INSTRUCTOR SPOTLIGHT: DECEMBER 2021
INSTRUCTOR SPOTLIGHT: FEBRUARY 2022
December 2021 Instructor Excellence Award:
Tamawat Tweewat
Educator & Information
System & Security Consultant,
Data Protection Officer,
Vnohow Co. Ltd.
Tamawat is an expert in Information Technology, Cybersecurity, and Enterprise Architecture and has around 20 years of experience in the field of IT, working as a professional consultant. Tamawat is currently working as an Information System and Security Consultant and Data Protection Officer at Vnohow (Thailand) Co., Ltd. In addition, he is Membership Chair at ISC2 Bangkok Chapter, a non-profit organization that provides security training and training certificates. In 2006, he was named Engineer of The Year, an honor given to him by Cisco Systems (Thailand) Ltd. for partnership contribution. Before continuing his career at Vnohow as a full-time trainer 5 years ago, Tamawat worked as a full-time regional consultant specialist in the communications industry. In this role, Tamawat traveled for work and visited around 20 countries before settling down in Bangkok, Thailand, where he now resides and works as a full-time trainer.
Soon after settling down in Bangkok, the COVID-19 pandemic began, and although the future of the training world at the time was unknown, Tamawat believes that the training industry is still doing well and he feels extremely optimistic about what training opportunities will be out there in the future for him and for others. According to Tamawat, “People tend to transform themselves during uncertainty and are open to trying new things. When it comes to training, students have not only been enjoying online instructor-led courses but have accepted them as the future of training.”
Another factor that Tamawat believes is a big reason why the training world is thriving through this pandemic is because during this time people do not want to stay still. According to Tamawat, “They want to spend their free time preparing for when the pandemic is over. The hard work that they put in and their newly gained skills will pay off and will ramp up their career in the long run.”
Everything Tamawat does is to expand knowledge to everyone in his field. He has always had an interest in a key concept of his that he calls “lifelong learning”, and he really enjoys not only expanding his own knowledge, but also taking the knowledge and skills he has gained throughout his life and sharing them with others. He believes that by sharing what he learned, he is contributing to the good of mankind. To Tamawat, teaching is not only gaining skills and knowledge, but also gaining experience and a network and community. The connection you gain from communicating with students is an invaluable takeaway for him. He says, “That is definitely one of the most enjoyable parts of my job. Being a trainer can sometimes be rough and tough, but that aspect of the job makes it all worthwhile for me.”
Having a good work-life balance is important for Tamawat. When he’s out of the office, he enjoys spending time with his family and friends and relaxing when he can. For him, finding ways to keep busy and have fun during this pandemic is very important.
December 2021 Instructor Excellence Award:
Mohamed Hamdi
Mohamed Hamdi is a telecommunications and electronics engineer who currently works as the Information Security Assistant Manager at BLOM BANK Egypt. Mohamed is also accomplished in the training world, working at YAT Learning Centers where he has been a freelance instructor for about 7 years. Mohamed has a post graduate diploma
in the field of Cybersecurity from ITI, the most reputable training institute in Egypt. In addition, Mohamed has a lot of international certificates in Information Security, including CEH, CHFI, ECSA, ECIH, ISO, SANS, GREM, and CISM.
Some trainers know that teaching is something they’re passionate about early on in life, while others say they never expected that they would go into teaching. For Mohamed, he realized he had a love for teaching while he was a student, saying, “When I was a diploma student, I was presenting on one of the evaluation methods and found I enjoyed explaining technical topics. From this point on, I realized how talented I was at teaching, and I made the decision to start to develop my teaching skills and from that point on, I never looked back. That is where my teaching journey started.” Mohamed’s love for teaching also came from his personal interest in securing systems and critical infrastructure, as well as teaching his students how to defend against adversaries.
Information Security
Assistant Manager,
BLOM BANK
Although Mohamed is a well-accomplished instructor, who has received high honors throughout his career, including “Best Worldwide Instructor” and “Best Newcomer” awards from EC-Council, COVID-19 has presented new challenges to Mohamed. According to Mohamed, “COVID-19 definitely created new challenges I have never faced before. For me to develop my skills, I was forced to use online training platforms, but I ended up really enjoying them because they make being interactive easy and include many features that take learning to a new level that in-person learning can’t reach. Now with online instructor-led courses, learning is very easy, effective, and enjoyable.”
Although Mohamed is enjoying life as an instructor, he is also looking forward to the future and what it holds for his career. “I plan to get my Master’s degree in the field of Information Security and prepare for my CISSP certificate this coming year. I am so excited for the future and can’t wait to continue learning and growing as an instructor,” says Mohamed.
Outside of work, Mahomed loves visiting aquariums and watching movies with his wife and two children, Yahaia and Farida.