Poppy Gustafsson

Mathematician and cyber defence expert Poppy has been CEO of world-leading autonomous cyber AI company Dark Trace for the past seven years and is one of the most influential people in autonomous cyber AI in the world. Cyber security is a critical agenda item for organisations as they seek to protect themselves against previously unknown data vulnerabilities, ransomware, software-as-a-service (SaaS) attacks, data loss and insider threat. An undisputed leader in the field, Poppy was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to cybersecurity in 2019. Poppy has been at the forefront of Darktrace’s development of the first, at-scale deployment of artificial intelligence for the enterprise. Darktrace AI uses self-learning AI algorithms to detect and neutralize cyber threats across diverse digital estates, including the cloud and networks, IoT and industrial control systems. In 2021, Poppy was named CEO of the Year at the Digital Masters Awards and Tech CEO of the Year at the UK Tech Awards. Poppy is also a highly respected business leader whose expert insights are frequently sought and shared on the international stage, and recently was the subject of one of CNBC’s My Biggest Lessons episodes.