Principal aims of the Strategic Panel are to:

• act as a source of professionally-recognised expertise in the security field, underpinning the outward-facing role of the BCS and providing a means of encouraging wider membership of the Society;
• provide a forum for Security professionals, where views may be exchanged and opinions aired, to the greater good of the industry;
• improve the quality and professionalism of practitioners in the security specialist areas;
• to encourage cooperation between the various players within the security specialisms; and to
• contribute to the growth of BCS new products and services for members, related to the security specialisms.

Dr Louise Bennett is the Chair of the Security Strategic Panel.

 Dr Louise Bennett MBCS CITP 

Dr Louise Bennett had an initial career as a Government scientist working on locust plague dynamics in Africa for seven years, then operations analysis and aircraft cockpit design at the Royal Aircraft Establishment. In the late 1980s she moved into the private sector as an IT Director. 

Over the last twenty years she has worked at board level in both the private sector (Thorn EMI, Logica, AEA Technology, vivas) and public sectors. She has worked on various government advisory bodies (including the Police IT Organisation as a non-executive director and Defence Scientific Advisory Council). 

In her consulting work she focuses on all aspects of strategic and corporate governance, particularly the exploitation of new technology and risk management. Her latest work includes how to develop resilient organisations, both from an overall environmental and security perspective and from the perspective of information assurance, including fraud prevention. 

She also specialises in the ethical dimensions of governance. She is currently Chairman of the BCS Security Strategic Panel and a member of their Government Relations Group.