NCSC names national security expert Lindy Cameron as new CEO

Lindy Cameron, a longstanding civil servant with two decades’ experience in national security policy and crisis management, will step up to replace the National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC’s) founding CEO, Ciaran Martin, when he steps down on 31 August 2020.

Cameron will be the second person to hold the role of CEO at the NCSC since it was established in 2016, tasked with making the UK the “safest place” to live and work online.

She will take control of the organisation’s ongoing response to hundreds of critical cyber security incidents, improving the resilience of the UK’s critical national infrastructure (CNI), identifying risks and opportunities for UK plc in areas of emerging technology, and leading the NCSC’s ongoing response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hailing from Northern Ireland, Cameron is currently number two at the Northern Ireland Office and previously held responsibility for the Department for International Development’s African, Asian and Middle Eastern programmes. She began her career in the private sector at McKinsey, and has served across government both at home and overseas, including stints in Baghdad in Iraq, and Kabul and Helmand province in Afghanistan.

GCHQ director Jeremy Fleming, to whom Cameron will report, said: “I am excited to welcome Lindy to the NCSC and GCHQ. She joins at a time when cyber security has never been more essential to the nation’s resilience and prosperity. Lindy’s unique blend of experience in government, overseas and in security and policy issues make her the ideal leader to take the NCSC into the next stage of its delivery.”

Cameron said: “Over the past four years, the NCSC has transformed the UK’s approach to cyber security and set a benchmark for other countries to follow. I am delighted to join the NCSC and relish the opportunity to take this world-leading organisation to the next level.”

She will formally take up the post in October following a joint handover period alongside Ciaran Martin, who, it was also announced today, will take up an appointment as a professor of practice in public management at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government.

Fleming added: “I would like to thank Ciaran Martin for the way he has pioneered cyber security in the UK. He leaves the NCSC having led the development of a world-leading capability. We wish him the best of success as he embarks on the next stage of his career in academia and business.”