meet the speakers
Joe Little is currently an Honorary Professor at the University of Stirling and Senior Advisor to the Chief futurist at Deloitte.
He has 37 years of industry experience at BP, BAe (Space and Comms) and beyond. His primary focus in the last decade and half has been researching emerging technology, educating executives and business leaders on their likely impact and disruption.
He a certified Futurist with the Institute For The Future, accepted into the Association of Professional Futurists in 2020, and recently helped author a report on the Future of Space for Deloitte NExT Futures team.
A figure in the cybersecurity landscape, Tom Johnson transitioned from a teenage hacker to a respected cybersecurity student and professional. His journey provides valuable insights into the evolution of cybersecurity threats and defences, particularly the concept of the “Human Firewall.”
Tom Johnson’s fascination with hacking began at a young age. Despite facing legal troubles as a teenager for his hacking activities, he redirected his skills towards positive contributions in cybersecurity.
Tom has been recognised for his expertise, being invited to speak at prominent events such as the International Communications Data and Digital Forensics (ICDDF) conference. His presentations focus on social engineering and the vulnerabilities posed by human factors in cybersecurity.
Eyad is a renowned researcher in Machine Learning and AI and leads Robert Gordon University’s Interactive Machine Vision research Group.
He has pioneered the development of AI-driven solutions across different domains and helped businesses to intelligently transform existing practices. Following his completion of a PhD in 3D modeling and human face recognition at the University of Bradford, he joined Robert Gordon University School of Computing as a lecturer in 2009. He then progressed to be a Senior Lecturer in 2015 and a Reader in 2018.
In 2020, he was promoted to the rank of full Professor in Machine Learning and Computer Vision. His research is focused on applied computer vision, deep learning, and machine learning. He collaborates extensively with various industries across Scotland, actively contributing to the creation of state-of-the-art AI solutions to optimise and digitally transform their operations. With a track record encompassing over 100 publications in AI and Machine Learning, supervision of 12 successful PhD completions, and leadership on more than 30 innovative industry projects, he was recognised with the Knowledge Transfer Partnership Academic of the Year award in 2023 and as a finalist for the 2024 Scottish Knowledge Exchange Award.
James Allman-Talbot is Head of Incident Response and Threat Intelligence at Quorum Cyber, with over 14 years of experience working in cyber security across a variety of industries including aerospace and defence, law enforcement, and professional services.
Over the years he has built and developed incident response and threat intelligence capabilities for government bodies and multi-national organisations, and has worked closely with board level executives during incidents to advise on recovery and cyber risk management.
Sheryl Newman is the founder and CEO of B-Corp certified Appetite for Business, launched in 2016, which offers scalability solutions for businesses through accessible technology.
With a background in supporting companies with Digital Transformation and implementing Microsoft technologies, Sheryl is a passionate advocate for women in business and women in technology, holding previous roles such as President of Women Connect and Co-Founder of Girl Geek Scotland.
Sachin Chudasama is a Senior Consultant and Data Engineer Specialist at TAAP, with extensive experience across industries such as oil & gas, retail, automotive, health, logistics, and transport. He specialises in helping clients develop and implement effective data strategies and digital transformation initiatives. Sachin’s expertise enables organisations to optimise their data capabilities, ensuring they can successfully navigate the evolving demands of the digital landscape.
Director of Enterprises Sustainability at PwC, Gemma Jones ensures sustainability strategy is focused on areas of material concern to stakeholders and driving activity to make this happen.
In her role, Gemma is accountable for sustainability disclosures and communications through public reporting and other channels, driving down corporate emissions with innovative approaches and colleague driven engagement and action, supporting communities and colleagues through employee volunteering and engagement approaches, and developing third-sector and charitable partnerships to create positive social and environmental impact.
Head of Technical Delivery at i-confidential with over 25 years’ security experience, Brian has extensive experience in planning and delivering Security Architecture, Cyber Security and running of security platforms and functions, primarily within large financial organisations.
His previous roles include Head of Security Architecture (Big 4 UK Bank) where he was accountable for the delivery of Cyber security requirements, Head of IT Security (Big 4 UK Bank) delivering global IT Security as a set of clearly defined services, overall accountability for the introduction of change into the infrastructure owned by the Global IT Security function to ensure compliance with architectural standards and operational principles as well as change management standards.
With a substantial knowledge of Control Frameworks (including ISO27001, ISF SoGP, NIST, Sox, HKMA, MAS) Brian has a track record in building teams, developing functions and implementing and improving processes.
James (Jim) Gough is a software architect, author, and Java Champion. He has authored “Optimizing Java” and “Mastering API Architecture,” both published by O’Reilly.
Currently a Distinguished Engineer leading the Firmwide API Program at Morgan Stanley, he is responsible for designing secure API architectures using Kubernetes and Service Mesh, emphasizing Zero Trust frameworks and Micro-segmentation.
Founder and CEO of the leading UX and service design consultancy User Vision, for over 20 years Chris and his team help clients provide better experiences to their customers through a wide range of UX strategy, experience design, service design and accessibility solutions. He has worked with multiple blue-chip corporate clients and a variety of government agencies to improve their understanding of user needs and to deliver user centred products and services.
He is passionate about discovering and designing for the human side of new products and services that aim at making our lives better. Chris has particular interests in ethnographic research methods, information architecture, web accessibility and remote usability testing. He also shares his experience through in-house and public training and regularly speaks at conferences. Chris was also a ScotlandIS Board member from 2009 to 2013.
Nick is a software engineer, technical leader and software architect who has worked within a wide range of industries over the last 20 years. He is currently working for Morgan Stanley as a Tech Lead responsible for building and operating a Kubernetes and Service Mesh-based platform to provide API connectivity across the organisation.
His passion for technology and communities have led to him becoming the leader for the Manchester JUG and Cloud Native Glasgow, as well as being a member of the program committee for the Devoxx UK conference.
With a background in computer science and over 15 years of experience in the software industry, Abhinav has gained extensive experience working with people across the globe to solve business problems, both big and small.
Abhinav has collaborated with numerous customers worldwide to build and support a wide range of applications in areas such as Finance, Higher Education, Manufacturing, Engineering and Construction, and Oil & Gas.
In his current role as Product Developer and QA Manager at Inoapps, he leads a global team of system designers, software developers, QA engineers, and Database Administrators.
Jo is a Consulting Manager at Sopra Steria Next. With a background in operational leadership and over a decade of consulting experience, she has helped complex multi-national organisations design and implement optimised operating models.
Jo has led both rapid transformations and strategic multi-year global programmes across various industries, including energy & utilities, financial services, and the public sector.
She is a passionate advocate for human-centred organisations.
Trevor Bolden is Head of Technical Centre of Excellence at Resillion. Before strategically leading Resillion’s Penetration Testing and Red Team services, Trevor has earned his 14+ years of industry experience by being an accredited Red Team and Penetration Tester.
Some of his previous roles includes CREST Certified Simulated Attack Specialist (CCSAS), CHECK Team Leader (CTL), CREST Certified Infrastructure Tester (CCT Inf), CREST Certified Web Application Tester and many more.
Daniel leads the Nuxt core team – previously CTO of a SaaS startup and founder of a creative agency focusing on clarity of vision and message. His open-source work has a focus in the TypeScript and Vue ecosystems and he’s involved in consultancy with companies around the world, particularly around JAMstack, serverless and software architecture. He’s based in Scotland where he lives with his family and cat.
Simone Stumpf is a Professor of Responsible and Interactive Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the School of Computing Science at University of Glasgow. She has over 20 years research experience focussing on user interactions with AI systems. Her work includes self-management systems for people living with long-term conditions, developing teachable object recognisers for people who are blind or have low vision, and investigating AI fairness in various domain applications.
Her work has contributed to shaping Explainable AI (XAI) and Interactive Machine Learning, providing design principles to enable better human-AI interactions and investigating the (sometimes undesirable) effects of greater transparency. The prime aim of her work is to enable everyone to benefit from trustworthy and safe AI systems.
Neil has worked in IT support and cyber security for over 20 years and has extensive experience working with a wide range of companies.
As Head of Cyber Essentials for IASME, Neil is a member of the IASME and NCSC Joint Cyber Essentials Technical Working Group.
He works with a wide range of organisations, scheme stakeholders, and certifying bodies to promote the technical strategy and improve the awareness, consistency and accessibility of Cyber Essentials.
Ellie is cofounder of InIdSol, a London-based consultancy specialising in digital identity, privacy, and secure communications. Her previous adventures have ranged from mission-critical cockpit avionics and broadcast automation networks to DNS and social media. Best known for her talks on the more eclectic uses of Ruby and Go, in recent years Ellie’s developed a fascination with WebSockets that’s drawn her into the world of vanilla JavaScript and peer-to-peer web applications.
Patty is a Venezuelan living in Scotland. She has +20 years of experience in the tech industry and a background education in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. She is a Technical Director at Charles River Laboratories.
Patty is a member of the Google Developer Advisory Board, an organiser at Google Developers Group Glasgow, serves as an Ambassador for Google’s Women Techmakers, and is recognised as a Google Developer Expert (GDE) in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and a Google Cloud Champion Innovator.
Stephen has been working with AI systems for over 25 years. He focuses on delivering high value industrial decision support applications, and achieves this by adapting and translating advances in AI into deployable solutions both in his role as CTO of Bellrock Technology and as Associate Principal and Executive Dean of Engineering at the University of Strathclyde.
He was awarded the 2021 IEEE Richard Harold Kaufmann Award for outstanding contributions in industrial systems engineering.When there isn’t a global pandemic preventing it, he spends his free time on the judo mat.
Currently, he is finding as many ways as possible of staying fit and building up strength so he can eventually return to the mat without too much pain or harm!
Kevin Robertson, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of Acumen Cyber, has spent the last 15 years in various senior cyber security roles.
His career began in the Royal Air Force’s Deployable Cyber Security team where he provided support to airfields across the globe. After his time in the RAF, Kevin moved to Cisco where he supported clients across various FTSE 100 businesses, governmental bodies, and other clients across Europe. In addition to that, he spent a 2-year stint in Qatar, working closely with Critical National Infrastructure providers to improve their cyber security controls.
Kevin further served as Head of Security for The Ardonagh Group, one of the world’s leading independent insurance brokerages. Now Kevin leads the technical & operations capability for Acumen Cyber, one of the UK’s most innovative dedicated cyber security firms.
Founder of the Rawkode Academy, open source contributor, and loving husband to my wife, father of two amazing kids, and a plethora of animals. David has been developing software professionally for nearly 20 years, starting with embedded systems written in C back in 2004, and has spent that entire time learning the paradigms of different programming languages, including C++, PHP, Java, and Haskell – though more recently preferring to work with Go, Rust, and Pony.
Rhona Campbell is Chair of Investing Women Angels, an all-female syndicate focused on the advancement of female-led businesses and female investors through support, education, and investment. To-date IWA has invested over £2.3m in 25 companies.
Rhona is an expert in global product management and marketing, with over 25 years’ experience working with SMEs and multinational technology companies to achieve growth and success in global markets. She has helped companies to commercialise and launch new products, enter new markets as well as develop and implement international product and marketing strategies.
Rhona set up her own consultancy working with start-up and investor-funded technology companies to assess commercial feasibility of new products, formulate product strategy and take leading-edge technology to market.
Rhona has been a member of Investing Women Angels since its inception and has invested in and mentored a number of early-stage, female-led companies as well as represents IWA on company boards.
Jen is an seasoned finance and operational executive with over 30 years’ experience working with professional service firms such as PwC & EY, as well as global & boutique financial services companies, in the UK and internationally. She has a proven track record in establishing new operations & delivering process change in challenging business environments and has been involved in a range of corporate finance activity throughout her career.
In latter years, Jen has focussed on supporting early stage and growing businesses within the enterprise ecosystem, helping them understand and manage their commercial considerations and investment requirements as well as the practical delivery of their business plans.
This engagement has been from a variety of perspectives – public sector (Highlands & Islands Enterprise), angel investor (Investing Women Angels), mentor (IWA, Kilfinan Group & CodeBase), non executive director (DSL Business Finance) and she is currently working with an exciting new business community at Rosemains Steading in Midlothian to support the growth aspirations of their young businesses.
Jen has also operated at the coal face of business growth herself as part of the leadership team (CFO/executive director) of an early-stage high growth altnet company delivering fibre broadband infrastructure to rural communities across Scotland. This capital intensive business also involved several significant private and institutional fundraises and the need to work closely with the Project Gigabit team of BDUK.
Keith O’Donnell is the Managing Director of Feynic Technology Ltd, an advisory consultancy focused on the commercialisation of emerging technologies. He is currently the chair of the Emerging Technologies special interest group within the Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS).
He previously led the EMEA Innovation Program for Morgan Stanley, seeding their Spatial Computing & Quantum Technology programs and developing numerous proof-of-concept projects across a number of disciplines relevant to this special interest group proposal.
Working across numerous industries since 2001, Keith has earned a varied skillset that enables him to adapt quickly to new technologies and disciplines. This experience covers the construction, logistics, finance and technology sectors. He currently holds an affiliate position with the Scottish International Space Advisory Council (SISAC) and is an active member of the Global Scot network.
Keith earned his degree in Business from the University of Strathclyde, having previously studied Genetics & Biotechnology at the University of Glasgow.
Jordan Schroeder is a highly regarded cyber security expert who has gained global recognition for his work. He has been named the UK CISO of the Year and is known for his ability to communicate complex cyber security concepts in an accessible way. Having lived and worked in Canada, the US, and the UK, Jordan has a truly international perspective on cybersecurity.
Throughout his career, Jordan has been recognised for his innovative approach to cyber security. He has developed and implemented unique strategies that have led to groundbreaking projects such as SelfPhish, the CyberScotland Shield, HFACS-Cyber, and the STOic TTX cyber security tabletop exercise framework.
Currently, Jordan serves as the Managing CISO for Barrier, where he is responsible for overseeing governance, risk, and compliance in multiple facets of cybersecurity. With his extensive experience, deep knowledge, and innovative thinking, Jordan is committed to improving the cyber resilience of organizations and nations.
Paul is a Founder and Partner of award winning Venture Capital firm, Par Equity. He Chairs the Par Investor Network, working with others to grow, and diversify the range of individual investors that contribute to their funding mix, skills capability and deal origination across the North of the UK, with a substantial to fast growing technology businesses within Scotland.
Paul is an entrepreneur and serial angel investor, having personally invested in around 100 companies, and acted in an NXD capacity in several within his portfolio with a track record of building value for companies in the technology and services sector and taking them to a successful exit. Prior to setting up Par Equity, Paul founded three previous businesses: Taranata Group (inc. Head Resourcing, Change Recruitment Group & Hanya Partners), Direct Resources, acquired by NASDAQ listed iGate Corporation; and RecruitmentScotland.com, which was acquired by NASDAQ listed business, TMP Worldwide.
Paul has a BSc in Physics from Manchester University and is Visiting Professor and Honorary Doctorate at Edinburgh Napier University Business School. Outside of work, Paul likes fixing things, cooking and music, including playing his guitar collection. He also enjoys spending time with family, which includes three grandchildren.
Michael MacLennan is the Founder and Director of Faur, a strategic communications consultancy based in Scotland.
With extensive experience leading digital marketing and communications initiatives for global brands like Red Bull, Brunswick, and Barclaycard, Michael has developed cutting-edge strategies that have driven growth and innovation.
Michael’s expertise spans digital content strategy, social media, and stakeholder engagement, launching pioneering projects in virtual reality and building successful online communities. He also founded and led the award-winning charity Covid Aid and has served on the boards of other charities, while also being a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
Matthew Revett is a director at leading public affairs and media agency, Grayling.
He has nearly 20 years experiences guiding organisations on their strategic engagement with the UK, Scottish and European political institutions.
Matthew has focused on highly regulated sectors, including telecoms, energy and tech. He is an expert in public policy engagement, taking complex regulatory issues and translating them into engaging integrated campaigns and issues for a range of Grayling’s clients.
Robbie is an established engineer and entrepreneur who has successfully scaled his own bagpipe technology company globally while pursuing his academic studies. He possesses valuable expertise in bringing technical products to market and increasing their visibility. Notably, Robbie’s accomplishments include his recent appearance on Dragons’ Den, and has since been acknowledged as Scotland’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2023.
As a graduate of the University of Strathclyde in Product Design Engineering, Robbie brings a unique blend of technical and commercial knowledge to his role at Bellrock Technology, where he focuses on Product Marketing & Sales.
Outside of his professional endeavours, Robbie frequently travels to perform with his bagpipes, or dedicating his time to training for marathons.
Peter Proud is the Founder and CEO of Forrit, a digital technology company headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland. Before founding Forrit, Peter was head of digital strategy for Europe for Microsoft.
Prior to this Peter was one of the founding Partners of Accenture Interactive as Managing Director of Strategic Accounts and Partnerships where he provided integrated marketing, technology, and analytics solutions for the digital world.
Before joining Accenture, Peter had an initial stint at Microsoft for 15 years as a senior director managing accounts for some of the world’s leading household names and was integral in the establishment of Microsoft’s ‘One Microsoft’ initiative. A passionate advocate for the digital technologies industry, Peter is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Visiting Professor at the University of Strathclyde’s Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship and the University’s first Inspire Entrepreneur in Residence.