IT leadership
Building and running IT teams and services across multiple sites, from strategy and suppliers to the service desk.
IT and security leadership
Mike Vaughan
I build technology functions that regulators, auditors and the people who use them every day can all live with.
About
My career started in scientific research, then ran through telecoms security and further and higher education to cyber security software. The thread through all of it is the same: technology people can rely on, in organisations where a regulator, an auditor or a customer will notice quickly if it goes wrong.
I like building the function, not just running it. That means owning the risks properly, being clear about who is accountable for what, and keeping controls light enough that people actually follow them. Security and data protection work best when they help an organisation move faster, not slower.
I'm hands-on by habit. At home I run my own small platform: servers, backups, monitoring and an AI assistant I built myself. It keeps me honest about what the advice I give actually costs to follow.
What I do
Information security
ISO 27001, governance, risk and compliance, identity and access, and proper oversight of the suppliers you depend on.
Data protection
Formal DPO accountability: UK GDPR, impact assessments, and being the person who talks to the regulator when it matters.
Digital transformation
Changing how inspected, regulated organisations work, without breaking what already works.
Where I've worked
Scientific research
My first proper job: IT for the global science centre of a major food and drinks group. Labs, research data, and an early lesson that results have to stand up to scrutiny.
Telecoms
Security operations and security engineering for a national telecoms provider with millions of customers. Also where I learnt that customers and regulators judge you on the escalations, not the averages. Ofcom complaints included.
Further and higher education
Multi-site, inspected and accountable. IT, data protection as DPO, and digital transformation under Ofsted's eye.
Cyber security software
Building the IT and security function of a growing, investor-backed security company, through ISO 27001 and the scrutiny of customers who know exactly what good looks like.
Credentials
Off the clock
Usually building something: the homelab, e-ink dashboards round the house, or whatever is coming off the 3D printer this week.