Ryland Deakin

Ryland has spent over 20 years in information security and IT infrastructure, frequently running both disciplines at once. He has worked with around 50 organisations on permanent and contract terms, across financial services (ING, HSBC, Van der Moolen), hospitality (Park Plaza, Art'otel, Hilton, Marriott, Radisson, Imperial London Hotels), and technology and NGO clients including Microsoft, IPsoft, ReBound, and Rainforest Alliance.

He has certified multiple organisations to ISO 27001 from scratch and delivered ITIL, GDPR, NIS2, DORA, and EU AI Act compliance programmes. He has also led Microsoft Copilot adoption across multiple organisations, covering governance, data classification, and security configuration ahead of rollout. Those engagements cut high and critical risk findings by over 50% and generated more than €1 million per year in savings through infrastructure rationalisation and supplier negotiation. He has led teams of up to 15 across EMEA, the US, and Asia, and coached and managed hundreds of staff.

When he moved to a new role within IPsoft, the company assigned three people to cover the work he had been handling alone. Mensa testing placed his IQ at 137; he was invited to join and declined.