Australian universities run some of the country’s most open and complex technology environments, supporting tens of thousands of students, global research partnerships, and sensitive data across multiple campuses. The six cybersecurity leaders below protect universities from Perth to Melbourne and Queensland, and their paths into the role are remarkably varied. One managed a Starbucks store at Sydney International Airport before moving into network security operations for the federal government. Another learnt VAX/VMS system administration at the Perth Theatre Trust and went on to become UWA’s first CISO. A third helped merge a TAFE institute into CQUniversity to form Queensland’s first dual-sector university, and a fourth was CIO of Commonwealth Bank Indonesia before returning to Perth.
Tony Aramze – CISO, Swinburne University of Technology
Tony Aramze began as a senior security analyst at ExxonMobil and managed IT risk at Arthur Andersen before spending a decade as a director in PwC’s global risk management services practice, where he delivered what was then the largest commercial encryption solution for a global financial institution across Singapore, Hong Kong, India, the UK and the US. At Verizon Business he led the professional services practice and then strategic information security services across Asia Pacific, building delivery teams in Singapore, Japan, India and Australia. As head of information security services at ANZ, he led more than 150 people across Australia, Asia Pacific and India. After consulting independently and leading customer security and risk at Telstra, he spent more than seven years as CISO of RMIT University. Aramze became CISO of Swinburne University of Technology in April 2023, responsible for the university’s global cyber resilience and risk management.
Lee Patterson – Director, Cyber Security & Technology Risk Management (CISO), The University of Western Australia
Lee Patterson started as a systems administrator at the Perth Theatre Trust, then supported infrastructure at remote mine sites for Western Mining and BHP Billiton. In London he worked as an IT security engineer at Stepstone and a security consultant at Accenture, carrying out penetration testing and forensic investigations. He spent seven years in Singapore as head of information security for Asia Pacific at Barclays Capital, then formed a global threat intelligence and vulnerability management function at UBS. Patterson joined The University of Western Australia in 2017 as its first CISO, building the cyber security team from the ground up across security operations, identity and access management, architecture, governance, and awareness, and leading a multi-year uplift programme to protect its global research and learning environment.
David Willett – CISO, La Trobe University
David Willett managed a Starbucks store at Sydney International Airport before joining Verizon in Canberra, where he spent nine years moving from service desk team leader to national operations manager for network security, leading more than 30 engineers supporting Australian federal government customers. After managing security operations onsite for a Dimension Data client, he joined PEXA in 2019 and rose from security services manager to CISO, later adding workplace technology and technology risk as chief information security, risk and workplace technology officer. Willett became CISO of La Trobe University in September 2024, responsible for protecting more than 30,000 students, researchers and staff. He has served on the board of the Australian Information Security Association since 2023.
Darron Richardson – Director, Digital Resilience and Operations (CISO), Southern Cross University
Darron Richardson spent a decade managing the student information system at TAFE SA before joining SA Health, where over more than 20 years he managed information systems projects for Child and Youth Health and BreastScreen SA and led its online services team with a $3 million budget. He moved into cyber security at the University of South Australia as manager of cyber security projects, then joined Southern Cross University in 2023 as senior manager of cyber security and CISO. He became director of cyber resilience in 2024, and since January 2026 has also served as director of digital resilience and operations, bringing digital operations, IT service management and cyber security together. Richardson holds CISM and ISC2 CC certifications and spoke at the Higher Education Technology Summit in Victoria in 2026.
Peter Vanheck – Director of Data and Cybersecurity, CQUniversity
Peter Vanheck has spent nearly 25 years at CQUniversity, starting as a systems administrator for the Faculty of Business and Law and working as a systems engineer, field services manager, client support manager and data centre manager. He led the infrastructure integration that brought the Central Queensland Institute of TAFE into CQUniversity, forming Queensland’s first dual-sector university, and later designed the ICT environment for its new Jakarta campus. After serving as deputy director of digital infrastructure and then of cybersecurity and technology, Vanheck became director of data and cybersecurity in January 2023, leading a multidisciplinary team across data governance, cybersecurity and digital resilience. He was a speaker at Stronger Together 2026.
Jon Porter – CISO & Deputy Director, Technology & Cyber, Curtin University
Jon Porter began as a developer and infrastructure team leader in the UK, including at Halifax, and tuned neural network search solutions for clients such as GSK in the early 2000s. He spent more than 13 years with Orange UK and O2, leading service management for O2’s mobile wallet and operational management for the UK smart meter programme. After moving to Perth, he led service management at Bankwest and technology programmes at Commonwealth Bank, then served as CIO of Commonwealth Bank Indonesia in Jakarta. Porter joined Curtin University in May 2025 as CISO and deputy director of technology and cyber.
Securing the Open Campus
These six leaders show how many paths lead into university security. Aramze and Patterson bring decades of international banking and consulting experience, while Willett and Richardson rose through operations and public sector roles. Vanheck has grown with CQUniversity for a quarter of a century, and Porter brings executive technology leadership from banking. Together they protect the research, teaching and student data at the heart of Australian higher education.
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John Kevin Hao is a news and feature writer covering cybersecurity, technology, and business targeted for professional audiences.