Mantas Marcinkevicius

Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK in 2025.

Mantas Marcinkevicius is a 2024 IT Leaders 100 recipient and CISO at Lloyd's List Intelligence, where he leads cyber strategy for a global intelligence platform. Known for making cybersecurity clear, fast, and business-relevant, he has delivered measurable impact through automation, AI adoption and leadership that cuts through complexity.

Mantas has spoken at flagship conferences, advised on AI governance, and helped shift cyber from reactive function to strategic partner. His experience spans sectors from retail to data intelligence, always anchored in clarity, influence and delivery - no jargon, no fluff, just results that matter.

What's the most exciting part of your current role?

Bringing cybersecurity to the forefront of one of the most underappreciated yet globally critical sectors: maritime intelligence. As CISO of Lloyd's List Intelligence, I've had the unique opportunity to build on a complete green field environment, and to align cyber strategy with operational resilience across a data-rich, globally distributed ecosystem.

What excites me is bridging a long-standing gap between traditional maritime operations and cutting-edge cyber leadership. I've championed maritime cyber awareness on global panels and brought those discussions into mainstream CISO communities.

It's rare to work on something so globally important yet often invisible. Helping security make sense and drive value across this space is challenging and exactly why I love it.

What do you consider your greatest IT achievement of the last 12 months?

Delivering a 38% drop in IT and cyber tickets while slashing delivery times from 3–5 days to under 48 hours - all by leaning hard into AI and automation. I pushed through smart workflow redesigns, cut manual bottlenecks and showed that automation isn't just about speed as it helped rebuild trust in how IT supports the business.

At the same time, I took maritime cyber out of the shadows, positioning it on global stages and bridging it into traditional CISO circles. It's been a year of rethinking legacy processes and shifting mindsets; internally, across industry, and well beyond the usual cyber echo chamber.

It also improved cross-team collaboration and boosted confidence in IT as a trusted enabler, not a blocker.

What's the biggest challenge facing IT leaders today, and how are you tackling it?

Maintaining resilience in a world of unchecked complexity, constant change and burnout. With evolving threats, talent shortages and growing board expectations, us CISOs and IT departments as a whole are stretched thin. I believe the answer lies in clarity: cutting through noise, simplifying where possible, and making cyber transparent and actionable across the business.

At Lloyd's List Intelligence, I streamlined our security posture end-to-end - aligning engineers, execs and risk owners through plain language and measurable outcomes. I also champion industry frameworks that make security a business enabler, not a technical black box. Through public speaking and community work, I aim to help other leaders do the same and with clarity, not chaos.

Whether it's gen AI or AI governance, IT leaders must take responsibility for explainability, risk and ethical design -not just adoption. That's how we keep trust in tech leadership.

What piece of technology could you not live without, and why?

AI- and ML-driven email security and data classification tools have eliminated vast amounts of traditionally painful challenges: phishing response times, data loss risks, user confusion, and noisy triage queues. This capability has freed our team from constant firefighting and let us focus on smarter, forward-looking work.

What excites you most about the future of IT?

The convergence of physical and digital risk and the opportunity to lead it. From maritime trade routes to smart logistics, the future of IT lies in protecting what people never expected to be digital. I'm energised by the chance to bring cybersecurity out of the shadows and into board-level conversation.

Whether it's AI-driven defences, cyber-physical integration, or global resilience, I'm excited to help shape a future where security is part of how we build, not something we scramble to fix.

What’s the strangest job you’ve ever had?

Running live DJ sets while also managing lighting rigs, cameras and smoke machines for my wife's violin-vocal act. I'm part roadie, part sound engineer, part producer, sometimes in cramped storage rooms or windy rooftops.

It's a far cry from boardroom risk workshops, but it keeps me sharp. You learn a lot about adaptability, improvisation and audience engagement, all of which translate surprisingly well into cybersecurity leadership.

If you could instantly master one new skill, what would it be?

Quantum technology - specifically quantum encryption. It's the next frontier in cybersecurity, and while the theory is fascinating, the practical implications for resilience, trust, and national infrastructure are enormous. I'd love to go beyond the buzzwords and truly master the science behind it.

Understanding how to defend against, and eventually deploy, quantum-secure systems would put me at the forefront of shaping the future of computing. It's early, hard to explain, and exactly the kind of problem I love to dig into.