INDUSTRY
Women in Security Special Event At ASIS New Zealand Chapter’s Women in Security Seminar in Wellington, three inspiring women in security gave insights into the varied paths that led them into successful careers as security professionals. Now in its second year, the ASIS NZ Women in Security Seminar continues to encourage the advancement of women working in New Zealand’s security sector through the exchange of information and sparking of collaborative relationships.
This year’s 3rd May instalment, held at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, was made possible through the support of sponsors Optic Security Group, ICT, Icaras, Provision ISR, Deloitte, and Risq New Zealand. The stellar speaker line-up included Catriona Robinson, Director of National Security Systems, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet; Sai Honig, ISC2 Board Member; and Catherine (Kate) Pearce, Security Officer at Trade Me, NZITF Board member and Internet NZ Councillor. The evening also saw the awarding of an ASIS International token to ASIS NZ Deputy Chair Ngaire Kelaher CPP PSP. In presenting her with the token, ASIS NZ Chair Andrew Thorburn acknowledged not only Ngaire’s long term commitment to the ASIS organisation but also her influence as a highly qualified and inspirationally dedicated security professional role model. Catriona Robinson Catriona graduated from Victoria University Wellington with a degree in German and Latin, a post-grad scholarship to study in Germany and a vague idea that “when I got back home I could apply at MFAT and then my life would begin.” “A little card at the student job search caught my eye – it was the 90s, so it was hand-written, and it said something to
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the effect that if you can speak a foreign language and use a computer then apply here, so I did, and that is how I ended up as an intelligence analyst in the heart of New Zealand’s intelligence community in a little organisation called the GCSB... and it was the best thing that could have happened to me. “I know in passing just how enormously lucky I was to have been able to basically wander – or stumble – into such a fantastically interesting and rewarding career that national security has been for me with nothing but an arts degree to my name. “I got to do a lot of really interesting things, I got to work with a number of genuinely world-class minds on some pretty cutting-edge solutions to complex problems.
“It was a great privilege to have worked at the Bureau across a period of time that spanned a lot of interesting changes in intelligence and also in security and for women in security generally from the mid ‘90s to where we are now. But after 18 years with the Bureau and looking to take the next career step, Catriona found the transition challenging, not least “trying to persuade potential employers who had never heard of me that they should give me a chance when actually I couldn’t talk about anything I’d done.” “That gave me a great preliminary insight into some of the issues that people who work in national security face, and maybe in particular women who work in the national security space when they try and move around in pursuit of their career.”
June/July 2019
