Liz Banbury
CISO
Thames Water
Liz Banbury currently serves as CISO at Hiscox, a leading specialist insurer underwriting a range of commercial and personal lines risks. Liz has eighteen years of experience in cybersecurity and technology within the banking sector.
Liz is also the President of the London Chapter of the International Information System Security Certification Consortium, (ISC)², which aims to bring together a community of information security professionals to discuss current trends, share knowledge and drive innovation and inclusion across communities.
Learn more about the UK & Ireland CISO community here.
Give us a brief overview of the path that led to your current role.
I have spent approximately eighteen years working in technology within the broader financial industry. I started out at JPMorgan, working in the back-office settlements systems and progressed to release/environment management. Following this, I had a gap of around eight years at home, bringing up my four sons – most of which was in Singapore, where we moved in January 2008.
Subsequently, I returned to work at ANZ Bank, firstly as an Office Administrator on a large program putting in a new banking platform for desktop and mobile.
Over the following ten years, I moved quickly across various roles in the information security space – from an office administrator role to a Junior Technology Project Manager, and then on to the Regional Portfolio Manager for Information Security & Technology Risk within the Information Security Office at ANZ Bank.
From there, I moved to Standard Chartered Bank where I headed up the Information and Cyber Security Policy function. As of 2021, I moved to Hiscox Insurance as the Chief Information Security Officer. Furthermore, I am CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) certified and serve as President of the ISC2 London Chapter.
What are your guiding leadership principles?
To listen to your team and empower your team.
With disruption being a key theme of the past few years, where do you see your role as a CISO going in the next 1-2 years?
The CISO role is becoming increasingly complex, with most organisations viewing it as the ‘plaster’ to all issues. A key part of my role is to get the business to take some accountability in this area.
Another requirement is to become more tech-savvy in the AI space, and not just about the technology itself, but around the ethics, how the emerging technologies align to the business values, as well as the business goals and risk appetite.
What advice would you give to someone just starting out in the role as a CISO?
Keep calm, listen and find those who will support you. Having a support network, both internal and external, is really important.
Tell us three fun facts about yourself.
- I have lived in Asia for twenty years.
- I love multi-day hiking, which is probably not a ‘fun’ fact for most people.
- I play squash.
What is the value of joining an Evanta community?
To expand your knowledge, participate and add value to the broader CISO community and build stronger external support relationships.
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