Benchmark Security Awards finalists have been named for the 2026 program, which celebrates Australian leaders driving effective cyber programs in enterprise and government sectors.
The finalists list spans government, industrial & energy, education, healthcare, finance, retail, not-for-profit, and telecommunications industries.
The winners will be announced at a gala dinner and conference on November 11 at W Hotel Sydney.
The event is sponsored by Saviynt, Airlock Digital, and Delinea. The program is produced by iTnews and techpartner.news.
Government sector finalists
Government finalists include Sandeep Taileng from State Trustees, Arthur van der Merwe from ASIC, Robert Munoz from the Department of Education Victoria, Prashant Singh from the Department of Education Western Australia, Adam Cartwright from Australia Post, and Ada Aydin from Melbourne Park.
Healthcare finalists
The healthcare category includes Nicole Neil from Fresh Clinics, Deb Holliday from Sydney North Primary Health Network, Mohammad Shahmalecki from Ramsay Health Care, Varun Acharya from Healthscope, Peter Param from Anglicare Sydney, Nyoman Wijesinghe from Bendigo Community Health Services, Sue Perera from Commonwealth Bank, Amit Sharma from HCF, Saleshni Sharma from W. R. Berkley, and Annie Tran from DBS Bank.
Finance & professional services finalists
Finance and professional services finalists feature Igor Chacon from Servo, Jason Hargenrader from Treasury Wine Estates, Edwin Kwan from Domain Group, Alexander Haroun from Central Equity, Johan Sulaiman from Heart Research Institute, Vishwanath Nair from Baptist Care, Joanne Fisher from Diabetes Australia, Nikki Peever from CAUDIT, Leana El-Hourani from Mission Australia, and Lou Runyard from UNICEF Australia.
Telecommunications finalists
Telecommunications finalists list includes Natalie Lemieszek from Aussie Broadband, Clive Reeves from Telstra, and Sudheera Edirisinghe from Optus.
Education, industrial & energy finalists
Education finalists are Lee Swift from Catholic Education Western Australia, Andrew Nathan from the University of Newcastle, Andrew Tolhurst from the University of Sydney, Vlad Vyshnivetskyy from Catholic Schools Parramatta Diocese, Tara Dharnikota from Victoria University, Aathioli Sivaprakasam from Catholic Education Diocese of Bathurst, and Luke Bampton from Monash University.
Industrial and energy finalists include Brahman Thiyagalingham from GME, Siddharth Rajanna from Bingo Industries, and Andrew Webster from BlueScope. The industrial and energy security partners list includes SIS – Industrial Cyber Security, Virtual IT Group (Security Centric), and Nicole Neil from Fresh Clinics.
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