Queensland Branch Committee

Branch Chair

Carrie Gurr

Carrie is a cyber security sales specialist with 20 years experience consulting with small, medium and large-scale enterprises across the QLD marketplace.

Whilst gaining most of her experience within Vendor and Channel sales roles, Carrie has run multiple businesses and enjoys both the challenges and successes that being a small business owner brings.

As a mum, wife, avid sportsperson and networking enthusiast, Carrie prides herself on social problem solving, building and sustaining strong personal and professional partnerships and connecting like-minded people.   

Deputy Chair

Bruce Large

Bruce has 15 years experience working with IT and OT in network and system engineering roles. Bruce has worked in Electricity Generation, Railway, Aviation, Emergency Services and Consulting industries. Bruce considers himself to be a security architecture enthusiast as well as an infrastructure tourist. He is a Foundation Chartered SABSA Architect (SCF), is working on his A3 SCP paper,  holds the GIAC Response and Industrial Defense (GRID) certificate and has attended Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Cyber Security training at QUT. He also graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering (Telecommunications) First Class Honours and a Master of Business (Applied Finance) with Distinction from QUT.

Committee members

David Manfield

Dr David Manfield joined the AISA Brisbane Committee at the start of 2013. David has over 30 years experience in the ICT industry working in telecommunications, IT security and e-health. He ran local crypto-security R&D company SPYRUS Pty Ltd for nine years, and retains an interest. His current business interests are via vPerformance Pty Ltd and include IT security solutions definition and delivery. Recently, he spent four years defining the software compliance framework for the National eHealth Transition Authority (NeHTA) to ensure that health IT systems met requirements for security, privacy and clinical safety for use in the national e-health system. In 2000, David set up the Queensland eSecurity Industry Cluster to assist local IT security companies in their business development.

Bashir Semakula

Bashir Semakula is the founder of Cyberlastic Pty Ltd, a cyber advisory company that helps organisations make cybersecurity simple and affordable.

At Cyberlastic, Bashir works as a virtual CISO and Security Advisor, and his main focus is helping clients develop customised cyber strategies, prioritise capabilities and communicate cybersecurity effectively to senior business leaders.

Before devoting his work full-time to Cyberlastic, Bashir worked for a University as its Manager, IT Security, Architecture and Governance and, before that, for a state government department as the Security Architect and Principal Information Security Specialist.

Over the last 16 years, Bashir has worked across various industries such as government, education, non-profit and financial services providing various Information Technology and cybersecurity advisory services.  Bashir has also lectured information security and project management at Kampala International University, Dar es Salaam College.

In addition to being a founder, vCISO and Security Advisor, Bashir is also a keen runner and cyclist and has participated in many events such as Noosa Triathlon and Gold Coast Marathon. Bashir has also hiked to Everest Basecamp.

Brodie Carter

Brodie is an accomplished security professional and founder and director of Division 5, a local Brisbane based Cyber Security consultancy. With 15 years’ experience working within ICT and Cyber Security, he is an expert in both offensive and defensive security disciplines. His career has seen him work with and for multinational organisations across a variety of industries, including critical infrastructure, as well as those responsible for health and public safety.

He is passionate about information and network security, enthusiastic about new technologies and eager to share his vast knowledge and experience. This passion not only shows in his work, but is demonstrated through active participation in the local cyber security scene in Brisbane, his co-founding of the BSides Brisbane Cyber Security conference, and active participation as a committee member for the AISA Queensland chapter.

 

Nathan Carey

Nathan is a career security professional with over 20 years experience across research, audit, risk, operational and consulting roles, across Government, Internet, Finance and Critical Infrastructure organisations. He focuses on how businesses can best align their resources towards providing an 'appropriate' amount of security. He is a technologist and engineer at heart, and while he knows traditional and OT security across multiple sectors, he is also keenly invested with 'bleeding edge' cloud technology and the challenges of data governance and AI.

Leading the charge around how to 'do more with less' and align security to the business, he currently leads the 'Security Enablement' function within the BDO Cyber consulting team, helping organisations automate and leverage their Cyber investment better, and build out for the future.

Matthew Wilson

Matt is an Enterprise Account Manager who has worked in the ICT industry for the last 20 years. He has spent the last 10 years focusing on cybersecurity and is passionate about helping organisations protect their most critical assets.

Matt has previously held various technical roles in networking & security, within a variety of system integrators and global security vendors. He has a deep understanding of the challenges that organisations face in protecting themselves from cyber threats.

Over the years Matt has benefitted from having incredible mentors and is motivated to pay it forward to the next generation of cybersecurity professionals & the QLD security industry. 

Angela Champion

Angela is a lifelong educator, business and cyber security mentor. She is the founder and CEO of the Queensland head-quartered Australian Digital Cyber Security company, Salt Cyber, which was established with the purpose of playing a key role in closing the digital cyber skills gap in Australia.

Angela assists organisations with increasing their security maturity and ongoing digital resilience through cyber security enablement and upskilling. She has a strong passion for working with companies and their staff to help them understand their current cyber security posture.

In her current role, Angela works with relevant domains specialist consultants (SMEs) to translate technical vulnerabilities and the impact on business risk, while guiding organisations to become more resilient.