techUK Future Summit

Sarah Atkinson

Director, Corporate Social Responsibility, Micro Focus, Member of techUK’s Skills & Diversity Council

Senior leader with 20+ years of business experience in multinationals, currently Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at Micro Focus (FTSE listed, global software company headquartered in Newbury, Berks) and a trustee at Berkshire Youth, a charity that works to support, empower and inspire young people. Sarah is also on the Thames Valley LEP Skills Advisory Board. From 2015 to 2018, she served on the main board of techUK, a non-profit representing the companies and technologies that are defining today, the world that we will live in tomorrow. Formerly Chair of the Diversity & Skills Council at techUK, she has been actively involved in several Diversity & Inclusion programs including Gender Pay Gap reporting, Returners Programs and I am a founding supporter of the WISE Campaign’s People Like Me Digital which aims to influence 200,000 11-15-year-old girls in the UK to consider a career in STEM. In 2018, she was listed in Cranfield University’s School of Management 100 Women to Watch report - a supplement to the Female FTSE Board Report 2018 and in the Computer Weekly - Most Influential Women in Technology in 2017, 2018, 2019 & 2020. Sarah was also named winner of WeAreTheCity Rising Star Champion Award 2019.

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Dan Baker

CT Coordinator, City of London Police

No bio provided

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Rt Hon Baroness Diana Barran MBE

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Rt Hon Baroness Diana Barran MBE, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media 

Baroness Barran MBE was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on 26 July 2019. 

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Civil Society and DCMS) 

Ministerial responsibilities: 

• Civil Society 

• Youth and Social Action 

• Government Inclusive Economy Unit 

• Loneliness 

• Ceremonials 

• All DCMS business in the House of Lords 

• Culture, sports and arts sector recovery from COVID-19 

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Jack Bedell Pearce

MD, 4D Data Centres

Straight out of University, Jack joined the management consultancy firm Accenture, where he worked on technical projects for clients including Centrica (British Gas), BT and BOC Edwards. He then spent a couple of years working for a small London-based design agency as their Head of Digital. Having identified a niche in the public sector, he started his own small consultancy company working with local government and NHS organisations, before selling his stake to join 4D Data Centres during the fit-out phase of 4D Surrey in 2007. Since then, Jack has overseen the rapid growth of 4D, winning, along the way, multiple green awards for retrofitting their data centre with cutting edge cooling technology and winning a Deloitte Fast 500 award 4 years in a row.

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Caterina Brandmayr

Head of Climate Policy, Green Alliance

Caterina is head of climate policy at Green Alliance, leading the organisation’s work on the Low Carbon Future theme. She joined Green Alliance in August 2016 as a policy analyst and has been working to ensure that policy on the environment increases the competitiveness of businesses in the UK, focusing particularly on low carbon and resource efficient growth in the manufacturing and construction sectors, the role of digital technologies in the transition towards a net zero emissions economy and policy for low carbon innovation.

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Paul Bray

Chief Technology Officer UK&I, Computacenter

Paul is the CTO for Computacenter in the UK&I.  Operating as part of the UK Leadership team, Paul’s specific responsibilities are in defining and driving an integrated strategy and solution portfolio across our key Business Lines.

Paul is highly active with our customer and partner ecosystem, holding senior relationships with customers and representing Computacenter on various partner boards and forums and at industry events.

Paul has been at Computacenter for 10 years, originally starting as a cross technology Solution Architect before holding the role of Workplace CTO for nearly 6 years.  In early 2019 Paul was promoted to UK&I CTO with new responsibilities across all business lines and remit to build an Office of the CTO function within the UK Business

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Randolph Brazier M.Phil, B.Eng(Hons), B.Sc 

Director of Innovation & Electricity Systems, Energy Networks Association

Randolph is the Director of Innovation & Electricity Systems at the Energy Networks Association, and has over ten years of experience in the electricity and energy sector in the UK, Europe and Australia. Randolph leads teams looking at Digitalisation, Engineering, Future Networks (Open Networks Project), Innovation, Low Carbon Technologies and Resilience. He is responsible for co-ordinating and delivering a broad range of strategic initiatives, including how networks can help to deliver Net Zero. He has previous experience in the design and management of multi-disciplinary power projects in the power and renewables sectors. Randolph has an M.Phil in Engineering for Sustainable Development from the University of Cambridge and has presented at a wide range of events and conferences.  

 

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Bre Caren

Account Director, Valtech

Bre is an Account Director at Valtech, a global digital agency focused on business transformation. Graduating from Lancaster University Management School in 2014, Bre’s work on Royal Navy’s digital recruitment campaigns earnt her two Digital Impact Awards shortly afterwards. Since then Bre has gone on to lead a variety of key accounts at Valtech; from automotive, manufacturing and pureplay e-commerce, Bre works closely with clients to deliver their business goals through smart uses of technology. Bre is an advocate for diversity in tech careers and is engaged in various initiatives including becoming an online career mentor during Covid-19.

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Steve Caughey

Director, National Innovation Centre for Data 

Steve Caughey is Director of the new National Innovation Centre for Data (NICD) which will bring together industry, the public sector and world-leading academics to develop the skills, ideas and resources needed to exploit the opportunities offered by the explosion in digital data.  

Steve worked as a software engineer and system's architect before joining the influential Arjuna research team at Newcastle University in 1990. He was instrumental in commercializing the prototype work of this group by co-founding Arjuna Solutions in 1998. Steve led this start-up company to acquisition, by Hewlett-Packard in 2000, bought back the company (renamed as Arjuna Technologies) in 2002 and sold part of the product suite to RedHat in 2005. As CEO he was responsible for strategy, corporate development and partnerships.  

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Angelica Charry

Learning Architect, QA

Angelica is a highly motivated individual, who has worked in the field of Computer Science for over a decade. Beginning my journey as a Software developer and now, as a Learning architect at QA, she has the privilege to guide, empower and motivate those who are seeking a career in technology. 

Angelica’s passion is to help the tech industry to embrace inclusivity and strong values to create, support and transform systems for the benefit of our society.

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Lord Tim Clement-Jones CBE

House of Lords

Lord Clement-Jones was made CBE for political services in 1988 and life peer in 1998.  He is the Liberal Democrat House of Lords spokesperson for Science, Innovation and Technology.  He is a member of the AI in Weapons Systems Select Committee and a member of the Industry and Regulators Committee.  He is former Chair of the House of Lords Select Committee on AI (2017-18) and Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on AI.  He is a founding member of the OECD Parliamentary Group on AI and former consultant of the Council of Europe’s Ad-hoc Committee on AI.  He is a former member of the House of Lords Select Committees on Communications (2011-15); the Built Environment (2015-16); Risk Assessment and Planning (2020-21); and the Joint Committee on the Draft Online Safety Bill (2021-22).  He is a Consultant on AI Policy and Regulation to global law firm DLA Piper where previous positions held includes London Managing Partner.  He is Chair of Trust Alliance Group (formerly Ombudsman Services), the not-for-profit, independent ombudsman providing dispute resolution for communications, energy, property and copyright industries.  He is Chair of Council of Queen Mary University London.  He is President of Ambitious about Autism.  Full details at: https://www.lordclementjones.org/

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Shaun Collings

Regional Sales Director UK Public Sector, Pure Storage

Shaun has 21 years of experience in the business and ICT service industry, 15 years of which working across the UK Public Sector.

Before joining Pure to lead the UK Public Sector business, he led business development and sales for transformational outsourcing at CMG, Logica (now CGI), HP Enterprise Services and lastly DXC Technology.

As a leader, Shaun has a strong commitment to collaborating in order to achieve the best outcomes and success for his clients, partners and teams. He believes that Pure’s unique business value proposition and technology accelerate and enable improved data analytics, storage management and Artificial Intelligence. These all key areas of business that support the achievement of business outcomes, greater operational effectiveness and efficiency.

Shaun is 53 years of age, married with three children and lives in Kent.

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Sue Daley OBE

Director, Technology and Innovation, techUK

Sue leads techUK's Technology and Innovation work at techUK.

This includes work programmes on cloud, data protection, data analytics, AI, digital ethics, Digital Identity and Internet of Things as well as emerging and transformative technologies and innovation policy. She has been recognised as one of the most influential people in UK tech by Computer Weekly's UKtech50 Longlist and in 2021 was inducted into the Computer Weekly Most Influential Women in UK Tech Hall of Fame. A key influencer in driving forward the data agenda in the UK Sue is co-chair of the UK government's National Data Strategy Forum. As well as being recognised in the UK's Big Data 100 and the Global Top 100 Data Visionaries for 2020 Sue has also been shortlisted for the Milton Keynes Women Leaders Awards and was a judge for the Loebner Prize in AI. In addition to being a regular industry speaker on issues including AI ethics, data protection and cyber security, Sue was recently a judge for the UK Tech 50 and is a regular judge of the annual UK Cloud Awards.

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Julian David OBE

CEO, techUK

Julian David is the CEO of techUK, the Digital Technology Trade Association. 

Julian leads techUK's 60 strong team in representing over 800 member companies, comprising global and national champions and more than 500 SMEs. He is a member of the UK Government and Industry Cyber Growth Partnership, the Digital Economy Council and the Department of International Trade’s Strategic Trade Advisory Group. He is also the Vice President for National Trade Associations, on the Executive Board of DIGITALEUROPE, Vice President representing Europe on the board of WITSA the Worldwide IT Association, and a member of the board of the Health innovation Network, the South London Academic Health Science Network. 

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Richard Earley

Public Policy Manager, Facebook

No bio provided

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Benedict Evans

Independent Analyst,

Benedict has spent the past 20 years analysing mobile, media and technology and worked in equity, research, strategy, consulting and venture capital. Today, he is an independent analyst writing essays about some of the most challenging questions which society is trying to understand, including on online speech and publishing.

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William Fairbairn

Junior Engagement Manager, McKinsey & Company

William Fairbairn is a leader in McKinsey’s ‘Future of Work’ thought leadership, serving clients on the topic and contributing to its research agenda. He published ‘The economic case for reskilling in the UK: How employers can thrive by boosting workers’ skills’, exploring how organisations can train workforces to adapt to shifting skill requirements, accelerated by COVID-19; and he recently assessed the needs from adult education over the next 10 years for a country. Beyond looking at the implications of technological change on society, he also advises clients on how they can take advantage of technological trends, such as how to launch new businesses.

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Emily Foley

Head of Data Infrastructure, Security and Resilience Policy, The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

No bio provided

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Franck Fourniol

Senior Policy Adviser, Royal Society

Franck is a Senior Policy Adviser in the Data policy team at the Royal Society, the national academy of sciences in the UK. He has worked with Fellows of the Royal Society and other experts on the recently published policy report Digital technology and the planet: harnessing computing to achieve net zero, and on follow-up activities. Franck also leads the academy’s work on the role of Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) in enabling the use and sharing of data whilst protecting sensitive information. Prior to joining the Society, Franck was a postdoctoral research scientist and obtained a PhD in biophysics in 2010 having resolved molecular mechanisms using electron microscopy and image processing algorithms. He studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris (Ulm).

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Emma Fryer

Partner, ERM

Emma is a Partner in ERM’s EMEA Technology Team, specialising in data centre sustainability and resilience.  Before joining ERM she spent over a decade providing a collective voice for data centre operators in matters of policy, compliance and reputation at techUK.  During this time she led the UK policy dialogue on behalf of the sector, monitored regulatory developments, responded to consultations and produced sector-specific guidance on multiple legislative instruments ranging from data protection to air quality.   She has a comprehensive understanding of the challenges facing this growing sector from power provisioning to public perception.  In 2021 she was elected to the Board of the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact and appointed to the Infrastructure Masons Advisory Council.  She is a regular speaker at industry events and a judge on several international panels.

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Gabrielle Guillemin

Senior Legal Officer, Article 19

Gabrielle joined ARTICLE 19 in 2011. She leads the organisations’ work on digital rights policy issues, including platform regulation across all types of content, from terrorism to hate speech and disinformation, as well as on surveillance and cybercrime issues. She has led interventions or advised on cases before the European Court of Human Rights, the French Conseil d’Etat, the Supreme Court of Canada, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the UK and Kenyan courts among others. She has given evidence before the UK House of Lords Committee on social media and criminal offences. From 2013 to 2015, she was a member of the Council of Europe Expert Committee on Crossborder flow of Internet Traffic and Internet Freedoms (MSI-INT) and from 2018-2020, she was a member of the MSI-AUT Committee of experts on Human Rights Dimensions of automated data processing and different forms of artificial intelligence. She represents ARTICLE 19 in the transparency and legal frameworks working groups at the Global Internet Forum on Counter Terrorism and is a member of the advisory network to the ChristChurch Call to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content. She regularly speaks at public events and conferences on digital rights and Internet freedom issues around the world.

Prior to joining ARTICLE 19, Gabrielle worked as a registry lawyer at the European Court of Human Rights for four years. She holds an LLB – Maitrise de droit français (1^stClass) from Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne – King’s College London and an MSc Human Rights (Distinction) from the London School of Economics. She was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2006

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Georgina Henley

Programme Manager, Justice and Emergency Services, techUK

Georgie joined techUK as the Justice and Emergency Services Programme Manager in March 2020.

Georgie is dedicated to representing suppliers by creating a voice for those who are selling into blue lights and the justice system, but also by helping them in navigating this market. Georgie is committed to creating a platform for collaboration, from engaging with industry and stakeholders to understand the latest innovations, to the role tech can play in responding to a range of issues our justice and emergency services are facing 

Prior to joining techUK, Georgie managed a Business Crime Reduction Partnership (BCRP) in Westminster. She worked closely with the Metropolitan Police and London borough councils to prevent and reduce the impact of crime on the business community. Her work ranged from the impact of low-level street crime and anti-social behaviour on the borough, to critical incidents and violent crime.

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David Hogan

Vice President EMEA, NVIDIA

David leads NVIDIA’s Enterprise EMEA sales organisation, which supports major customers adopting artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC). The team covers many market verticals including, financial services, energy and healthcare. David also supports governments in Europe as they develop and implement their AI strategies. 

Prior to his role at NVIDIA, David has over 20 years of technology industry experience and held international leadership positions with organisations such as NetApp, Virgin Media and BT. He has also worked in fields such as research and development, product management and technology transformation serving the US, EMEA, Latin America and Asia markets.

David is passionate about how AI can benefit society, from improving road safety to diagnostic support in healthcare, and serves as an Advisor to the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Socially Intelligent Artificial Agents. 

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Charlotte Holloway

Government Relations Director, UK and Ireland, Zoom

Charlotte is Government Relations Director for Zoom Video Communications, covering the UK and Ireland. She is a former political adviser and has previously worked at the RSA, TechUK and The Work Foundation. She has served on the Smart London Board for the Mayor of London and completed a policy fellowship at the Centre of Science and Policy at the University of Cambridge.

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Lyric Jain

Founder and CEO, Logically

Lyric is an entrepreneur and engineer who founded Logically in 2017, after observing the breakdown in public discourse during the 2016 US presidential election, and the Brexit referendum in the UK. He first began identifying opportunities for early interventions in tackling misinformation during his time at MIT, and is motivated by the impact Logically can deliver through human-machine collaborations to mitigate risks posed by information disorder.

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Phil James

Director, Newcastle Urban Observatory

Phil James is a Professor of Urban Data at Newcastle University, director of the Newcastle Urban Observatory, the UK’s largest urban environmental monitoring programme and leads the UK National UK Urban Observatory Programme. This programme, spanning six UK cities, looks to develop a common approach to experimental design in cities, sensor deployment strategies, business models for high density IoT monitoring and the integration of new data paradigms into the decision-making process in cities.  His research is at the intersection of Engineering and Computer Science with a focus on IoT (the Internet of Things) and environmental monitoring. He leads a research portfolio that looks at the intersection of data with the built environment and natural systems covering experimental design in cities, integrated urban flooding, innovations in IOT monitoring, indoor and outdoor air quality and the design of city data platforms. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Having studied for a degree in Japanese he is uniquely unqualified to talk about any of this stuff.

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Klara Jordan

Director, Government Affairs and Public Policy, Blackberry

Prior to joining BlackBerry as the Director for Government Affairs and Public Policy for the UK Ms. Jordan was the Executive Director for the EU and Africa at the Global Cyber Alliance, an international, cross-sector effort dedicated to eradicating cyber risk and improving our connected world. Previously, she served as the director of the Cyber Statecraft Initiative at the Atlantic Council think tank, leading the work at the nexus of geopolitics and cybersecurity to craft strategies to help shape the conduct of statecraft and to better inform and secure users of technology. She also worked in policy and privacy division of FireEye, a global cybersecurity company, focusing on providing insight to FireEye on opportunities and risks that stem from emerging policy, laws, and regulation. Her background also includes work on international law issues at the American Society of International Law and at NATO’s Allied Command Transformation.

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George Kamiya

Digital/Energy Analyst, International Energy Agency

George coordinates the IEA’s work on digitalisation and tracking clean energy progress, and leads the agency’s analysis on ICT energy use and new mobility. He was a lead author of the 2017 Digitalization & Energy report and has contributed to the agency’s work on climate change, electricity security, and critical minerals.

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Nicholas Kelly

Chairman and Co-founder, Axela

I am the chairman and co-founder of Axela Ltd, a company centred around providing compassionate care services, which I started with my mother, Jacquie Kelly, in 2006. We started our first care business after seeing the difference dedicated and experienced care can make to the wellbeing of individuals. Axela is organised across three solution hubs: Axela Care, Respect Care, and Axela Innovations operating in the UK and across the world.

I have extensive experience leading complex, innovative projects for some of the world’s biggest technology companies.

Passionate about changing the way people view healthcare by supporting the care lifecycle, making care assessable to everyone, and using technology to better support staff to deliver better care. I believe this can only be done by connecting all the dots on someone’s care and this can only be done by fully understanding the data landscape. I believe need to balance patient privacy and our duty to increase confidence in utalising health data to create better care outcomes. This is compounded by our need to connect all health data in one place to enable earlier intervention and prevention, predictive care, lower medication errors and for data to move with the individual so we can treat in real time. Integrated care is crucial to achieving a more efficient system of healthcare - something that has been talked about for years and NOW is the time to do something about it.

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Anna King

Commercial Director, Health Innovation Network

Anna is the Commercial Director of the Health Innovation Network, the South London Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) and founder partner of DigitalHealth.London.

Anna has been instrumental in establishing the Health Innovation Network at the forefront of the spread and adoption of innovation in the NHS. She has led on the development of relationships between the Network and industry and the development of evidence – based interventions to improve the health and care for Londoners. She is responsible for the design, development and delivery of the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator Programme.

Prior to joining the Health Innovation Network, Anna held a number of senior regional commercial and improvement roles in the NHS.

Anna qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers, and spent 13 years working there, primarily providing corporate finance advice to a wide range of health and social care clients, including GSK, Roche and Aventis.

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Ingrid Koehler

Service Innovation Lead, LGiU

Ingrid’s interests are in governance and civic engagement and how these are reflected in local public services, the role of local governments in sustaining healthy democracies and the better collection and use of information in social care. Publications include Paying for it: The Human Cost of Cut Price Care,  Key to Care: Report of the Burstow Commission on the future of the home care workforce,  Care and Continuity: Contingency Planning for Provider Failure, and Achieving Outcomes Based Commissioning in Home Care.

Recent projects include a children’s services podcast, developing CoCare – tech for home care outcomes and supporting open data and transparency in local elections.

Before joining LGIU, she worked for the LGA/IDeA, the Audit Commission, the Local Government Ombudsman, the London Borough of Brent and FutureGov. She has a BSc in Geology and an MA in Economics and Public Finance from the University of Tennessee

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Paddy La Torre

Head of Strategic Partnerships, Humanising Autonomy

Paddy La Torre (Head of Strategic Partnerships) brings over 5 years of experience in the automotive industry to Humanising Autonomy, having previously worked at Bosch in Europe and North America. In her former roles she coordinated business development, funding acquisition, public private partnerships, and policy across the global mobility industry. She holds a Bachelor of the Arts from James Madison College at Michigan State University and a Master of the Arts from the University of Bath. In her current role, Paddy works to engage international partners and customers in achieving Humanising Autonomy’s mission to become the global standard for human interaction with automated systems.

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Adam Lent

Chief Executive , New Local

No bio provided

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Charlotte Lewis

Principal Associate, Commercial Health, Mills & Reeve

Charlotte is a specialist in commercial health with a passion for innovation. She loves to work with clients who are looking to break into new areas or do things differently.  

Charlotte advises the health and care sector on a wide range of commercial and corporate matters including corporate/contractual structures, new care models, and transformation programmes, as well as general commercial enquiries. She has a particular interest in healthtech and works with technology and digital companies operating within the sector. 

Charlotte has worked on pioneering transformation projects across the sector including the transfer of specialist clinical services between NHS Trusts in order to re-align services for the benefit of the entire population, resulting in a significant and positive impact on health outcomes. 

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Kurtis Lindqvist

CEO, LINX

Kurt Erik “Kurtis” Lindqvist has a broad background in engineering and business development of ISP and worldwide carrier networks. He has spent over 20 years working actively in the Internet community in several varied roles. He joined LINX as Chief Marketing Officer in 2015 and has now stepped up to the CEO position in September 2019.

From 2002 to 2015 he was the CEO of Netnod. Kurt Erik has been the chairman of Euro-IX since 2003. He is also a dedicated WG Chair for RIPE where he has serve d as NCC-Services WG Chair since 2004. He is a regular and appreciated speaker at several International Internet conferences such as RIPE, APRICOT and Nanog.

Previously Kurt Erik has chaired the Multi6, shim6 and v6ops WGs in the IETF. He is also the co-author of two RFCs. Kurt Erik has served as a member of the Internet Architecture Board between 2005-2009.

Over the years Kurt Erik has participated actively in the development, standardisation and deployment of IPv6 in the IETF and various other operational forums. In addition Kurt Erik served as an adviser to the Swedish Minister of Information Technology and Energy cooperating with Anna-Karin Hatt and the Swedish Minister of foreign affairs, Carl Bildt.

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Mr Jonathan Lloyd

Assistant Director - Strategy & Design – Corporate Development, London Borough of Waltham Forest

No bio provided

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Alison Mckenzie-Folan

Chief Executive Officer, Wigan Council

No bio provided

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Helen Milner OBE

Chief Executive Officer, The Good Things Foundation

Helen has over 30 years’ experience of working in and leading organisations creating and delivering education over and about the internet. She is the Group Chief Executive for Good Things Group in the UK and Australia. Helen was awarded an OBE for services to digital inclusion in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours List. In 2017 she won the title of Digital Leader of the Year (UK) and was named by Computer Weekly as the 14th most influential person in UK IT in 2020. Working with British Parliament, Helen was a member of the Speaker's Commission for Digital Democracy and an Advisor on Digital Engagement to the Public Accounts Committee. She is a Board Member of FutureDotNow, a member of the Minister’s Digital Skills Partnership Board, and Helen is on the Adult Advisory Group for MaPS (the UK’s Money and Pension Service). 

 

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Elizabeth O’Driscoll

Head of Innovation, Civica

Dr Liz O’Driscoll is a Chartered Engineer with almost 20 years experience working in systems engineering, open innovation, and change management for the public, private sector and third sector.

Currently Head of Innovation for Civica, Liz is leading the NorthStar labs initiative to create new partnerships and products that will deliver improved outcomes for public services and citizens

Prior to joining Civica she curated the Net Zero Exeter 2030 plan for Exeter City Council; an example of a whole city collective response to the challenge of climate change and the desire to create a better place to live. This roadmap is being used to restart the Exeter economy post-covid-19 and is providing a best-practice model for many other Cities.

 

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Marianne O’Sullivan

Policy Adviser, North East England Chamber of Commerce

No bio provided

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Lord Bethell of Romford

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Innovation, Department of Health and Social Care

Lord Bethell was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Innovation at the Department of Health and Social Care on 9 March 2020. He was previously a Government Whip (Lord in Waiting) from July 2019 to March 2020.

His leading policy areas include, medicines and testing, treatments and vaccines and global health security.

Before becoming a peer, he worked as a journalist, managed the Ministry of Sound nightclub, then founded Westbourne Communications.

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Kulveer Ranger

SVP Head of Strategy, Marketing, Comms & Public Affairs - N Europe, APAC & India, Atos

Kulveer Ranger is Senior Vice-President, Strategy and Communications for Atos UK&I. He is responsible for alignment between the UK&I business strategy and corporate communications, and sits on the UK Executive Leadership Team. He is a Digital Leader and sits on the SmarterUK, Cities and Communities Board. His previous positions included leading the Mayor of London’s Transport, Environment, and Digital Strategy Policy divisions between 2008-12.

He was also a member of the London 2012 Olympic Transport Board, the C40 International Steering Committee, and the Bristol 2015 Green Capital Board. He was also chairman of the Digital City Exchange Advisory Board at Imperial College Business School from 2012-17.

He has extensive knowledge of developing and delivering major infrastructure and technology led programmes. Kulveer is an international public speaker and is also a regular broadcaster for TV and radio.

He is co-founder of the Modern Britain Policy Group, a fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and is a passionate supporter of Tottenham Hotspur football club.

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Allie Renison

Head of EU & Trade Policy, Institute of Directors

Allie Renison is Head of EU and Trade Policy, and leads on devising recommendations and representing the voice of members on EU policy matters both to Westminster and Whitehall and with European institutions. She provides the link between business and Government on increasing international trade and has authored a number of reports on trends in both trade and trade policy, as well as running a number of trade missions for IoD members around the world every year. She also routinely provides advocacy for the IoD on a range of regulatory issues in Brussels.

Allie joined the IoD in April 2014. Prior to this, she was Research Director at Business for Britain, the campaign focused on renegotiating the UK's relationship with the EU. Allie has previously advised a number of parliamentarians in both Houses on EU legislative issues, with particular focus on trade and employment policy areas. She holds a Masters Degree in the political economy of emerging economies in the post-Soviet space. 

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Ashley Richardson

Workplace Chief Technologist UK&I, Computacenter

As Chief Technologist for Workplace I am a member of the extended leadership team in the UK and am driven to ensure Computacenter's continued growth and relevance in the market by offering compelling propositions and services to the market.

Much of my role is spent listening and discussing real world challenges, analysing the market, understanding the business aims and desires of our customers to help shape and direct the propositions, services and solutions we create.

I am specifically responsible for the development and maintenance of our strategy and proposition stack within the end user and collaboration portfolio. I lead a team of Solution Leaders and collectively we are helping to drive our reputation in the market and assist our customers in very complex Digital Workplace programmes.

I am a recognised thought leader for Computacenter spending time with vendors, customers and analysts in evangelising Computacenter's capabilities, our approaches and perspectives on the topic of the modern workplace.

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Neil Ross

Associate Director, Policy, techUK

As Associate Director for Policy Neil leads on techUK's public policy work in the UK. In this role he regularly engages with UK and Devolved Government Ministers, senior civil servants and members of the UK’s Parliaments aiming to make the UK the best place to start, scale and develop a tech business.

Neil joined techUK in 2019 to lead on techUK’s input into the UK-EU Brexit trade deal negotiations and economic policy. Alongside his role leading techUK's public policy work Neil also acts as a spokesperson for techUK often appearing in the media and providing evidence to a range of Parliamentary committees.

In 2023 Neil was listed by the Politico newspaper as one of the '20 people who matter in UK tech' and has regularly been cited as a key industry figure shaping UK tech policy.

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Emeran Saigol

Operational Director of Digital, Customer Experience and Community Safety, London Borough of Redbridge

Emeran Saigol is a qualified Secondary School Science teacher who moved into local government over 15 years ago.  He has worked across a range of services across local government including Customer Services, Community Safety, Environment Services and for the past four years  Strategy. Emeran Joined the London Borough of Redbridge from Camden Council in 2014. He has worked across a range of roles including leading the councils Change agenda which involved shaping and developing council Strategy, the oversight and leadership of Projects and Programmes, Customer Services, Digital, Business Development and Organisational Development.   He has also developed the councils successful Business Intelligence unit for the council. He is currently operating in the role of Operational Director of Digital and CX.  

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Kavneet Sandhu

Head of Talent Acquisition, QA

Kavneet is responsible for finding talent for QA’s technical apprenticeship and graduate bootcamp programmes. She is a passionate advocate for workplace diversity and makes it her mission to ensure better representation of women and underrepresented groups, in STEM. She has actively forged partnerships with forward-thinking groups like Stemettes and Code First Girls whilst leading the implementation of innovative recruitment practices with the aim in being truly inclusive.

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Laura Sandys CBE

Senior Independent Director, SGN Network & Energy Systems Catapult

She is a Senior Independent Director at SGN Network and the Energy Systems Catapult.  She is Chair of the Northern Ireland Expert Panel on Energy Transition and was Chair of the BEIS/Ofgem Energy System Data Taskforce.  She was a member of the Advisory Panel for the Government’s Cost of Energy Review, and is on the Council for Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage.

She is founder of the Food Foundation and co-founder of POWERful Women and former Deputy Chair of the Food Standards Agency.

She was previously a Member of Parliament for South Thanet, and described by The Times as ‘one of the sanest of all MPs’ and as ‘lateral-minded, original and free-thinking’.

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Murray Simpson

Global Lead, Sustainability, Climate & Transition, Executive Partner, Cognitive Process Transformation, IBM

No bio provided

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Matthew Stephenson

Policy and Community Lead for International Trade and Investment, World Economic Forum

Matthew Stephenson is Policy and Community Lead for International Trade and Investment at the World Economic Forum, where he manages the Global Investment Policy and Practice initiative, including projects in five countries. He developed the concept of Digital FDI. Previously he worked at the International Finance Corporation on advisory services for investment policy, where he led the workstream on outward FDI (OFDI), and co-authored the World Bank Group’s first publication on OFDI. He has also worked at the OECD on Africa and on investment and was a diplomat with the U.S. Department of State, where he led the economic team on Afghanistan and managed economic programs in the Middle East. He is a member of the T20 Task Force on Trade, Investment & Growth and T20 Task Force on Digital Transformation, providing policy proposals to the G20. He is also co-chair of the Investment Facilitation Commentary Group, which advises the WTO, represents the World Economic Forum at APEC’s Investment Expert Group, and part of the U.S. Speaker Program through which the U.S. Department of State sends experts to speak around the world. Matthew has a PhD from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, a masters from the Harvard Kennedy School, and a bachelors from the University of Oxford. 

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Matthew Stickland

Director of Strategy and Communications, TPP

Matthew's joined TPP in 2015 after completing his Master of Research degree in Algerian History at the University of Leeds. He has extensive experience in software analysis and deployment in the UK and overseas, in particular in China and the Middle East. Amongst other languages, he speaks fluent Arabic, French, and Italian.

Matthew has a keen interest in global healthcare policy, especially the opportunities presented by new technology, such as mobile devices and Artificial Intelligence. He has spoken about healthcare strategy on numerous platforms, including recent talks at the Kings Fund and at the National Public Health conference in Qatar. Another area of focus is on the effective use of Personal Health Records to help redefine healthcare delivery. Matthew also holds a position as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Bradford Institute of Health Research (BIHR) and works closely with the team delivering the Born-in-Bradford project.

Alongside his roles in strategy and analysis, Matthew is also responsible for all external communications, for building the company’s public image, and for helping to seek out new opportunities for global development.

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Dr Jack Stilgoe

Associate Professor, Science and Technology Studies, University College London

No bio provided

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Ed Vaizey

Former Minister for Culture and Communications and Member of the House of Lords,

Ed Vaizey was appointed to the UK House of Lords in September 2020, where he sits as a Conservative Peer and is a member of the Communications and Digital Committee.

Ed was the Member of Parliament for Wantage between 2005 and 2019.  He served as the UK Government Culture and Digital Minister from 2010-16, and is the longest-serving Minister in that role.  He was appointed a privy councillor in 2016.

In his role as digital minister, Ed was responsible for the roll out of the successful rural broadband programme to more than 4 million homes, the introduction of 4G, and tax credits for film, television, animation and video games, which have helped make the creative industries the fastest growing part of the UK economy.

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Antony Walker

Deputy CEO, techUK

Antony Walker is deputy CEO of techUK,  which he played a lead role in launching in November 2013.

Antony is a member of the senior leadership team and has overall responsibility for techUK’s policy work. Prior to his appointment in July 2012 Antony was chief executive of the Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG), the UK’s independent advisory group on broadband policy. Antony was closely involved in the development of broadband policy development in the UK since the BSG was established in 2001 and authored several major reports to government. He also led the development of the UK’s world leading Open Internet Code of Practice that addresses the issue of net neutrality in the UK. Prior to setting up the BSG, Antony spent six years working in Brussels for the American Chamber of Commerce following and writing about telecoms issues and as a consultant working on EU social affairs and environmental issues. Antony is a graduate of Aberdeen University and KU Leuven and is also a Policy Fellow Alumni of the Centre for Science and Policy at Cambridge University.

: @techUKdepceo

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Mark Woods

Chief Technology Advisor for EMEA , Splunk

No bio provided

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Mattie Yeta

Chief Sustainability Officer, CGI

No bio provided

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Chris Yiu

Executive Director, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change

Chris’ work focuses on improving the dialogue between those changing the world with new technologies, and those seeking to respond to it with policy and regulation. Chris was previously a general manager at Uber and has held senior roles at several public, private and third-sector organisations. 

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