Episode 179: David Fairman

David Fairman is an experienced CIO/CSO/CISO, strategic advisor and investor.

David has extensive experience in the global financial services sector. David is currently the APAC CIO & CSO for Netskope helping customers manage their digital and cyber risk programs in addition to working across industry with the aim of making the digital economy a safer place to do business. Furthermore, David is a Partner and CISO-in-residence at SixThirty Ventures, driving innovation and helping build great technology companies. Previously, David was the Chief Security Officer (CSO) at NAB owning all aspects of Physical Security, Fraud, Investigations and Cyber Security. Prior to NAB, he was the Group Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for the Royal Bank of Canada. David has been a senior leader at JP Morgan Chase & Co and the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) having held several regional CISO and Global Head roles.

David has lived and worked in Australia, the UK, the Netherlands and the USA.

David was raised and educated in Australia where he received his Bachelor of Information Technology in Software Engineering and Computer Science. He holds a Masters of Business Administration and a Masters of Project Management. David began his career in Information Security while serving in the Royal Australian Air Force’s Electronic Warfare and Communications group, where he gained valuable experience in the technology, policy and process aspects of security and risk management. Subsequently, David worked in a variety of roles in technology and cyber, including in the utilities sector (gas and electricity).

David holds a number of positions on boards of directors and was a founding member of the Security Advisor Alliance (www.securityadvisoralliance.org), and the Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange. During his tenure at NAB, David was the Chair for the Board of Directors for the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange and spear headed the formation of a taskforce involving the big 4 banks, AFP, ASD and ACSC to detect and disrupt cyber-crime impacting Australia. David also advises a number of VC funds and Cyber Security companies.

Recently, David was recognised in the Top 50 Australian Professionals, as profiled by the Top 100 Magazine. David has also been named as one of the Top 10 CISOs to know, and is recognised as a thought leader in the cyber security industry as profiled by K-Logix here.

David co-authored “Cyber Risk” (2016) and co-edited “Fintech: Growth and Deregulation” (2018) published by Risk Books and was the Technical Editor for “Zero Trust Journey Across The Digital Estate” (2022) published CRC Press.

David is passionate about education. He has held Adjunct Professorships at both the University of New York and the University of Toronto and is currently working with Deakin University in Australia.

David currently resides in both Melbourne and Brisbane, Australia.