2025 JUDGES
David Ritchie, Chief Information Security Officer, Digital Office: Scottish Local Government
David has been working in the IT industry for over 25 years in both the private and public sector. He has had roles as a programmer, IT administrator, digital transformation project manager and cyber security. He also has interests in data science and machine learning. With over 15 years working in the public sector, he is passionate about supporting the public sector to be as secure as possible and promote a "Once for Scotland" approach, as well as making sure the digital to be state has cyber security at its heart.
Clare El Azebbi, Head of Cyber Resilience Policy, The Scottish Government
Clare is the Head of the National Cyber Resilience Policy Unit for the Scottish Government. She leads the development and implementation of the cyber resilience strategy for Scotland, collaborating with partners across public, private, and third sectors, as well as the UK Government and international stakeholders. Clare has spearheaded numerous national initiatives and campaigns in cyber resilience and is a passionate advocate for integrating security skills into the lifelong learning system. She recognises the importance of reaching diverse backgrounds and making cyber careers appealing to young people, especially girls.
With over 15 years of experience in policy development, Clare has played a crucial role in writing Scotland’s two cyber resilience strategies and contributing to the UK National Cyber Strategy. She has also been instrumental in developing Scotland’s strategies for Adult Literacies and English for Speakers of Other Languages.
Iain Dougan, Head of Operational Technology and Cyber, SSEN Transmission
Iain has worked in the Energy IT industry for the past decade with the last 5 years in SSEN’s Transmission business. Iain has been responsible for defining and developing the IT and Digital capabilities that SSEN Transmission need to support the investments in the Transmission Network in the north of Scotland that will enable Great Britain’s Net Zero ambitions.
Iain is now responsible for the Operational Technology that runs the Transmission network in SSEN Transmission’s license area, including the underlying IT and Networks Infrastructure it runs on. As part of this he is responsible for the Cyber Security services that protect the operational network, ensuring that Cyber risks are identified and mitigated within SSEN Transmission’s appetite and that we meet the Enhanced CAF profile by the end of 2027.
Toni Scullion, Founder, DressCode
Toni Scullion, is a Computing Science teacher and recently appointed co-lead of Scottish Teachers Advancing Computing Science. She is also the Founder of the non-profit charity dressCode. The aim of dressCode is to help close the gender gap in Computing Science and to help increase the uptake of Computing Science at school level. I am also the co-founder of the Ada Scot festival and the Digital Technology Education Charter.
dressCode have also launched Computing Science Scotland and working with a team of leading Computing Science teachers in Scotland. Computing Science Scotland is a national initiative with the aim to help support, encouraging and championing Computing Science teachers.
The work I have done to raise the profile and to support Computing Science as a subject at schools, help inspire the next generation, and work to help close the gender gap has been recognised by a number of awards, recognition most notably I received an honorary doctorate degree from RGU for dedication to computing science education, advancing the subject across the country and furthering women in technology.
Stu Hirst, CISO, Trustpilot
Stu was instrumental in building Skyscanner’s Security team from 2015-2017, having led them to the final of SC Magazine’s Security Team Of The Year 2017. He has previously worked in security at The Trainline, was part of the Cyber Leadership Team at Capital One UK, Photobox Group and Interim Director at Just Eat Takeaway.com
He has twice been nominated as a finalist for Cyber Evangelist Of The Year at the Scottish Cyber Awards, once for CISO Of The Year and is one half of Cyber Scotland Connect. Stu has key-noted at numerous leading Security events such as InfoSec Europe, Cloud Expo Europe, BSides and Future Of Cyber Security.
Chelsea Jarvie, Managing Director, Neon Circle
Chelsea Jarvie is an award-winning CISO, global keynote speaker, and cybersecurity consultant who has extensive experience in building and leading global security teams. Chelsea has successfully managed several security transformation programmes, helping organisations strengthen their resilience against evolving cyber threats.
Chelsea’s thought leadership has been featured in prominent outlets like CNN, BBC, and The Wall Street Journal, where she has shared her expertise on critical issues in cybersecurity. She has delivered keynote talks on international stages, covering topics such as AI in cybersecurity, security culture, and online safety.
Her contributions have been widely recognised, including being named one of the UK’s top CISOs in 2023, one of the most inspirational women in cybersecurity in 2024, and winning Inspirational Woman of the Year at the Scottish Women in Tech Awards. Currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Strathclyde, Chelsea focuses on online age verification, a crucial area for digital safety.
Chelsea is also a passionate advocate for diversity in technology, promoting equal opportunities for women in digital and serving as a STEM ambassador since 2012. She is committed to driving innovation, fostering inclusive cultures, and shaping a safer digital future.
Zibby Kwecka, CISO, Arnold Clark
Zibby is the previous Head of Information Security at Heineken UK, vCISO in the shadows for many well-known brands, and now Chief Information Security Officer at Arnold Clark.
Over the past 25 years in Scotland, Zibby progressed from electronics, through securing digital networks, and research in privacy-preserving cryptographic techniques, to helping secure some of the biggest organisations in banking, manufacturing, retail and public sector. On this journey Zibby has inspired further development of covert-channel analysis and cryptographic solutions, assisted in forming one of the first CSOCs in UK, and designed data tokenisation solutions. Zibby continues collaborating with businesses, industry and academia on all things cyber, privacy and digital business resilience.
Jude McCorry, Cyber & Fraud Centre Scotland, CEO
Jude McCorry is the CEO of Cyber and Fraud Centre Scotland and Chair of CyberScotland. Jude has over 20 years of experience in the Technology sector and started her career with Dell computers in Ireland, she joined SBRC in April 2020 from The Data Lab where she was Director of Business Development working with industry and academia to maximise the value of data for Scotland.
She is one of the founders of the UNICEF Data Hub for Children, she also sits on the board of the Edinburgh Data Driven Innovation Hub at Edinburgh University.
Nicola Cooper, Senior Information Security Manager
Nicola has extensive expertise in Financial Services, with a career spanning Information Security and Data Governance roles at Virgin Money, Clydesdale Bank, and Barclays.
In her role as Senior Cybersecurity Manager – Third Party Cyber Risk and Project Advisory Services at Virgin Money, Nicola led two teams comprising Technical and Risk specialists. She played a pivotal role in defining and driving the strategic vision for the business unit, ensuring robust cybersecurity measures and operational excellence.
At Clydesdale Bank, Nicola served as Data Governance Team Manager, where she led a team of analysts in a business intelligence and data warehousing environment. Her responsibilities included overseeing Data Governance initiatives such as data lineage, transformation, quality management, policy development, cataloguing, and metadata management.
Nicola has a deep understanding of information security and data management principles, practices, and technologies. She is well-versed in compliance regulations and security frameworks and has successfully guided teams through complex change management processes.
One of Nicola's most significant achievements is as a founding member of a Financial Services Leadership forum that brings Financial Services and Fintechs together to collaborate on addressing challenges being faced by the sector.
Bruce Harrison, Cyber & Fraud Centre Scotland, Board Member
Bruce is the Deputy Chair of Cyber and Fraud Centre Scotland. Bruce retired from financial services in 2022 following 23 years at BlackRock, the world’s largest investment manager. For most of his time at BlackRock Bruce was a Managing Director responsible for all EMEA clients using Aladdin, the integrated enterprise investment system. Latterly, Bruce transitioned to lead BlackRock’s Aladdin and technology-related oversight framework, in particular helping EMEA boards and regulators with their understanding of BlackRock’s use of technology, data and information security controls. Bruce holds a B Eng. in software engineering.