Name: Building Cybersecurity That Scales — From Startup to Enterprise
Start: 2026-02-18T11:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-02-18T12:00:00+00:00
Location: Queen’s Business School

$Building Cybersecurity That Scales \u2014 From Startup to Enterprise$

From code to boardroom: how real cybersecurity programs are built and scaled.
About this Event

Cybersecurity success depends not only on strong technical architecture, but also on leadership, culture, incentives, and decision-making. Many organisations invest heavily in tools and frameworks, yet still struggle to translate these investments into resilient, scalable security programs that influence everyday behaviour. In this one-hour, in-person session at Queen’s Business School, Student Hub Building (Ground Floor, Room QBS/0G/039A, 185 Stranmillis Road, Belfast, BT9 5EE), Gary Robinson, Head of Information Security & Compliance at Slice and former founder and CEO of Uleska, will reflect on key moments from his career building and leading security functions across startups, scale-ups, and large enterprises. Alongside practical insights into what makes cybersecurity programs work, Gary will share lessons learned, common pitfalls, and perspectives on the skills and mindsets that matter most for students preparing for careers in cybersecurity, software engineering, and technology leadership.

The session bridges engineering and business perspectives and is designed to be engaging, candid, and highly relevant for students, researchers, and faculty across Business, Engineering, and Computer Science.

Gary Robinson is Head of Information Security & Compliance at Slice, a US Series-D food-tech company, where he leads the organisation’s information security function and aligns security strategy with rapid business growth. He brings more than 25 years of senior security leadership experience across startups and large enterprises. Gary is the founder of Uleska, a DevSecOps company he led as CEO (2017–2021) before moving into the role of Chief Security Officer. In 2019, he was elected to the OWASP Global Board, contributing to international security standards and chairing multiple cyber security conferences. He has delivered more than 20 conference talks, authored over 30 practitioner and thought-leadership articles, and holds CCISO and CISSP certifications. His expertise spans application and cloud security, security architecture, organisational capability building, and—critically—the translation of technical security risk into business-relevant language for executives and boards

What You’ll Gain

Practical insight into building cybersecurity programs from the ground up
Understanding how security strategy differs across organisational stages
How to align engineering decisions with business risk and priorities
Ways to embed security culture without slowing innovation
How to communicate cyber risk from technical teams to executive leadership

Format

Short presentation
Fireside chat
Audience Q&A

(Operates under Chatham House Rule)

Who Should Attend

Business School and Computer Science students
Engineering and technology students
Faculty and researchers
Anyone interested in cybersecurity, digital risk, and technology leadership

Registration

This is a free event. Registration is required due to limited capacity.

Whether you plan to build systems, lead teams, or shape strategy, this session will provide a grounded perspective on what cybersecurity looks like when it actually works.