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Sally Walker

Sally Walker finished a 25 year career in the National Security Sector as Director Cyber at the UK’s intelligence agency GCHQ, running the National Offensive Cyber Programme and leading the stand up of the National Cyber Force.
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Sally finished a long career in GCHQ as Director Cyber. Throughout her career, she supported military operations and crisis management, including the stand up of cyber security operations for the London Olympic Games. Her final years in the job were spent masterminding the creation of the National Cyber Force, a joint GCHQ and UK Ministry of Defence partnership, working alongside a range of partners including the US Cyber Command and the National Cyber Security Centre. Boris Johnson said last year that the National Cyber Force would transform the UK’s cyber capabilities to disrupt adversaries and keep the UK safe.

Sally was also GCHQ’s diversity champion for over a decade and introduced many pioneering programs to develop untapped talent, and she currently delivers women in leadership programmes and other leadership development for a range of FTSE 100 clients.

Sally now runs Human Digital Thinking where she focuses on the impact of big data and AI on human decision making. She is also a board chair in local UK government, and works with a portfolio of clients from all sectors of society.

Sally recently joined the WithYouWithMe board as a non-executive director and continues to support the company as we transform the cyber recruitment and retention landscape by unlocking the full potential of individuals and building a scalable, willing, fighting cyber force for the digital age.
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The cyber workforce is changing. It's more diverse, both in terms of the society it represents, but mostly in terms of cognitive diversity. Different people thinking differently about the modern problems, the complexity of the world that we live in.

Sally Walker cyber report cover

From National Cyber Force to National Cyber Competence

Foreword by Sally Walker, Former Director Cyber, GCHQ & Strategic Advisor, WithYouWithMe
Download the report

Media coverage

Sally Walker - The Mandarin article

The Mandarin

Former cyber ops chief launches offensive on tech recruitment bias

"There are a range of ways to facilitate more strategic problem solving, starting with the team. The widest possible range of lived experience to inform any new situation; the maximum divergence of individual brains trained to think differently."
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ABC radio

We need a new cyber army spanning defence, industry, intelligence and academia

“The cyber security industry – for all of its strengths – has become quite exclusive – it talks a language of technology, it talks a language of computer science, and yet all of these problems land in the real world somewhere.”
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The Australian

Cyber defence force needed beyond army and navy

"Australia must establish a national cyber force, beyond the army, air force and navy, and mobilise new civilian workforces to combat rising global threats and strengthen cyber defences."
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Yahoo Finance - Sally Walker article

Yahoo Finance

'I just called him by his code letter': Sally Walker, Britain's spy chief on her first boss

“In the jobs world there is a community looking for people with coding skills – which we are short of – while there is a requirement for everybody to think differently about the jobs and skills market of the future. WYWM is helping with both of those challenges.”
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BBC article - Cyber spy - Sally Walker

BBC

Cyber spy: Keeping secrets from my family 'came at a cost'

“It was encouraging talent and finding those people who don’t know how good they are and giving them safe boundaries to operate in.”
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HR magazine article - Digital skills scheme

HR magazine

Digital skills scheme for veterans backed by Capita and Fujitsu

"Business leaders need to challenge the traditional way of recruiting and workforce management to fix the UK’s tech skills gap. Without the ability to re-skill, organisations will only increase their technical skills gap and under-represented individuals will continue to be left behind."
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FE News article - Bridge digital skills gap

FE News

Leading UK companies sign commitment to hire military veterans in bid to bridge digital skills gap

“The current set up reduces candidates to two pages of A4, we call it a CV. I don’t believe it’s a fair or accurate representation of the talent that exists within the veteran community despite their considerable latent potential.”
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People management article - Mandated interview training

People Management

Less than a third of employers have mandated interview training around inclusivity

“A person’s potential is so much more than their experience or the opportunity they’ve previously been afforded – yet this is the sole focus of the CV-based recruitment model.”
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business age

The veteran workforce is a powerhouse of untapped skill and potential

"The number of skills gained throughout a military career are extensive: leadership, effective communications, resilience, financial experience and more – but without the ability to write a CV to suit any given sector’s preferences or prejudices, they are sifted from the process."
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Podcast interviews

Into the Grey Zone podcast - Sally Walker

Into The Grey Zone

Cyber Power (Part II) - Hacking ISIS

“We've always fought for what matters and what matters is the freedom of the press, our trust in law enforcement and our ability to use the most sophisticated technology at the cutting edge of our economic prosperity. These are the things that matter, but if they matter to us we need to defend them, and we can't defend them by sending boys and girls off to fight in distant battlefields (we might have to do that as well at some distant point in the future who knows) but that can't be our assumption - that we will tolerate harm up until the point that it becomes justification for conflict.”
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Leadership Confessions podcast - Sally Walker

Leadership Confessions

On Human Digital Thinking

“Leadership in the human digital thinking way of doing things I always like to invert the pyramid. If you look at leadership as a pyramid where you sit at the top of those you need it since I did approach leadership is a system the challenges you face the problems you face our system probably almost nothing that comes your way is unique so as you get more responsibility you need more help not less you need a better network not a smaller one you need more wise advice the biggest challenge both personally and professionally was equating leadership with.”
Listen now

Video interviews and events

Breaking the code - ABC - Sally Walker video

ABC

How Australia's secret cyber army is fighting global criminal networks

Australian spies are on the offensive against cyber criminal networks and foreign actors seeking to disrupt democracies. Britain's Former Director of Cyber for GCHQ, Sally Walker joined ABC's 'Breaking the Code' to unpack the crucial role of neurodiversity in building powerful cyber security teams.
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Cyber & Defence - CogX - Sally Walker video

CogX

Cyber & Defence: Preparing for a future battlefield

“Boardrooms need to get ahead of the threat - CEOs cannot delegate cyber security to their IT departments and their CISOs and say ‘that's for you to manage the tech threat’, they must understand ransomware is showing their reputational risk and operational risk if they don't understand their platforms, the location of their data, their business continuity requirements.”
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Cyber Innovation Den - TechUK - Sally Walker video

TechUK

Flagship event: Cyber Innovation Den - Keynote session

When building the UK’s National Cyber Force, Walker and her team mobilised innovative thinking and innovative doing from various sources of expertise; and built a diverse and different team, across organisational boundaries – all with the crystal-clear focus on the mission in hand and a belief in building a better world for the future. And the same approach is needed to generate a national cyber competence.
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Cyberwarfare - Sky News - Sally Walker video

Sky News

Big Ideas Live: Cyberwarfare: How tech is changing the battlefield

“Leadership in the human digital thinking way of doing things I always like to invert the pyramid. If you look at leadership as a pyramid where you sit at the top of those you need it since I did approach leadership is a system the challenges you face the problems you face our system probably almost nothing that comes your way is unique so as you get more responsibility you need more help not less you need a better network not a smaller one you need more wise advice the biggest challenge both personally and professionally was equating leadership with.”
Watch now