Future of Work & Jobs Conference: how can we harness tech to drive skills, opportunity, and growth across the UK?

Samantha Avanzo Windett

Deputy Director, Learning and Work Institute

As Deputy Director at the Learning and Work Institute, Sam focuses on impacting policy and practice through L&W’s research into learning, skills and employment. Previously, Sam was Director of Policy for Impetus, specialising in education and employment support for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sam co-founded the Youth Employment Group, bringing together leaders around the youth employment sector to help drive the UK’s response, which she co-chairs.

Previously, Sam was Head of Policy at ERSA, the representative body for the employment support sector, and led public affairs teams for employment and skills providers in the private and charity sectors.

: swindett
: @SamanthaWindett

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Charlie Ball

Head of Labour Market Intelligence, Jisc

Charlie Ball is the in-house specialist on the graduate labour market at Jisc. He researches and analyses all things to do with post-18 employment, including regional economies, skills supply and demand and postgraduate issues, usually with a careers and employability perspective.

He sits on steering and advisory groups - including the Graduate Outcomes steering group and advisory bodies for AGCAS and the Institute of Student Employers.

He is a Fellow of the National Institute of Careers Education and Counselling (NICEC) and a Visiting Fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Before working at Jisc, Charlie worked in the pharmaceutical industry as a data specialist and before that as a postdoc - with a PhD in chemistry.

: https://www.jisc.ac.uk/prospects
: charlie-ball-34109916
: @lmicharlie

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Patrick Brodie

Partner, Reynolds Porter Chamberlain LLP

Head of Reynolds Porter Chamberlain's LLP (RPC) Employment, engagement and equality practice, Patrick Brodie is often called in to help resolve complex workforce issues.

Typical instructions for Patrick involve advising on domestic and European integration, outsourcing and restructuring projects. In the UK market he acts across both the public and private sectors. Patrick has built a reputation for helping organisations design and implement inclusion and diversity strategies. 

Specialising in financial services regulation, whistleblowing and corporate governance, Patrick edits the whistleblowing chapter for Tolley's and is the updating author for Xpert HR's guide on TUPE.

On the litigation side, Patrick has worked on cases which have been taken to the Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union.

He was a winner of The Lawyer's Employment Team of the Year award. Patrick's work has also been shortlisted on two previous occasions for Commercial and, also, Employment Team of the Year Awards by Legal Week and the Lawyer.

: www.rpc.co.uk
: patrick-brodie-a37679/
: @RPCLaw

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James Corcoran

Head of Recruitment, Sanderson Government and Defence Ltd

James brings nearly two decades of experience in recruitment to the table, with a rich background that began within a FTSE250 recruitment business. Over the past seven years, he has honed his expertise in the dynamic realm of technology recruitment, with a particular focus on serving Government and Defence organisations across both private and public sectors.

In addition to his hands-on experience, James is a long serving member of the techUK Skills and Diversity Council, a role he has embraced for four years. Through this involvement, he remains deeply committed to bridging the digital skills gap, investing significant effort into initiatives aimed at fostering diversity and inclusion within the tech industry.

James is driven by a genuine passion for advancing diversity in technology and believes strongly in focusing on tangible solutions rather than merely paying lip service to lofty ideals. With a pragmatic approach and a dedication to tackling challenges head-on, he remains steadfast in his mission to effect meaningful change within the industry.

: sandersonplc.com
: james-corcoran-a272398

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Oli De Botton

CEO, Careers and Enterprise Company

Oli is the CEO of The Careers & Enterprise Company – the national body for careers education. Prior to this he was a Headteacher at a school which pioneered new ways of working with employers - including the introduction of extended work placements for all Year 10s and 12s. He also co-founded the national charity Voice 21 which works with schools to promote and develop the skill of speaking in young people. Oli was one of the first cohort of Teach First teachers in 2003 and has extensive teaching experience in a range of roles. He has also worked in education policy and strategy as a government education advisor.

He says the most important thing he learnt about inspiring young people about the world of work is “when you give young people high quality experiences, they rise to the challenge – they grow in confidence and find their voice.”

: https://www.careersandenterprise.co.uk/
: olidebotton
: @olidebotton

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Nick Drouet

Chief Technology Officer, Kyndryl

Nick Drouet is a CTO for Kyndryl United Kingdom and Ireland, a role in which he serves as the glue which binds the company’s technical groups together. Drouet was selected to be part of the inaugural class of Kyndryl Distinguished Engineers, leading innovators who are shaping the future of Kyndryl and driving change in the industry.

: nick-drouet-0804311

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Sheila Flavell CBE

Chief Operating Officer, FDM Group

Sheila has over 30 years experience in the global tech sector. She is a business leader who has a passion for enhancing diversity in the workplace and creating exciting careers for the next generation of digital talent. She played an integral role in FDM’s flotation on AIM in 2005 and was a key instigator of the management buy-out of the Group in 2010 and the subsequent listing onto the main FTSE Market in 2014. Sheila’s knowledge of the sector has been crucial in driving FDM’s global expansion programme, taking them into the FTSE250. She spearheads the ‘Global Women in Tech’ campaign and created FDM’s Returners Programme. Sheila sits on the Board of techUK. One of her proudest moments in business was when FDM achieved a zero gender pay gap.

She has won numerous awards during her career for services to the tech industry and was recognised in the 2020 New Year’s Honours list with ‘Commander Of The Order Of The British Empire’ for her services to gender equality in IT and the employment of graduates and returners. She is also listed in Computer Weekly’s ‘Most Influential Women in UK Tech, Hall of Fame.’ At the 2020 European Tech Women Awards, The Department of Trade and Industry recognised her outstanding achievements by conferring Sheila with a ‘Career Recognition’ award. Some of her other recent accolades include, Information Age ‘Women of the Year 2018,’ ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ at the 2017 Scotland Women in Tech Awards, ‘Tech Champion’ at the 2018 TechWomen100 Awards, as well as being regularly named one of the 25 Most Influential Women of the North American Mid-Market by CEO Connection. She has also been named ‘Entrepreneur of the year’, ‘Leader of the Year,’ included in the 100 Women Role Models in Tech by Business Cloud and selected as one of Brummell Magazine’s Top 30 Most Inspirational Female Entrepreneurs in the City.

Sheila is fully invested in progressing broader diversity matters beyond gender and is inspirational in showing the way and proving what’s possible – especially (but not exclusively) for women.

When she is not working she can be found flying an R44 helicopter over the Sussex Downs.

: @@SheilaFlavell1

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Rebecca Garrod-Waters

CEO, Ufi VocTech Trust

Rebecca is the Chief Executive of Ufi VocTech Trust, a UK charity supporting the deployment and adoption of technology to help adults gain the skills they need for work. To date, Rebecca has led Ufi in delivering more than £30m in grant funding and direct investment, working towards Ufi’s vision of a world where vocational skills are celebrated and valued by all, and where development of those skills is made possible by the best technology solutions.

Rebecca joined Ufi in 2014 and has a background in technology and innovation policy and economic development that spans the public, private and third sector.

: rebecca-garrod-waters-3687043
: @RebeccaGW

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Dr Asieh Hosseini Tabaghdehi

Senior Lecturer in Strategy & Business Economy, Brunel University

Dr Asieh Tabaghdehi joined Brunel Business School in January 2020. Prior to joining Brunel Business School, she was a senior lecture at Regents University London. Dr Tabaghdehi specialises in digital economy and innovation strategy with a strong interest in ethical digital ecosystem. 

She is an Advisory Board Member and Impact Lead at Brunel AI: Social and Digital Innovation Research Centre.

: https://www.brunel.ac.uk/research/Centres/AI-Social-and-Digital-Innovation
: s-asieh-tabaghdehi-phd

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Dimple Khagram

Founder, Purple Beard

Dimple Khagram set up Purple Beard Ltd in 2019 with a mission to deliver apprenticeship programmes and commercial online training to businesses and individuals in the digital space.

Purple Beard is particularly passionate about supporting underrepresented groups into the tech space – groups including women, people from ethnic minority backgrounds, young people aged 35 and below, and older people aged 60 and above.

They specialise in working with medium to large employers who wish to reskill or upskill their existing workforce, through our tailored blended learning programmes, in sectors including retail, IT, pharmaceutical, public sector and digital marketing.

: dimplekhagram
: @purplebeardltd

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Naureen Khan

Data and AI (Responsible Tech) Lead, Accenture

Naureen is the Data and AI lead at Accenture. Prior to joining Accenture, she held a number of senior roles, including Director of Government Relations at Computacenter and Director of Public Services at techUK which is the trade association for the UK tech industry. She started her career in the field of Equality and Human Rights, working for the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the NSPCC leading their policy and public affairs work at EU and International level.

She is a member of techUK's Skills and Diversity Council.

: naureen-khan-5bab1619
: @naureenk

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Professor Jacqueline O'Reilly

Co-Director, Digital Futures at Work Research Centre (digit) at the University of Sussex Business School

Jacqueline O’Reilly is Professor of Comparative Human Resource Management and Co-Director of the ESRC Funded Digital Futures at Work Research Centre (digit) at the University of Sussex Business School.

She is co-editor of the book ‘Work in the Digital Age’ (2018), ‘Youth Labor in Transition’ (2018) and ‘Youth Employment: the STYLE Handbook’ (2018). She was coordinator of a EU funded large-scale research project STYLE: Strategic Transitions for Youth Labour in Europe (www.style-research.eu) (2014-17), and UK lead on the EU funded project NEGOTIATE, examining how young people deal with early career insecurity (www.negotiate-research.eu) (2015-18). 

She completed her doctorate at Nuffield College, University of Oxford on an Anglo-French comparison of employment practices in the banking sector. She worked for ten years at the Social Science Research Centre Berlin (WZB), Germany, at Sciences Politiques in Paris, and at London and Manchester Universities in the UK. In 2000 she was awarded a Jean Monnet Research Fellowship at the European University Institute in Florence.

Her research focuses on the digital transformation of work, international comparisons of gender, ethnic and labour market transitions across the life cycle and on labour market policy evaluation. Her research has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, the Leverhulme Trust, the European Commission, the European Science Foundation and Santander Bank.

: jacqueline-o-reilly-facss-54189626
: @digitcentre

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Andrew Pakes

Deputy General Secretary and Research Director, Prospect Union

Andrew Pakes is Deputy General Secretary and Research Director at Prospect Union in the UK representing over 155,000 members across tech, specialist, engineering and professional roles. He leads Prospect’s work on digital technology and the future of work with an interest in how economic change impacts workers.

His work aims to empower workers around digital change and the implications on how technology is transforming the ways people are managed and work, including on mental health and wellbeing. He is also a member of the OECD’s AI Expert Panel and UK Trade Union Congress AI Working Group.

: andrew-pakes-8478b1101
: @andrewpakes_

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Helen Swift

UK Public Affairs Manager, Airbus, and Chair of techUK Nations and Regions Council

Helen Swift is the UK Public Affairs Manager for Airbus’ Research, Technology & Innovation Portfolio across Airbus Commercial Aircraft, Defence and Space & Helicopters divisions. She is responsible for supporting the company’s £500m annual R&D investment programme, the development of Airbus’ advanced research facilities and securing long term funding lines which deliver critical technical innovations that grow UK aerospace and defence capabilities, helping the company to remain at the top of an extremely competitive world market. Helen has worked at Airbus for over a decade and has a degree in Public Relations from Bournemouth University.

She also sits on the Welsh Government's Economic Ministerial Advisory Board.

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Anna Thomas

Co-founder and Director, Institute for the Future of Work

Anna Thomas is the co-founder and Director of the Institute for the Future of Work, and formerly a barrister from Devereux Chambers, specialising in employment law and appointed a Counsel to the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Prior to IFOW, Anna was Head of Policy for the Future of Work Commission and is a Fellow of the Institute for Policy Research, RSA and IEO. 

: anna-thomas-969529138
: @FutureWorkInst

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Mary Towers

Policy Officer, Trades Union Congress

Mary Towers is an employment rights policy officer in the Rights, International, Social and Economic department at the TUC.

Mary is leading a TUC project looking at the use of artificial intelligence in the employment relationship.

Before joining the TUC, she worked as an employment lawyer and writer, with particular experience of working for trade unions.

: https://www.tuc.org.uk
: marytowerstuc
: @marymay_ling

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James Uffindell

CEO & Founder, Bright Network

James Uffindell is a technology entrepreneur and one of the UK’s leading experts on the entry level talent market. James has spent the last 20 years helping over one million students with their applications to both blue chip employers and leading universities. James is an expert on social mobility at university level, the graduate job market, internships, entry level talent, and managing and engaging Gen Z and millennial employees.

James set up his first business in in his university bedroom in 1999 which he sold to a Private Investor in 2013. Frustrated at the lack of careers support for graduates, James founded Bright Network in 2013, a high-growth technology platform that uses data and insights to build the workforce of tomorrow. Bright Network now works serves 12M+ of careers advice content a year and supports over 500,000+ graduates and 300+ of the world’s largest employers including Google, Goldman Sachs, Accenture and PwC. The business has raised £8M+ of investment to date and is one of the fastest growing careers networks in the UK.

In January 2021, Bright Network launched Technology Academy, to support the next generation become the technology leaders of the future. By developing thousands of graduates and directly addressing the UK’s technology skills shortage by providing upskilled and diverse entry level talent to leading employers and their technology teams.

James is a regular media commentator on careers, talent and entrepreneurship – he has been featured in The Economist, Management Today, The Times, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph as well as on live on BBC (radio and TV), Sky News, Channel 4, CNN and on ITV.

James gives regular keynotes at conferences including Talent Leaders Connect, the How To Academy and Capitox, and has spoken at The Oxford Union, London School of Economics and The New Entrepreneurs Foundation. 

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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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Amanda Whicher

Director, Hays

Amanda Whicher is a Director at Hays, specialising in Public Services Technology. With over 17 years of experience in the recruitment sector, Amanda has a wealth of insights when it comes to the challenges employers face accessing and retaining talent. She has a particular interest in encouraging more women into tech, to expand their career opportunities and create more diverse and inclusive tech teams.

Amanda is passionate about matching the top technology experts to organisations, through life-long partnerships and workplace solutions, to support both clients and candidates to meet their ambitions and thrive in the ever-changing world of tech.

: https://www.hays.co.uk/
: amandaglancyhays

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Liz Williams MBE

Chief Executive, FutureDotNow

Liz is the founding Chief Executive of FutureDotNow, a business coalition focused on closing the digital skills gap for working age adults. Previously she led BT Group’s digital and social inclusion strategies, advising the Chair, CEO and Board on corporate policy and delivering cross-sector collaborations with government, civil society and other leading businesses that impacted millions of lives.

She is Group Chair of Good Things Foundation, a social change charity operating in the UK and Australia to help people improve their lives through digital, and a member of Portsmouth University’s Business Advisory Board. Liz sits on the Government’s Digital Skills Council and previously served as a Social Mobility Commissioner leading on digital and the future of work. 

Liz is a social entrepreneur and long-term campaigner on the importance of digital equity.  Her work has been instrumental in promoting digital inclusion and social mobility across the UK and as a result she was awarded the MBE in 2019. Liz is a fellow of the RSA and consistently listed in Computer Weekly’s most influential women in UK technology.

: https://futuredotnow.uk/
: @L12_W

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Lorna Willis

CEO, TechSkills

Lorna is CEO of TechSkills, the skills body for tech in the UK and the accreditation body for Tech Industry Gold. She is an award-winning CEO who puts investment in people and talent at the heart of the organisations she’s worked for. She successfully led the transformation of Archant Community Media delivering new revenue, audience growth and improved staff retention and engagement, as well as leading on the creation of a learning organisation with the emphasis on integrating digital skills and capability.

Lorna has significant experience across a wealth of functions including strategy, transformation, sales, finance, marketing, fund raising and sponsorship, and is the driving force to grow TechSkills and Tech Industry Gold accreditation to be the national standard for digital skills learning across the UK.

: techskills.org
: lornawillis

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