Matthew Villion

Matt is a passionate free thinker and loves system design and security architecture.  He has been a freelance Information Assurance / Security consultant to the private and public sector for the past 17 years since arriving in the UK.  He has been the Head of cyber security for multiple government departments including the Home Office, Ministry of Housing and Deputy Director (SCS1) for Cyber Security the Cabinet Office.  Being well versed in technology as well as policy, he has authored policies and standards for the Home Office, designed a digital solution for the Ministry of Justice, lead on Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) implementation, been an operational security manager for the Metropolitan police and led on security for the centralised NHS email solution.

Matt is a chartered member of the British Computer Society, holds CISSP certification and maintains a private cyber security and security architect consultancy to ensure his skills are maintained at both the leadership / board level but also at the technical and procedural levels.  Matt has always been a firm believer in zero trust as a basic principle, well before it was a recognised term.  He often jests about getting rid of all users and information to reduce the risk and is only half joking because, as he puts it, ‘It’s all about the information’.

Being very serious about security and an avid perpetual student reading a couple of dozen books a year on leadership approaches does not mean he is all work and no play.  He is an avid civil libertarian; he takes his work seriously, but not himself.  He has been with his amazing wife for 30 years, has three lovely daughters, enjoys killing zombies in Virtual Reality, studying AI, neurolinguistics, 3D printing and flying his drone and is determined to one day delete his digital footprint and go off-grid permanently.