Bob Stokes

Bob is the Founder and Managing Director of CTEK, New Zealand’s leading industrial automation company with an international client-base in the Asia-Pacific region. Bob has been in the industry for over 35 years and has a wealth of experience in the IT, automation, and control sectors. Since founding CTEK in 2004, the company has established successful partnerships with Fonterra, Open Country Dairy, Ravensdown, Nestle, Danone and leading organisations in other key automation industries. In 2019 Bob led CTEK in its partnership with the University of Waikato to form First Watch, the first cybersecurity platform to prevent attacks on the OT network and has patents filed supporting this technology. First Watch uses a combination of hardware and software to monitor ICS networks for suspicious activity and block malicious traffic before it can reach critical systems. The platform is designed to be easy to deploy and manage, so that even small and medium-sized organizations can protect their ICS from cyber threats. Bob believes that First Watch will play a critical role in protecting critical infrastructure from cyber-attacks, and he is excited to see the platform being used by organizations around the world.