OUR TEAM

Our team has deep experience in the security sector, ranging from advising Prime Ministers at 10 Downing Street to building deep tech businesses to advising some of the world’s leading technology companies and investors.

Together, we also founded and ran Cylon Lab, Europe’s first cyber security accelerator programme. Until we decided to focus exclusively on investing in 2021, CyLon Lab ran cyber security innovation programmes all over the world from offices in London and Singapore, and grew a portfolio of security startups now valued at over £1bn.

Grace Cassy
Investing
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Grace Cassy
Investing

Grace co-founded CyLon in 2015 along with Jonathan Luff and Alex van Someren. Prior to founding CyLon, Grace spent 10 years in the UK Diplomatic Service, working on global security policy in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Between 2004-6, she was an advisor to Prime Minister Tony Blair, specialising in Asia and national security. She also co-founded Epsilon Advisory Partners, a strategy and growth firm working with world-leading global technology companies and investors.

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Jonathan Luff
Investing
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Jonathan Luff
Investing

Jonathan co-founded CyLon in 2015 along with Grace Cassy and Alex van Someren. Before founding CyLon, Jonathan was a senior British Diplomat, serving in a variety of roles for the UK Government, including as an advisor to UK Prime Minister David Cameron. He also co-founded Epsilon Advisory Partners, a strategy and growth firm working with world-leading global technology companies and investors.

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Kerry Gregory
Support
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Kerry Gregory
Support

Prior to joining CyLon, Kerry worked in the public sector, where she served as Private Secretary and Organiser-in-Chief to Cabinet Ministers and Ambassadors, both in London and overseas.

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OUR ADVISORS

We and our portfolio are very grateful for the support of our fantastic advisors, which include…

Ciaran Martin
Former-CEO, National Cyber Security Centre
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Ciaran Martin
Former-CEO, National Cyber Security Centre

Professor Ciaran Martin, CB, is Professor of Practice at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford. He is also an adviser to Paladin Capital in the United States, and Garrison Technology Ltd in the United Kingdom.

For six and a half years ending in the middle of 2020, Ciaran led the UK’s Government’s work on cyber security. This included establishing the National Cyber Security Centre in 2016, and running it for its first four years. The UK NCSC is now recognised as one of the leading public authorities in the world for cyber security. During Ciaran’s tenure, the UK rose from eighth to first in the International Telecommunications Union’s Global Cybersecurity Index. The NCSC’s approach to intervening to make technology safer, and easier to use safely, and to manage national level incidents proactively has been lauded around the world and Ciaran has been honoured within the UK, Europe, the United States and beyond for his ground-breaking efforts to combat cyber threats.

Prior to running the NCSC Ciaran held a series of senior roles in the UK Cabinet Office. This included: Director of Constitution, where he oversaw the agreement for arrangements for the Scottish independence referendum in 2014; Director of Security and Intelligence, and head of the Cabinet Secretary’s office. He has also worked in the UK Treasury and National Audit Office. Originally from Northern Ireland, he holds a first class degree in history from the University of Oxford.

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Sir Anthony Finkelstein
Former Chief Scientific Advisor for National Security, HM Government
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Sir Anthony Finkelstein
Former Chief Scientific Advisor for National Security, HM Government

Anthony was HM Government Chief Scientific Adviser for National Security from 2015-2021. He is now President of City, University of London. His scientific work is in the broad area of software development tools and processes. Before being appointed to his government role, he was the Head of UCL Computer Science and then Dean of the UCL Faculty of Engineering Sciences. He also a Chair in Software Systems Engineering at UCL. He has served on the editorial boards of ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, as a Member of Council of the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and was a Founder Trustee of the Alan Turing Institute. He is active as an entrepreneur and is the founder of several start-ups.

Anthony is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng). He is also an elected Member of Academia Europaea and a Fellow of the City and Guilds of London Institute. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to computer science and engineering.

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Deneen DeFiore
CISO, United Airlines
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Deneen DeFiore
CISO, United Airlines

Deneen has recently joined United Airlines as their Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer. Previously she was the Global Chief Information & Product Security Officer at GE Aviation. She is responsible for securing the operations, products, information, and assets of the business as well as ensuring compliance with global regulations. Deneen serves as the technical expert and advisor to UA’s most senior leaders on cyber risk related to products, services and ongoing operations.

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Christopher Ahlberg
Co-founder and CEO of Recorded Future
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Christopher Ahlberg
Co-founder and CEO of Recorded Future

Dr. Christopher Ahlberg is CEO of Recorded Future, Inc. and Chairman of Hult International Business School. He advises a series of startups. In 2019 Recorded Future was sold to Insight Partners in an all cash transaction for $780M. Earlier Ahlberg was the president of the Spotfire Division of TIBCO, which he founded in 1996 and in 2007 sold to TIBCO for $195M. Spotfire was founded based on his ground-breaking research on information visualization. He has five granted software patents, and multiple pending. Dr. Ahlberg was named among the World’s Top 100 Young Innovators by Technology Review, MIT’s Magazine of Innovation in 2002. He is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences.

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Yuval Diskin
Ex-Director of Israeli Internal Security Service
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Yuval Diskin
Ex-Director of Israeli Internal Security Service

Yuval Diskin is the former Director of the Israel Security Agency which he headed for six years, from 2005 – 2011, reporting to the Prime Minister. His responsibilities included counter-terrorism, counter-intelligence, Israel’s aviation security, VIP protection, and protecting the nation’s critical cyber and computer-dependent infrastructure facilities from computer-based attacks and destruction. After retiring, Diskin started a new career in the tech sector focusing on cyber security.

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Adam Fletcher
CISO, The Blackstone Group
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Adam Fletcher
CISO, The Blackstone Group

Adam Fletcher is CISO at The Blackstone Group, where he has served since 2014. Prior to this, he held a series of senior roles within major corporations such as Accuvant, Nokia, and McAfee. Most recently, he was Vice President, International Security at Equifax, until May 2014.

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Maria Lewis Kussmaul
Co-Founder of AGC Partners
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Maria Lewis Kussmaul
Co-Founder of AGC Partners

Maria is Co-Founder of AGC Partners, and is a partner in the investment banking group and leads the firm’s cyber security practice. Prior to co-founding AGC, Maria was a co-founder, general and venture partner of Castile Ventures, a seed and early stage venture capital firm. Maria’s early Wall Street career spanned three firms – Smith Barney, Shearson Lehman and Cowen & Co., culminating as global head of Cowen’s data networks & Internet investment banking activities. Previously, she was named to the Institutional Investor All-American Research Team for 13 consecutive years. Maria holds a B.A. in Economics from Rutgers University, an M.B.A. from Wharton School of Business and a Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Extracurricular:

Maria is a Trustee of the Museum of Science (MoS) in Boston, MA, and chair of the Museum’s Discoverers’ Committee. A former marathoner, Maria now restricts her running to shorter distances and has adopted the annual Washburn Climb of Mt. Washington, New Hampshire’s highest peak, as her chief fundraiser for MoS.  Maria and her husband Wes have three grown children and live in Boston, MA.

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Jim Rutt
CISO, Dana Foundation
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Jim Rutt
CISO, Dana Foundation

Jim Rutt, CISSP-ISSAP/ISSMP, CCSP, CSSLP, CISM, CISA, CGEIT, CRISC, C|CISO, CCSK, is the Chief Information Officer/CISO at the Dana Foundation. His responsibilities include providing strategic planning for information and technology management and overseeing all back office technology operations necessary to support the Foundation. Jim is an early adopter of cutting edge cloud security solutions, having led Dana through a complete cloud transformation six years ago. Jim has frequently spoken to peer organizations on corporate cybersecurity strategy and risk management, and also advises early stage technology companies on their business strategy to the financial and healthcare sector.

Jim is a graduate of Stetson University, where he received a B.B.A. degree. He has 24 years of technology experience (spanning financial, healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors) and has been at Dana for ten years. Jim has presented at multiple CIO and leadership conferences and has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal (among other publications) for his view on mobile security and governance. Jim is the former President and Chairman of the Board of Technology Affinity Group (TAG) and is Vice President and Board Director for the New York Metro Chapter of the Cloud Security Alliance, as well as an Advisory Board member of the EC-Council C|CISO Advisory Board, as well as a founding advisory board member of BWG Strategy LLC, a Work-Bench Venture Capital Mentor/Advisor, advisor to Lightspeed Ventures, a Silicon Venture capital company, advisor to Vation Ventures, Glilot Partners, and board advisor to multiple startups including ShieldX, Tala Security, Baffle, Axonius, Minerva Labs and Pixm, amongst others.

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Matt Comyns
Managing Partner of Caldwell
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Matt Comyns
Managing Partner of Caldwell

Matt is the Managing Partner of Caldwell’s Cyber Security Practice and a member of its Stamford office. His focus is on recruiting Chief Information Security Officers and next-level-down top lieutenants in information security for large global corporations and fast-growing private companies, as well as cyber security consultants for leading professional services firms and top executives for cyber security technology companies.

Matt previously led Russell Reynolds Associates’ Global Cyber Security Practice, within the firm’s Technology Sector. Prior to joining the executive search industry, he served as CEO of Pacific Epoch, a consulting firm that specialises in market intelligence and research for U.S.-based companies seeking to invest in and expand into China – until the completion of the firm’s sale. Prior to that, he was a founding partner of BlackInc Ventures, a strategic advisory firm providing clients in the digital media sector with leading outsourced solutions for business, sales and corporate development.

Before launching BlackInk Ventures in 2004, Matt worked with CNET Networks Inc. for nearly seven years, holding various positions including senior vice president/publisher of News.com, vice president of business development, and director of business development at Snap.com. He has also served as a sales manager for Dow Jones Interactive in Asia and as a founding board member of The Online Publishers’ Association.

Matt holds a BA in Political Science from Bucknell University and is conversational in Mandarin. He previously served as a member of the Board of Directors for Music National Service, a national non-profit organisation and movement that supports music as a strategy for public good.

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Min-Liang Tan
Co-Founder & CEO of Razer
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Min-Liang Tan
Co-Founder & CEO of Razer

Min-Liang Tan is the co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Razer Inc (HKEK Stock Code: 1337). He is also Chairman and CEO of THX Ltd.

His leadership has resulted in the growth of Razer from a two-man startup to a multinational market leader that was honored by Fortune Magazine’s “Unicorn List” in 2015 (private companies valued at US$1 billion or more). Razer went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2017.

Tan was named one of “The 25 Most Creative People in Tech” by Business Insider in 2015. Juniper Research distinguished him as a “Top 10 Most Influential Leaders in Tech” while Tech in Asia has ranked him No. 1 of the 30 top Southeast Asia tech founders. In 2016, he was named one of the “Straits Times Asians of the Year”.

Tan graduated from the National University of Singapore Law School.

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