Simon spent over 30 years in the tech industry, mostly with HP and focused on cyber security research. For his last 10 years at HP, he was Director and then VP of the HP Security Lab, a global research organisation with a strong track record of commercial security impact and innovation. Now a professor of practice in cybersecurity at the University of Bristol, Simon was the lead author of the 2025 UK Cyber Growth Action Plan. Simon holds a PhD in computer science and is a member of the advisory board for the Research Institute for Sociotechnical Cyber Security (RISCS).