A world-class pool of security and commercial leaders

Anthony Finkelstein is President of City, University of London. Prior to this he was Chief Scientific Adviser for National Security to HM Government, a senior strategic and operational role that involves leadership of science, research and innovation across the UK's national security community.

Anthony is a Professor of Software Systems Engineering and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He is a Distinguished Fellow of RUSI. He was granted the title of Knight Bachelor in 2022 for public service. He was previously appointed a CBE for services to computer science and engineering. He has successfully exited two tech companies in data and AI.

Tom served as the most senior Homeland Security Advisor to the last four British Home Secretaries. He led cross-government work countering state threats, cyber crime and security, disinformation, money laundering, online harms, child sexual exploitation and terrorism. He also oversaw the domestic operations of the intelligence agencies, CT Police and the National Crime Agency.

During his thirty years working on national security, Tom has played a leading role on international as well as domestic security issues, especially within the Five Eyes community. Tom was also a member of the UK’s Joint Intelligence Committee, the UK's most senior analytical body on national security issues. As a result of his experience in mastering science and technology to achieve better operational outcomes, Tom was asked in mid-2020 to set up from scratch, and at pace, the UK’s Joint Biosecurity Centre, a data-led organisation that brought data science and public health expertise together in one place to spot earlier and more accurately outbreaks of COVID-19. He was appointed OBE by Her Majesty the Queen in 2011 and CB in 2020 for his services to national security.

Elisabeth is a global security thought leader, focusing on non-military national-security threats such as economic subversion and exploitation of research and innovation. She’s considered one of the pioneering strategists in this area and regularly delivers talks to military, political and business audiences about the West’s changing national-security environment.

Elisabeth works as a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; she’s also a columnist with Foreign Policy, a member of Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy’s advisory council, a member of the UK National Preparedness Commission, and a member of the Aurora Forum’s steering committee. Her book The Defender’s Dilemma: Identifying and Deterring Gray-Zone Aggression was published in 2022. She’s also the author of God’s Spies, about the Stasi. Prior to AEI, Elisabeth worked at RUSI (the Royal United Services Institute) and Control Risks, following a career as a journalist. She attended university in Germany, graduating with an MA in politics and German literature.

Priya is a senior leader in technology and innovation who was recognised in June 2022 by InspiringFifty as one of the Top 50 Women in European Tech. She is a Venture Partner at Merian Ventures, investing in women-led innovation, an Advisor to Kheiron Medical Technologies, a NED at UK Research & Innovation, the Digital Catapult and Adjunct Faculty at the Ashridge Hult Business School.

Priya used to be a career diplomat, most recently as British Consul General to San Francisco. She sits on the Royal Academy of Engineering International Committee, Tech London Advocates & Global Tech Advocates Advisory Boards and is a TechSheCan Trustee. Priya was awarded an MBE in 2021 for services to international trade and women in innovation.

Ed has nearly 40 years of experience leading and delivering high value outcomes in extremely challenging environments, both commercially and in the military. He has comprehensive experience of managing and dealing with all types of intelligence, political and malicious risk, confrontation analysis, complex project management, business development and resource allocation.

He has been part of the leadership team that built two successful small businesses and spent 7 years as Chief Resilience Officer at Pool Re, the Government backed terrorism reinsurance scheme. He is a Senior Independent Advisor to the licensee Board of EDF Energy Generation, the operating company for UK’s nuclear industry and to Northcourt, the Nuclear Risk Specialists. He was privileged to command 22 SAS over 9/11 and led British forces in Afghanistan in 2006. Ed has been formally recognised by Her Majesty's Government on six occasions for his service to the nation.

Our technical due diligence and optimisation effort is led by a distinguished ex-HMG leader with 20 years’ experience in cyber related operations and technology. He has deep experience in due diligence and acquisition reviews in support of investment activity.

Bryan Smith is an experienced information security executive with a professional background spanning more than 25 years across the US Government and commercial enterprises. He has held multiple executive and founder positions over the last 10 years in private and venture backed companies with a continued dedication to supporting the cyber mission.

Bryan’s professional career began with the US National Security Agency (NSA) where he served in multiple mission organizations as a developer, team leader, and Technical Director. As a Technical Director, Bryan served as both a Product Manager and architect for key programs and capabilities as well as a subject matter expert across the US Intelligence Community. He and his team were recognized with the prestigious Labyrinth Award and National Intelligence Exceptional Achievement Medal.

After his service in government, Bryan continued the mission as an executive leader growing teams and innovating technology with Endgame, CyberGRX, and Boldend. Bryan brings deep knowledge and insight into cyber security, data analytics, and graph theory.

William Kilmer is a venture capital investor, multi-time founder and CEO, and author who has invested in and run companies around the world. He specializes in working with cybersecurity companies on go-to-market, strategy, financing, and scaling their business. Formerly the managing partner at C5 Capital, he has invested in cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, and digital companies across the US, UK, and Europe including most recently Constella Intelligence, Hazelcast, Oomnitza, Shape Security, and Synack.

William was the founder and CEO of several companies including Avinti where he merged with, and managed the roll up of M86 Security before it was acquired. He was also the CEO of data analytics company PublicEngines, which was acquired by Motorola and was a founder and investor in Freedom4 Wireless in the UK. He was the CEO of a managed security services provider (MSSP), where he managed the integration multiple acquisitions. Three of his companies have been on the INC 500/5000 fastest growing startups. Prior to that William was the European managing director of Intel Capital, a corporate venture capital fund where he also managed the worldwide cybersecurity investment strategy and formed a targeted venture fund investing in the Middle East and North Africa.

A product and strategy person at heart, William is also the author of the book Transformative: Develop a Game-Changing Strategy, Retool your Organization, and Innovate to Win, published in September 2022.

Ben Legg is GALLOS’s Co-builder in Chief, charged with onboarding and leading the internal GALLOS team of co-builders.

Ben is originally an engineer whose early career included British Army Officer, McKinsey strategy consultant, executive at Coca-Cola, before becoming the Chief Operating Officer of Google Europe and thereafter various global technology CEO roles. Today, he has a portfolio career. He is CEO and CoFounder of The Portfolio Collective, a global community of world class portfolio professionals working in the start-up & scaleup ecosystem. Ben also mentors start-up & scaleup founders, helping investors pick winners and supporting Oxford University's entrepreneurial initiatives. He is acknowledged as a thought leader on the Future of Work.

Ben has lived in nine countries and has a massive network throughout the technology industry. He is also the author of the award-winning book: Marketing For CEOs - Death Or Glory In The Digital Age. He is an avid fitness nut, has five children and lives in London.

Oliver has built and scaled two unicorn software startups, including one of the fastest to reach a billion dollar valuation, and is an angel investor in Britain and Europe. He has raised hundreds of millions in investment and grown teams from nothing to tens of millions in annual recurring revenue.

At fifteen, Oliver was the youngest technologist employed by Oxford University. He started an academic career in politics before joining the UK Civil Service, twice posted to Afghanistan, and led teams in the Government Digital Service. He is an academic at Oxford and the University of Southern California, and is co-editor of Routledge's 'Advances in Defence Studies'.

Simon has 18 years CEO experience building and successfully selling three PE/VC backed, technology-based companies. He grew revenues at image.net and Peach 10 times developing each from a UK base to global, platform businesses with clients and operations in every continent. As well as driving organic growth, he has extensive M&A experience, including initiating, closing and integrating over a dozen acquisitions for Peach in territories including China, India, Singapore, Chile, Spain, Ireland and the UK.

Simon was previously COO of Euromoney Institutional Investor plc, a FTSE 250 company, and Group Finance Director of Zenith Productions.

Phil is a serial open source technology entrepreneur having led the international business efforts of some of the world’s most transformative (now leading) software firms covering the entire technology stack (silicon chips, embedded/IoT, operating systems, middleware, virtualisation, mobile/cloud computing, big data and blockchain). An open source veteran, he helped many Fortune 1000 companies to embrace new disruptive technologies, often displacing entrenched solutions from competitors like IBM and Microsoft. Phil led the European, USA and Asian businesses for Red Hat, VMware, Santander and Deutsche Telekom - where as corporate cloud entrepreneur he created their global Telekom Public Cloud business unit.

Vipul brings a track record of over 20 years scaling B2B Data and SaaS businesses in the UK and USA. With hands-on operating experience as a senior executive, he has organised major product initiatives that have created commercial value and supported successful exits.

As an investor and advisor with an entrepreneurial mindset, Vipul now helps startups create enterprise value through their product strategies. Amongst other roles, Vipul is a Mentor with the Silicon Valley headquartered Plug and Play Tech Centre.

Vipul was formerly the Chief Product Officer at OAG and previously Head of Product at Ascend Worldwide. He has also worked with recognised global brands such as Standard & Poor’s and Dun & Bradstreet during his career.