With our advisory board well underway, meet one of its first members John Madelin, who is looking forward to bringing his 30 years of cyber security expertise to BSS.

John’s approach to digital security is simple: get the basics right before opting for complex security strategies. As such, he is well versed in cyber security, from having tackled occasional minor incidents in the early days, to dealing with sophisticated cyber criminal attacks and the rise of the dark web in the later years.

Starting out as part of the team at Entrust, one of the first asymmetric encryption companies, his career has seen him take on security roles in a variety of sectors, from government, to retail, to utilities. It was during his time there that John learnt a crucial lesson: know what you do and do it well.

Information security and implementing strong strategies to protect companies from attack was what John knew and understood. He worked with initial adopters of military, defence, and banking infrastructure to teach those companies not only how to protect themselves, but how to protect themselves well.

John’s leadership journey

Building on this experience, John developed his technical expertise and strategic problem-solving skills at RSA Security. Here, he played a pivotal role in seeing the company grow its success, from time synchronous tokens to broader identity and access management.

His strong leadership qualities extended to his role as head of Professional Services for security at BT, and later Verizon, earning both companies top-right scorings on the Gartner Quadrant.

His most recent experience positioned him as BISO and Global Head of Information Security and Assurance at Cognizant, where he managed security risks for the company’s largest client engagements across the globe. With a hands-on approach to his work, John has direct experience and a deep understanding of malware and ransomware events, knowing exactly where to pinpoint efforts when things go wrong.

Wider contributions

John’s cyber security efforts also extend beyond his corporate roles into academia — another testament to his proactive leadership skills.

He is an Advisory Board Chair of a major research institute for NCSC and led the drafting of a UK cyber consultation paper for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport.

Further affirming his position in the UK security community, he also actively contributes to the Security Awareness Special Interest Group.

With his experience spanning corporate, governmental, national, and international landscapes, John’s work has shaped the trajectory of cyber security as we know it.

At BSS we’re proud to share John’s commitment to protecting the digital landscape and are looking forward to working with him in diversifying our client service offering. To find out more about John, visit his LinkedIn page.

Alongside John on the advisory board is industry veteran Chris Meehan, who you can learn more about here.

For more on our new advisory board, read our blog here.