Alison Harrington

Alison Harrington has been the Global Head of Cybersecurity Education & Awareness at HSBC since 2021. She is responsible for strategizing, designing, and delivering mandatory and required cybersecurity training to HSBC’s population of ~250k colleagues, including tailored insights for roles identified as high-risk users. Her remit includes global cybersecurity communications and engagement and expanded to include design and user experience across cyber products. She manages a team of ~40 professionals across 5 countries and has double hat as the Business Information Security Officer (Interim) for two divisions within Enterprise Technology since September 2024.

Alison’s background is in financial crime investigations and business intelligence across the Middle East and North Africa. She has lived and worked in 10+ countries, most notably the UAE, Libya, Jordan, Egypt, and the UK. Prior to joining Cybersecurity, she worked in HSBC’s Financial Intelligence Unit and Financial Crime Threat Mitigation departments, where she managed a wide range of financial crime projects through network analysis, organizational mapping, and large-scale data analysis. Alison previously worked for Deloitte’s Business Intelligence and Forensics & Dispute Services team.

Alison began her career as a Thomas J. Watson Fellow, for which she was selected as one of 40 national finalists in the US and awarded an independent international grant. Alison graduated with BA from Wellesley College in Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies (emphasis on Arabic language) and has a MA from King’s College London in War Studies.