This year marks the first ever (ISC)² EMEA Information Security Leadership Awards (ISLA), a chance for our community to recognise fellow information security and management professionals going the extra mile to enhance security across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Overall, we received a staggering number of impressive submissions, over 200, and these were shortlisted down to our finalists by our judges, members of the Europe, Middle East and Africa Advisory Council (EAC) . Winners will be announced at our Secure Summit UK  on 12 December 2017. In the meantime, we have been sharing their stories on the blog over the last two months. Here is the seventh and final installment:

Patrick Wheeler, Director at CyberWayFinder (Belgium)

Patrick is a cybersecurity practitioner, originating from California’s Silicon Valley and San Francisco, whose work has a focus in programmes that endeavour to secure the global financial sector. He holds a degree from Humboldt State University in Environmental Resources Engineering and an MBA from Saint Mary’s College of California.

During his time in the States, he undertook a variety of roles focused in IT, engineering and operations at organisations including the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Taos and Levi Strauss. More recently though, Patrick has been working in Europe, holding positions in information security at banking institutions in Luxembourg and Belgium. Currently, he is working in a consulting capacity in the financial sector across Europe, as well as volunteering and mentoring females in cybersecurity. It is through his Director role at social enterprise CyberWayFinder that led to his successful ISLA nomination. CyberWayFinder aims to increase diversity and promote women in cybersecurity. This is through education, community development and encouraging career transitions. Initiatives at the programme include training and job positions at participating organisations across Europe and Asia; academic and structured training via night and weekend classes using industry-recognised certification exams (including the CISSP and SSCP) as credentials of advancement in partnership with the (ISC)² BeLux Chapter ; and sourcing senior cyber security mentors with decades of industry experience to guide individual development and support.

Through his work, Patrick is striving to create a community of female cybersecurity experts and build up a network of companies that have a need for qualified professionals; to in turn assist in alleviating the imminent cybersecurity skills shortage and facilitate a diverse next generation cyber workforce. Patrick also leads business and executive ‘cyber-uplift’ programmes and masterclasses.