Heather Lowrie named Chief Information Security Officer at University of Manchester

The University of Manchester appointed Heather Lowrie as its first Chief Information Security Officer. Lowrie joins from the Scottish Government, where she served as head of cyber security, risk and resilience for National Records of Scotland. She was set to join the university at the start of May 2023.

According to the university, Lowrie will lead on the strategic transformation of its identity and access management and information security services. The university says Lowrie will also lead on designing and implementing a coherent vision for protecting the University's digital footprint. Lowrie is joining the IT Services team at the University of Manchester, according to the university newsroom. PJ Hemmaway, Director of IT Services, said Lowrie will be an addition to the IT senior leadership team.

In her role at National Records of Scotland, the university says, Lowrie led a team that was responsible for protecting and securing Scotland's civil registration, statistical and national archival information. The university says that in this role she also supported the delivery of public services across Scotland that were secure and resilient. In 2022 she provided operational management, oversight and cyber security assurance for Scotland's first digital-first Census, the university says.

Before she joined the Scottish Government, Lowrie held IT leadership and technical roles in the financial services industry, the university says. According to the university, at the time of the announcement Lowrie served on the Outreach and Diversity Working Group of the UK Cyber Security Council and was a STEM Ambassador.