Dr Syed Shahzad

Dr Syed Shahzad began his academic journey at the Australian Defence Force Academy, where he completed his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in engineering. He later continued his studies at St Hugh’s College, University of Oxford. This foundation shaped a career that spans banking, defence, entrepreneurship, and higher education. Across these sectors, he has founded and exited startups, worked in complex regulated environments, and designed and delivered programs that have trained thousands of educators and entrepreneurs.

His academic work sits at the intersection of space systems engineering, cyber resilience, and governance, with a sustained focus on critical space infrastructure. His research examines how the increasing integration of digital technologies into space systems reshapes risk, accountability, and system design in high consequence environments. A central theme of his scholarship interrogates the limitations of conventional cyber security and cyber resilience approaches when applied to space systems, and advances resilience as an engineered capability embedded across the system lifecycle.

Alongside his research and professional practice, Dr Shahzad has served as a Visiting Fellow at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and as a member of the Advisory Board for Entrepreneurship at Hult Business School in the United Kingdom. He mentors founders through multiple incubator and accelerator programs and holds visiting faculty appointments at several international universities and executive education institutes.

He has lived half of his life in the United Kingdom and has worked across the United States, Europe, and the Middle East.