As regular sponsors of CyNam events, we were lucky enough to obtain tickets to the exclusive CyNam 18.2 event held at the Cheltenham Science Festival on Thursday 7 June, sponsored by Immersive Labs.
Tim Watkins, Rob Stokes and I attended CyNam 18.2, with guest Roger White of SSL Software.
The focus was on the education aspects and getting more young people to consider a career in Cyber Security, with a particular focus on diversity. It was quite shocking to hear that only 11% of cyber security industry professionals are women.
After a welcome from Greg Craft, Talent Director at Immersive Labs, we heard from the head teachers of Newent Community School and UTC Berkeley Green, Alan Johnson and Paul Ramage, both of whom are developing very strong IT departments and training young students towards cyber security qualifications and careers.
Dr Jessica Barker delivered a fascinating insight into gender diversity in cyber security and the danger of stereotypes in the industry, followed by Rebekka Bishop of Northrup Grumman who has recently formed the rapidly growing Gloucestershire STEM Ambassadors group (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths).
Two lively panel sessions were led by Buck Rogers, Chief Information Security Officer for the Bank of England.
Delegates also had the opportunity to look round the various Cyber exhibits in the Cyber Zone of the festival.
James is Head of Corporate Tax at Randall & Payne, and has a particular focus on R&D Tax Relief, Patent Box and Capital Allowances.
Key to the way James operates is a collaborative and adaptable approach to projects, both when working with clients but also when working with other firms to help their clients with R&D claims. This approach has won a lot of support locally, and the firm now benefits from a considerable number of referrals from other accounting firms that do not themselves have R&D Tax Relief as a specialism.
Contact James for more information by email james.geary@randall-payne.co.uk or call 01242 776000.
