A world-class pool of security and commercial leaders

Our Co-founders
Dean Jones
Dean is a former Royal Marines soldier with more than two decades of operational experience as a commander and…
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Dean is a former Royal Marines soldier with more than two decades of operational experience as a commander and technology practitioner in multiple complex combat environments. After completing a full military career, Dean transitioned into the corporate world where he has become a Board-level adviser and leadership, strategy and finance expert with unique insights on strategic risk, new technologies and cybersecurity. In this capacity, Dean has been advising a leading UK hedge-fund, a FTSE 100 energy company, a deep-tech autonomous systems scale-up, and he serves as a performance mentor with a Premier League football club.

As a soldier, Dean spent more than 3,000 days on the battlefield and was awarded a Mention in Dispatches in 2011, and a Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Service in 2015 by the Secretary of State for Defence for activities in austere operational environments. Dean attended London Business School where he was a Sloan Fellow, as well as stints at Harvard Business School (for strategy) and Oxford University where he is a Research Fellow in cyber & new technology. Before the military, Dean began life as an Academy footballer at Swansea City.

Josh Burch
Josh is a former senior UK national security/intelligence and commercial leader with more than twenty years’ experience delivering high-impact…
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Josh is a former senior UK national security/intelligence and commercial leader with more than twenty years’ experience delivering high-impact solutions, at the highest levels of business and government, tackling the most complex commercial, geopolitical, risk and security challenges.

Josh spent more than 15 years in a range of UK government national security roles, focused on understanding and mitigating global strategic threats from nation states, terrorists and malicious cyber actors. He was Chief of Staff to one of the UK’s most senior national security officials, and before that was Head of the Strategy and Risk team at British sigint and cybersecurity agency GCHQ.

After government, Josh joined FTI Consulting as a partner where he established and led the firm’s Cybersecurity practice in EMEIA. In April 2021, Josh was recognised by Consulting Magazine in their Global Leaders in Consulting Awards under the category “Excellence in Execution”. Josh started his career at Goldman Sachs where he was a mergers & acquisitions and corporate finance specialist in the firm’s Investment Banking Division.

Our Co-builders
  • Security, Science and Technology

    Eric Maland
    Eric Maland has spent more than two decades writing software, designing scalable systems, and building engineering teams at early-stage…
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    Eric Maland has spent more than two decades writing software, designing scalable systems, and building engineering teams at early-stage startups such as Amazon.com, Google, and Twitter. In 2014, he turned his focus to civic service and moved to the White House to help stabilise systems across several federal agencies, including Healthcare.gov and the visa system. From 2017–2019, Eric ran the engineering team at [redacted] (redacted.com), a small security services firm, before joining Rebellion Defense in July 2019, where he worked across all projects. Eric now provides his unique technical insight and experience to guide security technology innovators to long-term success through GALLOS Build and Ventures.

    Daniel Clarke
    Daniel Clarke is a technology leader with nearly two decades of experience developing and deploying emerging technologies. Daniel has…
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    Daniel Clarke is a technology leader with nearly two decades of experience developing and deploying emerging technologies. Daniel has experience as both a researcher and developer across a wide variety of fields, including Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Cyber-Electromagnetic operations and Artificial Intelligence.
    Daniel has experience working across government, industry and Academia in roles across Europe. In previous roles, Daniel was the head of applied research in two of the UK’s leading AI startups; was the technology manager for autonomous vehicles at Siemens in Munich, and was a research scientist in electromagnetic warfare for the UK MOD’s Defence Science Technology Laboratory. While at Dstl, Daniel deployed to Afghanistan as the Scientific Advisor to Task Force Helmand where he was awarded a commendation for his work. Daniel has a PhD in Astrophysics from the University of Innsbruck in Austria.
    As a technology leader, Daniel is interested in both the development of technology, and how it can be effectively deployed to realise real-world value. Daniel is a Lecturer at Cranfield Defence and Security at The Defence Academy of the UK and is an advisory board member for a number of exciting start ups.
    Professor Sir Anthony Finkelstein
    Anthony Finkelstein is President of City, University of London. Prior to this he was Chief Scientific Adviser for National…
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    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 Hurd
    Tom served as the most senior Homeland Security Advisor to the last four British Home Secretaries. He led cross-government work…
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    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 Braw
    Elisabeth is a global security thought leader, focusing on non-military national-security threats such as economic subversion and exploitation of…
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    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.

    Eddie Alleyn
    Eddie culminated his 35-year career in the British Government’s Defence and Security community with his appointment as Chair and…
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    Eddie culminated his 35-year career in the British Government’s Defence and Security community with his appointment as Chair and CEO of HMGCC. He spent five years there leading a world-class engineering team, focused on the development and integration of high-end technology capability of various kinds.

    Today, Eddie helps early-stage British tech companies to grow and scale. He has built a portfolio of Executive and Advisory roles with a number of innovative British tech and cyber security start-ups and scale-ups, especially in London and Oxford. He is Chair of General System, and on the Board at iProov. He is a Fellow of the IET.

    Priya Guha MBE
    Priya is a senior leader in technology and innovation who was recognised in June 2022 by InspiringFifty as one…
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    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 Butler CBE DSO
    Ed has nearly 40 years of experience leading and delivering high value outcomes in extremely challenging environments, both commercially…
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    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.

    Dr. Robert Hercock
    Dr. Robert Hercock is a Chief Research Scientist in the British Telecommunications Security Research Practice. He served as a…
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    Dr. Robert Hercock is a Chief Research Scientist in the British Telecommunications Security Research Practice. He served as a member of the Royal Society Science and Industry Committee and is a regular adviser to the Royal Society on AI and Data Science issues.

    He has over thirty international publications in AI and security concepts, in addition to over 30 filed patents. His research interests include Cyber Security, AI, Robotics and Complex Adaptive Systems.

    A Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Engineering & Technology (IET), he is also a Visiting Fellow at the Changing Character of Warfare Centre, in Pembroke College, Oxford University. He also provides independent technical expertise for the UK MoD Defence Science Expert Committee (DSEC) and was a Business Research Fellow at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico.

    Confidential: Former GCHQ
    Our technical due diligence and optimisation effort is led by a distinguished ex-HMG leader with 20 years’ experience in…
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    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.

    Ben Johnson
    Ben Johnson is CTO and co-founder of Obsidian Security, a SaaS-focused cybersecurity provider in California. Ben is also the…
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    Ben Johnson is CTO and co-founder of Obsidian Security, a SaaS-focused cybersecurity provider in California. Ben is also the President of NGO-ISAC, the ISAC dedicated to the non-profit sector. Before Obsidian, Ben co-founded Carbon Black, an endpoint security company that successfully established the EDR space and was ultimately acquired.

    He also was the founding teacher of "Entrepreneurship in Technology" at the University of Chicago. Early in his career, Ben served as an intrusion engineer at NSA and continues his national security mission as an advisor to the FISA Court within the US Department of Justice.

    Mr. Johnson also enjoys serving non-profits, advising entrepreneurs, golfing, surfing, and hiking. He is located in Newport Beach with his amazing wife and three incredible sons.

    Bryan Smith
    Bryan Smith is an experienced information security executive with a professional background spanning more than 25 years across the…
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    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.

    Dorian Skeete
    Dorian is the Head of Information Security at Boohoo Group PLC, where he is responsible for Information Security, Data…
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    Dorian is the Head of Information Security at Boohoo Group PLC, where he is responsible for Information Security, Data Protection and Privacy across their 13 brands, including household names like Pretty Little Thing, BoohooMAN and Karen Millen.

    Dorian spent his formative years as an RF and Cyber Engineer for the British Government’s Defence and Security community. He also spent five years as a Technical Consultant for IBM (taking part in major digital transformation projects for the DWP and GCHQ), and as an Associate Director for Crossword Cybersecurity where he took the lead on cybersecurity projects for FTSE 250 companies and technology start-ups.

    Kevin Brown
    After a highly commended 20 year service within UK policing, Kevin joined BT in 2012 initially transform its ability…
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    After a highly commended 20 year service within UK policing, Kevin joined BT in 2012 initially transform its ability to manage risk but within several years progressed to leading and building a $1 billion cyber security business. Kevin left BT in 2023 to further his cyber security career.

    Through his 30 year career, he’s developed a truly holistic experience of security with a proven ability as a CISO/CSO, as well as devising innovative commercial growth strategies for public and private sectors. He has achieved this by building brilliant diverse teams.

    Kevin’s collaborative leadership has forged close working with the WEF, not for profits, national security, and many industry groups. He has been a driving force behind public-private partnerships across the world.

    His commercial drive, combined with other activities, has seen Kevin recognsied as an influential cyber leader – identified as one of the top 30 Chief Security Officers in 2020, commissioned into the British Army to advise on cyber as well as awarded a fellowship to the Certified Institute of Information Security (CIISec).


  • Investment, Finance & Legal

    William Kilmer
    William Kilmer is a venture capital investor, multi-time founder and CEO, and author who has invested in and run…
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    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.

    Roger Naylor
    Roger served as co-Head of Global Equities at UBS.  He was a member of the UK Executive Committee and…
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    Roger served as co-Head of Global Equities at UBS.  He was a member of the UK Executive Committee and the Investment Bank Executive Committee, with a particular focus on risk management and corporate governance.  He oversaw the implementation of the FCA’s Senior Managers & Certification Regime for Global Equities.

    Before joining UBS, Roger served as Global Head of Equity Derivatives, co-Head of Global Prime Finance and Head of Global Equity Risk at Deutsche Bank.  He began his financial services career as a structured derivatives trader after studying Computer Science and Natural Sciences at Cambridge University.

    Roger has conducted investment due diligence and risk management for most asset classes including listed equities, private equity, fixed income, hedge funds, commodities, real estate and structured credit, as well as almost every class of derivative product.

    Jonathan Kewley
    Jonathan Kewley is an international lawyer, board advisor and tech ethicist. He works with many of the world’s largest…
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    Jonathan Kewley is an international lawyer, board advisor and tech ethicist. He works with many of the world’s largest companies on M&A and complex projects spanning cyber security, AI, data privacy, and ESG / sustainable Tech development. He co-chairs the Tech Group at Clifford Chance, the global law firm.

    Jonathan is a recognised expert in the area of Tech and data ethics, and works with Oxford University, The Alan Turing Institute and American Enterprise Institute to further discussion and research in AI regulation, cyber security and sustainable technology development.

    In 2020 he founded a bursary programme at Oxford University to address lack of diversity in tech education, encouraging more women and people from minority backgrounds to study Computer Science.

    Alex Pitt
    Alex is the co-founder of Mustard Seed, an investment firm that backs visionary entrepreneurs seeking to solve global social…
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    Alex is the co-founder of Mustard Seed, an investment firm that backs visionary entrepreneurs seeking to solve global social and environmental challenges.  Alex is on the Boards of the LTA Tennis Foundation, Bridges Impact Foundation, Switchee (social housing energy efficiency) and AtoCap (targeted treatment of UTI's).

    Formerly with Mubadala, a sovereign investment company in Abu Dhabi, Alex also spent several years with The Boston Consulting Group in New York, Chicago and Dubai and at Goldman Sachs in London.

    Alex received a BSc from the LSE and an MBA from Stanford.

    Mark Gillespie (CFO)
    Mark is a chartered accountant with a background in economics, valuation and business management. He was recently the CFO of…
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    Mark is a chartered accountant with a background in economics, valuation and business management. He was recently the CFO of an applied artificial intelligence business, based in London and other European cities.

    He managed the sale of that business to a large, listed advertising firm.

    Before that, Mark was a Managing Director in FTI Consulting's Economic and Financial Consulting practice in London. He provided financial and economic evidence for complex legal disputes and managed the quantum aspects of a number of multi-billion US$ disputes. Analysis often took the form of company or asset valuations and included detailed analysis of liquidity.


  • Commercial Optimisation

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

    Natasha Kurzeja
    Tash is GALLOS’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Co-building. Tash spent more than four years at jHub Defence, the…
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    Tash is GALLOS’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Co-building.

    Tash spent more than four years at jHub Defence, the central innovation hub for UK Defence’s Strategic Command, including nearly three years as jHub’s COO. While there, she established and scaled her team, going on to deliver large scale innovative capability development for UK Defence across a full spectrum of national security projects.

    Tash moved on from UK Defence in 2021, joining a fast-moving software-based tech start-up where she filled senior leadership roles (including COO and interim CEO), acquiring broad experience of innovation, team building and operational leadership.

    Oliver Lewis
    Oliver has built and scaled two unicorn software startups, including one of the fastest to reach a billion dollar…
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    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 Cox
    Simon has 18 years CEO experience building and successfully selling three PE/VC backed, technology-based companies. He grew revenues at…
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    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 Zamani
    Phil is a serial open source technology entrepreneur having led the international business efforts of some of the world’s…
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    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 Nakum
    Vipul brings a track record of over 20 years scaling B2B Data and SaaS businesses in the UK and…
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    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.

    Joshua Kennedy-White
    Josh has enjoyed a 30-year career driving innovation in security and technology across numerous industries. His ability to anticipate…
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    Josh has enjoyed a 30-year career driving innovation in security and technology across numerous industries. His ability to anticipate and solve complex business problems using technology as his strategic lens has seen him work with the world’s largest and most respected organisations.

    Josh led Accenture’s security practice across Asia Pacific and Middle East during a period of hypergrowth, increasing security revenues tenfold in three years. He’s devised and led a range of complex cyber and national security projects for government and industry.

    Josh brings experience at all stages of the investment cycle with investments in cybersecurity, space and quantum technology and advises private family offices and funds in Asia, the Middle East and the UK on emerging technology investments.


Our Partners


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      DataTribe are our strategic partners in Northern America. Their track record as builders of security technology companies is second to none.

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      TPC are our tech talent acquisition partners. A unique source of top tech talent for our co-building activity.

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Building a safer, more prosperous world