The West Midlands Cyber Resilience Centre (WMCRC) is delighted to announce that The Children’s Society has joined the WMCRC Board represented by Gary Thomas, Children and Young People (CYP) Services Director for the South.
Gary brings with him over 20 years’ experience working in the public and third sector at both Director and senior manager level. Gary has extensive experience leading and managing programmes, activities and issues involving young people as well as leading change in the fight against childhood poverty, harm, and neglect.
He has worked in partnership with statutory and non-statutory agencies and commissioners at a national, regional, and local level within the children and young people, disability, social care, supported housing and health field.
The Children’s Society are a national charity working to transform the hopes and happiness of young people facing abuse, exploitation and neglect. The charity provides specialist support that empowers young people to make positive changes to give them a future to look forward to.
On joining the WMCRC Board, Gary said: “I was very pleased to be involved in the exciting work of the WMCRC. Cyber safety and the impact of cyber criminals and their disruptive activities can have a devastating impact on third sector organisations operations. This ultimately will affect the lives of those they are trying to support.
“As a board member, I hope to represent the needs of the third sector as well reach out to the sector to ensure the voice I bring is informed and enables WMCRC to be effective in the support it can offer.”
WMCRC Director Alison Hurst said: “Sadly charities are seen as a lucrative target by cyber criminals because of the sensitive data they hold including payment details and personal information of donors. Smaller charities can also lack the knowledge and resources to adequately respond to cyber-attacks or don’t invest in their cyber security. Having Gary’s experience of the third sector on our board will enable us to better understand and connect with the charities in the West Midlands region.
“In my former role I worked as part of the Public Protection Unit across both adult and child abuse, so I know first-hand how important the work of The Children’s Society is in providing support for so many young people in need. The work they do is very close to my heart, so I am personally delighted they have chosen to partner with us.”
The Children’s Society joins MET Cloud, National Express, KPMG, West Midlands Police, Mondelez International and the Office of the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner on the Board.