Suzanne Williams QPM

Suzanne Williams QPM is an internationally renowned hostage negotiator, crisis response specialist and Cyber Security keynote speaker whose expertise brings a distinctive human perspective to modern digital threats. Having worked on cyber extortion negotiations, Sue understands how criminal groups exploit pressure, uncertainty, fear and organisational vulnerability during cyber incidents. Her extraordinary career has included the successful resolution of hundreds of hostage and kidnap situations, advising governments and organisations during critical incidents, and operating in some of the world’s most challenging environments. A recipient of the Queen’s Police Medal, Sue translates decades of high stakes negotiation experience into practical lessons for organisations preparing for cyber extortion, ransomware and complex security crises.

Sue developed her expertise during a distinguished career with the Metropolitan Police, where she became one of the UK’s leading authorities on hostage and kidnap negotiation. She served as part of the Royal Protection senior management team at Buckingham Palace, helping prepare security arrangements for major royal events, responding to spontaneous incidents and contributing to government plans concerning serious threats against members of the Royal Household. Sue later became Head of the Kidnap Unit and Senior Investigator at New Scotland Yard, before serving as Head of the Hostage Crisis Negotiation Unit. She also trained with the FBI as an accredited Hostage Negotiator, adding international expertise to skills developed through years of frontline policing. Her subsequent deployments took her across continents, into war zones and onto the high seas, where she negotiated during incidents involving modern piracy and other serious threats.

Throughout her career, Sue has worked at the highest levels of crisis management, providing expertise when effective communication and careful decision making could determine the outcome of a dangerous situation. She advised senior UK Government ministers through COBR on responses to kidnappings, abductions, hijackings and sieges, including cases involving British citizens overseas. Her contribution to the fields of kidnap, negotiation and saving lives earned Sue the Queen’s Police Medal, one of the most significant honours of her policing career. Since leaving the Metropolitan Police, she has continued as an Independent Specialist Kidnap Response Consultant, supporting governments, companies, NGOs, family offices and prominent individuals facing hostage taking, extortion and critical incidents. This work now includes using negotiation as a tactic for resolving cyber extortion, connecting her specialist experience directly with one of the most pressing areas of contemporary cyber security.

Today, Sue is an Associate Fellow at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, where she contributes to the Oxford Programme on Negotiation, and a Visiting Lecturer at Harvard University, sharing lessons from frontline crisis management with international audiences. As a Cyber Security keynote speaker, Sue explores cyber extortion, ransomware related negotiation, crisis response, human behaviour, communication, trust, influence and decision making under intense pressure. She demonstrates how the principles developed during hostage situations can help cyber security professionals and senior leaders understand the psychology of extortionists, communicate effectively during incidents and make rational decisions when information is incomplete. With experience spanning Scotland Yard, government crisis response, international kidnappings and contemporary cyber extortion, Sue offers audiences a rare insight into the human dynamics behind security incidents and the leadership required when the stakes are at their highest.