Paul Simms

Founded and led a cyber security and AI governance consultancy providing vCISO, fractional CISO, and board advisory support to regulated organisations. Worked directly with boards and senior leaders to make cyber, privacy, and AI risk easier to act on.

Led global cyber security, privacy, and AI governance across an international business serving pharmaceutical, biotech, and media markets. Oversaw ISO 42001 certification, consolidated ISO 27001 frameworks, and improved security maturity by 2.5 levels.

Led security and data privacy strategy across a retail portfolio covering 26 centres in 10 countries. Reduced overall risk by 25%, streamlined security tooling, and improved security awareness training completion by 20%.

Led enterprise-wide security governance and privacy activity across a major transformation programme. Reduced overall cyber risk by 30%, data risk by 40%, and phishing susceptibility by 30%.

Led information security risk, compliance, and secure delivery across business and technology change. Raised cyber maturity by three levels and led response to a high-profile phishing incident.

Led an IT transformation programme to improve operational performance, governance, and protection of customer and payment data.

Held progressively senior roles across global operations, service delivery, business systems, and data protection within a complex international travel environment.

Managed global systems support, ensuring secure operations for over 10,000 IT users across 10 ships and 120 revenue centres.

Served as Head of IT on board, delivering secure hotel and operational systems for new-build ships and supporting over 20,000 passengers.