's no easy task.

The reality is, Tesserent reminds us, is that the cybersecurity experts in your business are facing stress, pressure, and burnout in a highly intensive role. This is not good for your organisation, and it's not good for Australia, if we can't attract and retain the people we need in the battle against cybercrime.

Leigh McMullen, Vice-President and security analyst at Gartner, expects nearly half of cyber security leaders will change jobs by the end of next year with about a quarter of those leaving for entirely different roles. This is at a time when AustCyber estimates the shortage of skilled information security workers will reach almost 20,000 over the next two years in Australia.

A recent global survey from Hack The Box found mental fatigue, stress, and burnout is running rampant, affecting 84% of workers within the cyber security field. A 2023 report by Splunk revealed that 79% of cyber security professionals experienced burnout in the past year.

It doesn't have to be this way. Tesserent CEO Kurt Hansen wants to encourage us all to check in on our frontline cybersecurity teams this R U OK day and ask what we can do to help - and, importantly, listen to the response.

“Cybersecurity is a shared responsibility that encompasses every individual in an organisation from the boardroom to the basement. It is not the sole responsibility of one CISO or a small team of cyber security experts. Organisations need to listen to the advice from their CISO about what they need to do to protect the organisation, its people and customers, not just on R U OK Day but all year round," Hansen said.

“Organisations also need to think more about how they can give incident response teams, much needed downtime. It is important to rotate the team to ensure that people don’t burn out if back-to-back incidents are occurring. While you need to maintain a constant 24x7 watch, it is a shared responsibility,” he says.

Hansen isn't simply spruiking rhetoric. It's a sobering reality that many members of his senior leadership team have bravely spoken up about their own personal experiences as CISOs in major organisations. As you read their stories look at their photos, see their titles, note their experience. These are people like you and I, hard-working individuals committed to their craft and found in organisations all around. Yet, in the course of their duties they experienced health issues that altered their mood, their perceptions, and their wellbeing. These could well be the stories of someone you know.

Tesserent managing partner - managed and professional services Patrick Butler

Patrick has been working in cyber security for 16 years. When he entered the profession, he was totally unprepared for the stress he would face. "It took a long time for me to learn how to deal with this stress, and even now I haven't fully succeeded. When we conduct simulated threat exercises, I still feel an incredible level of stress, even though I know the impacts are not real," he says.

Patrick reveals he suffered burnout and health problems after one adversary simulation exercise in 2017, where the team simulated a sophisticated threat actor within the network over a week. He along with the management team worked for large parts of the day almost 24x7 to thwart the attackers. He says, "by the end of this the sheer exhaustion and burnout took months to recover from. And this was a simulation!"

Patrick advises that organisations need to consider how their business is structured to be able to work 24x7 to contain and eradicate a cyber threat. "This is not just about your incident response team or your Security Operations Centre, but also your IT and management teams as they also need to be available 24x7 in a major crisis. Often organisations haven't planned for this resulting in the significant risk of not having key resources available, or burnout in teams working around the clock," he says.

Patrick knows several CISOs that have departed their role over his time in the industry, moving into totally different careers or other roles within cyber security that had less responsibility for security and incident response.

Patrick's advice to CISOs on how to cope with the stress and pressure of the role, is to know your weaknesses, measure your risk and prepare for the worst. "Being well prepared reduces stress during an incident. It is important to share the accountability of risk for security across the organisation. If you find yourself still in a stressful situation despite your best efforts, then you need to become great at compartmentalisation. Find a way to protect your personal time so you can switch off and teach your mind that you have transitioned from work to personal time so that you can leave the troubles of the day behind," he recommends.

His advice for employers in the public and private sector is to recognise your employees are humans and, as an employer, create processes, structures and strategies to minimise the risk of burnout in a role and stress during a cyber security incident. "This is not just good for your people, but critical to managing risk and eradicating threats effectively," he stresses.

Tesserent CISO Jason Plumridge

Jason has been working in cyber security since he left the NSW Police Force in 2002. Prior to taking on the role of Tesserent's CISO he was Partner Advisory leading Tesserent's commercial advisory consulting group. When Jason commenced his current CISO role he didn't find it overly stressful due to his extensive background in law enforcement and emergency services and having to make daily decisions impacting the public and individuals in high stress situations.

But Jason has witnessed the stress and pressure other CISOs are under working with Tesserent's clients across public and private enterprises. "I would estimate that on average CISOs and other security leaders change roles due to stress and lack of support in 50% of cases. But global statistics are reporting the churn is higher," he says.

Jason candidly admits during his career he has experienced burnout and health problems including PTSD and minor depression triggered by traumatic events he encountered during his policing and emergency services career. "Due to my previous experiences, very little of what could be experienced as a CISO phases me, but I am not typical in the industry," he says.

He characterises the role of CISO as a complex and encompassing portfolio that generates significant competing priorities for attention and action. "A CISO can control some of these and some they cannot. For many CISO's unfortunately the inability to obtain the needed investment in technology to bolster an organisation's security can cause stress," he says.

Jason's advice to CISOs this R U Okay Day is to master the ability to separate work from personal life and create boundaries. "While a CISO role requires 24x7 contactability in the event of a security incident, this does not mean you have to be personally on call 24x7 mentally and physically. You need to learn to quickly assess and prioritise requirements based on risk and impact on the organisation to effectively manage your time and stress.

"CISOs need to trust in the ability of their colleagues to continue the requirements of the role when you are not available and avoid micro-managing every event. The CISO role is strategic leadership. To be successful you need to extract yourself as much as is practical from the day-to-day operational security requirements and focus on the leadership, strategy, compliance and risk functions of the role," he highlights.

His advice for employers is to understand it is not just about technology, but processes and other non-technical human factors that impact your security posture the most. "Be prepared to pay market rates for the security of the organisation and to obtain the skills and experience you need," he stresses.

Tesserent senior partner - offensive security services Silas Barnes

Silas has worked in cybersecurity for the past 17 years. For nine of these years, he was CISO with major Australian companies including Virgin Australia, UnitingCare Queensland and Air Services Australia prior to joining Tesserent.

Silas has watched how the role of CISO has evolved significantly since he started his first position in 2015. "Expectations are higher than ever with the continuing, relentless battle against rising cybercrime and the roles changing remit. Today the role of a CISO is very different from a decade ago when it was smaller in scope and more specialised," he explains.

Silas has seen CISOs who were his peers depart the role due to stress and pressure. "One resigned and took a whole year off to recover," he reports. Silas has suffered burnout and exhaustion during his security career with the stress and pressure affecting his sleep and his ability to switch off mentally. "The combination of critical responsibilities, high pressure, and devastating consequences of breach events can make it difficult to disconnect, even when on annual leave," he says.

To cope with stress and ensure more work life balance Silas has embraced skydiving to switch off from work and immense himself in the present moment. "Apart from jumping out of planes, I also make sure I take reasonable sized breaks when I take leave, ensuring it is longer than one or two days, to give myself a chance to fully unwind," he says.

Silas recommends people working in cybersecurity make time for some physical activity, try to stick to a healthy diet and take it easy when it comes to alcohol. "Recognise you can only do your best. Don't waste time chasing perfection and don't beat yourself up about not being perfect, instead focus on the value you are bringing to your organisation and on continuous and sustainable improvement," he recommends.

Silas suggests that security leaders consider their relationship with business social media content to support their own mental wellbeing and career satisfaction. "The increased pressure to develop a personal brand or be seen as a 'thought leader' by the wider community can bring on feelings of insecurity, inadequacy, and anxiety for those who focus on their day-to-day work," he says. "We should recognise the picture presented on social media platforms doesn't necessarily reflect the realities of working within our industry. Staying focused on your own personal journey and avoiding the trap of comparing yourself to others is important for mental health and wellbeing, no matter where you are in your career," he adds.

For employers of cybersecurity talent, he recommends, "make sure that people take breaks throughout the day. It is important a CISO has a supportive and capable second-in-command they can trust. Having a capable and trusted team to share the load is really important so you can take your annual leave and benefit from the full effect of a proper disconnection. And the CISO should feel the support of the whole senior leadership team because cyber resilience is a joint responsibility," he says.

Tesserent senior partner Mark Jones

Mark has spent over two decades working in cyber security, with six years as a CISO at major Australian businesses. He reports that many CISOs come to the role unprepared for the challenges they will face with constantly changing and evolving adversaries and emerging technologies being leveraged. They also face challenges inside the business around unlocking funding, managing budgets, communicating in a way that the Board and senior business leaders can understand and managing a team.

"During my career, I have witnessed many people burn out and leave cyber security, some moving into other tech roles or leaving the sector completely. I know at least five former senior professionals depart the industry because the unrelenting pressure was too much. There is a lot of out of hours work required, and this can take a toll personally on relationships and an individual's wellbeing," he says.

Mark stresses that organisations should make sure that they are not placing the sole responsibility for security on the shoulders of the CISO. "It is a team effort, the entire senior leadership team needs to own the responsibility for security," he says.

It doesn't end here ...

What action will you take after reading these? Will you ask your friends, family, and colleagues if they are ok, and will you listen to their response?

Check here for some workplace resources to help.

Alchemer names Martin Mrugal as CEO

2024-09-10T07:09:56+10:00

Alchemer announced the appointment of Martin Mrugal as the company’s new chief executive officer, effective immediately.

With over 25 years of experience in the technology industry, Mrugal has a proven track record of driving innovation and growth. He brings significant expertise in customer experience, having led customer strategy and customer success at multiple companies, including SAP.

“With deep expertise in both SaaS software and customer experience, Martin is the ideal leader to accelerate Alchemer’s strategy and mission of empowering customers to create meaningful business outcomes through CX and feedback programs,” said John Park, Alchemer Chairman and Partner at KKR. “We have a fantastic team at Alchemer with great technology and are looking forward to continued success under Martin’s direction.”

Most recently, Mrugal served as the Chief Operating Officer for Ellucian. In this role, he was responsible for all post-sales functions, including professional services, customer success, and support. Before joining Ellucian, he was the Chief Customer Officer at Citrix, where he led cloud innovation and customer strategy. Prior to his tenure at Citrix, Mrugal spent 22 years at SAP, holding multiple executive roles, including the head of Customer First, where he created the first global cross-portfolio customer success team.

“My focus has always centred on the customer and exceeding customer expectations; what excites me most about Alchemer is the mission of leveraging customer feedback across channels and interactions to make a real difference in business outcomes,” said Martin Mrugal, CEO of Alchemer. “This role combines my experience in enterprise software and my passion for customer success.”

Dubber appoints Matthew Bellizia as its Chief Executive Officer

2024-09-09T12:45:28+10:00

Dubber Corporation Limited announced the appointment of Matthew Bellizia as its new CEO, effective 10 September 2024.

Matthew comes to the role with extensive and relevant global technology business experience. His most recent role for 20 years was co-founder and CEO of Mobile Tracking and Data Pty Ltd (MTData), a business that supplies a software platform and mobile technologies to a range of industries, including transport, taxi, mining, government, and service-related industries. MTData operated throughout Australia, NZ, USA, Canada, UK, Europe and the Middle East. The business was in Deloitte Fast 50 Growth for three consecutive years and grew to over $70m in revenue and 160 staff globally.

MTData transport technology business was bought by Telstra in late 2017, and Matthew continued to be CEO until August 2023, whilst A2B Australia bought MTData’s taxi technology business in 2018, where Matthew continued to consult until June 2024.

Matthew holds a Bachelor of Science (Mathematics and Computer Science) degree and started his career as a software engineer followed by roles of Software manager, Product Manager and General Manager of International Sales and Marketing prior to his CEO appointment in 2003.

Dubber Chairman Neil Wilson said: “After an extensive search, the Dubber board is delighted to announce Matthew Bellizia as Dubber’s new CEO. Matthew has extensive experience in global technology businesses. Matthew has a deep understanding of the importance of data in driving business outcomes, which aligns with the Dubber solution's current and future solution direction. He has the skills and experience to lead the company to its target of operating cash flow break-even in FY25 and to build market share and revenue growth into the future.”

Incoming CEO, Matthew Bellizia said: “I’m very excited to be joining Dubber and leading the company on the next part of its growth journey. Dubber has a number of key fundamental attributes, including strong customer retention and a technology platform with over 225 communication service provider relationships to deliver its exciting conversational intelligence products. It presents a unique opportunity to build from this strong base and streamline the business to align with the company’s dual objectives of growth and profitability.”

Matthew is employed by the Company under a customary executive service agreement. A summary of the key terms of the agreement (including remuneration) is set out in the annexure to this announcement.

Acting CEO, Peter Pawlowitsch will revert to his previous role of part-time Executive Director and support Matthew as he commences the CEO role. The Board would like to take this opportunity to express its thanks to Mr Pawlowitsch for his significant contribution to the Company in the Acting CEO role.