Company headed by Tipperary men will be in the shake-up at Tech Excellence Awards

A Tipperary man who is one of the country’s leading cyber security experts has been chosen as the Security Leader of the Year at the CIO (Chief Information Officer) and IT Leaders Awards.

Paul Delahunty, who hails from Rosegreen, is Chief Information Security Officer at Stryve, a private cloud company in Carlow.

Son of Breeda and Tom Delahunty, he has also been shortlisted for the Tech Excellence Awards - which will be presented next Thursday, May 25 - for the IT Professional of the Year category.

The CIO and IT Leaders Awards honoured the finest IT and technology business leaders who have been championing change and innovation within their organisations.

The black-tie ceremony took place at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin.

A CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) with 15 years of experience in information security, Paul is a GDRP (General Data Protection Regulation) expert.

He is well-known within the industry for his contributions to advocacy for improved national cybersecurity, education, EU and Government policy, and is a regular contributor to the media.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, he stated “I’m thrilled to be named Security Leader of the Year and to receive this recognition amongst my peers.

“Security is an exciting and fast-paced industry, constantly evolving with new and more sophisticated threats, especially with the rise of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and the Internet of Things (IoT), or the Internet of Threats, as I call it! So it keeps me on my toes.

“If I could give one piece of advice to SMEs (Small Medium Enterprises) it would be to keep cyber security on your agenda. Make sure it’s discussed at every board meeting and every manager’s meeting. Cyber security awareness is half the battle”.

Paul started his career as an engineer with Ericsson before venturing into the start-up world as operations director in the pioneering early days of cloud computing with moQom.

He later co-founded ThorsNet, a cybersecurity and compliance company that helped deliver accessible and affordable GDPR or ISO27001 compliance to Irish SMEs grappling to adhere to the impending legislation coming into force.

More recently, he worked as Information Security and Audit Manager for Hostelworld before joining the team at Stryve.

In his role as CISO at Stryve, Paul’s goal is to foster a cyber security-aware culture in businesses across Ireland and the EU.

He works closely with Stryve’s growing clientele in Ireland, the UK and Europe, managing an international team to deliver tailor-made cybersecurity services supporting businesses, including Government, EU and private contracts, in over 20 countries.

Paul is a member of the Cyber Ireland SME Committee and shares his knowledge in helping to build a cybersecurity community across the country that links with Cyber Ireland’s national activities. He participates in regular meetings on topics such as identifying regional challenges, coordinating the key stakeholders across industry, academia and government, and feeding into Cyber Ireland’s national activities.

Paul is also an active member of ICTTF (International Cyber Threat Task Force).

The ICTTF is a not-for-profit initiative promoting a cyber security ecosystem in Ireland.

He is currently undertaking further studies with the Cyber Risk Academy.

Stryve is also in the running for the Vertical Market Specialist of the Year award at next week’s Tech Excellence Awards.

The Vertical Market Specialist category recognises those that “demonstrate long-term vision in building and financing sustainable business growth”.

Stryve CEO Andrew Tobin, another Tipperary man who hails from Boytonrath in the parish of New Inn, says: “The company has demonstrated phenomenal growth over the last 24 months. And we’re just getting started.

“It is fitting and gratifying to receive this recognition in the vertical award category. As I always say, any award is a testament to the Stryve team. It’s their achievement.

“We are particularly proud of our CISO Paul and his continued innovation in security leadership”.