Unit4 has today announced the appointment of Tom Ascroft as chief information security officer (CISO). Ascroft will be accountable for Unit4’s cyber security globally, identifying emerging security threats and developing strategies, overarching controls and organisational security culture to mitigate them.
Prior to joining Unit4, Ascroft was CISO at the University of Surrey, where he transformed and re-shaped the cyber security offering with its IT Services department. Previously, he held the director of information security role across EMEA for Avanti Communications, before becoming head of information security consulting for Legal & General PLC in the UK, covering information security requests, third party cyber assurance, penetration testing and application testing.
Ascroft’s experience spans more than 24 years across multiple industries, which puts him in a unique position to understand the diverse needs of Unit4’s wide customer base.
As Unit4 continues to invest in its security capabilities, customers will benefit by expanding their own internal IT teams, augmenting, and leveraging Unit4’s expertise, and creating more reliable up-time, providing the assurance of Unit4’s internal security procedures.
James Shand, chief customer officer of Unit4, said: “I’m delighted to welcome Tom to Unit4 at a time when the company is going through high growth and expansion. Tom is taking on a critical role as we expand our cloud capabilities, and his wealth of experience will allow us to further scale our security to ensure customer data integrity.”
Ascroft adds: “Throughout my career, I have been passionate about making a difference to the organisations I’ve worked for. I’m really pleased to have joined Unit4; it’s a very exciting time to become part of the journey, and the combination of the ambition to grow the business and the amazing cultural values made this an unbeatable role for me.”
