Prineesha Botha did not initially aim to become a cybersecurity leader; she grew into this role over time. What started as a technical support position in South Africa gradually transformed into a global leadership role in Denmark.

Today, she leads the Cybersecurity and IT Compliance team at Falck, where she oversees cybersecurity governance, risk, compliance, audit, and crisis management.

Throughout her career, her focus has always been on people by building highly collaborative teams and simplifying complexity. Behind every certification and framework, she manages lies a deep commitment to improve Falck’s security posture and support the organisation to manage its cyber risk.

– Security leadership is not just about understanding and securing technology; it’s about influencing people within the organisation by building trust and being clear about the objectives we aim to achieve together.

This belief drives Prineesha Botha, a seasoned cybersecurity leader with nearly two decades of experience across the IT, Telecom, and healthcare sectors. As the Head of Information Security Management at Falck, she guides global teams through complex security challenges. Originally from South Africa and now based in Denmark, Prineesha combines technical expertise with people-centred leadership in a field that increasingly demands both.

-Leadership is about removing barriers for my team and empowering them with the tools they need to succeed.

This simple yet powerful idea has guided Prineesha in how she works with her team where her leadership style is rooted in clarity, empathy, and empowerment. 

Her career story

Prineesha began her career at a South African telecommunications company in the Internet call centre department, assisting customers with their internet-related queries after completing her degree in Electronic Engineering.  A year later, she advanced into an operational management role within Data Centre services, where she began to leverage her knowledge of the telco and IT environments to create IT products and services for business customers. In these roles, developing IT solutions that met market/customer expectations facilitated her transition into a security role because she drew parallels between customers needing a seamless user experience and translated this into employees needing a smooth flowing process of working with security controls and the security department itself. Employees needed to know that security is also their responsibility, but to do this, the channels to find out how to behave securely needed to be simple and easy to access/understand. She learned early on that security is about building bridges within the company, not about exposing non-compliance; it’s a journey of helping the business understand its role and contribution to working securely every day.

Prineesha moved to Denmark at the end of September 2018 after her husband started a job here. She then applied for a role as a Senior Programme Manager in the Group Security department at the TDC Group and started in working in November 2018. After two years, she became the department manager for the Security Architecture team and has held various leadership roles in security since then.

Starting with Purpose and Authenticity

Beginning her career in Denmark, Prineesha Botha embraced new opportunities with an open mind. Navigating a competitive and unfamiliar environment required more than skills; it demanded having a purpose with clear goals as guiding principles to learn about her new country.

Prineesha believes that true success starts with a clear understanding of oneself—your strengths, values, and what you can realistically achieve. For her, honesty and sincerity are fundamental in building lasting professional relationships because Security is about building trust within relationships. In her experience, if you face a situation at work where you’re asked a question and don’t have the exact answer, don’t hesitate to say you would go back and find out and then make sure to get back to your stakeholders with what was requested.

-Progressing in a security role, whether it’s in it experience or job responsibility means that you need to go out and speak to stakeholders to identify the pain points in your company – then work together to then determine how you can create shared goals to minimise the risk.

This mindset shapes how Prineesha builds connections throughout her career. When it comes to hiring suitable candidates, she draws from her own experience and learnt that hiring managers look beyond technical skills; they seek individuals who represent themselves and their company with integrity—those who can inspire trust and confidence.

-People are hiring people. Hiring managers need to believe that you are being honest about your capabilities and how you would like to progress in your career so that both parties’ expectations are voiced and at the end of the hiring process, both the candidate and manager feel like they have found the best match. 

Mentorship

Prineesha deeply values mentorship, believing that everyone benefits from having a mentor to guide and support them. As a mentor herself, she embraces the idea of helping others navigate their careers, sharing knowledge and experiences to empower the next generation of leaders.