Meet our speakers
Thought-leaders from across business and education will be sharing their views and sparking the debate.
Vinous Ali
Vinous joined techUK as Head of Policy working to develop and deliver policies to make the UK the best place to start, scale and base tech businesses alongside working on wider issues around the digital strategy, skills, data ethics and the future of work. Vinous is currently undertaking a policy fellowship at the Centre for Science and Policy, Cambridge.
Julian Burnett
Julian is a digital and business transformation expert ranked in the CIO Top 40 by Computing earlier this year. He’s currently VP & Executive Partner, Retail Markets Strategy at IBM UK, and was the first CTO of John Lewis, and of Sainsbury's, where he founded and led digital transformation programmes in customer experience, efficiency and profitability.
Luciano Floridi
Luciano is Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information at the University of Oxford, where he directs the Digital Ethics Lab of the Oxford Internet Institute, and is Professorial Fellow of Exeter College. He is also Turing Fellow and Chair of the Data Ethics Group of the Alan Turing Institute.
Michael Grant
Michael Grant is an Associate Director at Harvey Nash and was inaugurated as BCS President in March. Michael entered the field of technology 35 years ago in the flight simulation industry. He has since worked in a variety of international marketing and corporate communications roles at director and vice-president level.
Wendy Hall
Dame Wendy Hall, DBE, FRS, FREng is Regius Professor of Computer Science, Pro Vice-Chancellor (International Engagement) and an Executive Director of the Web Science Institute at the University of Southampton. Dame Wendy was co-chair of the UK Government’s AI Review (October 2017), and is the first Skills Champion for AI in the UK.
Richard James
As the Head of Digital Technology & Engineering for Nationwide Digital, Richard leads work on public cloud and DevOps adoption, alongside driving the introduction of scaled agile and growing Nationwide’s internal engineering community. Prior to Nationwide, he spent 12 years with Accenture shaping and delivering large-scale technology programmes.
Sana Khareghani
With over 20 years’ experience in technology and business, and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sana is currently Deputy Director, Head of the Office for AI - a joint unit between the Department for Digital, Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS) and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
Diana Limburg
Diana is Director of the Oxford Brookes Global MBA - a blended (online and on campus) part-time executive programme, which includes a degree apprenticeship offering. Diana has over 25 years’ experience teaching and researching information systems and digital strategy and has a PhD in Management from the University of Twente in the Netherlands.
James Luke
James is an IBM Distinguished Engineer and Master Inventor, and CTO for IBM Global Business Services. He has over 20 years’ experience in machine learning and cognitive systems and was a chief architect of IBM’s ground-breaking AI platform, Watson. Prior to joining IBM, he worked as an AI consultant with Data Sciences (taken over by IBM in 1996).
Cathy McCabe
Proximity Insight CEO Cathy McCabe has spent her entire career in global retail and as a technology innovator, passionate about bridging the gap between digital and physical consumer experiences. She was previously CIO at Jaeger and VP of Customer Technology and Payments at Burberry and is also a Governor at The London Metropolitan University.
Kathryn Porter
Kathryn has worked in the hospitality industry for over 20 years, joining Hilton in 2000 where she is director of youth strategy for EMEA. Kathryn’s chaired the Hospitality Trailblazer, now the Hospitality Skills and Quality Board, since its inception in 2014, which led to the development of seven government approved apprenticeship standards and continues to spearhead a sustainable apprenticeship strategy for the sector.
Martyn Sibley
An accomplished motivational speaker and vlogger, Martyn thrives on coaching others to change the world, and acts as an ambassador for personal growth, disability rights, and societal inclusion. He’s a popular speaker on many panels and hosts on behalf of the BBC and other leading industry bodies and charities.
Adam Thilthorpe
Adam, Director of External Affairs at BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, speaks regularly at industry conferences about the need to disrupt yourself and your organisation, before someone does it to you. The ability to do today's stuff well, good practice, is vital but not enough on its own. It’s next practice, doing tomorrow’s stuff first that the IT profession must harness.
Léonie Watson
Léonie’s tech career began in the 1990s and today she’s an accessibility engineer, member of the W3C Advisory Board and co-chair of the W3C Web platform WG. Losing her own eyesight in her 20s, Leonie is a passionate voice on accessibility and known for web standards, accessibility mechanics and pushing the boundaries of inclusive design.
