When Everything Is On Fire: Shane Fitzsimmons on Leading Through Crisis

Recorded live at CyberConnect Canberra 2026, Cyber Voices host David Savva-Willett sits down with Shane Fitzsimmons AO AFSM, Managing Director of SAF Leading Advisory, former Commissioner of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service and inaugural Commissioner of Resilience New South Wales. David grabbed Shane straight off the main stage, minutes after his opening keynote on leadership in unprecedented times. Few people understand leadership under sustained pressure the way Shane does. He led New South Wales through the Black Summer bushfires, the floods that followed, biosecurity threats, critical infrastructure incidents and a global pandemic. His message to a room full of cyber leaders is strikingly simple. No matter the crisis, we are all part of a people organisation, and people are the anchor. Across the conversation Shane and David explore why a security leader's most important job is translation, turning complex and jargon heavy detail into plain language that paints an accurate picture for the board and the community. They dig into leadership as a culture rather than the sole purview of the person at the top, why trust and shared values have to be banked in the quiet times before any siren sounds, and why the most powerful thing a leader can say in a crisis is "I don't know, but I will find out." Shane also shares hard won lessons on looking after people in sustained pressure roles, the kind of burnout that incident responders and volunteers know all too well, and his belief that professionalism has nothing to do with whether you are paid. The pair turn to resilience and the discipline of learning from others rather than waiting for the crisis to find you, the value of after action reviews that capture what went well and not just what went wrong, and the knowledge transfer that readies the next team to step up. He closes with a single piece of advice for any cyber leader walking into the boardroom in the middle of an incident. Listen, keep it real, drop the ego, and let people know you care. This is an episode for every level of a security team, and one worth sharing well beyond our industry. If it lands with you, subscribe to Cyber Voices on your favourite podcast app and leave us a five star review. Full show notes are in the episode description.