Pete began his career as a manufacturing apprentice but soon realized his true passion lay in digital leadership. His pragmatic and collaborative approach has fostered lasting relationships and high-performing teams, driving strong results throughout his career. With over a decade of executive leadership experience in the digital realm, including ten years in France, Pete has gained a deep understanding of diverse cultures and the intricacies of team dynamics, recognizing how various perspectives can enhance collaboration and drive innovation. Currently, Pete serves as VP of Digital Cyber Security for Airbus Commercial, where he ensures the business operates securely worldwide. Outside of work, Pete enjoys spending time with his family and their four dogs.
Recently, in an exclusive interview with Digital First Magazine, Pete shared his professional trajectory, the secret mantra behind his success, his favorite quote, future plans, words of wisdom, and much more. The following excerpts are taken from the interview.
What drew you to cybersecurity, and how did you begin your career in this field?
Having held many management positions across varies Digital departments i have worked alongside the cyber teams on many occasions, this relationship was not always effective or collaborative, resulting in tension between teams and inefficient processes and poor results – when the opportunity arose to lead the digital cyber organisation I saw a huge potential for improvement, through a change of mindset and culture – driving a vision to enable and protect the business in a balanced approach – Cyber risk reduction vs business operational performance
What do you love the most about your current role?
I love the team, the ever-changing challenges we face and the chance to influence the direction of cyber across the business. Digital is at the forefront of transformation within Aerospace Industry and embedding cyber principles must be at the foundation of this journey, this means that we need to work on all aspects from security by design in the definition of new solutions, maturing the posture of our existing landscape and developing a culture and mindset across the business that puts cyber in the DNA of all of the employee. This all contributes towards making my role engaging, interesting and continually evolving.
What skills and expertise do you believe are essential for data professionals to develop in the next 2-3 years?
A fundamental skill that every data professional must develop is that of collaboration, problems are not solved by individuals, the power of teamwork and collaboration is irreplaceable in the road to success. To prepare for the future we also need the team to develop expertise in the use of AI, both in understanding the threat that the use of AI in the business brings and also in the way we as cyber professionals can use AI to improve our protection capabilities.
How do you stay current with emerging trends and technologies in data and analytics, such as AI, machine learning, and cloud computing?
I am not spending hours reading all the latest technical journals and magazines, I find it far more beneficial to stay connected to a group of experts (members of the team, experts from the supply chain, contact with my industry peers..) to provide a broad view of evolving technologies and their relevance to our industry, the ability to apply business context is essential to allow me to develop a consistent and prioritised approach to the cyber strategy.
You were recently recognized as one of the 2024 Future CISO 100 Award Winners. Our readers would love to know the secret mantra behind your success.
I have a very pragmatic approach to life and the challenges that face us; to build drive a change of mindset I use a few constant messages:
“Enable and Protect” – with modern cyber controls protection can be relatively easy, the value that we bring as a team is to ensure we enable the business to operate in the most effective, efficient and secure way possible – driving the balance of these through the team and the supply chain is essential
“Discuss, decide, do” – it’s important to deliver! Constant discussion and changing of decisions drives confusion in the team and does not provide a clear direction to follow – my approach is to start work in line with what has been decided, it may not be 100% correct, but we can adjust as we go based on the experience we develop on the way.
Who has been a personal role model or mentor to you throughout your career and why?
I follow 2 streams of mentoring, one based on the experience of others, I look at successful manager/experts and engage them to mentor me through stages of my career, the second is through feedback from my peers and team, listening and adjusting my approach as needed
If you could have a one-hour meeting with someone famous who is alive, who would it be and why?
I would like to spend an hour with Zac Brown (CEO McLaren Racing), to understand the mindset needed to constantly innovate and drive innovation within a team, while still being laser focused on tangible performance enhancing results, the balance needed in the F1 business in super impressive with the results of the teams innovations tested and compared with others live in front of millions of people around the world. Innovation balances with performance is a skill that I would like to develop further and is important in the long-term engagement of the team and demonstration of the value of our deliverables
How do you keep your mind healthy and stay resilient? And how do you motivate your team?
I work hard to have a good work life balance, my family is always priority number one for me, and I ensure I make time in my week to focus on them and their priorities, this keeps me well balanced and able to cope with the many challenges that we face at work. From a work perspective I have a positive attitude towards challenges and always ensure the team recognise that I am there to support them.
What is your favorite quote?
The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. -Walt Disney
This is fully consistent with my mantra of “discuss-decide-do”, and with a focus on delivery if you don’t start the only certainty is that you will definitely never finish!
Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
My current role is the most challenging that I have had, and also the most interesting, in the coming years I will continue to develop my Leadership and Cyber skills and take on challenging opportunities as and when they arise.
What advice would you give aspiring cybersecurity professionals?
Early Careers is a key pipe line of capability I believe in, starting life as an apprentice I know that it’s a pipeline that delivers strong future leaders, the advice i always give them is to ensure they can understand the technical elements of cyber with a clear view of the business context, the other is to ensure they can always explain what they do and why to someone who is not a cyber expert, finally I encourage them to collaborate with people from other departments and expertise.