On the lighter side of things , we ask the industry experts what makes them tick . . . .

My most memorable achievements tend to be the ones where there is a highly visible , positive impact to a customer . Quite early in my career when I was implementing an IAM system for a large media organisation , I wrote a fairly small piece of code which glued together the company ’ s Identity Provider and the Access Management system . For several years thereafter , I knew that every single user of what was a pretty high-profile website was depending upon my code .

Of course , impact is not always purely positive . Another example from a few years later is when I was leading an AppSec training course for a customer and one of my students , in a spirit of inquisitiveness , accidentally shut down a business-critical SQL Server via an SQL Injection vulnerability . That was not entirely positive , but it did confirm a significant vulnerability that was quickly remediated .

What first made you think of a career in technology ?

When I was exploring options for university , there were two subjects of interest – music and electronics . As I investigated further , I found a course at Newcastle upon Tyne for Micro-electronics and Software Engineering , which sounded fascinating , so I went to the open day and it captured my imagination . At the time I wasn ’ t aware of the Arthur C . Clarke quote – ‘ Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic ’ – but I definitely came away with a sense of magic about the place .

What style of management philosophy do you employ with your current position ?

One of the most important ingredients for a successful and fulfilling career is having great managers and / or mentors to guide and support you . I have been lucky enough to have some of those excellent managers and it ’ s now my main priority to emulate that for my own team .

The one trait which always helped me was my manager ’ s ability to coach me and let me reach my own conclusions , rather than force my hand or micromanage . I believe this kind of management style is crucial for helping individuals learn and progress and so it ’ s now the philosophy I employ .

What do you think has emerged as the technology trend of 2023 and why ?

There ’ s absolutely no doubt about it , it has to be Generative AI and the risks and opportunities it presents to businesses . Security concerns have caught a lot of attention and led some businesses and even geographies to ban the use of tools like ChatGPT entirely . However , we can ’ t ignore the exciting possibilities it presents , especially for the software development industry .

One of the main benefits of working with Generative AI models for developers is that they can move much

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