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The Age of Intelligence

How cyber security is reshaping global identities and economies in an age of rapid technological change

We are entering an age where intelligence is boundless. The question is: how will it be used?

In this new age, cyber security is no longer a technical function. Rather, it now sits at the centre of economic growth and has become a critical test for national security, public trust and resilience. As former US President Joe Biden warned, most future major conflicts ‘will be the result of a cyber breach with great consequences.’ Cybercrime is now estimated to cost the world economy $10.5 trillion annually, up from $3 trillion in 2015. That represents one of the largest transfers of economic wealth in history.

In this context, cyber security must move beyond reactive defence. It should become a core strategy in order to protect essential industries such as financial services, healthcare and critical infrastructure while enabling those sectors to innovate with confidence.

We were joined by Jon Sopel, Dimple Ahluwalia, Matt Rowe and Kamal Ahmed on May 13 at Kings Place to explore how cyber security is reshaping global identities and economies in an age of rapid technological change.

Pannelists

  • Dimple Ahluwalia

    Global Offering Leader for IBM CyberDefend within IBM Consulting

  • Jon Sopel

    Former BBC North America Editor and co-host of the News Agents and News Agents USA podcasts.

  • Matt Rowe

    Chief Security Officer (CSO) at Lloyds Banking Group

Host

  • Kamal Ahmed

    Executive Editorial Director, Fortune, UK and Europe

Speakers

Pannelists

Dimple Ahluwalia

Global Offering Leader for IBM CyberDefend within IBM Consulting

Dimple is the Global Offering Leader for IBM CyberDefend within IBM Consulting. With over 22 years in cybersecurity, she leads the CyberDefend offering and a global team that helps enterprises run securely at scale by engineering protection into identities, data, applications, and the platforms that power hybrid business—while preparing clients for a quantum-safe future.

Jon Sopel

Former BBC North America Editor and co-host of the News Agents and News Agents USA podcasts.

Jon Sopel One of the UK’s best known journalists who has spent four decades reporting on global events and interviewing the people who shaped them. Described by President Trump as ‘another beauty’, his face has graced almost every news programme on the BBC and his familiar voice has carried across the airwaves of BBC Radio from Paris, Kuwait City, Washington DC and Blackpool. In February 2022 Sopel announced he was leaving the BBC to launch the News Agents podcast alongside Lewis Goodall and Emily Maitlis. In July 2023 he launched News Agents USA with Maitlis. In addition to the News Agents, he covered the 2024 US Election for Good Morning Britain and also hosted a return of the US Election Results programme America Decides with Shelagh Fogarty. Sopel has written a trilogy of books about the Trump presidency, as well as Strangeland: How Britain Stopped Making Sense, which was published on his return to the UK after eight years of political reporting in the US.

Matt Rowe

Chief Security Officer (CSO) at Lloyds Banking Group

Matt Rowe is the Chief Security Officer (CSO) at Lloyds Banking Group, where he leads the Group’s security strategy and capabilities across cyber, physical, and operational domains. With a career spanning senior leadership roles in UK Government, at the Bank of England and Nationwide Building Society prior to Lloyds Banking Group, Matt brings a wealth of experience in financial services, resilience, and security transformation.   In his current role, Matt is leading a transformation of how security gets done and is responsible for embedding security across the Group’s digital and engineering practices, ensuring that security is not just a safeguard but a strategic enabler. He is a vocal advocate for making security an unlock for pace in an organisation, including reducing toil and friction for all colleagues including engineers.
Host

Kamal Ahmed

Executive Editorial Director, Fortune, UK and Europe

Journalist who has been Editorial Director of BBC News and BBC Economics Editor. He co-founded The News Movement, a start-up dedicated to tackling misinformation, and has also held senior roles at The Telegraph Group, The Observer and The Guardian. Between 2024 and 2025 he was a presenter of The Daily T news podcast and Director of Audio at The Telegraph.