Vannessa Van Beek is Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Fortescue, where she leads cyber resilience across global mining and green energy operations. She is responsible for securing complex operational technology and enterprise environments where safety, uptime, and risk management are critical to business performance.
With a career spanning network engineering, consulting, security operations, and executive leadership, Vannessa has held senior roles at Telstra, Kinetic IT, Avanade, and DXC Technology. She has expertise in major incident management, cyber resilience, and risk management. Her work focuses on aligning cyber strategy with business outcomes, strengthening organisational resilience, and embedding security into operational environments through practical, people-centred leadership.
Vannessa is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at Murdoch University, where her current Phd research explores artificial intelligence in cybersecurity, human factors, psychological safety, leadership, and cyber resilience. She is a regular
keynote speaker at leading industry conferences including CyberCon, AusCERT, NDC, DDD, and CISO events across Australia and Singapore.
She is recognised for her leadership, receiving the WiTWA Senior Leadership Award, the CSO30 Award for Leadership, and 2024 Cyber Security Champion Award at the Australian Women in Cybersecurity Awards