Professor Ciaran Martin

Ciaran Martin is Professor of Practice in the Management of Public Organisations at Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government. Prior to joining the School, Ciaran was the founding Chief Executive of the National Cyber Security Centre, part of GCHQ from 2013 to 2020. He studied for his undergraduate degree at Hertford College.

Ciaran led a fundamental shift in the UK’s approach to cyber security in the second half of the last decade. He successfully advocated for a wholesale change of approach towards a more interventionist posture and this was adopted by the Government in the 2015 National Security Strategy, leading to the creation of the NCSC in 2016 under his leadership. Over the same timeframe, the UK moved from joint eighth to first in the International Telecommunications Union’s Global Cybersecurity Index and the NCSC model has been studied widely and adopted in countries like Canada and Australia.

In his 23-year career in the UK civil service, Ciaran held senior roles within the Cabinet Office, including Constitution Director (2011-2014), which included negotiating the basis of the Scottish Referendum with the Scottish Government and spearheading the equalising of the Royal Succession laws between males and females in the line; and director of Security and Intelligence at the Cabinet Office (2008-2011). Between 2002 and 2008 he was Principal Private Secretary to the Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service and Private Secretary to the Permanent Secretary to HM Treasury.

At Oxford, Ciaran teaches cyber security, technology policy, public administration, crisis management and communication skills on the Masters of Public Policy Programme and in executive education classes. He is Co-Director of the Aig-Imoukhuede Public Leaders Programme in Nigeria. He writes extensively on cyber security and his work has featured in The Economist, Financial Times and Washington Post and elsewhere. His first book, an overview of cyber security, will be published in 2027.