Stuart: the armed forces to Grant Thornton
Stuart Mason joined our Digital Forensics Group (now known as Cyber & Digital Investigations) in 2020, after a 22-year career with the British Army transferring his knowledge of cyber and digital from the armed forces. Within two years he was promoted to manager and has recently joined the Consultancy and Advisory team. Along the way, he received an autism and ADHD diagnosis, he joined our Neurodiversity Network and set up a support group for parents of neurodiverse children.
Transitioning from the Army
I joined the Army as I never saw myself as a “desk job” person, and after 22 years and many deployments away from home I decided in 2019 that it was time to leave. You receive a lot of support when transitioning to civilian roles, and at one of the resettlement courses I attended, I met someone from Grant Thornton who told me about the cyber opportunities available which would utilise my skills and experience.
I have always been extremely passionate about computers and technology which significantly shaped my career within the Armed Forces. I thrive on variety and challenge, something there is no shortage of in the Army, and Grant Thornton offers me that in a different way, combining flexible remote working with deployments to client sites – helping them rebuild and recover from cyber security incidents like ransomware or performing on-site security assessments.
My forces career gave me a lot of skills, such as prompt time keeping (I’m always 5 minutes early for anything!), respect for others and self-discipline to get through even the most challenging situations or environments. But I think the skills which helped me the most joining Grant Thornton, are leadership and remaining calm in a crisis. For example, being able to lead teams and confidently brief clients in a time of huge pressure following a ransomware attack at a client site and providing reassurance that we will get them back to business as usual quickly and securely, without risk of re-infection of malware.
Building my career at Grant Thornton
I enjoy the diverse nature of the work here and the challenge of understanding a client’s network and cyber security posture. But it's the team within Cyber & Digital Investigations that makes the difference – we have lots of very clever and talented people who don’t take themselves too seriously, but are extremely passionate about what they do, and are always willing to share knowledge, to help each other out and go above and beyond for all of our clients.
It gives me a profound sense of achievement to solve a client’s issues – whether that is to assist them recovering from a ransomware attack and rebuild the entire network or to pinpoint vulnerabilities and security risks by assessing firewalls, domains or physical locations and provide useful recommendations to the IT team, and high-level executive summaries to the SLT. I’ve perfected the art form of taking results and findings from security platforms and translating those into a “so what?” for the management team, which is where we can provide the most value.
Living with neurodiversity
After learning about the traits of autism and ADHD, following my wife and daughter being diagnosed, I realised I ticked a lot of the boxes myself, so self-referred via the NHS Right to Choose. I was eventually diagnosed with both ADHD and autism, and the support I received from the firm was fantastic. I’ve had coaching sessions and workplace adjustments made, which included the provision of specialist equipment, all of which have massively helped me.
I love to help others, so I joined the firm's Neurodiversity Network and am the Autism committee lead. Since receiving my diagnosis and joining the network I have delivered virtual events for our Autistic community and plan on more in the future - I have also launched a Neurodivergent Children support group for parents. Additionally, I trained to become a Mental Health First Aider – all of these things allow me give something back to my colleagues; encourage curiosity and support others.