Ben Hanson creates clarity for the most critically important organisations on the planet. He is a disarmingly transparent, funny, and warm storyteller, with influential keynotes and featured talks at top-tier conferences and institutions, including Cambridge University, Oxford University, ISACA, SANS, Cloud Security Alliance, and UK Cyber Security Council, as well... Read more
Ben Hanson creates clarity for the most critically important organisations on the planet. He is a disarmingly transparent, funny, and warm storyteller, with influential keynotes and featured talks at top-tier conferences and institutions, including Cambridge University, Oxford University, ISACA, SANS, Cloud Security Alliance, and UK Cyber Security Council, as well as leading tech firms such as Recorded Future, Rubrik, Silverfort, and Microsoft.
As global Field CTO and Director of Field Engineering at Zenity, a leading research and technology voice in agentic AI security, he operates right at the cutting edge of real-world AI. Working with CISOs and security teams at the world’s most sophisticated organisations, he helps them transition from static security controls and guardrails to the fundamentally different challenge of governing intent and agency. Prior to this he was a Senior Security Strategist and Advisor at Microsoft, where he worked with the leaders of the world’s largest Financial Services institutions, including industry giants such as HSBC, Barclays, Santander, Lloyds Banking Group, Bank of England, London Stock Exchange, and NatWest Group.
Ben is also a leading voice on applying systems thinking to cybersecurity and AI, and a member of Edinburgh University’s respected Game Theory and Systems Thinking Lab.
With counter-cultural yet highly rated talks such as “Drucker was Right…and Wrong: Why Neither Strategy Nor Culture Will Save You”, “Designing Systems not Silos: Why the Future of Cybersecurity Depends on Horizontal Thinkers”, and “You Can’t Patch a Mental Model: How Agentic Systems Expose our Hidden Security Assumptions”, he is able to connect with audiences at any level.
He brings all of this real-world insight, authority, and wisdom to the stage. In an industry where speakers often recycle the same tired advice, he doesn’t tell audiences what to do; he teaches them how to think. He challenges orthodoxy with fresh ideas and leaves audiences leaning forward, ready to transform their organisations from the inside out.