Mary Haigh

Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK in 2024.

Mary is the CISO for BAE plc, responsible for ensuring the company maintains a strong cyber security posture as an organisation, as well as in the products and services delivered to customers.

Mary is a member of the executive committee for the Defence Cyber Protection Partnership, the UK National Cyber Security Councils' Strategic Advisory Board, and is a speaker at events around the world, particularly in the area of responsible cyber power. She is also a strong advocate for diversity, founding R.I.S.E, the women in cyber security cross industry mentoring scheme. Mary is a Fellow of CIISec and a Senior Associate Fellow at RUSI.

Prior to her current role Mary was the director of cyber for the Applied Intelligence division of BAE Systems, responsible for developing the cyber vision and strategy, as well as the roadmap and go to market strategy for their cyber products and services. She joined BAE in January 2015, holding a number of roles including product director for the Managed Cloud and Security Services business.

Before BAE, Mary led the technical roadmap for the Cyber Security Division in QinetiQ, where she had worked since 2001, including heading up the Cyber Security Services business group and the Cross Domain Products business group.

Mary has worked in cyber domain since 2009, prior to that working in semiconductors research and then specialising in IP management. Her PhD was in semiconductor physics.