How can the next Government use technology to build a better Britain? Tech Policy Leadership Conference 2024

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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Chloe MacEwen

Senior Director, UK Government Affairs, Microsoft UK

Chloe MacEwen is Senior Director, UK Government Affairs at Microsoft. Prior to joining Microsoft, Chloe was Head of Competition Policy EU at Amazon, VP EMEA for Western Union and Senior Vice-President, Global Public and Regulatory Affairs, at Argus Media, based in London. She has campaigned for legislative change on company critical issues with policy makers, legislators and regulators around the world. Prior to this Chloe worked as Head of International Policy and Competition at Lloyds Banking Group overseeing the bank’s engagement strategy with policy makers on a broad range of financial services and competition issues. Chloe qualified as a solicitor at Simmons & Simmons and then worked as a competition lawyer at Herbert Smith before spending ten years working as a regulator at the Competition Commission, Office of Fair Trading and DG Competition, European Commission. Chloe was educated at King’s College London where she gained a LLB and LLM.

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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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Kirsty Innes

Director of Technology, Labour Together

Kirsty spent the first part of her career in the Civil Service, working on a range of economic and foreign policy issues in the Treasury, Foreign Office and Cabinet Office. In 2019 she joined the Tony Blair Institute where her work focused on applying technology to deliver radically better public services. In October Kirsty is joining Labour Together as Director of Technology Policy to help develop an ambitious tech policy agenda for the next Labour Government.

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Dr Saira Ghafur

Lead for Digital Health, Institute of Global Health Innovation Imperial College London

Saira is the Digital Health Lead at the Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London and an honorary consultant in respiratory medicine at St Mary’s Hospital. At Imperial College, Saira has spearheaded the College’s outputs on healthcare cybersecurity.  Saira also leads work on evidence generation for digital health, the value of healthcare data and policy work on AI and machine learning for health. 

Saira is also the co-founder of two start-ups: Prova Health (digital trials in health) and Psyma (mental health). Saira holds a MSc in Health Policy from Imperial College and was a Harkness Fellow in Health Policy and Practice in New York (2017).

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Rt Hon Michelle Donelan MP

Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

Michelle Donelan is the UK’s first ever Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology. In the first year of the Department Michelle and her team led a huge volume of work from completing the passage of the Online Safety Bill, to publication of a UK Semiconductor Strategy to organising a global first AI Safety Summit. The summit brought together the UK, US, EU, China and other countries to agree a framework for ensuring the most powerful AI technologies are safe and trusted. 

In 2024 Michelle Donelan has set out her priorities as supporting Scale-ups, improving skills and ensuring UK regulation supports innovation. 

Before going into politics Michelle worked in the media and entertainment industry, starting her career in Australia for Pacific Magazines, and then going on to work for The History Channel. She later worked for WWE as an International Marketing Communications Manager before being elected as the MP for Chippenham. 

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Dr Nicola Hodson

techUK Deputy President, Chief Executive in the UK and Ireland, IBM

Nicola Hodson is a seasoned senior executive with expertise in delivering results and driving the strategic, commercial, and digital transformation of large, international complex technology and engineering companies. Her focus is on purpose-led, profitable growth, sustainability, and shareholder value.

Nicola is the Chief Executive of IBM in the UK and Ireland, responsible for business operations, driving revenue growth, client satisfaction and employee engagement in the UK and Ireland. Previously, Nicola was the Vice President of Change Management and Transformation for the Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions (MCAPS) organization, directing innovative transformation and change management to empower Microsoft customers, partners, and employees. She was central in building new strategies and go-to-market methodologies as well as providing oversight to the change management landing and adoption of these priorities, and transformational initiatives. She played a key leadership role within the MCAPS organization and held several senior roles in Microsoft including UK COO.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Nicola held positions at Siemens, CSC, and Ernst & Young Management Consulting selling and delivering multiple transformation projects in the energy and utilities sector.

Nicola lends her extensive technology, digital transformation, sales, IT and ESG experience by participating on boards, both in the private and public sectors. She is currently Deputy President of techUK and a non-executive director at Drax Group Plc and at Beazley Plc.

She holds an MBA with a focus on management and operations, a PhD in Materials Engineering, and a BSc in Chemistry and Materials Science.

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Ben Aung

Chief Risk Officer, Sage

Ben is the Chief Risk Officer at Sage Group plc, where he is accountable for the security of Sage’s technology estate and software products and cloud services used by millions of Sage customers globally. Ben also leads Sage’s enterprise risk, internal controls, business continuity and data and AI governance functions.

Ben joined Sage as Global CISO in 2018, after almost 20 years in the UK Government in a variety of technology and national security roles. Ben left public service as director of the Cabinet Office Government Security Group and Deputy Chief Security Officer for government.

Ben is a member of the UK Cyber Security Council’s Strategic Advisory Panel.

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Saqib Bhatti

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

Saqib Bhatti was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on 13 November 2023.

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Dom Hallas

Executive Director, Startup Coalition

Dom Hallas is the Executive Director of the Startup Coalition (formerly Coadec), an independent advocacy group that serves as the policy voice for technology-led startups and scale ups in the UK.Named in 2023 by Politico as one of the ’20 People who matter in UK tech’, he sits on the UK Government’s Digital Economy Council & Tech & Telecoms Trade Advisory Group. He is also a board member of the global tech startup association Allied for Startups.The Startup Coalition builds proactive coalitions of businesses and investors on issues that are integral to the health of the UK’s startup ecosystem. Recent successes have ranged from the design and establishment of the Future Fund to the creation of new technology-focused visas, the raising of the SEIS limits, and the bailout of SVB UK.

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Katie Prescott

Technology Business Editor, The Times

Katie Prescott is technology business editor at The Times and a weekly columnist for the newspaper’s award-winning business section. Katie brings readers the key stories across the fast-changing landscape of tech, media and telecoms. A regular on Times Radio, she is a familiar voice to millions of listeners after a decade reporting for the BBC and presenting the business news on Radio 4’s Today Programme. At the BBC, Katie worked across all the corporation’s major news outlets on TV and radio, explaining and analysing the tumultuous changes wrought by Covid-19, the European debt crisis and new technology, in addition to the challenges of sustainability and climate change.

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Wendy Morgan

Founder and CEO, Jumar

Wendy Morgan, Founder and CEO of Jumar since its inception in 1999, has spearheaded the company's remarkable 24-year journey. Jumar works with its financial, insurance and public sector clients to provide a holistic range of IT services including digital transformation, application development, resource augmentation and executive search.

Wendy's strategic vision expanded beyond organisational growth as she actively engaged with local stakeholders, developing valuable collaborations. In 2023, Jumar secured a pivotal investment from Aliter Capital, reinforcing its position as a key player in the UK's technology resourcing and solutions landscape.

Wendy is also a Co-Founder and Director of CyberNest Labs, a world class AI and cybersecurity training provider, a Non-Executive Director for Partnerships at Genesis Sun, a not-for-profit social enterprise providing original and innovative entertaining educational programme events for young black people, and Chair of the Association of Professional Staffing Companies West Midlands Forum.  

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Dorka Takácsy

Research Fellow, Centre for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Democracy

Dorka Takácsy is a research fellow at the Centre for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Democracy, focusing on disinformation, and currently a visiting fellow with the Engaging Central Europe program of The German Marshall Fund of the United States. She pursues her PhD studies at the Corvinus University of Budapest, researching Russian domestic disinformation about the West. Dorka holds an MA in international relations from Central European University and a BA in international business from the Budapest Business School and the University of Picardy Jules Verne. She also studied at the ICHEC Brussels Management School, at the Pushkin State Language Institute in Moscow, and George Mason University in the United States as well. She gained professional experience at, among others, the European Parliament, the Political Capital Institute in Budapest, and the National Defense University in Washington. She is fluent in Russian, English, German, French, Italian and Croatian besides her mother tongue Hungarian.

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Henry Ajder

Founder, Latent Space

Henry Ajder is a globally recognised advisor, speaker, and broadcaster working at the frontier of the generative AI and synthetic media revolution.

Henry’s work has transformed society’s understanding of deepfakes and generative AI. He has led pioneering research at organisations including MIT, WITNESS, and Sensity AI, influencing international legislation and corporate AI strategy.

He advises organisations on the opportunities and challenges these game-changing technologies present, including Adobe, Meta, The European Commission, BBC, The Partnership on AI, and The House of Lords.

Previously, Henry led Synthetic Futures, the first initiative dedicated to ethical generative AI and metaverse technologies, bringing together over 50 industry-leading organisations.

Henry presented the BBC documentary series, The Future will be Synthesised, and regularly features in global media including The New York Times, MIT Tech Review, CNN, Reuters, and The Financial Times. He has been published by outlets including WIRED, The Next Web, NYU, and The World AI Summit. 

An established keynote speaker and guest expert, Henry has spoken at venues including SXSW, CogX, The University of Oxford, and Adweek. He has been named in the top 20 European power players in Generative AI by the publication Sifted, and a top 15 Generative AI Expert by Champions Speaking Agency.

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Rachel Wolf

Founding Partner, Public First

Rachel Wolf is a Founding Partner at Public First, leading the agency’s policy work. Rachel co-authored the Conservative Party’s Election Manifesto in 2019. Previously education and innovation adviser to the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street, she was also Senior Vice President for technology company Amplify in New York City, running one of their main product divisions. She founded and ran the New Schools Network – the charity that helped develop and implement the Government’s free schools programme. Rachel has written for national think tanks and most major broadsheets and she has appeared on all the major broadcast shows. Rachel began her career as an education and political adviser to the Conservative Party and was a policy adviser to Boris Johnson on his first mayoral campaign and in his earlier role as Shadow Higher Education Minister.

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Henry Parker

Global Head of Government Affairs, Logically.ai

Henry runs Global Government Affairs for Logically, a UK tech scale-up that  combines advanced AI with one of the world’s largest commercial fact-checking and Open Source Intelligence teams. The company works with governments, businesses, and social media platforms to identify harmful mis and disinformation online. Prior to Logically, Henry managed public affairs functions at BT & Twilio, was UK Public Affairs Lead for The General Medical Council, managed Public Policy & Regulatory Affairs for The GSMA across Asia-Pacific and was Gatwick Airport’s first public affairs manager following its sale by BAA. 

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John Penrose MP

Member of Parliament, Weston-super-Mare

John Penrose was elected MP for Weston-super-Mare in 2005. He is currently Chair of Conservative Policy Forum, and has held a variety of posts since he was elected including PPS to Oliver Letwin, Shadow Business Minister, Tourism & Heritage Minister, Government Whip, Constitution Minister and Northern Ireland Minister.

John Penrose MP led the report “Power to the people: independent report on competition policy” commissioned by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in September 2020. In the report, he explores ways to improve consumer protection and promote competition, and makes a wide range of recommendations.

: http://johnpenrose.org/wp/
: @JohnPenroseNews

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Allan Nixon

Head of Science and Technology, Onward

Allan Nixon is Head of Science and Technology at Onward. He was previously Director of Strategic Collaboration at the Centre for Cognitive and Advanced Technologies. Prior to that he served in a variety of roles in the UK Government over 4 years - including to the Prime Minister, the Security Minister, and the Health Secretary throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Before joining the Government, Allan worked in the UK Parliament. He received his MA in International Relations from the International University of Japan and his Honours degree in Law from the University of Dundee.

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Nicola Smith

Head of the Rights, International, Social and Economics Department, Trade Union Congress (TUC)

Nicola leads the TUC's work on economics and employment rights, making the case for social and economic policies that benefit people at work.

Prior to her current role she was Interim Chief Executive at social enterprise Timewise and before that led external relations as an Assistant Director for the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

She has recently returned to the TUC, having previously coordinated the work of their Commission on Vulnerable Employment (CoVE) and leading equality, strategy and employment rights teams. Nicola has also been a member of the Social Security Advisory Committee, scrutinising secondary social security legislation.

Earlier in her career, Nicola held research and policy roles at the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion, Barnardo’s and the Children and Young People’s Unit (CYPU) at the old Department for Education and Skills (DfES).

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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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Olivia O’Sullivan

Director, UK in the World Programme, Chatham House

Olivia O’Sullivan is Director of the UK in the World Programme at Chatham House. Before joining Chatham House, Olivia worked for over a decade in international development and foreign policy in the UK government, across roles in the Department for International Development, Cabinet Office and cross-government teams.

She was foreign policy lead and deputy head of the Open Innovation Team, a government research unit that translates academic evidence into policy. Her experience includes managing external expert engagement for the 2021 Integrated Review, working on the UK’s funding and policy response to the Rohingya refugee crisis, and overseeing a range of international development and humanitarian funding programmes. 

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Asif Moghal

Director for Market & Industry Development, Autodesk

As Autodesk’s Director for Market & Industry Development, Asif leads a collaborative initiative focused on the digital transformation of the design and manufacturing industry. He’s worked alongside many inspiring SMEs that you might never have heard of and believes that digital transformation doesn’t have to be difficult, that people are the most important aspect of any transformation, and that design is equally as important as manufacturing. 

Asif feels that what industry needs is a clear vision of the future and a realistic strategy that’s free from hype, jargon and which also challenges the many boundaries that SME’s face.

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Kati Suominen

Founder and CEO, Nextrade Group

Kati Suominen is the Founder and CEO of Nextrade Group that helps governments, multilateral development banks, and Fortune 500 technology companies enable trade through technology. Nextrade's more than 50 clients include the World Bank, IFC, IDB, ADB, USAID, UK FCDO, UPS, Visa, Google, AWS, and eBay, among many others. Dr. Suominen has ideated and built dozens of data and analytical products and pilot initiatives as well as eight global initiatives and public-private-partnerships to enable digital trade - including, most recently, the Alliance for eTrade Development between 15 leading companies and USAID to enable SME ecommerce in developing nations. and Prosper Africa Tech for Trade Alliance with 21 companies and  U.S. government's Proper Africa initiative. She also serves as Adjunct Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Adjunct Professor at UCLA Anderson School of Management. Earlier in her career, she served as Trade Economist at the Inter-American Development Bank. Dr. Suominen is the author and editor of over 120 papers and 10 peer-reviewed books on trade, globalization and technology with leading academic presses, most recently Revolutionizing World Trade: How Disruptive Technologies Open Opportunities for All (Stanford University Press, 2019). She is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. 

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Rt Hon Sir David Lidington

Chair, Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)

David Lidington is Chair of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), the UK’s foremost Defence and Security Policy think tank, and UK Chair of the Koenigswinter Conference (UK/Germany) and the Aurora Forum (UK/Nordics and Baltics). He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Centre for European Reform and the Advisory Board to Cambridge University’s Baltic Programme,  and is Hon President of the Great Britain China Centre, a Foreign Office arms-length public body. 

David served in the House of Commons from 1992 to 2019.

As Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster he served as deputy to Prime Minister Theresa May from January 2018 to July 2019, having previously served in the May governments as Leader of the House of Commons and as Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor. At the Cabinet Office he was a member of the National Security Council and held responsibility for the National Cyber Security Centre.

David served as Minister for Europe from 2010 to 2016, the UK’s longest-serving holder of that post. He held responsibility for the UK’s relations with more than 50 countries in Europe and Central Asia and represented the UK at the EU, NATO, OSCE, Council of Europe and the UN Security Council.  

 

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Sabina Ciofu

Associate Director – International, techUK

Sabina leads techUK's international policy and engagement. Based in Brussels, she manages our EU policy priorities as well as our international trade agenda.

Sabina leads techUK’s engagement with the European Union institutions, as well as the EU Member States. Outside of the EU, her work is focused on key trade partners, such as the USA and Japan, as well as key international organisations, such as the WTO and the OECD. Previously, she worked as Policy Advisor in the European Parliament for almost a decade, where she specialised in tech regulation, international trade and EU-US relations.

Sabina is the founder of the Gentlewomen’s Club, co-organiser of the Young Professionals in Digital Policy and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community, where she has led several youth civic engagement and gender equality projects.

She holds an MA in War Studies from King’s College London and a BA in Classics from the University of Cambridge.

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Sam Sharps

Executive Director of Policy, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change

Sam draws on his deep experience in government and the private sector to lead policy across all areas of TBI, with a focus on unlocking the transformative power of technology. He has shaped major pieces of legislation, represented the UK in international settings and spent years advocating for policy improvements.  
His aim is to instil a shared vision between policymakers and technologists, helping policymakers become less intimidated by technology while encouraging technologists to be more trusting of the policy process.  
Prior to joining TBI, Sam worked for many years at Apple, and as an advisor to Google and Vodafone.

: @samsharpsTBI

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Hugh Milward

Vice President, External Affairs, Microsoft UK

Hugh Milward leads Corporate, External and Legal (CELA) for Microsoft in the UK, sitting on the UK management board. His focus includes work to help organisations overcome legal and regulatory hurdles to their technology adoption and transformation, managing some of the complex geo-political issues relating to tech, and working to ensure no one is left behind from the onward march of technology. He advocates for Microsoft on a range of issues including privacy, cybersecurity, online safety, digital skills, and sustainability among others. Hugh’s background is in politics, corporate affairs, and reputation management, working for some of the world’s highest-profile brands. Hugh is a Board Director of the New West End Company, Chairing its Public Affairs committee, and a member of the Board of Directors of BritishAmerican Business. Hugh also chairs the CBI Tech Council and sits on the Advisory Board of the Institute of Coding.

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Peter Kyle MP

Shadow Secretary of State for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology,

Peter Kyle was appointed to the role of Shadow Secretary of State for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology in September 2023. Since his appointment he has championed the importance of the the UK tech sector to achieving Labour's five missions for Government. In particular Labour's plans to grow the British economy and revolutionise public services.  

Before being appointed to the Shadow DSIT role, Peter was Shadow Secretary for Northern Ireland and sat on the influential Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee. Before he entered Parliament Peter worked as an aid worker in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, helping children and young people whose lives had been radically affected by war as well as holding the position of deputy chief executive of ACEVO, the umbrella body for the voluntary sector.
 

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