About Iyan

I'm based in Brisbane, Australia, where I serve as Chief Information Officer at Safe Places for Children — a not-for-profit providing intensive therapeutic care to young people at risk. I lead technology, information, data, cybersecurity and digital enablement across our Australian operations and our UK arm, which is regulated by Ofsted. My first job in IT was at sixteen; three decades later the work is less about the technology and more about judgement under constraint.

When I took on this role, I inherited an IT team that was reactive and under-resourced—constantly firefighting with little time for strategic thinking. Over the past few years, I've led the transformation of that team into a structured, proactive capability that's genuinely aligned to business strategy. This wasn't about implementing trendy frameworks; it was about building trust, establishing clear priorities, and creating systems that actually work.

A significant part of my work has focused on cybersecurity uplift. We've improved our Microsoft Secure Score substantially, aligned our security controls to ISO 27001 and the Essential Eight, and implemented governance and risk frameworks that protect the organization without creating bureaucratic overhead. The key has been making security practical and sustainable, not just compliant.

I'm guided by a few core values: psychological safety (people do their best work when they feel secure), clarity of purpose (everyone should understand why their work matters), practical delivery (perfect is the enemy of good), and "think big, start small, scale fast" (ambitious vision, pragmatic execution).

Beyond the day job, I have a deep interest in AI and automation. I'm particularly fascinated by using AI tools to build practical solutions that solve real problems, both for internal productivity and business value. I believe that hands-on building experience teaches lessons that you can't learn any other way.