Alastair MacWillson – Emeritus

As a Senior Advisor with The Chertoff Group, Dr. Alastair MacWillson advises a global client base on how to strategically protect their company’s most critical assets and achieve their business objectives by providing risk management advice aimed at helping their companies identify threats and reduce vulnerabilities. Prior to joining The Chertoff Group, Dr. MacWillson served eleven years as the Global Managing Director Technology Consulting at Accenture.

With over twenty-three years of experience in strategy, information technology, security and applied cryptography, Dr. MacWillson is internationally recognized as an expert in the field. He has led technology transformation and security projects for major organizations such as the World Bank, Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), the London Stock Exchange, Carrefour, Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Cargill, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), QinetiQ, BP, Shell, BG Group, Barclays, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Ericsson, Telstra and Vodafone, as well as intelligence, security and defense departments of the United Kingdom, United States, and Australia, and European and Indian Governments.

Previously, Dr. MacWillson served as the Global Managing Director of the Security Practice, within Accenture’s global technology service line, an organization comprised of over 3,500 security and risk professionals. In this role, he worked with business and government leaders around the world on critical issues related to technology strategy, risk, operational performance and management, cyber security, and critical infrastructure protection.

From 1991 to 2002, Dr. MacWillson served as the Global Managing Partner of the Technology and Risk Consulting practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). In addition to advising clients on risk management and technology strategies, Dr. MacWillson oversaw the PwC technology venture fund, which had $50 million invested in new business activities. He was also the founder and interim global CEO for beTRUSTed, a managed service e-security business of PwC.

At the beginning of his career, Dr. MacWillson worked in government service, holding senior advisory positions on security and risk related strategy, and during that time carried out foreign service with a number of overseas postings in the Middle East, Europe and the USA.

Dr. MacWillson is a frequent speaker and commentator on technology and security issues and his insights have been featured by the BBC, CNN, The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times. He is also a visiting lecturer on security and technology and has presented on programs with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Royal Holloway University of London, Stanford, Surrey Universities and the London Business School. Throughout his career Dr. MacWillson has published many articles and papers on technology and risk and has authored journals on cyber and information security, risk, cryptography and cyber terrorism, as well as a widely selling textbook on Hostage Taking Terrorism (McMillan 1992).

Dr. MacWillson has a Bachelor of Science in Physics, Postgraduate Diplomas in Computer Science and Digital Imaging, a Doctorate Degree in Theoretical Physics and a Management Diploma from the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Expertise:

  • Technology Strategy, Forecasting and Transformation
  • Cyber Security Management and Cyber Threat Assessment
  • Security Strategy, Management and Operations
  • Risk Mitigation, Assessment and Management
  • Applied Cryptography and Identity Management
  • Advanced Analytics and Big Data

Experience:

  • Global Managing Director Technology, Security Practice, Accenture (2002-2013)
  • Global Managing Partner Technology & Risk, PwC (1991-2002)
  • UK Foreign Service (1978-1991)

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