New Zealand’s public sector holds some of the country’s most sensitive information, from court and justice records to transport systems and natural hazard insurance claims. The four CISOs below protect government agencies and Crown entities, and their paths into the role cross continents and disciplines. One spent more than a decade with Cisco in Beijing and Singapore before earning a first-class law degree and leading security for Auckland’s transport network. Another led IT for DHL Supply Chain across the Middle East and Africa. A third has built security programmes across three government departments, and a fourth started his career as a signals engineer at KiwiRail.
Brendan Barrett – CISO, NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi
Brendan Barrett began as an engineer at Waikato Polytechnic and spent more than a decade with Cisco, working as a systems engineer in New Zealand, a consulting network and security engineer in Beijing, and in consulting and business development roles at its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore. In 2001 he founded Absolut Forensics, building cybersecurity strategies for organisations internationally. He earned a first-class honours law degree and a master’s in cyber security from the University of Waikato, where he also tutored the compulsory second-year torts course. At Auckland Transport he delivered new active-active data centres, then led network and security, built a DevOps practice, served as head of information security, and became group manager of SecDevOps, leading a team of 60. Barrett became CISO of NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi in April 2022, and also serves as chief technologist at Lex Consulting.
Sean Malthouse – CISO & CPO, Ministry of Justice
Sean Malthouse led a technical team at Ricoh and worked as a systems engineer at Gen-i, including on its security incident response team, before consulting on security and infrastructure at Optimation. He moved into government at the Department of Labour as a senior ICT security adviser and principal adviser for information security. At the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, he established the organisation’s security programme as security improvement programme manager, then led its security team as director of security. Malthouse joined the Ministry of Justice in 2016 as director of ICT security, risk and assurance, and since March 2020 has served as general manager of resilience and assurance services, CISO, and chief privacy officer. He holds CISSP, CISM, and CISA certifications and focuses on building organisational capability and a positive security culture.
Amanda De Klerk – CIO & CISO, Ministry of Transport
Amanda De Klerk started as a junior business systems analyst at First National Bank in South Africa and worked in implementation and project leadership roles at Premier Food Industries, New Teltron, and GlaxoSmithKline in Johannesburg. Over 13 years at DHL Supply Chain, she rose from IT product manager to IT lead for South Africa and then VP of IT for the Middle East and Africa. After moving to New Zealand, she led digital technology, information management, and privacy for public health promotion at Te Hiringa Hauora and Health New Zealand, including six months as acting general manager of corporate services. De Klerk joined the Ministry of Transport in December 2025 as business enablement and property manager, CIO, and CISO, overseeing IT services, information and records management, and vendor governance while embedding Protective Security Requirements and NZISM-aligned security, privacy, and risk assurance as the ministry prepares for a major organisational transition.
Ashley Archibald – CISO, Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake
Ashley Archibald started as a signals engineer at KiwiRail and spent five years in the New Zealand government as a system engineer and service delivery manager. At Datacom he worked as an information security manager and senior cybersecurity consultant, which brought him to the Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake, the Crown entity that insures New Zealanders against natural hazards. He served there as IT security manager and virtual CISO on contract before becoming its CISO in July 2023. As acting CISO, he was featured in a Datacom customer story on the commission’s security transformation.
Steady Hands for the Public Sector
These four CISOs bring very different experience to the same mission. Barrett combines international networking experience with legal training, and Malthouse has spent nearly two decades building security capability across government departments. De Klerk brings a global logistics background and a broad business enablement remit, while Archibald grew from engineering and consulting roles into leading security at the agency he once advised. Together they protect the systems New Zealanders rely on when they deal with the courts, travel, and recover from disaster.
Discover more CISOs securing their organizations:
-
- Power and Water: Denmark’s Energy and Utilities CISOs to Watch
- Chemistry and Code: Germany’s Chemicals Manufacturing CISOs to Watch
- From Piazza Affari to Payments: Italy’s Financial Services CISOs to Watch
- Iron and Code: Machinery Manufacturing’s CISOs to Watch
- Campus Defenders: Australia’s Higher Education Cybersecurity Leaders to Watch
John Kevin Hao is a news and feature writer covering cybersecurity, technology, and business targeted for professional audiences.