Abeer Khedr

Abeer Khedr is the Head of Cyber Security at the National Bank of Egypt with more than 20 years of experience in technology and information security fields. Abeer has been also appointed by the board of the Federation of Egyptian Banks to be the first Chair of the Federation's Cyber Security Committee established in July 2021.

Abeer has been serving in her current role at the bank for 11 years where she has established the information security strategy & program at the bank and designed an information security management system (ISMS) for the bank’s main data center & call center which got certified in 2016 & 2017. The certification scope was extended in 2020 to include the bank's digital branches. She has also developed an information security effectiveness measurement program to ensure continuous improvement and maturity in security processes. Additionally, she put in place a sustainable security compliance program for the bank and its international branches and subsidiaries. Prior to joining NBE, Abeer has been leading the security consulting and IT audit service lines at Deloitte Egypt serving different industries. Abeer is a graduate of the American University in Cairo with a computer science major and economics minor. She also has a Master’s of Science degree in Business Information Technology from Middlesex University, England. Abeer has a number of security & governance related certifications: C|CISO, C|DPO, CISM, CISA, CRISC, CGEIT and ISO 27001 and most recently a Certified Corporate Director.

Abeer has been recently awarded among top 50 influential women in Egypt for community work related to the cyber security industry and named to Egypt's 30 successful women list in the Egyptian Women Forum 2020. She was also named to the Global CISO 100 list for 2020 and was named among IDC's list of top female achievers in 2021 in the category of Business & Digital Transformation Leaders of the year. Additionally, Abeer was recognized among top regional government security leaders in the Middle East by the CISO council in Dubai and was also awarded among leading information security executives in the ME by the council in 2018 & a Woman Security Leader in 2016. Abeer was also selected as “CISO of the year” in 2021, 2019, 2018 and 2016 by multiple reputable national and international organizations.
Abeer is actively involved in initiatives to support inclusion & diversity where has co-founded Women in Cyber Security Middle East (WiCSME) initative in 2018 which has currently almost 2000 women members from different countries in the region. She championed the organization of the first CTF for women in the MENA region in 2018. Abeer is also a mentor in the UN-ITU women in cyber mentorship program launched in March 2021 and in the WiCSME mentorship program as well.