Macquarie Government, part of Macquarie Technology Group
(ASX: MAQ), have today announced the appointment of Dr Chris
Peiris as Microsoft Security and Azure Lead to grow
capabilities and practices in Federal and State Public
Sector. With a proven track record of driving technical
excellence and security innovation across the Asia Pacific
Japan (APJ) region, Dr Peiris brings immediately deployable,
clearance-ready Azure security expertise to the
team.
Chris Peiris, Microsoft Security and Azure Lead /
Supplied
Dr Peiris’ prior
experience includes Cybersecurity Advisor to the Department
of Defence where he provided IRAP compliance and Azure/SAP
security architecture for major Australian Defence Force
(ADF) projects. He has also applied his expertise in
academia as an Adjunct Associate Professor with University
of Canberra.
“I’m thrilled to join a team that
shares my belief that security and cloud innovation aren’t
separate, competing priorities. They’re the same
priority,” said Dr Peiris. “Australia is at a pivotal
moment in its digital transformation journey, particularly
within government, and Macquarie Government is actively
helping organisations navigate that complexity with
confidence, clarity, and world-class security capabilities
infused with industry leading Artificial Intelligence
innovations.”
A highly distinguished cybersecurity
leader, Dr Peiris brings more than 20 years’ industry
experience to the role. In addition to his PhD in
Cybersecurity and Cloud Computing, he spent over a decade at
Microsoft as APJ Cybersecurity Lead, where he championed
Azure cloud security initiatives for strategic enterprise
customers. Most recently he was APJ Head of Microsoft
Workloads at AWS overseeing migration and modernisation for
Public Sector. He also served as National Security Lead at
Avanade, where he successfully built a Cyber Fusion Centre
based on Microsoft Sentinel.
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“Having spent years
working alongside Defence, National Security and
Intelligence agencies, I’ve seen firsthand how the stakes
couldn’t be higher when it comes to securing sensitive
workloads and navigating complex frameworks like IRAP and
the Essential Eight,” said Dr Peiris. “That’s exactly
what drives our work at Macquarie Government, and I’m
genuinely excited to bring my experience to the company.
I’m not interested in just helping agencies check
compliance boxes. I want to help them build resilient,
future-ready cloud environments they can stake their
reputations on.”
In addition to his consulting
expertise, Chris is a recognised thought leader in the cloud
industry, having written 12 published books, including his
latest title, Threat Hunting in the Cloud: Defending AWS,
Azure and Other Cloud Platforms Against Cyberattacks,
published by John Wiley & Sons.
“We’re
delighted to welcome Chris to the team. His combination of
hands-on experience, expert knowledge, strategic sales
methodology, and proven success is extremely rare,” said
Aidan Tudehope, Managing Director, Macquarie Government.
“It is exactly what our customers need as they navigate an
increasingly complex AI-driven security and compliance
landscape. This appointment reflects our commitment to our
clients and our people, and we’re confident Chris’
expertise will support our customers’ AI-powered digital
transformation
goals.”