Hannah Booth, the recently promoted SafeGuarding & Resilience Manager at Heriot-Watt University has won the Outstanding Young Security Professional of the Year award at the 2021 OSPA awards. This is the first time this ‘rising star’ category has been included in the awards, and it was a hotly contested field with a final shortlist of 10 young security professionals from some of the sector’s leading employers.
The award comes hot on the heels of Booth’s promotion to the position of operational head of security, in recognition of the leading role she played in the introduction of CriticalArc’s SafeZone technology at Heriot-Watt, and her work innovating with the service and promoting its benefits among students, academics and wider stakeholders.
“I am absolutely thrilled to receive such a prestigious award, especially at such an early point in my career,” said Booth. “I am very grateful for this and for all the support I have received, and I am looking forward to the new and exciting challenges we will all face in the future.”
At 26, Booth is the youngest head of security in the UK higher education sector, and her recent promotion and this award are testimony to her professionalism and her promise as future strategic leader. “Hannah’s achievement is a recognition of her own outstanding qualities and it also demonstrates a commitment to diversity in our sector and a recognition that young professionals add value and innovation as our future executive leaders,”said Les Allan, Director of SafeGuarding Services.
