Hilary Walton

Chief Information Security Officer, Kordia Group

Hilary Walton is a Director, Security Culture expert, a Psychologist, an IT leader, an author, a wife, a mother of three children and wants to make the world a better place by inspiring more diversity in the Tech sector.

Her day job is Chief Information Security Officer of the Kordia Group (a provider of business-critical connectivity, cyber security and cloud solutions), responsible for the overall security position of Kordia in both Australia and New Zealand. She also acts as an external ambassador providing thought leadership on security on behalf of the company.

In addition to security, Hilary is also an Information and Technology and digital business transformation leader. Her diverse background in organisational psychology, risk management, and security sets her apart from her peers with traditional technology backgrounds.

She has significant experience from offshore roles – she worked for Mi5 in London and the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games leading the Information Security programme. She was also a uniformed Officer in the Royal New Zealand Air Force. She has written a book and developed an App on how to improve Security Culture.

Hilary has also built an online following through her social and digital networks, using her ‘Digital Culture Ideas’ Podcast, YouTube, LinkedIn and other social media channels in video, written and audio medium to deliver her messages. She is a passionate thought leader on topics such as culture change, IT, digital transformation, security, diversity and inclusion and cyber-safe parenting.

She is Founder of the ‘New Zealand Digital Leaders Network’ (NZDLN), a senior level (e.g. CIOs, CDOs, CTOs, CROs) community born out of a need for organisations across New Zealand to collaborate, share good practice and support each other on IT, digital transformation and security related topics.

She also founded the ‘Digital Culture Ideas’ Network, a global network with a broad community which includes professionals in IT, HR, Comms, H&S and project management. As digital impacts all areas of business and will be part of every job in every industry, this group shares ideas and is a place to ask questions to expand the digital capability, knowledge and skills of individuals and organisations, alike.