Dan Vajzovic
Director, Assistant Chief Constable, ERSOU

Assistant Chief Constable Dan Vajzovic was appointed as the head of the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit in 2019. Dan is a Cambridgeshire officer and from April 2017 he had responsibility for local policing in the county. Prior to that Dan was temporary assistant chief constable heading up the Joint Protective Services of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire. 

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Dan joined the police in 1997 after reading chemical engineering at Churchill College, Cambridge. During his 24 years of policing Dan has been his force’s head of operations, the area commander for the city of Peterborough and has headed the force Professional Standards Department. His operational background is predominantly in crime investigation having worked in serious and organised crime, public protection and volume crime environments. 

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Dan is the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) lead developing policy, practice and operational response for a number of areas including sex work, the response to online CSE/A activist groups (OCAGs) and development of the Sensitive Intelligence Network. He leads the national CSE/A Undercover On-Line capability.  

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Dan is married with two children and outside of work he is an active climber having reached the peak of the Old Man of Hoy as part of his 40th birthday celebrations. 

Paul Lopez
Director 

Detective Superintendent Paul Lopez has almost 28 years policing experience with Essex Police and ERSOU. Over the past 5 years Paul has worked across number of diverse disciplines including Serious and Organised Crime, Intelligence and most recently Cyber Crime.

Paul has recently been appointed as Director of the Eastern Cyber Resilience Centre and is keen to use his experience to support businesses within the Region tackle the growing threat of cyber-crime and improve their levels of cyber security. 

Richard Helliwell
East of England Co-op

Richard oversees the day-to-day running of ICT services for the East of England Co-op, which comprises 200 locations and 4,000 employees. He is responsible for the full voice and data infrastructure for the business as well as their multiple IT applications and platforms.

Roger Hirst
Essex Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC)

 Mr Hirst became the first Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner in October 2017 and continues to work nationally and locally to build stronger links between emergency services and help create more secure communities. His core belief that safe and secure communities are the bedrock on which we build well-being and prosperity for all, remains central to his vision for both the services for which he is now responsible.

David Boda
Camelot

David is Chief Information Security Officer at Camelot, operator of the National Lottery. Outside of his work at Camelot David volunteers his time for the National Crime Agency and also sits on several committees to help develop and maintain international security standards.