The panel · 2026

The people who judge.

The Cyber Security Awards are decided by an independent panel of 44 practitioners, chief information security officers and researchers. They score every nomination against the published criteria, and a place is earned on the evidence alone.

Quick answer

Who judges the Cyber Security Awards?

The Cyber Security Awards are judged by an independent panel of 44 senior practitioners drawn from across the field, including chief information security officers, security architects, researchers, consultants and community leaders working in banking, water, retail, government, telecoms and beyond. The panel scores each nomination against the published criteria for its category and reaches a decision on merit. Judges are credentialed professionals who volunteer their time and expertise; they are not chosen for their employer's spend, and a place on the shortlist or in the winners' list can never be bought. Sponsorship has no bearing on who is recognised or where a name appears. Where a judge has a connection to a nomination, they recuse themselves from scoring it, so that every result rests on the strength of the work.

The judging panel

An independent panel

44 judges who read the evidence and decide on merit. No photographs are published — each judge is listed by name and role.

Ahmed Afifi

Cyber Security Manager at Spark Engineering Consultants.

Dr. Andrea Cullen

CEO and Co-Founder of CAPSLOCK Education | Information Security Specialist

Etizaz Mohsin

Senior Security Consultant at Digital.ai

Goher Mohammad

Head of Infosec at L&Q Group

Jennifer Cox

Director for Ireland at Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS) UK & Ireland

Jon Holden

CISO at Atom Bank

Jon Staniforth

Former CISO at Royal Mail

Karla Reffold

Chief Product Officer at Surefire Cyber Inc., Industry Speaker, NED, Cyber Security Awards Judge and American Cyber Awards Judge

Lee Whatford

Former CISO Domino’s Pizza Group

Lisa Ventura MBE

Founder of Cyber Security Unity | Cyber Security Awareness & Tech Professional, Writer & Speaker

Martyn Booth

Chief Information Security Officer at dunnhumby, part of the Tesco group

Mohsin Choudhury

U.K. Information Security Architect | CISO Advisor

Naveen Vasudeva

Global Chief Information Security Officer at The CyberTree Paradox

Raj Meghani

Co-Founder, CMO & Head of Product & Sales at BlockAPT™️

Rajinder Tumber MBE

Cyber Security Consultancy Team Lead, at Sky

Rob Merrett

Chief Information Security Officer at Credera

Sharat Williams

Founder & Director at Ultra Realis

Shishir Kumar Singh

Group Head of Information Security at Advance Intelligence Group

Stella Tsitsoula

President of the BoD, Hellenic Cybersecurity Institute | Co-founder & Vice President Women4Cyber Greece

Steven Whitchurch

CISO and VP of Enterprise Services at GSG

Stuart Seymour

Group CISO and CSO at Virgin Media O2

Tarnveer Singh

Director of Cyber Wisdom

Umar Waheed

Chief Information Security Officer at Nuance Communications

Adrian Vallecchia

Cybersecurity Team Leader

John Paul Richard G. Alarcon

CISO and Cyber Security Head

Alex Lim

Director of IT at Horizon Quantum

Indrani Chandrasegaran Kermorvant

Senior Director Cyber Advisory and Global Technology Services APAC

John Patrick Lita

Head of IT Security and Infrastructure

Matheiu Manalo

Information Director

Russell Hernandez

CISO

Rei Nikolai Magnaye

CISO

Kris Trinidad

Chief Risk and Information Security Officer

Dr. Kunal Sehgal

Cybersecurity Leader

Mike Loginov

Co-Founder Executive , Cybersecurity & AI Governance Initiative (CAGI)

Guy Fridman

Director Of Cybersecurity at Agoda

Geert Warlop

Technical and Data Director,BTS group

James McLeary

Chief Information Security Officer

Somjat Maksomboon

BI and IT Director

Željko Posao

CISO

Gaetan Labat

CISO

Lorenzo D'Ambrosi

Regional CISO and DPO at Rothschild & Co

Mark Barwinski

CISO

Antonio Paolo M.

CISO & Head IT Security | Data Protection Officer (DPO) at DSwiss

David Mantock

CISO

The panel is reviewed each edition and judges recuse themselves from any nomination they are connected to. Read how winners are chosen, browse the categories, or submit a nomination. Every result is judged on merit and never bought.