FIRST.Org - Community & Capacity Building

Klée Aiken - Director of Community & Capacity Building

As the director of the CCB team, Klée leads a wide range of initiatives aimed at strengthening the global incident response community. His work focuses on bringing people and organizations together, developing partnerships, and creating opportunities for collaboration, learning, and capacity building. This means he can often be found at events around the world connecting people, sharing ideas, and finding new ways for FIRST to support the wider cybersecurity community.

Before joining FIRST, Klée worked in the Asia-Pacific region on Internet and cybersecurity issues from policy and operational perspectives. First at a think tank; then APNIC; and most recently with CERT NZ, the national incident response team for New Zealand. At CERT NZ, he helped strengthen relationships with Pacific partners and developed a wide-ranging capacity building program to support incident response capabilities across the region.

Klée is a proud Chicagoan but is currently based in Wellington, New Zealand, where he continues his unsuccessful search for good chilaquiles.

Klée Aiken - Director of Community & Capacity Building

Lawrence Muchilwa - Africa Regional Liaison

Lawrence Muchilwa puts his skills as a distinguished cybersecurity leader and executive, and over a decade of experience into his work in the Africa Regional Liaison program. His extensive skillset is matched by his outgoing nature and ability to make connections.

His expertise spans: digital forensics, the establishment of national Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERT), risk and compliance management, Cybersecurity Operations Centers (CSOCs), and incident response. Lawrence has collaborated with many organizations, steering them through transformative information security programs, compliance enhancements, and risk management initiatives.

He currently serves on the leadership teams for the Internet Society - Kenya Chapter, BSides Nairobi, Kenya Cybersecurity and Forensics Association and the Shield Maidens. Beyond his professional endeavors, he is an active contributor to the open-source community, with publications on Docker-based high and low-interactive honeypots to his name.

Dedicated to fostering the next generation of cybersecurity experts, Lawrence dedicates his spare time to mentoring aspiring professionals in the field, and building and scaling cybersecurity communities, underscoring his dedication to the growth and resilience of the cybersecurity landscape.

Lawrence is based in Kenya, Nairobi, working in his ham radio skills and trying not get more motorbikes.

Lawrence Muchilwa - Africa Regional Liaison

Grace Staley - CORE Ambassador

Grace Staley has been part of the FIRST Events Team since 2018, with her first FIRST being the 2019 edition of the Annual FIRST Conference which was held in Edinburgh, Scotland. She serves as Associate Conference Director and Engagement Coordinator for the FIRST Events Team, which manages FIRST's conferences and programs throughout the year.

In this role, she works closely with sponsors and partners across our global community and serves as the primary point of contact for vendor engagement at FIRST events. She also supports FIRST's Special Interest Groups (SIGs), helping foster collaboration and shared learning across the network.

Grace holds a bachelor's degree in Communication with an emphasis in rhetoric and public communication. She has a strong interest in languages and connection through culture and can often be found nose-deep in a book, attending a play, or diligently fighting for a continued Duolingo streak.

Based in Chicago, she lives with her best friend, Iago Linguini, an impressively fluffy cat. It is known the best pets have wonderfully ridiculous names.

Grace Staley - CCB

Hadyn Green - Principal Communications Advisor

Hadyn Green is a former member of CERT NZ and NCSC NZ. He's worked with various groups and agencies over the years, including work in the Pacific and Australia.

Hadyn worked for 12 years as a technology journalist in New Zealand and used that experience, along with his training in incident response, to create a framework for communications that can be followed during a cyber attack.

An avid advocate for good communications, in general, Hadyn believes that cybersecurity professionals need to do more collaboration and training in fields traditionally seen as “soft skills”. In this field we're good at fixing problems but not so good at telling people about them.

Currently based in New Zealand, Hadyn will soon be relocating to Europe which will make time zones and travel a lot easier. He is also doing his best to learn Spanish, German, Portuguese, Japanese and Māori.

Hadyn Green - Principal Communications Advisor

Velimir Radičević - Partnership and Development Lead

With a decade of work in cybersecurity and another five years in managing international projects and programs, Velimir brings expertise in cyber capacity development, diplomacy and project management, as well as a passion for helping grow out cyber ecosystems across the world.

He has previously worked in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), managing higher education and cyber/ICT security programs. Velimir also worked for the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE), where he helped guide capacity building initiatives across Africa, the Pacific, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Western Balkans.

He also thrives in designing and running hybrid policy-technical table-top exercises and has written and facilitated more than a dozen over the years.

Originally from Serbia, he is currently residing in the Netherlands.

Velimir Radičević - Partnership and Development Lead

Matt Macmillan - Program Manager

Matt Macmillan is FIRST's Program Manager in the Community and Capacity Building team, following seven years at the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security. As Program Manager for CCB, Matt supports FIRST community trainers and manages the Suguru Yamaguchi Fellowship Program, alongside other regional and sectoral projects.

With extensive partnerships experience and an innate ability to work with small-to-medium organizations, Matt served in key partnership roles for the Cyber Centre during the COVID-19 vaccine rollout and efforts to strengthen Canada's energy sector. Internationally, Matt represented the Cyber Centre in several forums, including FIRST, and guided Canada's participation into the Pacific Cyber Security Operational Network (PaCSON).

A graduate of the University of Waterloo, Matt continues to reside in Canada, where he stays busy outside of the virtual office tending to his garden and playing "proper" football whenever he gets the chance. He is fluent in English and French.

Matt Macmillan - Program Manager