As part of the IFSEC Global Influencers in Security & Fire 2021 Awards, we remember some of the most influential and well-respected professionals in the security and fire safety sector who have sadly passed this year. Tributes come from friends and colleagues.
Tony Allen
Tony had a long-standing relationship with secure connectivity provider, CSL, having founded the manufacturing company, Dycon, which supplied many of the early iterations of DualCom until it was acquired by the CSL Group in December 2014. At this point, Tony joined CSL as a Director before stepping back in 2016 to focus on his other roles.
Tony was a long-time supporter of apprenticeships and up until his recent passing was the chairman of industry training provider, Skills for Security, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the BSIA. Skills is the organising partner of WorldSkills UK and a stakeholder of Engineers of Tomorrow – alongside CSL. Tony’s passion for the industry and its future was mirrored by CSL Founder and BSIA Chairman, Simon Banks.
Simon commented: “Tony brought a unique combination of talents to the roles he was responsible for. His considerable commercial experience combined with his own brand of discipline gave him a passion for understanding the complexities of the security sector.
“In his last major role as Chairman of Skills for Security these talents, combined with strong communication skills, meant he was instrumental in steering Skills for Security out of its poor financial position, while also relentlessly driving quality improvements to course content and delivery.
“It was Tony’s tenacity and persuasion that convinced me to become Chairman of the BSIA over three years ago. He genuinely believed in the Association and saw the value of a professional security industry where others didn’t. Our thoughts are with his family.”
Ahmed Qurram Baig
A global speaker, entrepreneur and cyber security expert, Ahmed Qurram Baig passed away on April 25, 2021. Baig was the CEO of Emirsec. He was a prominent GRC and cyber security executive in MEA region with more than 20 years’ of experience in cyber security and risk management, technology strategy and transformation in enterprise customers and advisory services.
Baig co-founded CISOCouncil and CISOCONNECT. During his career, Baig won several accolades. He was jury at IFSEC and MESA, GISEC Awards – 2014 and 2015. He was also nominated as Global CISO Finalist at Global CISO Forum 2014, Atlanta. Ahmed was on the very first judging panel for the IFSEC Global Influencer Awards, and was instrumental in attracting nominations from the Middle East.
Baig was a key contributor in new datacentre design and virtualisation technologies and cloud computing. He was also the Chief Architect for Corporate Governance Management System and IT Governance Management System covering Risk Management, IT Governance, Information Security and Business Continuity.
Find out more about the IFSEC Global Influencers in Security & Fire Awards.
