(lessons I have learnt so that you don’t have to…)

I began my career straight from school - entering the Royal Navy as a young Officer. Within months I had my first leadership role looking after sailors on an ocean-going warship. I trained hard and earned a scholarship to a civilian University where I read Psychology. I returned to the RN for a few years and then left to join the HM Customs & Excise Investigation Division. Then began a 25 year law enforcement career in Customs, then the Serious Organised Crime Agency and then the National Crime Agency.

I was taught and then subsequently trained others in a variety of skills: Investigation, covert intelligence gathering, infiltration, technical intelligence, surveillance, undercover work and other tactics but a constant was an increasing responsibility and accountability in leadership - bigger teams, more teams, more departments, geographically spread. I also had the privilege to work in a number of countries around the world for over ten years, learning about leadership across cultures, languages and borders.

I then moved to the commercial world in HSBC where I began by creating, training, developing and leading the bank’s financial intelligence capability to combat financial crime and protect customers. I then moved to Mexico as a Managing Director, to lead corporate security for Latin America - leading the disparate teams across a range of areas - protective security, business continuity, incident management, cyber security and insider threat.

Lastly, in the bank I returned to the UK to be the Chief Security Officer for HSBC globally as well as being the Global Head of Business Continuity and Crisis Management - leading the bank’s response to the Covid pandemic, cyber attacks and political unrest to name a few. But throughout my career, the most important, enjoyable, difficult, complex, but ultimately rewarding facet, has been the privilege of leadership. I have had the honour to lead and manage tens of thousands of men and women in a variety of roles, sectors, countries and situations, I have learnt a great deal, had some success and made some mistakes. It's time to use some of that knowledge to develop others.