Sarah Armstrong-Smith is the Chief Security Advisor at Microsoft, highly skilled in resilience and crisis management with extensive experience as an executive and board advisor within Cyber Security. Armstrong-Smith has contributed towards women’s initiatives within STEM through her experience as Co-Chair Women’s Business Network, resulting in her employer being reconized as a Top 50 Employer for Women 2018. Furthermore, she works extensively with several start-ups on their go-to-market strategy. Such experience earned Sarah a place in the ‘Most Influential Women in UK Tech’ and ‘Most Influential Women in Cybersecurity’ five years in a row.

Michelle Ohren has worked as a police officer for over 26 years, this has given her a wealth of experience in different crime types. Michelle is currently Head of Cyber and Innovation for the West Midlands Cyber Resilience Centre, focusing on how the police and cyber talent are being used to fight against cybercrime. Throughout her time on the force, she has worked with numerous organisations to support victims and raise awareness for cybercrime. We welcome Michelle to CyberWomen@Warwick following her continued support as a speaker for WMG.

Stephanie Itimi is a digital entrepreneur who is enthusiastic about internet education and security. She is the founder of Seidea, a career development platform with a social mission of helping Black and Minority Ethnic women build cybersecurity careers and Seiarto, a luxury postcard company, with a focus on West African art. Outside of entrepreneurship, she is a PhD research student in Information Security, based within the CDT in Cyber Security at Royal Holloway, University of London. Stephanie currently sits on the advisory board of KlimatelinK, the first global web3 digital professional Peer 2 Peer climate community. In the last 8 years, she has played a significant role in the development and manufacturing of high-profile initiatives in Slovakia, Morocco, the United Kingdom and several West and East African nations through her diverse policy and consultative experience with the UK Government, BBC Africa, Essex County Council, UN Women and the European Commission, promoting freedom of information, digital literacy and gender equality.

Professor Sarah Morris is a digital forensics academic and practitioner with over 14 years of experience in teaching and performing casework in Digital Forensics. With a Computer Science Bachelor’s degree and PhD in Forensic Computing, Professor Morris is highly skilled in programming, forensics, digital document analysis and file carving. As of 2021, she is a member of the Biometrics and Forensics Ethics Group providing ethical advice to the Home Office regarding biometric and forensic material. We welcome Professor Morris to cyberwomen@warwick following her continued support at the University of Warwick.

Security Queens are a female blogger team who publishes content on both cyber security and technology. Sophia and Sarah founded the blog in 2019 and were voted “Most Educational Blog for User Awareness" at the European Cybersecurity Blogger Awards 2022. Their talk is titled "Breaking into Hacking: The Tale of Two Wannabe Hackers", and we are excited to welcome them to the University of Warwick with us in October.

Selina Summan is an Information Assurance specialist. She juggles the business need versus cyber security requirements for the Rolls-Royce Electrical business within Civil Aerospace. She has worked in both public and private sector companies and is an advocate promoting “Women in Cyber”. This includes introducing initiatives and supporting the CyberFirst “Women in Cyber” summer interns and our graduate program.

Colin Topping is the Cyber Incident Director for Rolls-Royce plc. As well as being responsible for all significant cyber incidents, he is involved in insider threat, supply chain security, and industrial control system programs within and outside the business. He spent 22 years in the Royal Air Force and has worked for Airbus, HP, and DXC. He is also doing a part-time PhD with the University of Bristol.

Sophia is Director Cyber Security Engagement and Awareness at Sage leading on Sage’s security awareness and engagement programme for Sage’s 11,000 employees and external audiences and work to reduce insider risks facing the business. Sophia joined Sage in April 2020, after over a decade in central government in the House of Commons and the Cabinet Office, working in a variety of Parliamentary and Security roles spanning policy, intelligence analysis, legislation, and programme delivery. A big believer in human-centric security and cyber education, she is an evangelist for making security teams care about people and culture.

Active in the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion space for over 8 years, Sophia created a led a gender equality network for women in national security and is passionate about access, equitable recruitment and inclusion in cyber security and works on addressing these issues in the cyber security industry.

Vicky Axon is the NHS Digital Regional Security Lead for the Midlands. She joined the NHS in July 2019 moving from the private sector where she established her career providing consultancy on information and cyber security within the public sector. She has worked with organisations such as the DWP, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Defence, a number of police forces as well as other blue-light services. She is a CISSP and CISM and is a specialist in risk assessment. She is passionate about encouraging more diversity in cyber security and has written blogs and presented on the topic.