Event: How to protect your business through smarter compliance and supply chain security

Join us for this exclusive event with UK cyber security leaders Xpertex, where we will break down what today’s threat landscape really means for your organisation.

You’ll gain practical, actionable insights from Debenhams Ottaway’s senior commercial lawyer Sarah Liddiard, who will explore how supply chains are shifting, and what businesses must do now to navigate the resulting compliance, contractual, and security challenges with confidence.

Sarah will be joined by Douglas Fergusson, security controller at Xpertex, who will give a practical overview of understanding and categorising your supply chain, conducting deeper technical due diligence, navigating data residency and sovereignty risks, and recognising how supply chain attacks unfold.

This is a must‑attend session for leaders who want to stay ahead of emerging risks, strengthen resilience across their operations, and ensure their business, and its supply chain, remains secure, compliant, and future‑ready.

When: Wednesday 20 May 2026, 9.30-11.30am

Where: Debenhams Ottaway, Ivy House, 107 St Peter’s Street, St Albans, AL1 3EW – view map

Register your interest here

Some of the topics that will be explored in depth throughout the morning include:

• understanding and mitigating the potential risks around AI deployments, including confidentiality obligations and intellectual property concerns
• exploring how modern supply chains work, the different categories of supplier, and why ‘technical integrity’ must be a top priority
• the real difference between data residency and data sovereignty and how this affects you
• establishing rigorous security and compliance standards across the most highly dispersed supply chains, particularly around the handling of critical data
• limiting liability and establishing strong commercial protections, in order to optimise your business’ long-term resilience.

All of this will be supported by real-world examples of supply chain attacks and their effects, providing you with proven methodologies for protecting yourself against the most complex, insidious threats. Whatever the nature of your business and your supply chain, you will finish the session with a greater understanding of your security and compliance obligations and – most importantly – will be well-placed to ensure the continued integrity of your critical data as you scale up and bring new innovations to market.

About the speakers:

Douglas Fergusson is security controller at Xpertex and specialises in Governance Risk and Compliance. Doug has experience implementing internationally recognised standards such as Cyber Essentials, ISO27001 and ISO9001. Delivering Cyber awareness training and teaching users how to stay safe online has led Doug to emphasise how a strong “Human Firewall” is paramount to the security of any organisation. Since becoming Security Controller at Xpertex, supplier diligence forms an important part of his role in ensuring the company supply chain is secure.

Sarah Liddiard is a senior commercial solicitor at Debenhams Ottaway with over 20 years of experience. She specialises in advising businesses on commercial contracts, intellectual property, IT agreements, and data protection law. She is a trusted adviser to a diverse range of clients, from ambitious SMEs to UK branches of multinational corporations, helping them navigate complex legal landscapes with clarity and confidence.

Book your place here

If you have any questions about this event, please email events@debenhamsottaway.co.uk