Two new appointments for KPMG’s cyber security practice
• KPMG has further strengthened its UK cyber security practice with two new senior appointments: a partner and a director.
Giles Watkins joins as a partner in the cyber security practice and Del Heppenstall joins as a director to lead the firm’s teams in the southern and midlands regions.
Giles Watkins joins from Concentium, a firm he established to help clients understand issues arising from the growing regulation around privacy. Prior to setting up Concentium, he spent 21 years at EY, where he was one of the founding members of its information security team and was responsible for building EY’s global technology due diligence and post-deal advisory services business. Giles will lead KPMG’s cyber security services in the life sciences, consumer markets, telecoms, media and technology sectors and also lead the growth of services helping organisations protect and maintain their privacy.
Del Heppenstall joins from Deloitte to lead KPMG’s teams across both the southern and midlands regions. With nearly 20 years’ experience in information protection and cyber security, he brings expertise ranging from security strategy through to technical security implementation and has led some of the UK’s largest security transformation programmes across the aerospace, government and retail sectors. In his role at KPMG, Del will help manage the rapidly growing regional practices in the south and midlands.
These latest appointments follow KPMG’s announcement in May of three other directors to the cyber security practice– James Fox who joined from Booz Allen, Tom Burton who joined from Detica and Richard Krishnan, who joined the practice from KPMG’s own global justice and security team.
Malcolm Marshall, UK and Global leader of KPMG’s cyber security practice, says: “Cyber security is a real and growing issue for business. Boardrooms up and down the country are increasingly realising that it is not something they can ignore. As cyber attacks occur with increasing regularity they are looking for teams who can help them ensure they are able to defend and maintain their business in the face of increasing cyber challenges. Del and Giles bring valuable skills and experience to our team which will help us ensure our clients stay ahead of these rapidly evolving cyber threats.”
