Manish Chawda

I have over 24 years of experience at multi-national companies, and extensive experience developing innovative technical solutions to address complex business issues. In my role, I am fortunate to work with my clients closely on strategic and tactical solutions for technology regulation, information security, cyber security, governance, risk, and compliance and assist government agencies and international law enforcement agencies on cyber security matters.

Before Pragma, I was leading Technology Risk practices at Grant Thornton and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

In 2012, I established the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Centre of Excellence (COE) in EMEA. The PCI COE supports and advises clients on PCI compliance challenges and achieved the PCI Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) company status.

Prior to that, I helped develop the Association of Banks in Singapore (“ABS”) Guidelines on Control Objectives & Procedures for Outsourced Service Providers. I have led a number of large engagements, and some examples include:

• Design, and implementation of the Euro clearing system for a European bank, resolving security and availability concerns;
• Investigated two of the biggest banking hacking incidents in Singapore in the last four years
• Remediation of technology issues raised by Monetary Authority of Singapore(MAS) against the Technology Risk Management guidelines for a large global bank in Singapore; and
• Assessment of service providers against MAS Outsourcing Guidelines and Notice and ISO 27001.

I currently hold the following memberships ISACA, ISC2, BCS and certifications; CISM, CRISC, CISSP, Check Point Security Expert CCSE, Actividentity CMS, IBM Tivoli, LogLogic, and RSA SecurID. As part of my experience, I have trained with US ex-blackhat hackers to get a greater understanding of the hacker’s mind-set.

Recently I have embarked on projects to help my clients develop pragmatic cyber security strategies with the knowledge gained from working with Interpol and other government agencies. I am currently residing in Singapore with my family and plan to travel actively within the region.