Speaking & Events
Sanjiv Cherian is an engaging and knowledgeable speaker who has represented his ideas and expertise at numerous events, seminars, and gatherings. With a strong ability to connect with audiences, Sanjiv Cherian has delivered insightful talks on a variety of topics, sharing valuable perspectives and inspiring meaningful discussions. His presence as a speaker has consistently contributed to the success of the events he has been part of.
Speaking Topics
Securing Critical Infrastructure: OT Cybersecurity in the Era of Digital Transformation
As digitalisation accelerates across energy, utilities, and industrial sectors in the GCC, the attack surface for operational technology environments is expanding faster than most security teams can respond. This session examines the real-world IT-OT convergence challenges facing CNI operators today: from legacy SCADA exposure and supply chain vulnerabilities to the emerging role of AI-driven threat detection in industrial environments. Drawing on delivery experience across Aramco supply chain partners, rail, and utilities operators in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, Sanjiv offers a practitioner’s view on what resilience actually looks like at the operational layer, not just on paper.
AI Risk Is Not an IT Problem: What GCC Boards Need to Understand Before It's Too Late
Artificial intelligence is being embedded into enterprise operations across the GCC at a pace that is outrunning governance. Most boards are approving AI investments without understanding the risk surface they are creating: model manipulation, data poisoning, agentic systems operating without human oversight, and regulatory exposure that does not yet have a rulebook. This session equips senior executives and board members with a clear framework for AI risk governance, cutting through the hype to focus on the decisions that matter: what to approve, what to question, and where the liability sits when AI systems fail in regulated or mission-critical environments.
The CISO in the Crossfire: Rebuilding the Security Leadership Model for a Post-Compliance World
The CISO role in the GCC has evolved from technical gatekeeper to enterprise risk owner, but most organisations have not updated their governance structures to match. CISOs are being handed accountability without authority, budget without strategy, and compliance mandates without the board relationships needed to act on them. This session examines what effective security leadership looks like in 2025 and beyond: how CISOs can reposition cyber risk as a business conversation, how boards can create the conditions for security leaders to succeed, and what the next generation of the CISO function needs to look like in CNI, banking, and government-aligned enterprises across the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
From Assessment to Outcome: Why Most Cybersecurity Programmes Fail to Deliver and How to Fix It
Organisations across the GCC spend significantly on cybersecurity assessments, audits, and frameworks, yet the gap between documented security posture and operational resilience remains wide. The problem is rarely technical. It is structural: security programmes that begin and end with reports, governance frameworks disconnected from operational realities, and vendor relationships optimised for renewal rather than outcomes. This session draws on two decades of delivery experience across banking, manufacturing, government, and critical infrastructure to examine what separates security programmes that create genuine resilience from those that create compliance theatre, and what leadership needs to do differently to close that gap.
Past Speaking Engagements
OT SECURITY FIRST MENA 2026 / ABU DHABI
Securing Critical Infrastructure: Advancing OT Cybersecurity in the Era of Digital Transformation
Microminder Cyber Security awarded "Leaders in Holistic Cyber Protection" and served as
Lead OT Consulting Partner.
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