The first email and the first virus came into existence almost within a year of each other. Since then, the evolution of cyber applications, cyber security, and cyber threats have been simultaneous and constant. In the 2000s, cyber-attacks gained volume and velocity, making cybersecurity an immediate and serious concern.
Nowadays, cybersecurity has become integral to businesses as cyber risks have become business risks. The demand for cyber professionals has risen significantly, but people with enough depth, understanding, and skills in the arena are critically few.
One such person is Dr. Fene Osakwe, a multiple award-winning Global Tech professional, international conference speaker and Forbes published author with over a decade of experience working with multibillion-dollar companies. He consults for several Financial Institutions, Telecoms and FinTech companies, State Governments, and other Professionals, and sits on the advisory board of several companies across the globe, holding over ten professional IT Certifications.
Fene started his cyber security career as a penetration tester and rapidly progressed into senior management in nine years. He is now a much-acclaimed conference speaker in Africa and other parts of the world. He has spoken at over 43 international conferences and has won several awards locally and internationally. In 2021, Dr. Fene was awarded an honorary Doctor of Business Administration (Leadership and innovation) from the Swiss School of Business Geneva for his exceptional leadership skills and continuous innovation.
Fene is a member of the Forbes Technology Council and is an advisory board member on several boards within and outside Africa. He mentors hundreds of career professionals with a mission to help career professionals rise from fresh graduates to executive management.
He is also the author of the book “Climbing the corporate ladder with speed,” an Amazon best seller for career professionals, where he breaks down principle and practical steps to set career goals, accelerate career progress and get to senior and executive management in less than ten years.
Let’s delve into his journey!
The Journey of Hope and the Success of Relatability
Fene likes to call his journey as a journey of hope – to come from nothing to becoming Africa’s most sought-after cybersecurity advisor – the journey wasn’t an easy one. He had to face several challenges, like a lack of belief and being taken advantage of due to his young age when he started out, lack of finances for basic needs of life, and encountering people who had hero syndrome. Still, Fene retains a positive and resilient outlook to it all, saying, “Ultimately, I think these challenges only make us stronger.”
Fene began his professional career as a cybersecurity specialist with Deloitte Nigeria consulting for various multinationals in Financial services, Tech and Oil and gas. He moved on to MTN (Africa’s largest Mobile Telecommunication operator) as a Business Risk Manager in 2017. He then over to IHS towers in 2018 and rose to Director level, setting up two Functions from scratch – the IT Security Function and the IT GRC Function and maturing same to the level of listing on the New York stock exchange. In June 2022, he was invited into the exclusive Forbes Technology council – an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs, and technology executives. Making him one of the few people to make the Tech Council in their 30s. Fene was vetted and selected by a review committee based on his depth, diversity, and wealth of experience in Information Technology and Cyber Security.
Fene’s fast acceleration up the corporate ladder perhaps comes from his ease of translating cybersecurity technical “jargons” into immensely relatable examples anybody could easily comprehend. It certainly got him invited to speak at a lot of different conferences.
Fene shares, “As I grew up in the industry and started interfacing with other cybersecurity professionals, I noticed there’s a lot of excitement when cyber people come together and talk about cyber. But when they talk to management and other people, that excitement does not translate. It was clear that there was a missing link somewhere. So, what I do when I speak is that I make cybersecurity relatable. I use examples and scenarios to create real-life scenarios and connect it to an executive or to a non-technical person.”
Demonstrating that relatability, Fene told us about an interaction he had at one of the places he goes to advise executive management on cybersecurity with a Chief Financial Officer who wasn’t going for an awareness session.
Fene said to the CFO, “Oh, why are you not going for the awareness session? It’s a cyber awareness session.” The CFO replied, “Everything they’re talking about there, I know. There’s no big problem. They’re just going to tell us not to click on links.” “What kind of sports do you like?” asked Fene. “Boxing” came as the answer.
At that time, Tyson Fury had a fight with Deontay Wilder. So Fene said, “Deontay Wilder was actually a fantastic boxer, but he lost the match just because he met a better boxer on the day. What we are doing with the awareness is… we know you are aware. We know you know it. We’re just trying to make you better. Because if we are not careful, the hackers out there are going to knock us out simply because we thought we were too good, but on the day – they were better.”
And the CFO left his seat and went for the awareness session simply because Fene was able to make him relate to it. This is what Fene thinks needs to be done to make cybersecurity relatable to people in their everyday lives.
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