UK Digital Economy Conference

Anna Ashton-Scott

Head of Skills, The Data Lab

Anna Ashton-Scott is the Head of Skills at The Data Lab, with responsibility for education and training strategies aligned to the vision and purpose of Scotland’s Innovation Centre for Data & AI. Anna’s team supports organisations and individuals - from senior leaders to career changers and early talent - to embrace the potential of data & AI, collaborating with higher and further education to ensure graduates are industry ready, and companies can access and retain talent in today’s rapidly changing world of work. With over 20 years of experience in higher education, Anna has held roles in external relations, knowledge exchange, researcher development, and has led the implementation of national industry-focused postgraduate internship and placement programmes.

: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annatscott/

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Paul Connell

Executive Chair, The Data City

Paul co-founded The Data City as a spin out from Open innovations in 2017 with the mission to create a software business that used open data the power of the web and machine learning and AI to help people, business and organisations use real time data to answer their questions about the economy and #KillAllreports.

Paul is an entrepreneur who has built Open Innovations into a 21st century Institution and co-founded The Data City in 2017.

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Professor Steven Drost

Co-Founder and Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) , CodeBase Scotland Ltd

Professor Steven Drost is a three-time startup founder with one successful exit, one failure and one ongoing venture. Steven is a practitioner and mentor who loves learning and understanding, connecting people and ideas. 

He has founded startups, raised funds, scaled and sold businesses, and worked with large corporations and state institutions. His current focus is economic development for the UK via building startup ecosystems.

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Kate Forbes MSP

Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic, Scottish Government

Kate Forbes is the Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch constituency (which includes Dingwall, the Black Isle and the Great Glen). She is the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for the Economy and Gaelic in the Scottish Government.

Kate is from Dingwall, although she spent part of her upbringing in Glasgow and India. Until she was elected as MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, Kate was employed as an accountant in the banking industry. Prior to that she studied History at the Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh.

First elected to the Scottish Parliament in 2016, she was re-elected as the constituency MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch in May 2021.

Kate first joined the Government in June 2018, as Minister for Public Finance and Digital Economy. She subsequently served as Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy from February 2020 to March 2023.

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Paul McKean

Director of Further Education, Skills and Training, JISC

Paul McKean is the Director of further education, skills and training at Jisc. Paul provides Jisc with strategic direction around its work in Further Education and Skills (FES). He works with colleagues across Jisc, funders from the four nations, sector bodies and learning providers, to ensure Jisc helps its members and their staff, utilise digital, data and technology. In addition, Paul leads the training team which supports FE and skills, HE and research members with their digital, data and technology CPD needs. While Paul has been an Association of Colleges Beacon award assessor for eleven years.

Paul was a returner learner who retrained in multimedia and web design, as a mature student. He became a FE lecturer, then FE manager. While at Bolton College, Paul wrote the college and council’s first e-learning strategies and led on a number of digital innovation projects including the development of the Maths Everywhere adult numeracy app, an ICT for communities project which included the development of Bolton Revisited and the first use of mobile learning in FE. He also set up the first FE TeachMeet.

Paul joined Jisc in 2014 and was responsible for their first FE and skills strategy and he has been leading the development of Jisc’s Digital Elevation Tool, an e-maturity self-assessment tool for FE providers.

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Andrew Purdy

Data Analyst, The Data City

Andrew Purdy is a data scientist and trained economist with over five years of experience across government and private sector roles. 

At The Data City he delivers complex, data-driven projects for high profile clients such as EY, the Tony Blair Institute, techUK and The Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland. His work ensures clients can make informed decisions using detailed, data-backed insights in an intuitive way.

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