Cyber Security Leader of the Year.
A team is only as steady as the person setting its direction at 3am. This category honours the people who carry that standard, and the panel scores them on the team they build, not the title they hold.
The 2026 Leader of the Year
Fene Osakwe was named Cyber Security Leader of the Year in 2026, recognised for building resilient security strategy across financial institutions, telecoms and governments. A Forbes Technology Council member, he was earlier honoured by the programme as Personality of the Year in 2025, the kind of repeat recognition the Hall of Fame is built to record.
A decade of winners sits in the Hall of Fame.
What a winning record looks like
Strong nominations in this category share a shape. They show a before and an after. The team responded faster, or held together through an incident that would once have scattered it, or kept the people it could easily have lost. The leader’s fingerprints are on that change, and the evidence is checkable.
Weak nominations list responsibilities. A budget managed, a headcount grown, a framework adopted. The panel reads past the org chart and looks for the decisions only this person made, and what those decisions produced.
Cyber Security Leader of the Year
Who can be nominated as Cyber Security Leader?
Anyone who sets the security direction for a team or organisation and can show the outcomes of that leadership. Title and seniority are not the test; evidence of impact is.
When was the category introduced?
In the 2026 restructure of the programme, which organised the awards into five individual categories and five organisational ones.
Who won Cyber Security Leader of the Year in 2026?
Fene Osakwe, recognised for resilient security strategy across finance, telecoms and government, and previously the programme’s Personality of the Year in 2025.