Morgan Stanley, the global financial services leader and one of Scotland’s key employers of technology professionals, has marked Cyber Scotland Week by renewing its support for the “Empowering Women to Lead Cyber Security” initiative.
The cross-sector programme, supported by ScotlandIS, The Scottish Government’s Digital Directorate and Scottish Digital Academy, launched last year with Morgan Stanley’s backing and aims to develop a sustainable community of empowered and empowering female leaders in cyber security and information governance/assurance roles across Scotland, in a bid to address the long standing lack of women working within one of Scotland’s most critical and fastest growing sectors.
The three-month programme, consisting of a combination of virtual and in-person group workshops and one-to-one sessions, opened its call for applications in December and has received record levels of interest from aspiring leaders in a diverse ranging of organisations spanning financial services, central and local government, health, academia and cyber security service providers.
The successful participants are selected by a Programme Panel including Ciara Mitchell, Head of Cyber Security at ScotlandIS, The Scottish Government’s Lead for Talent Attraction & Capability in the Digital Profession, Roz Britton, Clare el Azebbi, Head of Cyber Resilience Unit at The Scottish Government and senior representatives from the Initiative’s Partners, including Lloyds Banking Group, Quorum Cyber and Morgan Stanley’s own representative, Cyber Event Manager, Laura Kerr. Laura is an alumni of the “Empowering…” Initiative herself, having been part of the previous cohort.
Commenting on why Morgan Stanley had taken the decision to renew its backing for initiative, Amanda Creak, Morgan Stanley’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for the EMEA region said, “As a passionate advocate of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, Morgan Stanley is proud to support the Empowering Women to Lead in Cyber Security programme for a second year.
“Morgan Stanley understands the benefits from increasing numbers of female leaders in senior cyber leadership roles, and we are excited to pay it back to the industry and help build a positive platform for the next generation of female leaders.”
Further details can be found at https://www.empowering-you.co.uk/ewlcs-spring-2022