IRMA: Management committee

Chair
Durgesh Gaitonde

FBCS, CEng, C-CCP, MCIIS, CISM, CRISC, CDPSE, CIPM (IAPP), COBIT 5

Email address: chair.irma@bcs.org | web.irma@bcs.org

Well-regarded expert and leader in the field of IT, Cyber Security, Privacy & Information Risk management and Assurance with over 18 years of industry experience working with prestigious clients in various industry sectors.

One of the fellow panel members who has been the involved in the formation of the UK Cyber Security Council (UK CSC) amongst many other initiatives including inspiring and the driving force for the Culture and Ethnicity on Diversity and Inclusion within Cyber Security, Durgesh has been heavily involved in information and cyber security, cyber risk management, privacy management solutions for businesses for the last 18+ years in the UK, US Asia Pacific and throughout Europe.

He is a Fellow of the British Computing Society (BCS) and Chairman of the Information Risk Management and Assurance (IRMA) Specialist Group (SG) along with being a mentor to aspiring young professionals who want to upskill or make their way into the cyber domain.

His cyber and leadership skills have been independently assessed by the Engineering Council, the UK Cyber Security Council and the UK National Cyber Security Centre as a Chartered Engineer and a Chartered Cyber Risk Professional.

He is also a Full Member of the Chartered Institute of Information Security (CIISec) who mentors for the institute as well as assesses memberships for bringing in quality cyber professionals into the industry and has been a member and represents the ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 27 as a UK expert over 5 years.

Security mentor and evangelist Contributor to the development of Apprenticeship Standards across Scotland with Qualifications such as Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC), Certified Data Privacy Solutions Engineer (CDPSE), Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM) Durgesh has extensive experience in Enterprise Risk and Security, from a deep technical grounding in application, network and platform security, as well as over 19+ years working across different industry sectors from financial services, government, critical national infrastructure, telecommunications, energy, healthcare, helping them identify, assess and mitigate information risks from a business and governance perspective.

Durgesh has performed key roles in driving risk mitigation strategies, integration programmes, aligning security policies and business risk appetites providing pragmatic security solutions to businesses. He has managed large scale security programmes, privacy and security assessments, information security strategy, governance, risk management, compliance, business continuity, application security, vulnerability assessments & penetration testing, vendor neutral security solution architecture, service delivery, project management, incident response, and fraud & forensic investigations.

His core customer-portfolio have included global and UK financial services, UK government departments as well as organisations in the Energy, Telecommunications, Technology, Aviation, Construction, Engineering, Sports and other markets. He has carried out a mentoring and coaching role for numerous security professionals in the United Kingdom, providing career guidance being seen as an inspiration, promoting passion for Cyber Security for the industry. He provides subject matter expertise at both strategic and technical levels, defining policies, standards for organisations incorporating the NIST, ISO 27000 series, COBIT, ITIL and other industry recognised standards.

Vice Chair 
Andy Moattari 

M.Sc, CITP, FBCS

Email address: vice.chair.irma@bcs.org

Andy spent the 1st twelve years of his industrial career as a design & development engineer in UK Electronics and Telecommunication industries. He then moved into IT Consultancy with IBM in 1978 and continued in that capacity offering PMO services to several clients in Telecoms, finance, software house and energy industries. He has had roles and responsibilities as Analyst, Quality Manager, Change Manager, ISO Auditor, Configuration Manager & Process Improvement Manager on a number of major multi-site software development projects in Europe & USA.

Communication & Social Media Officer
Darren Roberts

Email address: pr.irma@bcs.org

Secretary
Cllr Paul M Smith
BA (Hons) DipNLP MDipNLP CISM CISSP CompTIA CRISC Prince2

Email address: meetings.irma@bcs.org

Cllr Paul M Smith is an experienced financial and capital markets professional, as well as being the former Sales Lead on many Commonwealth projects, (including the Commonwealth Yearbook). More recently, Paul has worked as an award-winning ICT Sales Director at Hewlett Packard, specialising once again in Africa/EMEA. He holds many senior non exec roles, including as a Committee Chair within BCS and member of many other BCS Committees. Paul also proudly serves as Vice-President, isc2 (East of England Region as well as on Chartered Insurance Institute Cambridge Committee.

He also serves as a Councillor in his home village of Sawston, Cambridgeshire. Paul is also a Certified NLP master Practitioner and hold many qualifications across NLP, financial services, ICT, project management and cyber security. Paul is passionate about Africa, American Football, ESG, CSR, Financial Services regulatory reform & GRC issues. He is devoted to his beloved wife Yari and hopes that her home country of Venezuela will soon be free one day.

Treasurer
John Mitchell 

PhD, MBA, CEng, CITP, FBCS, CFIIA, CIA, CISA, CGEIT, QiCA, CFE

Managing Director, LHS Business Control

Email address: treasurer.irma@bcs.org

John is a Fellow of both the BCS and the IIA-UK and has previously been Membership Secretary, Journal Editor and Chair of IRMA. He has also served on BCS Council, the Specialist Group Management Committee and the Security Committee. He was previously a member of its Risk, Audit & Finance Committee.

His doctorate in risk analysis techniques was awarded by City University, London, England. His MBA in financial control was awarded, with distinction, by Middlesex University, England.

John has been an expert adviser in a number of UK commercial and criminal cases and has been featured in a major British computing publication as the ‘IT Detective’.

He is an international authority on corporate governance, risk management and control self-assessment and the impact of regulatory and compliance issues on the delivery of corporate services. He has presented papers on these subjects at many international conferences and holds ISACA’s prestigious John Kuyers’ award for best conference contributor, as well as the BCS’s John Ivinson medal for services to the Institute.

Membership Secretary
Vacant

 

Academic Relations
Vacant

 

Events Organiser
Vacant

 

Early Careers Advocate
Vacant

 

Inclusion Officer
Juliet Flavell

Before completing an MSc in Information Security at Royal Holloway, Juliet built and led the IT function for a leading boutique London law firm. She is currently part of the Civil Aviation Authority's cyber security oversight team and works with the aviation industry to assess progress against the Cyber Assessment Framework.

Juliet is a CISM and ISO 27001 Lead Auditor, and successfully achieved the GIAC Strategic Planning, Policy and Leadership (GSTRT) certification in 2022. Beyond aviation, she also has a keen interest in the development of driverless car security, following publication of her MSc dissertation on the subject in 2019.