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Indigenous Willyama Services spins off cyber subsidiary

The cyber side of Willyama's business was making up 70 per cent of its revenue.
L-R: Andrew Barr (ACT Chief Minister), Kieran Hynes (Willyama)

L-R: Andrew Barr (ACT Chief Minister), Kieran Hynes (Willyama)

ACT-headquartered and Indigenous professional services business Willyama Services has launched a subsidiary business, Willyama Cyber.

Founded in 2016, Willyama Services is a Supply Nation certified services provider based in Canberra. It current has satellite offices in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide and offers professional services to the defence industry.

Willyama founder and CEO Kieran Hynes said there was a need to split up the main business under the Willyama brand for two reasons.

The first, he explained to ARNwas the initial business name itself was agnostic as to what services the business offers, but this was by design.

"The intent is to spin out a number of IT-related businesses out of this, so that there's multiple opportunities for employment for the Indigenous and veteran sectors," Hynes said.

This then feeds into the second reason, being the cyber security side of the business was generating 70 per cent of its overall revenue. As a result, Hynes said it's time for the cyber side to be spun off "to run on its own two feet".

Indeed, Willyama is a Defence Industry Security Program (DISP) cyber provider and has offered cyber security services to both the government and the Defence industry supply chain for years, with the provider focusing on its cyber capabilities over the last two years in particular.

“Willyama Services is dedicated to Indigenous employment opportunities while also supporting Indigenous entrepreneurs and businesses," Hynes said. " This won’t change."

“By spinning off Willyama Cyber, we will have a business that will focus solely on enhancing the resilience and security posture of Australia with cyber security expertise drawing on Indigenous and veteran workforce and influence.

“We are providing increasing levels of assistance to Australian organisations and those wanting to operate in the Australian market by providing our offerings in cyber protections and managing classified information.”

Like its Services business, Willyama Cyber will also be based in the nation’s capital.

“We chose Canberra for our headquarters because of its incredible cyber ecosystem, proximity to defence, government, innovators and researchers but also because of its natural surroundings which provide a great lifestyle,” Hynes said.

The subsidiary was launched on 12 May by Andrew Barr, Chief Minister for the ACT, who congratulated the Indigenous business in launching it “in one of our fastest growing industry sectors”.

“It’s great to see a company committed to creating jobs, particularly for those within our local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community,” he added.