We Are Power Podcast
The We Are PoWEr podcast spotlights voices and perspectives that need to be heard. Our weekly podcast, with listeners in over 60 countries, delivers PoWErful conversations that inspire, challenge, and empower... from personal life stories to business insights and leadership lessons.
We share diverse experiences, bold discussions, and real solutions. Whether you're looking for career advice, topical themes, or stories of resilience and success - this is where voices spark change.
We Are Power Podcast
From History Degree to Cybersecurity at One of the Biggest Football Clubs in the World
The brilliant Hannah McLean joins the We Are PoWEr Podcast – bringing a story of bold career moves, northern pride, and learning to back yourself even when self-doubt kicks in.
From a history degree to becoming Information Security Officer at Manchester United Football Club, Hannah proves that breaking into male-dominated industries isn’t always about being the most technical person in the room – it’s about problem-solving, communicating, and negotiating with confidence. She shares how she lifted herself up to apply for her dream role, why she believes education is key to breaking barriers, and how celebrating your wins through the Northern PoWEr Women Awards is about so much more than the ceremony itself.
A proud Mancunian and new mum, Hannah opens up about the reality of motherhood versus expectations, her hopes for her daughter’s future, and the moments that make her most grateful to be from the North. From Barry’s Bootcamp to brunch in the Northern Quarter, she champions her city while working to make the online world a safer place.
In this episode:
- From history graduate to cybersecurity at Manchester United Football Club
- Why you don’t need to be “tech-minded” to thrive in tech
- Breaking barriers in male-dominated industries
- Motherhood, reality vs expectations, and learning to love deeper than ever
- Celebrating yourself and your achievements with the Northern PoWEr Women Awards
- Pride in Manchester and its world-changing innovations
- The role of education in breaking barriers and creating opportunity
Find out more about We Are PoWEr here. 💫
Hello, hello and welcome to the we Are Power podcast. If this is your first time here, the we Are Power podcast is the podcast for you, your career and your life. We release an episode every single Monday with listeners in over 60 countries worldwide, where you'll hear personal life stories, top-notch industry advice and key leadership insight from amazing role models. As we Are Power is the umbrella brand to Northern Power Women Awards, which celebrates hundreds of female role models and advocates every year. This is where you can hear stories from all of our awards alumni and stay up to date with everything. Mpw Awards and we Are Power Never imitated, never replicated singularly wonderful, everybody's wonder girl. Well, hello, hello.
Speaker 1:Today I'm delighted to be joined by Hannah McLean, who is the Information Security Officer at Manchester United, currently on maternity leave, though, indeed, indeed, yeah, now, probably not a place I'd normally start, but we always love a bit of a fun fact, right. So I've've got to ask your family once auditioned for Gogglebox, which I've really got into. I don't watch a lot of telly, but I've become a bit the the brother sister from Blackpool. I love them, love them anyway. Aside from that, tell us about that. What happened, would you?
Speaker 2:do it again. Oh, 100%, in fact, the only reason that we didn't really pursue it we actually got quite far as that my dad got really concerned about fame changing him, and he was like, hannah, we're going to end up with our own talk show, it's all going to get to our heads and I'm just not ready for that. And I was like Dad, it's fine, we're not going to be that big cheese, it's going to be okay. But yeah, yeah, it was. We did all right. Yeah, one of our friends was like he's sort of a producer for it, put us in touch and like, just enjoyed our dynamic and yeah, we could. You never know I could have been having my own talk show. There's still time, though you know Exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1:Never say never, right, but yeah, I love that Google box fantastic. So for people who might not know and might not associate um, what does your role as information security officer at man United look like? Yeah, because you're not kicking a ball right, no, 100%, not um.
Speaker 2:So my role in in, in a nutshell, is everything cyber security, so that is, across um protecting our network data and systems across um our operations, e-commerce, our players and our academy players as well, so our youth players. So, yeah, it involves everything that you might associate with the football club in terms of, like, protecting us from outside threats and yeah.
Speaker 1:And we always talk on the pod about there never being kind of one straight line in anyone's career. Yeah, how did you find you know? Because careers guidance is quite challenging and I know we talk a lot about STEM the world talks a lot about STEM out there but how did you find your route into cyber?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's not the traditional computer science route, which a lot of people think. That's what you need to work in cybersecurity. I did a history degree Never.
Speaker 1:In fact, I probably was what you need to work in cyber security and I did a history degree um, never in fact.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100% in fact, probably not a very tech minded individual. Um graduated I? Um didn't know what I was going to do. Everyone was sort of applying for graduate schemes and I started doing business development at KPMG um, and it was at the time when there was a lot of um, cyber was a massive growth area in the business, um and GDPR was. There was a lot of cyber was a massive growth area in the business and GDPR was coming in a lot of like compliance legislation around cybersecurity.
Speaker 2:And I moved into that like sort of tapped the partner's shoulder and was like please give me a job. And then moved into that. And then moved into the more tech space doing loads of projects around cyber maturity and how businesses can implement technologies. And then sort of got approached for the Manchester United role and sort of went from there really. So, yeah, not not from a tech background at all, actually. And what do you love most about the role? It's just so interesting and ever-changing. It's never, no, two days are the same things. There's always new threats, there's new technologies and new problems we have to solve. Um. So it's actually more. It's less tech focused and actually more problem solving, which I don't think everybody realizes that.
Speaker 1:So, um, yeah, I love it, I really do I think that's one of the opportunities, isn't it that you know you are a role model because you're on another power awards um future list and once you're on our Northern Power Awards future list, and once you're on it, hannah, you're always on it in the gang wearing the badge. You know, always wear the badge. But how would you describe that to your younger self? Because I think you know, if you've got people out there thinking, god, I don't know what I want to do, but maybe your path, I'm going to do history because you, you know, and how would you describe it to someone who's like thinking of that?
Speaker 2:you talked about being problem solving yeah, and it is kind of that when you break it down. I think a lot of people think, god, if I'm going to go into cyber security, I'm going to be a hacker or a pen hacker, slash pen tester, so I'll be skulking around in comms rooms with black hoodies and have that sort of skulking that's the word.
Speaker 1:Skulking sort of have that sort of Skulking.
Speaker 2:That's the word Skulking, sort of have that persona and it couldn't be further from the truth and, in fact, like the field is so vast that there's technical roles and non-technical roles and it actually is just problem solving, you know, whether it's a business trying to implement a new technology, whether someone has hacked us and we need to defend against them, and all of it is like very dynamic and like um, being responsive to things. So, yeah, it really is like problem solving and superhero mixed into one.
Speaker 2:Right, you are a protector and defender, exactly, exactly. But yeah, no, it's and it's great. And the other thing as well is I think a lot of people don't realize is, um, it's communication, whether that be, you're working with like non-technical audiences and sort of digesting that technical information and and sort of displaying it back to those audiences, or very persuasive, so you might be trying to convince teams or leadership to implement certain things or protective measures. So a lot of it's actually about negotiation and communication, which, again, I don't think many people realize that they think it's just all about people in black hoodies skulking around in King Kong's rooms, and that couldn't be further from the truth, and you're also working in the world of football, which is obviously a massive global industry, obviously massive in the north of England as well.
Speaker 1:So it must come with great opportunities but also maybe some challenges along the way. What have you learnt most about the industry and what have you enjoyed most?
Speaker 2:um, I think, with football in particular, I think what people might think when, when they're like, oh you do cyber security at a football club, is that, oh, it's just 11 lads kicking a ball around on on on Saturday, that kind of situation, and it's not really much more than that. What have you got to defend against? Actually, we have 70,000 people who come to our stadium. If the turnstiles go down, that becomes a health and safety incident very quickly. If e-commerce goes down, we lose revenue. If we are buying new players and they send the payments to the wrong place, that's a massive problem from share prices.
Speaker 2:So actually, I think a lot of people think we're not targeted by many threats. Actually, we're targeted by so many threats and actually that role itself is quite hard to defend against, because how do you prioritize your time, um, so yeah, it's. It's definitely more eye opening than anything, and because it's such a big brand, we attract so much good attention and bad attention. So yeah, it's a. It's been a learning curve, for sure. And are you a football fan? I am a football fan. I'm living my dad's dream, because he is a diehard United fan and he had the MUSC tattoo on his forearm not so long ago.
Speaker 1:Actor, talk show footballer dad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, 100% yeah. And then I've started playing whilst working at United, playing football with the lads on a Wednesday.
Speaker 1:So, um, I've got actually into it myself and were you, was that something you might have pursued, or is this one of the opportunities that it's given?
Speaker 2:one of the opportunities.
Speaker 1:Um yeah, I don't think I would have pursued it otherwise and you've also led a massive uh cyber transformation project, haven't you? Since you've been there, that must have been a great opportunity.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100%. So I was sort of brought in after we'd had suffered a massive breach and we were sort of implementing a big cyber transformation program to sort of bring in new technologies, particularly around like how we detect threats. So people are trying to hack us and yeah, it's been a busy couple of years, for sure, and it's yeah, it's great it's gone from strength to strength. So, yeah, really pleased with the work we've done there.
Speaker 1:And you do work in two quite male-dominated industries. Obviously, we know the rise of women's sport is pretty phenomenal, and has been phenomenal over the last decade really. But you've you're talking about football and cyber security sometimes. You know god help us. We talk about. You know there's that there's a lot of talk about pink and blue jobs out there, but sometimes that wouldn't, that doesn't necessarily fit, does it what? What do you think each world could learn from each other?
Speaker 2:football from cyber and cyber from football oh, I think, um, I think a couple of things really around how, with football, obviously there's a lot of team focus, performance driven, and actually that does tend to translate in cybersecurity. So, for example, like I mentioned, cybersecurity is problem solving. I say to my teams all the time I don't expect you to know the answer, but I expect you to be able to find the answer. And actually you do need that team mentality and also, like from a network perspective, like knowing who you can reach out to to find the answer, to support each other, because actually you actually aren't going to achieve a decent cyber security posture like working alone. So there's definitely things you can sort of like learn that way. Um, and then vice versa from like, how could cyber security influence the football team right now? Um, I mean, I don't know. I think, um, oh, I actually don't know. To be fair, no, that's a tricky one, isn't?
Speaker 1:that is a tricky one. I'm an Evertonian. I'm sure we can learn lots from any kind of sector. Transfer of knowledge yes, 100%. As you're sort of like navigating your career adventure, has there been any points so far along the line where you've kind of had to go? I've had to back myself on that a little bit and really think, god, this is something like really interesting that's come up, but I've gone. You know what I can do this, and have you kind of really backed yourself in that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, to be honest, going for the role at Manchester United. It was a time in my career I was approached for the role but I remember saying to my husband I was like I'd love that job, but I don't think I'm ready for that job. And I was like, but nothing bad can come from that interview process. I'll either find out, get the feedback that I need to grow and improve to then get that role a couple of years down the line. And then I was like, no, just go for it. And then, going through the process and I was like, wow, I think I might get this. So, yeah, I mean, yeah, I just think sometimes you've just got to go for it really. And I do think sometimes women do sort of like tread with carefully and think, oh, am I ready, is this right? And actually you just need to go for it and just find out and have you had role models along the way or mentors?
Speaker 2:Yes, I've had a couple, and in various different sort of how they look and feel. Really, I think my first ever mentor was my first boss, like.
Speaker 2:he's called Dave Crowther and he um, sorry, rob Crowther, and he um supported me moving into cyber and I remember like in meetings he'd like nudge me under the table say something and I'm like okay, like, and it's just, I think having that supportive, like backing is like so amazing, especially when you're so early on in your career and finding yourself, um, yeah, it was really powerful. So, yeah, a big, big shout out to him.
Speaker 1:To be fair, and you're, you're, you're a big advocate now as well, having had an advocate and having have advocates around you, because it's really important. You're a massive kind of um advocate for women in tech, aren't you? Uh, because it is so many different, million roles, it's not just one role, is it for all? Every woman in tech is the same, right, yeah, yeah, um, what you know? What's the one thing that you think could really make a difference? Now? Have you had that magic wand in the industry or the sector?
Speaker 2:so I I very much think it starts from, like, education and awareness. Um, I think that, um, when I think, think back to like my education, education and what we were learning about from a technology standpoint, it was so basic and it doesn't reflect the workplace. In the field of tech alone, you've got app development, engineers, data science, blah, blah, blah, but I was sat in an IT thingy learning how to do PowerPoint presentations and it just didn't reflect the world of work, and I think that's a massive point in encouraging both women and men into the industry. But also understanding when people think about cyber security. It isn't it isn't always technical roles. The industry is so vast. You can do non-technical and technical roles within there and I think if people knew that, um, they probably wouldn't feel so scared about the barrier to entry. Oh god, I need a computer science degree. Therefore, I can't do it and that's just not the case. Um, so, yeah, that's what. I would definitely sort of wave my magic wand to find out.
Speaker 1:I love a magic wand. I wish we all had a magic wand. You were doing a man United football club project, weren't you? And you wrote a letter to your 15 year old self, which was very inspiring to hear. What did that feel like? Was that quite sort of cathartic to write that?
Speaker 2:yeah, 100%, it was quite emotional actually and yeah, it was really just, oh god, it took me back to that place of like I feel like I had so much ambition and so much like hope, but I didn't know how to like achieve. It felt very intangible. So, like sort of reflecting back and be like it'll be okay, that that was like yeah, it's quite emotional actually. And then, obviously, sitting down and recording it, you're just like, oh, I've like right where I thought I was going to be and that, and that's a really nice feeling. So yeah, it was good, and you're a new mum.
Speaker 2:I am indeed seven months.
Speaker 1:Yes, what have you learnt most? We? Need a list, not enough sleep in the day.
Speaker 2:Oh, I think just yeah, an appreciation One for, like, stay-at-home mums, because, admittedly, I had that naive view that I'd be like I'm going to Matley, what am I going to do all day? Like I can do shopping I can. Like I'm going to do I had this in my head I'm going to learn Italian, I'm going to do so many exams and I've like poor, my husband coming home and being like I've not had an hour to myself or showered. But yeah, I think it's just that one that your heart can expand to places it's never been. But also you can be challenged in ways you never thought before. So I think I'm definitely a more rounded individual and I feel like I've now accessed, like now I'm in the mum club when I see other mums and I'm like why did nobody tell me about this? So, yeah, it feels uh.
Speaker 1:yeah, it's nice, it's amazing, I love it so much and what do you hope the future will look like for your daughter? What's her name?
Speaker 2:uh, florence, oh, beautiful little flow, yeah. So, um for her, oh god, where do I start? I mean um it. I think it's such a key time at the moment in terms of the narrative around like women's rights going forward, and I just think that I hope that she has the freedom, the the agency, to go and make the changes that she wants. And you know, I actually feel more strongly than ever about, you know, women's rights and sort of supporting women and levelling up and things like that, because I, yeah, I want that for her. I feel like I'm doing it on her behalf. So, yeah, that's what I hope for.
Speaker 1:Because there's a challenging world out there at the moment. You know there's certain parts of the world where you just think, gosh, are we going back? You feel like sometimes it's two steps forward and ten back.
Speaker 2:at times yeah, 100%, 100%. And I think you've got to keep like. For me, you know, in the world that I work in, you've got to like sort of be a bit of a change maker and just keep pushing on because otherwise, like, the more you're able to break the barriers or like, or challenge the stereotypes, the more it becomes the accepted norm. And yeah, I just hope, yeah, hope, I just hope that it'll be all right.
Speaker 1:I think we've got to have hope because sometimes you sometimes you can't look at the news or you can't scroll too much because it can be a little bit like oh, I know, I know it's so depressing and that is another aspect of like my role in like cyber security.
Speaker 2:Um, is that like a lot of like online safety and how things are purported on social media and presented. I don't think people are necessarily aware around. You know misinformation, challenging sources of information, of where they're getting them from and being safe online. You know when you put something out there, it is there forever and protecting yourselves and your identities, it's just a huge topic, especially for, like young individuals these days.
Speaker 1:I was interviewed by the wonderful Ella Grace and her mum on the podcast a few weeks ago and you know she talked about her friendship and she's in her very early 20s and she talked about it's like 70% of her friendship group would prefer not to have a phone.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's crazy.
Speaker 1:Considering we have this computer now system, don't we? It's no longer the well maybe this is my age group there were no phones or there was big bricks, but now we have a mobile computer at our hands. I'm conflicted by that, because we want the ease of access of information, don't we? We want that knowledge and be able to give or gain. But I find that quite sort of distracted me really, because I'm like wow, how would we live?
Speaker 2:No, 100%. And I think as well, like how, like you say, it can be such an enabler, the information you've got, even from a safety standpoint, I can see as a parent, you're like, well, I know where they are, I know what they're doing. But I think even parents understanding different social media platforms, how they all interact and how people God like, yeah, how they can be used, is just it's just a whole new world. And like I think also back to the days, like, where we didn't have phones with us all the time. You know, if something bad happened at school, like you'd get a break for it at home, but whereas now it's on your phone, you're on Snapchat, da-da-da. So it's like, yeah, it's a scary time for sure.
Speaker 1:And you're going back from leaving a few weeks' time, aren't you?
Speaker 2:What are you excited about? Um? I'm excited for adult conversations.
Speaker 1:Can't practice any Italian, though, can you? No, no, no, italian has been learned.
Speaker 2:In fact, I've gone backwards in English, um, so I'm hoping to be able to string a sentence together. Um, yeah, I'm, I'm really excited to just like like crack on again. Like I do have bounds of energy and positivity, particularly about what we do at United, so I am really excited to get stuck back into it. Um, and, yeah, a bit, but it's a bit apprehensive how I'm going to manage everything, but we'll figure it out and is there like a quotation or a mantra that you live by?
Speaker 1:is there a favorite one out?
Speaker 2:there um, it's not, I don't, I wouldn't say it's, it's probably a famous mantra. But, um, someone once said to me and it's a favorite one out there um, it's not, I don't, I wouldn't say it's, it's probably a famous mantra. But, um, someone once said to me and it's a Yorkshire term shy barns get. Now. And it's like, if you don't ask, you don't get. And actually at a lot of key points in my career, I've just I just hear that ringing in my ear, which is shy barns getting out. Um, so if you don't ask, you don't get. And it, and it served to be quite true, you know, just go for it. Like, actually, what is the harm in not doing something?
Speaker 1:And often the positive outweighs the negative, so yeah, and the awards this year Northern Power Women Awards we're about to open for nominations again Now. We always have to do some corralling around the nominations because, as you know, you get nominated and then you have to fill in some of those questions and they're often pushed to the side because you're busy. Well, actually, probably at the time you were, you were just about giving birth, potentially, actually, when that was coming in. So it's a fair call. What would you say out there to anyone who is either considering self-nominating or nominating someone else? There is a an importance around nominations and celebrating and recognizing those achievements. That's why we created it. You've got to agree me now, because I didn't really give you an opportunity to say no there, but you know, but why are? Why is that recognition so important and why would you encourage people to kind of engage with the nomination?
Speaker 2:I think um for me personally, you know I I've never been a nominated for award. This is my first time doing a podcast um, which is crazy who gave me a microphone, um, pry it from my dead fingers.
Speaker 2:But, um, no, I mean, look it, it's so fantastic to sort of sit back and reflect and go, wow, someone's nominated me, or you know. You know I'm gonna put myself forward because why not? You know Shybound's getting out um and um and and sort of like sit back and and celebrate yourself and those achievements, um, because you know, if you're not celebrate yourself like you say it's, it's, it's a tall ask for others to do so too. So you know to back yourself for that. And I think also the network that you've created, um, you know you've got the whatsapp groups. It's not just the awards, it's afterwards, like there's other opportunities, there's the networks, there's the roadshows that happen, and you meet so many amazing like-minded individuals, especially in the North as well, which is fantastic. So, yeah, just go for it.
Speaker 1:And how important has being Northern to you, oh God it's like it's my whole identity.
Speaker 2:It's my whole identity. It's, oh God, I identity. It's my whole identity um it's, oh god, I'm so passionate about the north in particular.
Speaker 1:I could get on my high horse and talk about do it get?
Speaker 2:on fantastic man like. Sometimes I get drunk at parties and talk about all the things that manchester's invented and it's a long list. I'm like did you know we invented, like we've entered the railways and they're like god, hannah, shut up. So no, it's. It's such a big thing and like particularly in, like my world as well, where we're being seen as like a tech club outside of London and all the great initiatives that are happening. It's just amazing, like I love being from Manchester.
Speaker 1:What's your favourite Northern fact? You've just said invented railways.
Speaker 2:There we go Invented railways.
Speaker 1:You didn't invent delays though, did you?
Speaker 2:No, I'm not taking ownership of that one, I mean the first computer, alan Turing, and I think there's another one, baby as well, which was the first computer storage. That was invented in Manchester as well. So, yeah, we've got a big tech history and it's just great to celebrate that and see different initiatives that are coming up. You know, gchq have got offices in now, um, and they have loads of cyber programs as well. So, yeah, I think that's one of it's a proper pride, isn't it?
Speaker 1:I think I know when we first set up Northern Power I mean, we did a survey out there and the two things that really jumped out was that proud of being northern and proud of being able to drive their careers in the north, because I think the start of when I created this, there was still a lot of people, you know, having to run to London, having to run overseas, having to develop their career. It's not like that anymore, isn't it? There's great. What are you most optimistic about the future of the North from?
Speaker 2:I think it's exactly that. You know, at the start of my career it was very much like if you want to do this, you've got to go down to London. And I've spent my time down in London and it's great that you can sort of replicate those networks and replicate those opportunities in the north. And you know, I just really want to see more of it, even just at a basic level. You know, connected infrastructure that doesn't take an absolute time and a leg to get to, like different northern cities, like different northern cities and but, but seeing more businesses move up north, and you know, the BBC moving up, that was a huge thing, massive, massive, like brands coming up to the north and attracts the right talent.
Speaker 2:our universities are like spitting out loads of really like talented graduates and it's like how do we harness that in the workplace? Um, in fields like cyber, which is famously like underrepresented, like we're crying out for resources in that field. So I just want to see more of that and more diverse individuals moving into my industry and sort of pushing them forward.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it's exciting, isn't it? I think it's exciting times. I know there's challenging times out there, which we've talked about, but I think the exciting hub that the north can create and and the fact of you talked about like the BBC moved moving up here. Gosh, it's been nearly a decade now and there was the assumption that people were just going to commute. What's your favorite day out? What's your favorite day out in there in Manchester, it's going to be a bar, isn't it? I know it's going to be a bar.
Speaker 2:I mean it's going to be a bar, isn't it? I know it's going to be a bar. I mean it's going to be multiple bars, I don't know how to narrow it down. Favourite day out, I mean, I am actually a bit of a fitness girl, so I enjoy a little Barry's Boot Camp, then probably a brunch at Caravan or somewhere in Spinning Fields. I always enjoy the Lawn Club and all the hendoos that are dancing on the tables at 1pm and I'm like, yes, I love this energy. But yeah, I'd probably head up more towards the northern quarter and like Mackie May is gorgeous and yeah, like, yeah, love it around there.
Speaker 1:It is. It's just amazing. Well, hannah, thank you so much for joining us. I look forward to following your adventures. Let us push to get more amazing talent into the world of cyber. Let us hear about your improving football skills as well and and talent into the world of cyber. Let us hear about your improving football skills as well, and, I think, get back into Gogglebox.
Speaker 2:That's what I say.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for joining us and thank you so much for being one of our fantastic future listeners. Perfect, thank you for having me Subscribe on YouTube, apple, amazon, music, spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a review or follow us on socials. We are Power underscore Net on Insta, tiktok and Twitter. We are Power on LinkedIn, facebook and we are underscore Power on YouTube.
