techUK Health and Care Summit 2026

Professor Jonathan Benger

Chief Executive, NICE

Jonathan joined NICE in January 2023 as Chief Medical Officer and in March 2023 became Interim Director of the Centre for Guidelines. Jonathan was subsequently appointed Deputy Chief Executive in May 2024 and Chief Executive in December 2025.

Prior to this, he was the Interim Chief Clinical Information Officer (CCIO) at NHS England (2022), the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of NHS Digital (2019 to 2022), and the National Clinical Director for Urgent and Emergency Care at NHS England (2013 to 2019).

In his clinical work, Jonathan is a consultant in emergency medicine at the Bristol Royal Infirmary and also does regular shifts with the Great Western Air Ambulance, which he established as its first medical advisor between 2007 and 2011.

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Shane Tickell

CEO, Temple Black Health Tech Consulting and Quantum Health Technologies

Shane Tickell is a health technology strategist and CEO with nearly 30 years’ experience in clinical software, data integration, and digital health leadership. He is the Founder & CEO of Temple Black, advancing health and social care through consultancy and Quantum Health Technologies, and CEO of Endeavour Predict, a not-for-profit in predictive healthcare. Shane serves as Chair of techUK’s Health & Social Care Council (2025–2026), Chair of NHS Frontline Digitisation, Capabilities Supplier Forums, and Industry Representative on the NHS Ten-Year Plan for Digital, Data & Technology. He also lectures at UCLAN and the College of Contemporary Health. An advocate for equity in health tech, Shane advises companies, government, mentors leaders, and champions innovation to improve care globally.

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Matthew Payne

Head of Policy & Marketing, Healthtech 1

No bio provided

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Dr Abigail Lyons

Senior Business Innovation Manager, Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre

Dr Abigail Lyons leads on Industry engagement. She helps companies advance the market readiness of their digital health products & services, connecting them with the right support for their stage of development. She also leads a women’s health theme, with a focus on cardiovascular health data.

Abby qualified in Immunology and Molecular Biology and her subsequent career has woven through the triple helix of industry, academia and the public sector in Scotland and the US.

She worked as a postdoc researcher at the Mayo Clinic and a product development scientist in the Cardiac Surgery division of Medtronic in Minnesota.

More recently, she was a programme manager at Scottish Enterprise where she managed complex multi-partner initiatives across a range of sectors and led collaborative teams to commercialise customer-centric technologies and spin-out investor-ready companies.

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Will Goddard

Managing Director & Health and Social Care Council Member, Big Health

Will is Managing Director at Big Health, the UK-founded digital therapeutics SME whose mission is to make psychological treatment as scalable as pharmaceuticals.
Big Health’s flagship treatment Sleepio (for insomnia) secured first-of-its-kind NICE guidance in May 2022, recommended as more clinically effective than standard of care and cost-saving for the NHS. Sleepio is nationally commissioned in Scotland where it has been accessed by over 70,000 patients, and secured FDA clearance in August 2024. 

Big Health's treatment pipeline includes Daylight (for anxiety), which is undergoing real-world health economic evaluation in NHS primary care services in Yorkshire & the Humber, and Spark (for depression), which has undergone its first RCT with strong clinical outcomes.

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Heather Cook

Managing Director, RippleScale

Heather Cook has spent the past 15 years working in digital health, developing evidence-based programmes that help people make meaningful, lasting changes to their health and wellbeing.

She has held CEO and Managing Director roles in organisations focused on improving outcomes for people living with neurodiverse conditions, mental health challenges and addiction.

Heather has worked extensively with health systems in the UK and has spent time in the United States exploring innovative recovery models, including personalised behavioural health and recovery ecosystems that support long-term change.

She is passionate about combining technology, community support and lived experience to help people build healthier, more hopeful futures.

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Gayle Curry

Commercial Partner, Mills & Reeve

Gayle Curry is a commercial partner and leader of Mills & Reeve’s Health Tech practice, working at the forefront of innovation where technology transforms health and social care. With 25+ years’ experience, she helps health‑tech and life sciences businesses accelerate growth from safeguarding and commercialising IP to securing grant and VC funding, forging strategic collaborations, and bringing cutting‑edge digital, diagnostics, genomics and prevention‑focused solutions to market.

Known for her hands‑on, collaborative style, Gayle Curry is often embedded as a fractional general counsel, shaping client strategy and navigating complex regulatory, commercial and data‑driven challenges. Her portfolio spans SMEs to global companies and NHS organisations, with recent work supporting cross‑border scale‑ups and advising on robotics, precision medicine, long‑term condition monitoring, women’s health and patient‑communication technologies.

Gayle frequently speaks at industry events and contributes to international collaboration, including supporting Indian and US health‑tech companies expanding into the UK.

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Dr Bushra Effendi

Clinical Director, Yorkshire Women's Forum

Dr Effendi is a highly experienced pharmacist with nearly two decades of practice across hospital, GP, and community pharmacy settings. As a qualified Independent Prescriber, she specialises in women's health, with a particular focus on menopause and contraception, and she sits on the Clinical Advisory Panel of The Menopause Charity. She is also an active member of the British Menopause Society and the CoSRH Courses and CPD Committee. 

She is the founder and Principal Practitioner of ELMAR Health Service, and Clinical Director of the Yorkshire Women's Forum. 

 

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Dr MaryAnn Ferreux

Chief Medical Officer, Health Innovation Kent Surrey and Sussex

MaryAnn is the Chief Medical Officer at Health Innovation Kent Surrey and Sussex, and an award-winning doctor and thought leader with over 20 years of international experience in Australia and the UK. She is an NHS Non-executive Director for Kent Community Trust and Honorary Professor at Kent Business School. Her work spans digital innovation, clinical transformation and population health.

Known as a positive disruptor, MaryAnn drives sustainable change, develops innovative models of care, and champions equity and inclusion to improve patient experience and outcomes. As an international speaker on health equity, she leads projects tackling digital exclusion, advancing women’s health, and embedding equity in health policy and innovation.

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Jonathan Cameron

Head of Digital Health and Care, Scottish Government

Jonathan is the Head of Digital Health and Care in the Scottish Government and has overall responsibility for the Digital Health and Care Strategy and major programmes of delivery.

Prior to joining the Scottish Government in November 2019, Jonathan held a number of Data and IT roles in the Public and Private Sector and has delivered several complex IT and eHealth projects and programmes. His career in eHealth in Scotland includes the delivery of the Emergency Care Summary and Key Information Summary systems.

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Matt Robinson

Head of Nations and Regions, techUK

Matt is techUK’s Head of Nations and Regions.

Matt is leading techUK’s work with members and stakeholders across the UK to increase the Local Digital Capital across the UK’s nation and regions, build communities and to ensure that digital technology plays a key part the post-COVID-19 levelling-up recovery.

Prior to joining techUK, Matt worked for several national education charities and membership bodies to develop their regional partnerships with schools, academy trusts, local authorities, and other stakeholders. He’s also worked with local authority leaders and other stakeholders to engage communities, work with elected members and improve public services.

He holds a BA in Politics from the University of York and an MA in International Relations from the University of Leeds. Away from work he’s a keen football fan and golfer.

If you’d like to find out more about our work in the nations and regions please get in touch with Matt:

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Professor Alastair Denniston

Chair, National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare, Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)

Professor Alastair Denniston is Professor of Regulatory Science and Innovation at the University of Birmingham and Honorary Consultant Ophthalmologist at University Hospitals Birmingham NHSFT. He is a leader in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Digital Health Technologies. 

Professor Denniston is an NIHR Senior Investigator, Member of the Regulatory Horizons Council to the UK Government, Non-Executive Director to the Health Research Authority, AI Strategic Advisor to Health Data Research UK, Director of the NIHR-funded Incubator of AI & Digital Healthcare and Director of the UK’s Centre of Excellence for Regulatory Science in AI & Digital HealthTech (CERSI-AI). Advisory work includes to international regulators and ministries of health, and to the WHO. He is also the Chair of the MHRA’s National Commission on the Regulation of AI in Healthcare. 

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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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Ahmed Binesmael

Senior Policy Analyst, The Health Foundation

Ahmed leads the Health Foundation’s research exploring public and staff attitudes towards AI, technology and data use in health care, with a broader interest in how existing and emerging technologies can be implemented responsibly and effectively to improve care, support patients and staff, and inform health policy and wider system transformation. Prior to joining the Health Foundation, Ahmed was a Senior Policy Adviser at the British Medical Association, where he developed costed policy proposals aimed at influencing government policy and supporting doctor-led health policy initiatives, including modelling the cost of pay restoration for doctors. His wider research and analysis have also contributed to policy work across digital infrastructure, pensions, public health, general practice, and long COVID

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Sally Warren

Director General Adult Social Care, Department of Health and Social Care

Sally Warren is the Director General for Adult Social Care since July 2025. She was the interim DG for Adult Social Care but was appointed permanently since 30 October 2025. Previously she was the Director General for 10-year health plan, leading a joint DHSC and NHS England team.

Prior to this, Sally was the Director of Policy for five years at The King’s Fund. Sally has over 20 years of experience working in health and care, with roles including Director for Social Care Policy at DHSC, Director of Programmes at Public Health England, Director of EU Exit Preparedness and Response at Defra and Deputy Chief Inspector at Care Quality Commission.

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