Australia’s cybersecurity leadership bench is deep, and this Women’s Month feature highlights a group of executives helping shape security across banking, consulting, government, higher education, insurance, and critical services. Together, they reflect the breadth of female leadership in the country’s cyber ecosystem, with backgrounds spanning AI, intelligence, national security, enterprise transformation, and large-scale operational resilience.
Dr Maria Milosavljevic — Group Chief Information Security Officer, ANZ Banking Group
Dr Maria Milosavljevic brings one of the most distinctive backgrounds in Australian cybersecurity leadership, with a career spanning artificial intelligence, national security, government, and financial services. Before becoming Group CISO at ANZ, she held senior cyber and data leadership roles across Services Australia, the NSW government, AUSTRAC, and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission. Her work has consistently sat at the intersection of data, AI, cyber risk, and public-sector transformation, making her one of the most influential security leaders in the country. At ANZ, she now leads cybersecurity for one of Australia’s biggest banking institutions, bringing both technical depth and public-sector scale to a highly regulated environment.
Shannon Lorimer — Chief Information Security Officer, KPMG Australia
Shannon Lorimer leads cybersecurity at KPMG Australia, bringing more than two decades of experience in intelligence, insider threat, and enterprise security. Her career includes senior roles in government and defense-linked environments in both Australia and the United States, as well as insider threat leadership at ANZ before taking on the CISO role at KPMG. That blend of intelligence and enterprise experience gives her a distinctive perspective on organizational risk, security culture, and internal threat management. At KPMG Australia, she oversees security for one of the country’s most prominent professional services firms, where trust, resilience, and governance are central to the business.
Anna Aquilina — CISO, University of Technology Sydney
Anna Aquilina serves as CISO at the University of Technology Sydney, where she brings a strong mix of government, consulting, and international cyber experience to the higher education sector. Her career has included senior roles at PwC Australia, EY, the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency, the Australian Federal Police, and other public-sector strategy posts. That background gives her a rare breadth across cyber governance, risk, law enforcement, and transformation. At UTS, she leads cybersecurity in an environment where research, data protection, academic openness, and institutional resilience all need to coexist.
Maryam Bechtel — Chief Information Security Officer, TAL Australia
Maryam Bechtel is Chief Information Security Officer at TAL Australia, following earlier CISO leadership at AGL and security operations leadership at NBN Co. Her career combines consulting and in-house leadership across Europe and Australia, giving her experience in both strategic cyber design and operational execution. She is particularly well known for building strong security teams and driving large-scale security maturity programs in critical sectors. At TAL Australia, she now leads cybersecurity for one of the country’s major life insurance businesses, bringing a practical and transformation-focused approach to security leadership.
Alana Lundy — Chief Information Officer & Chief Information Security Officer, Department of Social Services
Alana Lundy represents the depth of cybersecurity leadership inside the Australian public sector. As CIO and CISO at the Department of Social Services, she brings more than three decades of experience across Commonwealth and ACT government. Her profile points to a leadership style rooted in mentoring, people development, and delivery, which is especially important in complex public-service environments where technology, security, and citizen-facing systems must align closely. Her role places her at the center of digital trust and public-sector resilience, helping safeguard systems that support essential government services.
Tara Dharnikota — Chief Information Security Officer, Victoria University
Tara Dharnikota is CISO at Victoria University, after building a career across security operations, open source intelligence, red teaming, and information security leadership at organizations including PEXA and Telstra. Her path through technical security functions gives her a grounded operational understanding of threat detection, response, and cyber risk. That hands-on experience, combined with later leadership roles, makes her a strong example of a modern cybersecurity executive who has grown through the discipline rather than around it. At Victoria University, she now leads cybersecurity for an institution operating across education, research, and student services.
Where national security, finance, and digital services converge
Australia’s cybersecurity landscape depends on leaders who can navigate regulation, operational complexity, national risk, and fast-moving technology change all at once. The women in this feature are doing exactly that, leading in banks, universities, government departments, major enterprises, and advisory firms where security decisions have wide-reaching consequences.
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