Digital Ethics Summit 2023 - Seizing the moment

Leanne Allen

Partner, UK Head of AI, KPMG

Leanne is a Partner and leads KPMG’s Data, Data Science and AI capability within Technology Advisory. Leanne brings over 20 years of consulting experience and specialises in Data and AI Strategy, Data Architecture, responsiblr Data and AI management and governance. She combines her strong leadership skills with the ability to solve complex technical problems acting as an effective translator between Business and IT stakeholders with a solid track record of delivery in often highly complex business and technology areas across Financial Services Clients. Leanne is the head of Ethical AI for KPMG UK and sit’s on the KPMG Global governance board for AI                                .
 

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Stephen Almond

Executive Director, Regulatory Risk, Information Commissioners Office (ICO)

Stephen Almond, Executive Director for Regulatory Risk, leads the ICO’s teams charged with engineering information rights into the fabric of new ideas, technologies and business models as part of our dynamic digital economy, including through the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum.

Prior to joining the ICO, Stephen led a World Economic Forum initiative to promote the adoption of a more agile, innovation-enabling approach to regulation with governments and tech firms worldwide. He previously worked in leadership roles across the UK Government, including creation of the White Paper on Regulation for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and roll-out of the Regulators’ Pioneer Fund, which invested in regulatory sandboxes and similar initiatives to unlock technological innovation.

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Javahir Askari

Policy Manager, Digital Regulation, techUK

Javahir joined techUK in June 2022, as Policy Manager for Digital Regulation.

Prior to joining techUK, she worked at the New Statesman, delivering cross sector policy research and events for their policy supplement. Javahir previously worked as part of the educational programme at the European Commission based in London, engaging with the UK's youth on the Brexit process. 

Javahir holds a BA Politics and International Relations (Hons) from the University of Nottingham, an MA Human Rights from University College London, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Law from BPP University. 

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João Barreiro

Chief Privacy Officer (Global), BeiGene

Based in London, João is the Chief Privacy Officer of BeiGene. BeiGene is a global biopharmaceutical company with over 10,000 employees listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the Shanghai STAR Market and NASDAQ. His work at BeiGene was crucial for being recognized as 2022 Privacy Executive of the Year by the PICCASO Privacy Awards. 

His experience in the Life Sciences Industry also includes privacy roles at Celgene and the European Medicines Agency. He has also served other industries, such as the digital tech industry, as the global Chief Privacy Officer of HCL Technologies, an IT services company with 225.000 employees, and the finance sector, as the global Chief Privacy Officer of Willis Towers Watson, the third largest global insurance intermediary.

João serves as a board member of different associations, including the Research Advisory Board of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), the International Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Privacy Consortium, and the Digital Trade Policy Taskforce of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization. João is also a member of the UK’s International Data Transfers Expert Council, a group of 20 individuals who inform the UK government on the country cross-border data protection strategy post-Brexit. He is a co-author of several privacy books, including the Privacy Program Management book used as the main training material for all the IAPP CIPP/M certifications. 
 

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David Bloom

Chairman, Kao Data

Having founded Kao Data in 2013, David served as a Board Member and in 2023 became the company's Chairman. David has a wide-ranging background with over 17 years’ experience in the Technology, Media and Telecommunications industry as an investor, founder and investment manager. He has personally overseen the deployment of more than £500m of equity investment.

A serial founder, David founded IPVision in 2007, and Goldacre in 2012, which is now part of the Noé Group. He is a skilled people manager, commercial negotiator, strategist, forecasting and budget manager and presenter.

David has a keen interest in education having been a youth director and school governor, he is also on the board of PaJeS, who provide services, support and strategy to schools across the UK, and is Chair of Jewish Interactive, the educational technology charity.

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Suzanne Brink

Head of AI Ethics & Governance, Kainos Group plc

Suzanne Brink is the Head of AI Ethics & Governance at Kainos. She is the creator and custodian of Kainos’ AI and data ethics approach, ensuring Kainos stays abreast of the latest standards and techniques and advising clients on the same. She has worked extensively with stakeholders in both the public and private sector to bring ethical considerations to AI deployment. Prior to joining Kainos, Suzanne worked in strategic human resource management with roles in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and as a consultant for a company providing AI-based solutions in recruitment. She holds a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Cambridge.

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Alex Chalmers

Platform Lead, Air Street Capital

Alex is Platform Lead at Air Street Capital, a venture capital firm investing in AI-first companies across Europe and the US. He is part of the team that produces the annual State of AI Report, which covers the latest developments across AI research, industry, politics, and safety. Alex was previously an Associate Director at Milltown Partners, where he advised a range of leading technology companies

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Hassan Chaudhury

Commercial Director, Health Data Research UK

Hassan has a broad portfolio in digital health with a focus on startups and on executive education. 

He had a successful exit in 2019 and now advises startups including as a Non-Executive Director (NED) for Opto Health. He supports 5 startup accelerators and is module lead for startups and a Visiting Lecturer on the MSc Digital Health Entrepreneurship at UCL Global Business School for Health (GBSH) - the world's only business school dedicated to health. He supports custom executive education for the school, and also at The London Institute for Healthcare Engineering (LIHE) at Kings College London.

From 2018-2022, he spent 4 years at Healthcare UK, a joint UK Government initiative of the Department for Health and Social Care, NHS England and the Department for Business and Trade. Hassan developed the UK National Digital Health offer to the world working with commercial teams in UK embassies across 96 countries.

He is currently the Commercial Director at DATA-CAN - the cancer hub of Health Data Research UK (which is the National Institute for Health Data Science), on the Editorial Board of The International Journal of Digital Health, and a Vice Chair of HIMSS UK and Ireland.
 

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Areeq Chowdhury

Head of Policy, Data & Digital Technologies, The Royal Society

Areeq Chowdhury is Head of Policy (Data and Digital Technologies) at The Royal Society. The team he leads at the Society focuses on how artificial intelligence and other data-driven technologies can, and should, be used to benefit humanity.

Areeq is also a Labour Party Councillor for Canning Town, in East London, and founded the influential technology policy think tank, WebRoots Democracy, which ran between 2014 and 2020. He has authored various reports on digital democracy, social media, and artificial intelligence. Most notably, Areeq led a high profile project on disinformation during the 2019 UK General Election, producing viral deepfakes of Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn endorsing each other for Prime Minister.

Areeq holds a BSc in Economics and Political Science from the University of Birmingham. His career history includes working at the Foreign Office; the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport; the UK Parliament; London City Hall; and KPMG.

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Patricia ("Tish") Christias

Assistant General Counsel, UK Head of Legal, Microsoft Limited

Tish is Assistant General Counsel and Head of Legal for Microsoft in the UK. She also leads the National Security Team.  She advises on a wide range of commercial and contentious matters to drive business impact for Microsoft and its customers while mitigating risk, especially for novel business models in new areas of law. The attorneys and national security professionals on her team regularly partner with the legal and compliance professionals in Microsoft’s customers to help drive their organizations’ digital transformations including adoption of AI services. Tish started her private practice career as an IP litigator before moving the United Kingdom where she has worked for almost two decades in-house.  She is a passionate advocate for a more diverse and inclusive legal profession and previously sat on the board of Prime as the in-house representative.

 

She is a graduate of Trinity College (Connecticut) and The George Washington University Law School. She is a member of the New York State Bar.

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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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Eliot Cohen

Associate, Clifford Chance

Eliot Cohen is an associate in Clifford Chance's global Tech Group. His practice spans a variety of advisory and transactional matters, particularly in the areas of AI governance and policy, data protection and privacy law, cybersecurity and general corporate commercial matters, including for major multinational technology companies, financial institutions and corporates. 

Eliot has spent six months with a global technology company's information security team, and worked on privacy and surveillance advice and policy at a leading human rights charity. Additionally, Eliot has delivered lectures on emerging technologies, privacy and technology at the London School of Economics and City University. Eliot has an MPhil in Philosophy of Religion from the University of Cambridge.

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Hans-Petter Dalen

Head of IBM watsonx.governance EMEA, IBM

Hans Petter (”HP”) Dalen, leads IBM’s AI Governance initiative in EMEA. A 23 year old IBM veteran, he has been in the middle of several transformative technological innovations. Originally a Lotus Development employee, he later moved into analytics, advanced analytics and big data analytics. 
He started his professional career in customer support in a Telco in Norway 30 years ago, and has client success always at the front of his mind. With AI Governance, he is looking to future proof clients from requirements relative to regulatory compliance, protect reputations as well as providing a competitive advantage. 
 

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Sue Daley

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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Tim Davies

Director of Research and Practice , Connected by Data

Tim has spent the last 20 years working at the intersection of technology, participation and governance as both a researcher and practitioner. From piloting digital tools bringing youth voice into local decisions, to developing data standards that enable community scrutiny of billions of dollars of public spending, or writing about the political dynamics of open data initiatives, his work has explored how shared social challenges need participatory, collaborative and collective responses.

Tim was lead for the World Wide Web Foundation’s Open Data in Developing Countries research network (2013 - 2015), and led development of the Open Data Barometer. He was co-editor of The State of Open Data: Histories and Horizons (2019), and founding director of the Global Data Barometer project. From 2015 - 2018 Tim was a co-founder and director of Open Data Services Co-operative, a worker owned team providing the technical backing to initiatives including 360Giving, the Open Contracting Data Standard and OpenOwnership.

Tim is a former fellow of the Harvard Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, and former senior fellow of the Datasphere Initiative. He is a graduate of the Oxford Internet Institute (Social Science of the Internet), and Oriel College, Oxford (Politics, Philosophy and Economics).

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John Edwards

Information Commissioner, ICO

John Edwards began his term as UK Information Commissioner in January 2022. 

He worked as a solicitor and barrister for more than 20 years, including time as a policy adviser to the New Zealand Prime Minister and Cabinet around Freedom of Information.

From February 2014 to December 2021, he was New Zealand Privacy Commissioner and during that time, he chaired the International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners (now known as the Global Privacy Assembly).

Since taking office, John has set out his vision for the ICO to be a regulator that: empowers people to confidently share their information to use the services that drive the economy; empowers organisations to use information responsibly to innovate; and empowers people to hold organisations to account. One priority involves leading the ICO through constitutional and governance reform resulting from the Data Protection and Digital Information (DPDI) (No.2) Bill which is currently working its way through Parliament.

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Dr Zeynep Engin

Chair and Director, Data for Policy

Dr. Zeynep Engin, the Founding Director of Data for Policy CIC and Editor-in-Chief of the Data & Policy journal, is a prominent expert in data science, AI, and public decision-making. Her commitment to enhancing public sector operations and citizen welfare through data and associated technologies is widely recognized, garnering support from prestigious entities like UKRI EPSRC, UCL, The Alan Turing Institute, and the European Commission. Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation since 2022, she leads a project in Sub-Saharan Africa aiming to increase data and AI competency for more effective and trustworthy governance in the region.  Dr. Engin holds a PhD from Imperial College London and has served as a Policy Fellow at Cambridge Centre for Science and Policy and as a visiting researcher at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.

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Professor Luciano Floridi

Founding Director of the Digital Ethics Center and Professor in the Cognitive Science Program, Yale University

Founding Director of the Digital Ethics Center and Professor in the Cognitive Science Program, Yale University; Professor of Sociology of Culture and Communication at Bologna University. He is one of the most authoritative voices of contemporary philosophy, the founder of the philosophy of information, and one of the major interpreters of the digital revolution. His more than 300 works about the philosophy of information, digital ethics, the ethics of AI, and the philosophy of technology have been translated into many languages. His most recent books are The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence – Principles, Challenges, and Opportunities (OUP, 2023) and The Green and The Blue – Naive Ideas to Improve Politics in the Digital Age (Wiley, 2023). Among his many awards, in 2022 he was made Knight of the Grand Cross OMRI for his foundational work in philosophy.

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Camille Ford

Researcher in the Global Governance, Regulation, Innovation and Digital Economy (GRID), Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)

Camille Ford is a Researcher in the Global Governance, Regulation, Innovation and Digital Economy (GRID) unit at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS). Camille’s work at CEPS centres primarily on the Trade and Technology Dialogue, overseeing analysis, events and stakeholder engagement activities supporting the EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council and its ten Working Groups. Her research interests include transatlantic cooperation on digital and technology issues, governance and regulation of emerging technologies, and the nexus of security and technology policy. Prior to joining CEPS, Camille worked at the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and Foreign Policy Magazine. During her graduate studies, she served as an intern in the Executive Office of the U.S. Mission to the EU and was previously a Policy Fellow at Foreign Policy for America (FP4A). Camille is also an FP4A NextGen Fellow. She is French, Swiss and American and speaks English, French and Spanish. She holds a BA from Boston College and an MA from Sciences Po, Paris. 

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Lizzie Greenhalgh

Deputy Director for AI Regulation, DSIT

No bio provided

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Sharif Hassan

People's Panel Participant,

Sharif Hassan, from Morley, Leeds in West Yorkshire, is a member of the People's Panel on AI that took place alongside the AI Safety Summit and Fringe in November 2023. Commenting on the Panel experience, Sharif said “After this week I feel it is very important that the public are involved in AI related decisions. These decisions will affect the public, and the public not only have a right to know about them, but a right to say in what AI is used for, and how it can deliver us more choice in how we live our lives.”

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Will Hayter

Executive Director for Digital Markets, Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)

Will Hayter was appointed Executive Director for Digital Markets at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on 1 February 2024. 

As a member of the CMA Board, Will leads on the CMA’s digital markets work as it takes on new responsibilities under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act.

Previous career highlights include:

• Senior Director for the Digital Markets Unit (CMA)
• Director, Transition Hub (Cabinet Office / 10 Downing Street)
• Senior Director for Policy and International (CMA)
• various other roles at the CMA and at Ofcom
   

: will-hayter-649576

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Nick Hedderman

Senior Director of Modern Work , Microsoft

Nick Hedderman is the Senior Director of Modern Work for Microsoft UK. He is responsible for leading the business strategy for a broad range of end-user tools, such as Teams, Outlook, Surface and Copilot. Nick believes the new era of work is defined by three key trends: hybrid work, digital collaboration, and intelligent automation. He and his team are passionate about helping customers to embrace these trends and to leverage the power of Microsoft technologies to transform their work culture, productivity, and innovation. He advocates for a human-centric approach to work, where people are empowered to work from anywhere, anytime, and on any device, while staying connected, engaged, and secure. 

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Katherine Holden

Head of Data Analytics, AI and Digital ID, techUK

Chairing the session is Katherine, techUK’s Head of Data Analytics, AI and Digital ID. Prior to techUK, Katherine worked as a Policy Advisor at the Government Digital Service (GDS) supporting the digital transformation of UK Government. Whilst working at the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) Katherine led AMRC’s policy work on patient data, consent and opt-out. Katherine has a BSc degree in Biology from the University of Nottingham.

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Kate Jones

CEO, Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum (DRCF)

Kate Jones is the Chief Executive Officer of the Digital Regulatory Cooperation Forum (www.drcf.org.uk).  Kate leads this innovative team, working to increase and deepen coordination between regulators of online services and technology for the benefit of both businesses and their customers.
 
Before joining the DRCF, Kate was an expert consultant and researcher on the governance of emerging technologies, with particular regard to human rights law, public international law and diplomacy. She was an Associate Fellow with the International Law Programme at Chatham House, Senior Associate with Oxford Information Labs, and member of the advisory board of an AI ethics company. She has published and spoken widely on aspects of national and international tech governance, with specialisms in artificial intelligence, disinformation and foreign interference, and the role of technical standards. 
 
In her work, Kate brings to bear her many years of experience as a legal adviser and diplomat with the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, including as Legal Adviser to the UK Mission to the United Nations in Geneva and UK Deputy Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. She also draws on her experience of leadership, skills and technical expertise as Director of Oxford University’s Diplomatic Studies Programme and as Course Director and Advisory Board member of the Centre for Political and Diplomatic Studies. Kate took her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in law at the University of Oxford and qualified as a UK solicitor at Norton Rose.

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Arnav Joshi

Senior Associate and Digital Ethics Lead, Clifford Chance

Arnav Joshi, Senior Associate and Digital Ethics Lead, Clifford Chance: Arnav is a senior technology lawyer with over a decade of international experience as a trusted advisor to clients including leading global technology companies, Unicorns and financial services institutions. He leads strategic and regulatory advice on digital regulation, emerging technologies, data privacy, cybersecurity, regulatory engagements and public policy. In recent years, he has led ground breaking projects on children's privacy, online safety, advanced analytics and AI. Arnav serves as an expert advisor on AI and data privacy to a number of industry bodies in the UK, and has been previously called on to give expert evidence on Artificial Intelligence regulation to the UK Parliament. 

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Maria Karvela

CSO & Co-Founder, dnaNUDGE

No bio provided

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Dr Mike Katell

Ethics Fellow, The Alan Turing Institute

Dr Mike Katell is an Ethics Fellow in the Turing’s Public Policy Programme and a Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Digital Environment Research Institute (DERI) at Queen Mary University of London. He is a technology policy scholar and philosopher of technology whose research focuses on the social justice and human rights implications of data and digital infrastructures. Dr Katell is also a co-director of the Critical Platform Studies Group (CritPlat), an independent research collective whose work focuses on surfacing structures of power and domination reflected in technology-related research practices and in the production and allocation of information goods.

 

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Emre Kazim

Co-founder and co-CEO, Holistic AI

No bio provided

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Wiktoria Kulik

Head of Digital Ethics Consulting, Sopra Steria

Wiktoria Kulik heads up Digital Ethics consulting at Sopra Steria, supporting clients in financial services and other sectors in embedding digital ethics solutions in their organisations. Wiktoria is a former policy advisor at the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation, where she supported the launch of the UK-US Privacy Enhancing Technologies Prize Challenge and conducted research to enable the creation of trustworthy Smart Data ecosystem in the UK. She was also a member of the Oversight Group that advised the DARE UK programme. She has degrees in Philosophy and Computer Science, with specialisation in Speech and Language Processing, as well as significant experience in the tech sector.

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Bea Longworth

Government Relations EMEA, NVIDIA

No bio provided

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Dr Kevin Macnish

Head of Ethics and Sustainability Consulting, Sopra Steria

Kevin Macnish is Head of Ethics and Sustainability Consulting at Sopra Steria. He has led numerous projects with financial services, government agencies and devolved governments in digital ethics and sustainability. Prior to joining Sopra Steria, Kevin had 12 years’ experience as an academic and consultant in digital ethics and was a lead contributor to the EU SHERPA project on the ethics and human rights implications of AI. Kevin has published over 50 academic articles, chapters and books in ethics and technology.

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James Maddison

Senior Consultant, ODI

James is responsible for leading the delivery of the ODI's consultancy offerings on data ethics. He works with organisations across several sectors to deliver support around the ethical considerations within data-enabled projects or services, enabling them to think more strategically about how data ethics can be embedded across their data practices.

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Professor Gina Neff

Executive Director , Minderoo Centre for Technology & Democracy, Unversity of Cambrige

Gina Neff is the Executive Director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology & Democracy at the University of Cambridge. Her books include Venture Labor (MIT Press 2012), Self-Tracking (MIT Press 2016) and Human-Centered Data Science (MIT Press 2022). 
Her research focuses on the effects of the rapid expansion of our digital information environment on workers and workplaces and in our everyday lives. Professor Neff holds a Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University and advises international organisations including UNESCO and the OECD. She is on the executive leadership team and chair of the strategy group for UKRI Responsible AI UK (RAI), and is associate director of the ESRC Digital Good Network. She leads the Humanitarian Action Programme at the University of Cambridge, and leads a work package on the Horizon Europe international AI4Trust team to tackle online misinformation building human-in-the-loop AI detection tools for multilingual, multimodal and multiplatform solutions.  
 
Professor Neff serves on the board of directors for the Social Science Research Council in the USA and the Strategic Advisory Network for the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council. 
 
Her academic research has won awards in both engineering and social sciences. Professor Neff led the team that won the 2021 Webby for the best educational website on the Internet, for the A to Z of AI, which has reached over 1 million people in 17 different languages. 

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Florian Ostmann

Head of AI Governance and Regulatory Innovation, The Alan Turing Institute

Florian Ostmann is Head of AI Governance and Regulatory Innovation within the Turing's public policy programme. His work focuses on regulation and non-regulatory governance mechanisms related to data and AI as well as on the use of data science and AI to facilitate the work of regulatory bodies.

: https://www.turing.ac.uk/people/researchers/florian-ostmann
: florian-ostmann
: @FlorianOstmann

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Leena Pankhania

GenAI Strategy Lead, AND Digital

Leena is supporting Businesses and Individuals understand what GenAI means or them. From leading the recent refresh of the Google Digital Garage Fundamentals to be focused on future ready, AI focused skills to guiding enterprise clients on how to harness the power AI and prepare their people and process. She is passionate about closing the Digital skills gap. 

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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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Nimmi Patel

Head of Skills, Talent and Diversity, techUK

Nimmi Patel is the Head of Skills, Talent and Diversity at techUK. She works on all things skills, education, and future of work policy, focusing on upskilling and retraining. Nimmi is also an Advisory Board member of Digital Futures at Work Research Centre (digit). The Centre research aims to increase understanding of how digital technologies are changing work and the implications for employers, workers, job seekers and governments.

Prior to joining the techUK team, she worked for the UK Labour Party and New Zealand Labour Party, and holds an MA in Strategic Communications at King’s College London and BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Manchester. She is currently taking part in the 2024-25 University of Bath Institute for Policy Research Policy Fellowship Programme.

: https://www.techuk.org/skills-talent-and-diversity-programme.html
: nimmi-patel1/
: @nimmiptl

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Gabriela Ramos

Assistant Director-General for the Social and Human Sciences, UNESCO

Gabriela Ramos is the Assistant Director-General for the Social and Human Sciences of UNESCO, where she oversees the institution's contributions to building inclusive societies. Her mandate includes tackling economic inequalities of income and opportunity, and promoting social inclusion and gender equality. She also oversees the youth support agenda, promotion of values through sport, fight against racism and discrimination, and ethics of science,including of neurotechnology and the internet of things. She has overseen the development and adoption of the first global instrument
to promote the ethics of artificial intelligence, adopted by acclamation in 2021 by UNESCO's General Conference.

She also launched the Global Forum against Racism, to catalyse the political support that member countries have given to this cause. On gender, she has advanced several initiatives, particularly to combat gender stereotypes and biases, including in new technologies. She also leads the Management of Social Transformations (MOST)Programme to help UNESCO Member States strengthen the connection between research and policy and between knowledge and action. She has overseen the publication on “Inclusive and resilient societies: equality, sustainability and efficiency”

Previously, Gabriela Ramos worked as Cabinet Director and Sherpa for the G20, G7 and APEC at the OECD, contributing to increasing the OECD's global impact and leading key initiatives such as "Inclusive Growth", "New Approaches to Economic Challenges", "Climate Change and Growth", the gender equality strategy and work on well-being and children. At the G20, she contributed to the international reform for fair tax systems; the adoption of the gender-quota (to reduce the labour gap) and the establishment of the W20; and the adoption of the principles of artificial intelligence, among others. She also oversaw Global Relations and the OECD's membership enlargement process.
She is a member of the G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council (GEAC) for 2022, an independent advisory body that develops recommendations on gender equality issues across the entire G7 agenda. In 2019, she launched the Business for Inclusive Growth (B4IG) platform, bringing together 40 multinational companies committed to reducing inequalities. Previously, she was Director of the OECD Office in Mexico and Latin America where she supported reforms in education, telecommunications, gender and health. She was a member of the Mexican Foreign Service.

In 2013 she was awarded the Order of Merit (Ordre du Mérite) by the President of France. Her work to promote gender equality has earned her several awards including from Forbes and Apolitico. She has been a Fulbright and Ford McArthur Fellow. She is an alumna of Harvard University's Masters in Public Policy and Universidad Iberoamericana's BA in International Relations. She is a board member of the "Paris Peace Forum"; the "UNICEF Advisory Board"; as well as the "Lancet Commissions on COVID and on Men's Violence against Women", and member of the Danone "Entreprise à Mission" Committee

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Caroline Rivett

Cyber Partner, Life Sciences, KPMG

Caroline leads our global Cyber Security and Privacy team in Life Sciences. She has over twenty years experience in  technology and risk and served as a Chair of the Audit Committee and Board member in healthcare for eight years.  Over the last ten years she has specialised in the protection of sensitive information in life sciences and healthcare.  Her clients include GSK and other global pharmaceutical companies. Prior to joining KPMG she co-founded a  company which analysed medical data for insurers and put in place secure processes around global movement of  sensitive personal data.
 

Caroline is the KPMG account lead for Cyber Security and Privacy services for four global pharmaceutical clients.
She recently directed a team to remediate 100s of key vendor contracts between a global pharmaceutical  company and their suppliers following the invalidation of Safe Harbor, guiding them through the complex area of  international personal data flow of privacy contracts.
One of her recent projects was with a global Pharmaceutical company to embed a fit-for-purpose governance  structure, perform a data mapping exercise, develop a risk assessment framework and embed a robust process  around third party supplier management (in order to cover Privacy risks).
She has worked with a global Pharmaceutical company to assess the effectiveness of their Privacy Improvement  Programme and assist them in developing a five year plan to further enhance their Privacy control environment.
Caroline co-founded a company which digitised sensitive personal information. She sold the company to US  corporation and then developed UK business. Worked with parent company to introduce secure processes over  protecting sensitive personal data.
Defined cybersecurity strategy for prestigious bio medical research facility in London
Caroline hosts KPMG’s regular Information Protection in Digital Health conference focusing on privacy, medical  internet of things, regulation and genomics data with external specialists and internal speakers. She is a regular  contributor on CyberSecurity in digital health in The Financial Times and speaks at conferences.
Chair of Audit Committee for NHS Board in commissioning and for mental health foundation trust for past eight  years. Led Audit Committee review of reports from information governance teams and internal audit.
Implemented data analysis shared services centre in South Africa serving the Europe and North America for  global professional services company. One of the project strands included implementation of high level of  protection and security over client data.

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Philip Russmeyer

Founder and CEO, Fitfile

Philip is a passionate believer in finally unlocking the latent value of health data for transformed research, planning and personalised care. He currently leads a team of world-class experts at FITFILE to transform the scale and value of health data usage, through ground-breaking data access, privacy and linkage technology that delivers safer, faster and better record-level health profiles. 

Philip has served on a large number of company boards and was a member of the founding team of Vitruvian Partners where he led the life science and healthcare team. Prior to Vitruvian, he was with Goldman Sachs Capital Partners where he focused on healthcare and a number of other sectors, at Morgan Stanley where he worked across a range of investment banking teams, with UBS and with Royal Dutch Shell in corporate strategy. 

Philip holds an MA from Cambridge University and an MBA (high distinction) from Harvard Business School.

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Jessica Rusu

Chief Data, Information & Intelligence Officer, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)

Jessica joined the FCA as Chief Data, Information and Intelligence Officer in June 2021. As CDIIO, Jessica is leading the transformation of the FCA’s ability to analyse and use the data, intelligence and information we receive to effectively oversee the 50,000 firms we regulate. Jessica is building and evolving our relationship with big tech companies, fintechs and the wider data science community. Jessica was the Chief Data Officer of Chetwood Financial limited, a digital native, start-up bank, where she spearheaded the use of machine learning. Before moving into fintech, Jessica was Senior Director of Finance & Analytics at eBay in Europe where she built out their advanced analytics and customer insight function. She previously worked in credit analytics at Ford Motor Company and Stress Testing at GE Capital. Jessica has a degree from Penn State University in Management Science and Information Systems and an MBA from University of Michigan. More recently, she completed the Oxford Said Business School’s Artificial Intelligence programme.

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Hetan Shah

Chief Executive, The British Academy

Hetan Shah is chief executive at the British Academy, the UK’s national academy for humanities and social sciences. He is Chair of Our World in Data, which brings together research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems. Hetan was appointed in 2024 by the UK Parliament to the board of the National Audit Office, the UK’s independent spending watchdog. He is Visiting Professor at the Policy Institute, Kings College London and a Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London. Hetan serves on a number of advisory boards including the Bennett Institute for Public Policy at the University of Cambridge, the UCL Policy Lab and the Resolution Foundation.

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Isabel Simpson

Partner - Global Head of Data Privacy, KPMG Law

•    Isabel Simpson is a data protection and privacy lawyer and is the global head of data privacy for KPMG Law.
•    Isabel has over 15 years’ experience with a practice focussing on data, digital and information technology law. She advises on data ethics, freedom of information and data protection compliance and arrangements where personal data is being transferred or society may be impacted.
•    Isabel combines in-depth knowledge and experience with genuine enthusiasm for her specialist areas and provides her clients with easy to apply and practical advice.
•    Isabel advises clients across different sectors including technology, insurance, financial services, public bodies and multinationals.
 

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Simon Staffell

Director Government Affairs, Microsoft

Simon Staffell is Director of Government Affairs at Microsoft where he champions a range of public policy issues related to technology and innovation. He is also a visiting Research Fellow at Kings College London and the RUSI think tank. Simon previously served in the UK government, holding senior appointments in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Home Office and Cabinet Office, and postings in Cairo and Washington DC. He was awarded his PhD in politics from Sheffield University in 2010 and was previously an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University in Washington DC. Prior to joining government, he was a teacher and founded a college programme in Sheffield.
 

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Tarja Strahlman

Director of BD, Energy Transition & Environment, Faculty AI

Tarja is a Director of BD at Faculty's Energy Transition & Environment practice, uncovering ways to leverage AI to accelerate the energy transition. She is working with renewables developers, and others along the energy value chain, to apply AI to plan, predict and integrate increasingly complex generating assets within the energy system.

From her years working for Shell, she brings with her extensive experience in the energy sector, having worked with customers across heavy industries on improving efficiencies while reducing Total Cost of Ownership, as well as tracking and planning for Net Zero operations.
 

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Andrew Strait

Associate Director, Ada Lovelace Institute

Andrew is an Associate Director at the Ada Lovelace Institute and is responsible for Ada’s work addressing emerging technology and industry practice.

Andrew has spent the last decade working at the intersection of technology, law and society. Prior to joining Ada, he was an Ethics & Policy Researcher DeepMind, where he managed internal AI ethics initiatives and oversaw the company’s network of external partnerships. Previously, he worked as a Legal Operations Specialist at Google where he developed and implemented platform moderation policies on areas such as data protection, hate speech, terrorist content and child safety.

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David Sykes

Head of Data, Octopus Group

David Sykes is Head of Data at Octopus Energy Group, where he leads teams of data scientists, analysts and engineers across the Group to create value from the enormous amount of data they generate. During his time at Octopus, David has been responsible for designing and optimising many of Octopus’ innovative smart tariffs as well as leading the teams building innovative AI products for Octopus’ proprietary tech platform, Kraken.

David’s team finds patterns in billions of rows of customer information, enabling the company to be more cost-effective, and in turn offers better value to customers. David joined Octopus in its first year of incorporation, following a career in the oil and gas sector. David studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University and holds a Masters in Reservoir Engineering from Imperial.

About Octopus Energy Group
Octopus Energy is a global energy and technology group, driving the affordable, green energy system of the future. Its operations span 17 countries and the entire energy value chain. The group invests in, builds and flexibly manages renewable energy, operating a £6 billion portfolio of projects – one of Europe’s largest.

Octopus serves 5.9 million customers through its retail arm, and has licensed its advanced data and machine learning platform, Kraken, to support over 50 million customer accounts worldwide through licensing deals with energy companies, including EDF, E.ON and Origin Energy.

Kraken enables Octopus to drive the electrification of heat and transport through smart tariffs and innovative cleantech. Backed by pension funds, investors and energy giants, Octopus Energy Group businesses deliver cheaper, greener energy and cutting-edge tech to countries and customers worldwide.

For more information, check out our website.

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Yih-Choung Teh

Group Director, Strategy and Research, Ofcom

Yih-Choung Teh is Group Director, Strategy and Research at Ofcom. The Strategy and Research Group’s role is to ensure that Ofcom has a deep understanding of consumers’ use of communications services through research and analysis of industry trends, and to develop insight which informs Ofcom’s overarching strategy. He has previously led Ofcom's Technology Group, been a Director in Ofcom’s Competition Group, working on Ofcom’s strategy to encourage investment in telecoms infrastructure, and overseeing Ofcom’s broadcasting and media competition programme. Before joining Ofcom, Yih-Choung worked for a strategy consultancy in the telecoms sector, providing policy and strategy advice to public and private sector clients globally. Prior to that he held an academic research post in the University of Oxford.

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Stefanie Valdés-Scott

Head of Policy & Government Relations EMEA , Adobe

Stefanie Valdés-Scott joined Adobe in April 2020 and has held the position of Head of Policy & Government Relations EMEA since September 2022. In this role, she is responsible for all contacts with politics and public administration and plays a leading role in all legislative processes relevant to Adobe in EMEA. Adobe is the world's leading provider of digital solutions for creative work, document management and marketing technology. From 2009-2020, Stefanie Valdés-Scott held various positions at a government relations agency in Brussels, Munich and Berlin, most recently as an authorized signatory and member of the management board. LinkedIn

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Janet Wiegold

People's Panel Participant,

Janet Wiegold from mid-Cornwall is a member of the People's Panel on AI that took place alongside the AI Safety Summit and Fringe in November 2023. Commenting on the Panel experience, Janet said "we need to bring the conversation about how AI is affecting us into every community, so that we can make informed choices and have a voice.“

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