We caught up with Emma Shaw, the managing director of Esoteric and the new chairman of The Security Institute, at IFSEC International to talk about her presentation on influencing board-level decision makers and women in security.
“The way that business has changed, the way that our own security industry has changed over the years, we now need to look at how important security is on the business agenda,” she told us. “There are many other functions within the business environment, departmental functions, but actually security invariably hasn’t had a view in at the board room table.
“As security professionals — first and foremost, we’re security professionals — we have the knowledge and the ability around the security profession, whether it’s products, services, whatever. But I think, in order to influence and in order to get business buyin, we now as a profession have got to develop our soft skills to seek that buyin. So that means communicating at business level, communicating the language of the business, and seeing how they speak.”
Shaw told us about her work at Esoteric:
“We deal with the board. We influence the board. We talk to the board, really in relation to counter-espionage services, and so I see more of a need for us to be able to do it as security practitioners.”
She hopes her position as chairman of The Security Institute will encourage other women to enter the security profession.
“I am a security professional. I have been in the industry for many years, and I have quite literally worked my way [up] and developed myself and been supported by others in doing so.
“Certainly, I’ve been really encouraged so far with the response from the number of women in the security industry who have written to me personally to comment about being appointed as chairman. I hope it encourages other people to take the same view that actually it’s something they can aspire to do.”
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