Press Release: Mike Gillespie recognised for his Outstanding Contribution to Security in The Security Institute Awards Shortlist
News and information from the Advent IM team.
- by Olivia Lawlor-Blackburn
- General
**PRESS RELEASE**
Media Contact: Ellie Hurst
+44 (0) 121 559 6699,
Date : 16 Nov 2021
Mike Gillespie recognised for his Outstanding Contribution to Security in The Security Institute Awards Shortlist
Advent Managing Director, Mike Gillespie has been shortlisted for his ‘Outstanding Contribution to Security’ in memory of George van Schalkwyk, in the 2020 postponed Security Institute Awards, a testament to his hard work and dedication.
The Institute encourages and recognises excellence, as a part of its commitment to professional development and raising awareness of good security. It has developed an annual Awards Ceremony, where individuals and companies going the extra mile are recognised, and where its own Awards are presented.
Advent IM is very proud to announce that Mike Gillespie, Managing Director & Co-Founder of Advent IM has successfully been shortlisted as a finalist for the ‘Outstanding Contribution to Security Award’ in memory of George van Schalkwyk category at the awards. After being postponed in 2020, the award will go ahead in November of 2021 at the Sea Life Centre in London.
Mike joined the RAMC in 1989, leaving in 1998, to pursue a career in ICT / Information Management and today is the Managing Director of Advent IM. Since 2002, Advent has gone from 2 people with a laptop to a £3.5m turnover company in under 20 years, with 19 employees.
Mike is a senior information security and data protection practitioner of many years’ standing. He is Vice President of C3i Group on cyber security, cybercrime and cyber intelligence, is cyber spokesperson for the International Institute of Risk and Safety Management (IIRSM) and is also the Cyber Security lead adviser for UK Government’s Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner. Mike had previously served as Director for Cyber Strategy & Research for several years at the board of the Security Institute. As a subject matter expert, Mike is called upon regularly to speak at events and contribute editorial. He is also part of the editorial board for Professional Security Magazine, a regular speaker at key events such as Security & Policing, IFSEC, SCTX, The Security Event, and International Security Expo.
His commitment to making cyber security accessible by all is exemplified in his participation in the CIISec Master Class program in 2019 on Communication in Security. Furthermore, Mike has worked extensively with the police and was instrumental in developing the SIRO training course for Police at the request of ACPO.
Over his career at Advent IM, Mike has been privileged to be nominated and shortlisted for many awards. Most recently, Mike was nominated for the prestigious Business Leader of the Year (SME) Category at the British Ex-Forces in Business Awards held in December.
Mike is a regular contributor to the Advent IM Risk and Business Podcast where Advent IM and guests bring security to a wider business audience, rather than just the security industry. Mike believes that security needs to be understood by all, this is why he is happy to regularly contribute to podcasts, presentations, and editorial to make security more open to a wider audience who can understand it on their terms.
In 2020 Mike was shortlisted twice in the National Cyber Security Awards for Cyber Citizen of the Year and Cyber Volunteer of the Year categories. Further to this, Mike has been in the IFSEC Global Influencer top ten for a number of years, including reaching the top 5 for the Cyber Security category for the IFSEC Global Influencers Security & Fire 2019.
“I’m delighted that Mike has been nominated for the Outstanding Contribution to Security Award by the Security Institute. Mike is an incredibly enthusiastic and passionate security advocate and genuinely wants to transform businesses through security by making it an enabler. Although a full-time Director of his own security consultancy, he has spent the past 20 years also providing pro bono support to many campaigns for better security, including the Surveillance Camera Commissioner where he provided valuable input into the creation of a baseline code of practice for the appropriate and effective use of surveillance camera systems. He was also selected as a Director of the Security Institute itself in order to address cyber security convergence with the physical world and align the two as part of the Institute’s strategy. He relishes the opportunity to present the case for security and can be seen at many events enthusiastically talking to audiences about its importance and how it can be effectively implemented to become business as usual. He has also directly affected change within many organisations over the years by mentoring those responsible for security from the top down. For Mike to be recognised for the contribution he has made to security over the last 20 years is thoroughly well deserved.” – Julia McCarron, CoFounder and Operations Director, Advent IM.
The winner of the ‘Outstanding Contribution to Security Award’ in memory of George van Schalkwyk will be announced in London on Tuesday 30th November and will be shared across the Advent IM social media accounts. Fingers crossed.
To find out more about this years’ awards programme, and see a full list of finalists for all categories, please visit https://security-institute.org/awards/
For more information:
Ellie Hurst, Head of Marcomms & Media, Advent IM Ltd, Cradley Enterprise Centre Ltd, Maypole Fields, Cradley, Halesowen, B63 2QB. Tel: 0121 559 6699. Email: Ellie.Hurst@Advent-im.co.uk.
Issued: 16/11/2021 Ends Ref:ADV/16/21/SYLMike
NOTES TO EDITORS
About Advent IM
Advent IM is an independent specialist consultancy, focusing on holistic security management solutions for information, people and physical assets, across both the public and private sectors. Established in 2002, Advent IM is a centre of excellence for security services, promoting the benefits of best practice guidelines and standards and the need to address risk management to protect against potential threats.
From its offices in the Midlands and London, its Consultants work nationwide and are members of the Institute of Information Security Professionals (IISP), The Security Institute (SyI) and British Computer Society.
Consultants are also Lead Auditors for the International standard for information security management (ISO 27001)), CESG Certified Professionals (CCP), Practitioners of PRINCE2, a recognised project management methodology widely used within the public sector, CISSP qualified and Home Office trained physical security assessors.