David Cullen joins Scyne Advisory as managing director in Cyber practice
Public sector consultancy Scyne Advisory has brought in former Victorian government chief information & security officer David Cullen as a managing director in its growing cyber practice in Melbourne.
David Cullen joins Scyne Advisory after two and half years as national advocacy and uplift director with CISO Lens, before which he spent time in various senior roles in the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet following an earlier career in law enforcement
Cullen’s recruitment comes as Scyne continues to lean increasingly into technology and AI advisory following earlier restructures, with the firm having also achieved new cloud and data & AI solutions partner designations with Google and Microsoft over the past month.
“Dave brings significant experience in building cyber capabilities in government and integrating cyber response and tech resilience with emergency management frameworks,” stated Scyne cyber leader James Calder. “Having worked both for and with Dave in various roles over the years it’s hard to think of someone more fiercely committed to supporting our government institutions.”
Prior to working in government, Cullen spent time in intelligence and analysis roles with customs, the Victorian police, and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission. Later positions included heading the Victorian government’s cyber incident response services unit, before then serving as chief data officer and ultimately CISO before joining cyber research community CISO Lens.
“Expertise like David’s is a key part of how we’re investing in our growing cyber & tech risk practice, focused on driving the resilience of our vital public institutions and the systems we all depend on,” Scyne stated. “Against the backdrop of a deteriorating global threat environment, finding ways to improve the security of our public sector is a common thread across the country.”
In addition to Scyne, Cullen is also an independent member of both Victoria Police’s audit and risk committee and Triple Zero Victoria’s program control board, while he previously served on secondment to Emergency Management Victoria during the early days of the pandemic, where he established the Covid-19 State Intelligence Unit within Victoria’s State Control Centre.
“I’m drawn to Scyne’s focus on supporting public sector and public purpose organisations, and the opportunity to help organisations across Australia strengthen their cyber resilience,” Cullen said upon joining the firm. “The mission remains the same: make Australia the hardest possible target for cyber criminals and anyone else who wants to cause us harm online.”
