Episode 20: Jason Manar

Rodney Heron leads Cisco’s Cybersecurity Sales team across Australia and New Zealand bringing over two decades of experience in cybersecurity, sales leadership and customer transformation. After five years leading teams at Palo Alto Networks, he returned to Cisco to drive innovation at the intersection of AI, security and customer trust. Rodney’s leadership is defined by clarity of purpose, an obsession with customer outcomes and a deep understanding of how to navigate large-scale business change. Rodney is passionate about helping leaders unlock the potential of AI safely and is a regular voice on how organisations can rethink their data, infrastructure and security […] Chapters (00:00:03) - Destination Cyber: The Cyberpath 2(00:01:14) - Destination Cyber(00:02:08) - Interview with Cisco's Director of Security Sales, Jahart(00:03:11) - What Motivated You to Get Out of College?(00:05:20) - In the Elevator With Harris Technology's Executives(00:07:49) - In the Elevator With Cisco's Executives(00:09:08) - How to get a job interview(00:10:25) - What's the Hardest Transition in Your Career?(00:11:39) - The Role of Helping People Achieve Their Goals(00:13:05) - How Did Your Journey in Cybersecurity Start?(00:14:47) - Was Cybersecurity a Must-Have for Sales?(00:16:01) - In 2016, Cisco's CTO Went From Palo Alto to Cisco(00:16:48) - What Does It Take to Build a High-Performing Team?(00:18:26) - What Makes a Elite Sales Team So Special?(00:21:13) - Cisco's Cybersecurity Transformation with Cortex(00:22:57) - Cisco Technology's AI Workflow(00:25:49) - What motivates you in your career?(00:27:35) - How to Break into Cybersecurity(00:29:17) - In the Elevator With a Mentor(00:31:17) - What's Your Career Motivator?(00:34:05) - Cisco CEO: If You Had Advice For Your Younger Self,(00:35:11) - What's The One Trait You Look For In Your Team?(00:35:46) - Destination Cyber: Where Did You Come From?

In this episode of Destination Cyber Season 2, Chahat Bagla speaks with Jason Menar, former FBI cybercrime leader and current CISO, about the human, operational, and leadership realities behind cybersecurity. Jason reflects on his path from wanting to help underserved communities to investigating early cyber-enabled harm, and later advising organisations through ransomware, legacy risk, and board-level security decisions. The conversation examines how trust works in both systems and people, why influence often matters more than formal authority, and how security leaders can avoid becoming “the island of no”. The episode also explores the emotional weight of high-stakes cyber work. Jason discusses burnout, risk acceptance, crisis decision-making, and the need for transparency between CISOs, executive teams, and boards. For students and early-career professionals, he offers practical advice on stepping outside narrow role definitions, building communication skills, using AI thoughtfully, and learning how to work in teams before the pressure arrives. At its core, this is a discussion about calm leadership in volatile environments, and why cybersecurity careers are shaped as much by judgement, empathy, and communication as by technical skill. Chapters (00:00:03) - 12 Cyberpaths(00:00:52) - Destination Cyber: CISO Jason Menar(00:01:58) - CISO on Standing Between Harm and Other People(00:05:12) - The Need for Trust in Security(00:07:16) - In the Cybersecurity World, Power Has Changed(00:10:27) - How to Build Influence in the Dev Lab(00:12:47) - Are CISOs Too Preoccupied With Cybersecurity?(00:17:57) - CISO: The Board's cybersecurity oversight(00:23:47) - WSJDLive: Deciding Between Paying the Ransomware(00:27:46) - The Secret to Mental Health in Cybersecurity(00:37:04) - What matters most in cyber security? The role of AI in the(00:41:15) - The New CIS University Curriculum(00:47:59) - Microsoft's Cybersecurity Center(00:49:43) - One leadership habit that you've consciously unlearn(00:51:36) - Slow Down: How to Make a Decisive Decision(00:54:00) - Destination Cyber: Where Did You Come From?

Matthew Mansour is a Senior Lecturer  and Cybersecurity professional with a career spanning more than two decades across universities and industry. He teaches cybersecurity, AI, and project management at multiple institutions, and spearheads EduTech Consulting, a consultancy specialising in privacy, AI, and cyber-risk advisory. His work focuses on helping organisations build practical, human-centred approaches to technology and risk. Matthew is also a speaker and mentor, known for making complex topics accessible and for supporting young people in developing confidence and professional skills. Chapters (00:00:03) - The SOC(00:00:17) - Confessions Of A Compulsive Career Jogger(00:00:52) - Matthew Mansour(00:01:55) - How to Balance Teaching and Consulting(00:03:38) - Starting out as a teacher: My story(00:08:47) - Teaching as a practical path to life(00:10:57) - Teaching at 24(00:15:15) - Teaching as a profession(00:16:53) - What is it that teachers need to command an audience?(00:18:20) - A mentor's advice on teaching(00:20:06) - Teaching Social Media(00:24:43) - Talking to customers about the weather(00:25:34) - The high and lows of teaching(00:28:24) - What's the lowest low point of your life?(00:29:42) - How to Teach Cybersecurity(00:31:21) - How to train your cybersecurity team(00:33:29) - How to get out of consulting early(00:36:07) - Cybersecurity for Small Businesses(00:38:56) - So AI is becoming quite prominent in security circles(00:41:07) - In the Elevator of Consulting(00:43:02) - Getting out of the Consulting Studio(00:44:43) - How to Manage Your Time in Consulting(00:48:02) - 5 Rules of Out-of-Scope Consulting(00:48:48) - Should I focus on my degree or micro-courses?(00:54:18) - How to Get Out of College With a Degree(00:55:12) - What Certification Do You Require?(00:57:24) - What Motivates You in the World?(00:58:53) - What's One Certification You Think is Overrated? CEH Certified(01:00:07) - Destination Cyber: Where Did You Come From?

David has over 20 years experience in the IT industry working in both public and private sector organisations. He has worked internationally and in a wide variety of roles including business development, solution delivery, product management and business leadership. David has strong knowledge and experience in Cloud Technologies, Digital Transformation and Workplace Productivity. He has significant experience on Microsoft Platform technologies and business solutions. David is also a Henley Business School qualified Coach and leads high performing teams working on both small and large scale enterprise technology Solutions. Chapters (00:00:03) - The SOC(00:00:17) - Confessions Of A Compulsive Career Jogger(00:00:52) - Destination Cyber: David Lane(00:01:57) - Graduates on the Job Search(00:07:22) - David's journey back to work at Centrelink(00:09:28) - How to learn a new language(00:10:57) - Having worked in Australia and the UK,(00:13:19) - GRC Governance: The intersection of data and security(00:15:38) - How to Get Out of Your Limb(00:17:21) - Fujitsu's move to the cloud(00:18:54) - Microsoft on Cloud-Hybrid IT(00:20:08) - What is the CISO's advice on AI?(00:24:44) - What Does Data Sovereignty Really Mean?(00:30:41) - The challenge of product management at Interactive(00:35:01) - Cybersecurity Executive: Prioritization(00:38:04) - Microsoft CEO on Private Cloud(00:43:46) - What skills or mindsets would you need to have to start out(00:45:38) - In the Elevator With Leaders(00:46:51) - Cloud Security: Innovation vs. Data Sovereignty(00:49:09) - Working together in the IT Industry(00:50:48) - Leadership Questions: Seek mentors, cloud, AI or cybersecurity(00:51:40) - Destination Cyber: Where Did You Come From?

Ben is an accomplished information security executive with over 20 years of international information security experience. Due to his many years of providing strategic C-level/board advice, he is able to apply technical threats into appropriate business contexts to determine overall risk to organisations. During this time Ben has been required to manage complex environments that requires balancing local and global organisational policies, domestic regulations, national security requirements, export control and international trade control restrictions, and applying the process, people and technology to ensure successful compliance. Ben maintains his strong passion for the technical aspects of information security and recently has […] Chapters (00:00:03) - The SOC(00:00:17) - Confessions Of A Compulsive Career Jogger(00:00:52) - Destination Cyber: The Future of Australia's Cyber Security(00:02:20) - Cybersecurity Guru Ben Selby chats(00:05:02) - Thales CISO's journey to the company(00:05:46) - How to Manage a Cybersecurity Team(00:07:12) - How to keep your organization secure(00:08:33) - How to Manage the Cloud and Cybersecurity(00:11:44) - Aha Moment in the OD environment(00:16:16) - Did you do any networking in your early years?(00:17:37) - Have you gained a deeper understanding of the cyber industry?(00:19:24) - Mental health and the 5am start(00:21:00) - How to Deal with Burnout as a Leader(00:24:57) - Australia's cyber scene(00:26:25) - WSJDLive: Writing a cyber policy(00:28:46) - Cybersecurity Risk Management Board discussion(00:32:02) - Is the Nation State Attack a Threat?(00:33:04) - What Advice Would You Have For Your Younger Self?(00:34:17) - Have You Become a SIZER?(00:36:47) - The role of a sizer(00:37:27) - Knowledge of your organization(00:38:50) - There are a lot of certifications out there for IT professionals(00:39:54) - Destination Cyber: What Career Would You Have Pick?

Rohit Borekar is a seasoned IT and Cyber Security professional with over 20 years of experience. He is known for his motivation, adaptability, and leadership. For the past five years, he has actively mentored students and professionals, earning accolades such as: Cyber Security Mentor of the Year (2023) – AISA Conference Cyber Security Professional – Government & Defence (2025)– Australian Cyber Awards Rohit has served in the Army Reserve for 15 years, recently promoted to Captain, becoming one of the few Cyber Officers in the Defence Force. He is the founder of Solution Tech, a Cyber Security start-up running internships since 2022, which led to […]

Lesley Carhart is the Director of Incident Response for North America at the industrial cybersecurity company Dragos, Inc., leading response to and proactively hunting for threats in customers’ ICS environments. Prior to joining Dragos, Lesley was the incident response team lead at Motorola Solutions. Following four years as a Principal Incident Responder for Dragos, Lesley now manages a team of incident response and digital forensics professionals across North America who perform investigations of commodity, targeted, and insider threat cases in industrial networks. Lesley is also a certified instructor and curriculum developer for Dragos’ incident response and threat hunting courses. Lesley […] Chapters (00:00:03) - 12 Cyberpaths(00:00:52) - Leslie Carhart's Cybersecurity Origin Story(00:03:35) - How to Get Out of Cybersecurity Early(00:07:09) - The Incident Response Specialist Who Fixed a Mine's Internet(00:11:36) - How to start hacking in the 90s(00:12:48) - Understanding legacy systems in cybersecurity(00:15:15) - The challenges of legacy systems and cybersecurity(00:22:14) - Has Cloud Increased the Risk of OT Systems?(00:24:03) - Is Cybersecurity More Important in Industrial Environments?(00:25:53) - What Do You Do For Your Job in Cybersecurity?(00:28:16) - What are the most common misconceptions about incident response?(00:29:56) - Critical Skills for Cybersecurity Incident Response(00:36:00) - Cybersecurity in the Industrial Space(00:41:18) - How to Find a Cybersecurity Mentor(00:44:17) - The Virtual DEFCON During the Pandemic(00:48:23) - Cybersecurity Junior Roles at Leslie Dragos(00:49:54) - Fast and Furious: What's Your Favorite Keyboard?(00:50:33) - Destination Cyber: Where Did You Start?

As Principal Security Consultant at Cosive, Prescott has over 25 years of experience in managing Security Operations Centres and Cyber Threat Intel programs globally. He has led major Security Operations projects across Australia, India, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, and the USA. In his role at Cosive, Prescott enjoys helping organisations unlock value in their SOC and CTI programs. He is passionate about fostering growth and collaboration within the cyber industry by sharing knowledge and supporting broader communities for the greater good.

In a career spanning more than 25 years, Kate has worked across multiple industries, including telecommunications, retail, public sector, health, and others. Throughout this time, Kate has moved from roles in digital communication and innovation, through to senior strategic roles in government and private enterprise. Leveraging a diverse background in communications, user experience and design thinking, Kate easily translates technical concepts to strategically aligned business focused imperatives.   As a Senior Consultant for Logicalis Australia, and certified Information Security Manager, Kate works with a diverse range of clients providing advice and strategic guidance on cyber security, IT operating models, information management, and protection. Kate’s ability to help organisations develop and align ICT, cybersecurity, and information management strategies to their corporate and strategic goals, has meant Kate is a much sought-after consultant.

John Karabin is the Senior Director of Cybersecurity for NTT Ltd in Australia, and is responsible for Australia’s security strategic direction, capability and go-to-market. He builds trusted partnerships with clients and technologists, bringing a keen focus to customer-centric delivery and operations. John specialises in risk-based information security, combining a consulting led approach to meet the […]