The Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) of GCB Bank, Ronald Martey has made it on the global top 100 Leaders in Information Security.

His recognition, comes as result of putting in place measures to protect the Bank’s enterprise service as 2020 exposed the banking sector to a turbulent environment due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Organizers of the award, Business of Infosec, said; “it is deeply embedded in the world of cybersecurity. Their global suite of digital cybersecurity events puts the honorees in the perfect position to bring together and celebrate the most dynamic executives in cybersecurity from across the globe.”

They also acknowledge that information security leaders face different challenges in different industries and parts of the world. For this reason, they decided not to rank the ‘Top 100’.

The business leaders in this year’s list are all doing incredible work in their respective fields.

In an interview with Business of Infosec on making it on the ranking, Mr Martey intimated, his greatest achievement was being able to build what he calls a ‘human firewall’ across the enterprise.

On the back of Covid-19 and its implications on businesses across the globe, “I quickly had to engage my team to find ways to minimise or manage the risk of employees working from home.

"We made a strong business case to Management to invest in a cloud-based learning platform where employees anywhere in the world could access cybersecurity training and awareness content on the go.

"So far, that investment has yielded a lot of good dividends. Our employees are more security-aware and are now able to effectively identify suspicious and phishing-related emails (which account for a lot of data breaches) across the enterprise,” he added.

Ronald Martey is a cyber and information security management professional with over 10 years of experience spanning the government, telecommunications, financial and technology services industries.

He is currently CISO of GCB Bank, the largest indigenous bank in Ghana, where he leads the Bank’s cyber and information security strategy.

Before that, he led the enterprise security solutions portfolio for IBM across Central and West Africa where he was recognized in 2019 as a ‘hundred percent club’ honoree for increasing the footprint of IBM Security Solutions across Central and West Africa.