Two months ago, one of our favorite clients paid tribute to our responsiveness and asked us to respond to a call for applications: the Presidency of the Republic opened a call for applications to select five mid-sized companies representative of French technical expertise to accompany President Emmanuel Macron on his trip to Australia in May.
The aim was to celebrate the first anniversary of the "contract of the century," the sale of 12 Shrtfin Barracuda submarines to Australia. The program includes meetings between French and Australian leaders, discussions between major French industrialists (Thales, Naval Group, Safran) and Australian authorities, and cooperation agreements on cybersecurity between ANSSI and its Australian counterpart, the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC).
Without delay, we decided to take up the challenge and urgently put together a presentation of our activities (particularly in cybersecurity), our expertise in the naval sector, and a business plan for our future Australian activities. Everything was masterfully designed by our designers to ensure maximum impact.
Two weeks later, the news broke via Business France (responsible for the international development of French companies) that Squad had been selected to be part of the presidential trip. Marc Brua will have the honor of representing us in the highest echelons of government alongside the country's biggest industrialists.
Great Place To Work, Deloitte Fast 50, French Tech, fundraising, Apax Partners, cybersecurity—these are just some of the themes and distinctions from previous years that undoubtedly guided the President of the Republic in his choice of five mid-sized companies to accompany him on his trip to Australia. Squad owes these distinctions to all its employees, who, every day, demonstrate the excellence and responsiveness that characterize us.
This trip, beyond making Marc an international star who is in high demand on television shows, rewards everyone's hard work and gives us extraordinary visibility that would be unimaginable for a company like ours.
We must immediately capitalize on this newfound recognition to reach the highest levels of decision-makers, open and strengthen our positions with our prospects and customers. We are also taking advantage of this opportunity to attract the best talent to strengthen our teams where necessary.
But Squad in Australia, what for?
First, we will support the actions of our customers and partners on the ground.
We will also capitalize on the strengthened cooperation between the French National Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI) and the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) to offer our cybersecurity expertise in a country that is sorely lacking in available skills.
To address this skills gap in Australia, Squad will roll out its CyberAcademy program, which aims to offer a retraining pathway enabling companies to reskill their staff by drawing on the experience of seasoned professionals who know their industry and adding new cybersecurity skills. Our initial experiences with major banking clients show that several hundred people can be retrained in this way: here, a branch advisor becomes a cybersecurity correspondent; there, an insurance account manager, risk analyst, or obsolete IT equipment operator becomes a Security Operation Center operator. This program, created in partnership with our clients, provides new cybersecurity skills in just a few weeks.
When?
The first consultants will arrive in Australia in September/October. We expect to have around 15 positions available in 2018. An agency will be set up at the end of the year. We hope to have 80 consultants in three years' time: call for applications!
