Sonia Kumar
Lay Member of University Court
Sonia has worked in the security domain for 23 years. She took up a key leadership role in May 23 for Element Materials Technology. Her mission is to build and lead a global 24/7 Cyber Defence capability which will help protect the Aerospace & Defence, Nuclear and Life Sciences sectors amongst others. Before that, Sonia was responsible for Cyber Security Incident management across Vodafone where she was for six years. She led a global team of incident responders to provide a fast response and efficient remediation against cyber-attacks and security events.
Sonia was instrumental in the crisis response to the widely publicised cyber-attack against Vodafone Portugal in 2022. She spent a considerable amount of time in Qatar where the goal was to help safeguard Vodafone customers in the run up to, and during the 2023 FIFA World Cup.
Sonia sits as a Non-Executive Board member for The Cross-Sector Safety and Security Communications (CSSC) Scotland. CSSC Scotland facilitates the two-way sharing of safety, security, and resilience information between the public and private sectors so that businesses can make informed, appropriate decisions, and keep their operations running, as well as keeping their people, assets and customers safe.
Sonia spent sixteen years in different roles within HMG Intelligence and Security departments. She was responsible for maintaining national security interests and was pivotal to maintaining public safety and security during the London 2012 Olympics.
Sonia is passionate about security and keeping people safe. She enjoys coaching colleagues, engaging with future talent and supporting people in their career development. Sonia loves the outdoors and running with her cocker spaniel. She is a keen Chess player and is learning to play golf. She is very proud to be an Edinburgh Napier Alumnus having attained a BSc (Hons) Biomedical Sciences in 1997. Sonia holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Cyber Defence and Information Assurance from Cranfield University. She is based in Edinburgh, Scotland.