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Oz Alashe
Oz Alashe in 2007
Born (1976-09-08) 8 September 1976 (age 48)
London
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service / branchBritish Army (Parachute Regiment & UK Special Forces)
Years of service1998–2015
RankLieutenant Colonel
Battles / warsOperation Banner (Northern Ireland)
Operation Palliser (Sierra Leone)
Macedonia
War in Afghanistan
Iraq
AwardsMember of the Order of the British Empire

Lieutenant Colonel (Retd) Usman Adewale "Oz" Alashe, MBE is a tech entrepreneur and former British Army officer who served in the Parachute Regiment and United Kingdom Special Forces. He was the first black British officer to serve in both elite military organizations and is a veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.[1][2][3]

Early life and education

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Oz Alashe was born in 1976 in London, England to Nigerian parents who moved to the United Kingdom to study, and eventually settle. He studied at one of the oldest British public schools, St. Albans School, Hertforshire before attending the University of Reading, where he read economics. Later Alashe attained his Post-graduate master's degree from King's College London. After university, he attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst before commissioning into the Parachute Regiment.[4]

Career

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Between September 1998 and February 2015, Alashe served in the British Army. During that time, he served with the Parachute Regiment, UK Special Forces, and was posted into several staff jobs including at the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall.[5]

In 2010, Alashe was awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the Operational Honours List for "personal leadership in the most complex and sensitive of conflict environments."[6][7] As well as operational tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, he also served in Northern Ireland, the Balkans, and Sierra Leone.[8] He retired in 2015 as a Lieutenant Colonel.

After military service, Oz Alashe moved into the private sector, specifically into cybersecurity and intelligence.[9][10] In 2017, he launched the cybersecurity and data analytics software company, CybSafe.[11][12][13][14] In 2018, CybSafe secured a one-year contract with the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to address the human element of cybersecurity.[15]

Alashe's strategy for behavior modification attracted strong investor interest, resulting in a $7.9 million Series A funding round in 2021, followed by a $28 million Series B in July 2022, led by Evolution Equity Partners.[16][17] In January 2021 he became the chairperson for the UK Government's (Department for Science Innovation and Technology) Expert Advisory Group of Cyber Resilience.

Personal life

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Alashe is married, lives in London and has three children.[18][19]

References

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  1. ^ "PARAS 2 - Alashe, Usman Adewale (Oz)". Special Forces Roll Of Honour. 2012-03-25. Retrieved 2024-08-12.
  2. ^ "Interview with Cybersecurity Leader Oz Alashe - Info Gov World". 2019-06-14. Retrieved 2024-08-12.
  3. ^ "Exclusive: CybSafe's CEO on tackling VC pattern matching as a black business founder". CityAM. 2023-01-14. Retrieved 2024-08-12.
  4. ^ "Lieutenant Colonel (Ret'd) Oz Alashe MBE". rusi.org. Retrieved 2024-08-12.
  5. ^ "OPERATION PALLISER, SIERRA LEONE, MAY 2000 (TAPE 20) [Allocated Title]". Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 2024-08-12.
  6. ^ "Page 5847 | Supplement 60095, 23 March 2012 | London Gazette | The Gazette". www.thegazette.co.uk. Retrieved 2024-08-12.
  7. ^ "Operational Honours and Awards". www.thetimes.com. 2024-08-12. Retrieved 2024-08-12.
  8. ^ "Operational Honours and Awards List: 23 March 2012". GOV.UK. Retrieved 2024-08-12.
  9. ^ "8. Oz Alashe, Founder & CEO at CybSafe". TechRound. 2023-12-06. Retrieved 2024-08-12.
  10. ^ Block, Robin (30 March 2018). "Interview: The motivation behind building a cybersecurity business". securitybrief.asia. Retrieved 2024-08-12.
  11. ^ "12 Successful Entrepreneurs That Came Out Of The Army". TechRound. 2020-10-20. Retrieved 2024-08-12.
  12. ^ "The Business Leader Podcast: Oz Alashe MBE: Geopolitics, cyber attacks and the human errors behind them on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 2024-08-12.
  13. ^ "Oz Alashe MBE - I am a public servant - Nominet". Nominet Cyber. 2018-08-03. Retrieved 2024-08-12.
  14. ^ "'Major data breaches are far too common, with human error often being a cause'". Silicon Republic. 2020-04-07. Retrieved 2024-08-12.
  15. ^ "CybSafe secures one-year contract with FCA to tackle human element of cybersecurity". Finextra Research. 2018-04-16. Retrieved 2024-08-12.
  16. ^ Butcher, Mike (2022-06-09). "Behavioral cybersecurity platform CybSafe raises $28M Series B led by Evolution Equity Partners". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2024-08-12.
  17. ^ Freeze, Di (2022-11-21). "CybSafe Taps Behavioral Analytics To Manage Human Risk". Cybercrime Magazine. Retrieved 2024-08-12.
  18. ^ Fishwick, Samuel (2017-06-28). "Meet London's new hack-busting squad". Evening Standard. Retrieved 2024-08-12.
  19. ^ "Oz Alashe MBE". IQ Capital. Retrieved 2024-08-12.
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