I am Lisa Ventura MBE FCIIS, Chief Executive and Founder of the AI and Cyber Security Association (AICSA), the world’s first global trade association focused on the convergence of artificial intelligence and cyber security.
I am also the Founder of Cyber Security Unity, a global community dedicated to fostering collaboration across the cyber security industry, and Neuro Unity, a non profit championing neuroinclusion for all.
My professional journey has been anything but conventional. I spent seven years working in the entertainment industry alongside Chris Tarrant, the original host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, where I witnessed the show evolve from a paper format called Cash Mountain into the world’s most successful TV game show. That foundation in journalism and broadcasting gave me a storytelling ability that I now bring to everything I do in cyber security, making complex and often intimidating technical subjects accessible, relatable, and inclusive.
In June 2023, I was awarded an MBE by King Charles III in his first Birthday Honours List for services to cyber security and to diversity, equity, belonging and inclusion (DEIB). In May 2025, I was made a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Information Security (FCIIS), recognising sustained contributions to the profession. My book, Artificial Intelligence in Cybersecurity, is being published by Kogan Page in April 2026, and I am a regular keynote speaker, awards judge, and published writer on topics spanning AI security, social engineering, cyberpsychology, neurodiversity, and the human factors of cyber security.
I am openly neurodivergent, having been diagnosed with autism in 2018 and ADHD, dyspraxia, and dyscalculia in 2023. I use my lived experience to advocate for neuroinclusive workplaces and to challenge the outdated, fear based approaches to security awareness training that fail so many people. My signature methodology rejects the ‘human firewall’ framing and instead centres psychological safety, accessibility, and trauma informed design. Through this approach, I have achieved up to a 90% reduction in phish prone behaviour for client organisations spanning multiple countries, languages, and cultures.
I sit on the UK Chapter of the Global Council for Responsible AI, and I am a member of the Advisory Board of Business Leaders Accelerate. I am based in Worcester, UK.
