Data is being collected constantly: by the devices people carry, the vehicles they drive, the platforms they work on, and the retailers they visit. For business leaders, this creates a challenge at the intersection of technology, ethics, and culture. How do you build genuine trust in an environment where observation has become the norm?
Michael McQueen has spent two decades helping organisations navigate exactly this kind of tension. Ranked among the world's top futurists and formerly named Australia's Keynote Speaker of the Year, Michael draws on research in neuroscience and behavioural psychology to help leaders understand not just what is changing, but how people respond to change and what that means for the decisions organisations make.
When security measures become a trust risk
Many organisations approach cybersecurity as a technical and compliance exercise. But the tools and policies designed to protect a business can, if handled without care, quietly erode the internal culture they depend on. Employee monitoring, data governance decisions, and the adoption of surveillance-adjacent technologies all send signals to teams about how leadership views them. Michael helps organisations understand how to implement robust security practices in ways that reinforce, rather than undermine, the trust that high-performing workplaces are built on.
The human side of digital risk
Most security breaches have a human element. Phishing attacks succeed and risky shortcuts get taken not because people are careless, but because the culture around security has not caught up with the threat environment. Michael's grounding in behavioural psychology gives him a distinct lens on why people behave the way they do under pressure, and what leaders can do to shift those behaviours in ways that last.
Influence as a security asset
In his keynote Influence 2.0, Michael explores how leaders can open minds, lower defensiveness, and build the kind of psychological safety that makes people more willing to engage with difficult topics, including digital risk. For organisations navigating the complexity of data privacy, AI governance, and workforce surveillance, this kind of influence is not a soft skill. It is a strategic capability.
A bestselling author of ten books and a regular contributor to Forbes, The Guardian, and CNN, Michael has presented to more than 500,000 people across five continents. His ranked among the world's top futurists and formerly named Australia's Keynote Speaker of the Year. If your organisation is looking for a speaker who can bring rigour and clarity to the culture side of cybersecurity, Michael McQueen is a compelling choice.
