BUY A TICKET & BE PART OF IT

Niall Lavery is the CEO of Veriteer – a “customer agency” that helps consumer brands build the ability to keep up with rapidly changing consumer needs.  He has 20 years of helping organisations to innovate, and has collaborated with brands as diverse as Disney, NASA, Sony, Tesco, Sky, Warner Brothers, ALDI, the NHS, federal governments and the UN. Niall has an academic background in natural language programming and artificial intelligence, and focuses on making marketing, retail and product teams more customer centric, more digital and more effective.

Digital evangelist and champion of outsourcing, Paula is a seasoned executive with more than 20 year experience in global customer management and is reshaping success for Convergys Europe by transforming and growing successful partnerships with Blue Chip leaders, innovative start-ups and next-gen/emerging markets, around the world. A 115,000 people strong global leader, Convergys has been living in the digital future ahead of time, redefining the critical role that humanization plays in creating and delivering the future digital journeys of forward-thinking organizations and their customers.  Herself a linguist, turned curator of multi-lingual customer and BPO solutions, Paula is a true advocate of the game-changing AI-Human fusion in today’s anytime-anywhere customer experience. Not only a proponent for the digital future, Paula is a recognized influencer for the workforce of the future – a driving force for gender equality in the industry, Paula is the founder and Global Lean In Chapter Leader for Convergys as a partner for the LeanIn.org Lean In Program, championing diversity and inclusion and apostle for progressive female leadership.

Graeme Clarke is an NI software industry veteran with over 20 years’ experience spanning software development and management. He is Global Service Manager for the SQS Dev-Ops service line and is also responsible for the Research and Development wing of SQS’s Digital Labs, bringing bleeding edge technologies and platforms to our delivery centres around the world. He is a central figure in the SQS mission to “Transform the World through Quality” and establish us as key digital partners with our clients.

Rory is a commercial law solicitor, recognised as a market leader in IT, internet and software law.  Over the last twenty-four years he has advised leading UK, ROI and US public and private sector businesses on the licensing and protection of software. In 2007 Rory set up Forde Campbell with Mathew Forde as a specialist Northern Irish tech firm – ten years later the firm is recognised by UK legal  industry bibles Legal 500 and Chambers  as a top tier IP and IT practice. Rory specialises in data protection, and is a self-confessed standard bearer for the GDPR as part of the business culture of the future – as opposed to a one-off compliance nightmare. In particular, Rory focusses on the realities of data’s use within technology, arguing that the benefits of practical GDPR processes and a privacy by design approach heavily outweigh the over-hyped risk of penalties. As a lawyer advising company boards for over two decades, and separately as long-standing board member and audit committee chair of the Community Relations Council, Rory believes that GDPR has placed the use and protection of personal data permanently onto the company risk register and board meeting agenda.

David has 6+ years of digital delivery experience, his career commenced in management consultancy where he rapidly developed a wealth of client delivery experience across the UK, Ireland and Germany building analytics, marketing, customer service and eCommerce solutions.  David specialises in Product Management and is passionate about simply making people’s, both external consumers and internal system users, daily lives better through more useful, usable and delightful technology solutions.

He has applied various flavours of Agile in many different business contexts and settings and is passionate that investment in people, effective teaming and strong leadership are core to successful outcomes.  Recently, David joined the exciting XP development lab @ Allstate helping to drive innovation and product development from Belfast. David and his team recently won the Digital DNA 2018 Project of the Year award for the rapid deployment of a new B2B API that facilitated the generation of a substantial new commercial relationship.

Georgina O’Leary is the Director of Global Compozed Labs and Claims Technology at Allstate Northern Ireland, a global in-house center with over 2,200 employees that delivers technology solutions to Allstate Insurance, the largest publicly held property and casualty insurer in North America. Georgina has been instrumental in the delivery of software product lifecycle, extreme programming and cloud engineering at Allstate. She is now embedding this in the claims area delivering on the digital experience for customers.

Georgina recently accepted the position on Fintech Envoy for Northern Ireland. Georgina will be responsible for promoting Northern Ireland’s thriving fintech sector and championing it as a place for firms to develop and grow their business.

With over 20 years’ experience in technology businesses from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, and Georgina has expertise in leading and transforming organizations to become digital enterprises. Georgina has led university engagements, hackathons, and external engagements for Allstate as a highly accomplished technologist. Georgina earned a BSc (Hons) degree in Applied Computing from Waterford Institute of Technology and an MSc (1st class honours) in Innovation and Leadership from Sheffield University.

Georgina has also received honours from Trinity College, Dublin in their executive breakout program and added the art of design thinking to her skillset, which she is applying in her work to introduce delivery of Extreme Agile practices to Allstate.

Søren Rode Andreasen is Chief Digital Officer and member of the Executive Committee at Danske Bank UK. He has more than 10 years of experience within the Nordic financial sector and a deep technical understanding. His primary interests are innovation within retail/wholesale banking and commercialisation of disruptive ideas and technologies.

Leo Johnson leads PwC’s Disruption practice and co-presents the Radio 4 series “FutureProofing”. Leo explores the cutting edge in exponential technology, probing game changers both short term and long, from autonomous transport and payment by data to radical life extension, quantum computing, and the RFID chipped workforce. Leo aims to demystify what in the world of exponential technologies is real, what is hype, and what will have long-term impact on business. Formerly at the World Bank, Leo is the co-Founder of the advisory firm Sustainable Finance, now part of the PwC group. He is the co-author of “Turnaround Challenge: Business and the City of the Future” (Oxford University Press, 2013) and a Visiting Business Fellow at the Smith School of Enterprise & Environment at Oxford University.

With a background as a commercial mechanic, Chris joined DVSA in 2003 as an enforcement vehicle examiner. He moved into MOT policy in 2012 and became a Product Owner on DVSA’s first digital transformation project to modernise the MOT service.  These were his first steps into the world of agile, not to mention large-scale digital delivery at a ferocious pace. The MOT Testing Service handles 42 million MOT tests annually, across 22,500 garages and 88,000 users. Our Check MOT History and Get MOT Reminders services, are particularly popular with citizens and businesses – who access the data at the API level – and are excellent examples of the data sharing and public facing products that Chris is proud to champion.

Austin is the head of Life Science and Healthcare at Analytics Engines. He completed his PhD in biomedical science in the University of Ulster and has a career path that spans startups and multinationals from lab science to bioinformatics through to product management and commercialisation. Austin has a passion for new technology and its impacts on our society.

Noga Tal is Head of Global Strategic Initiatives at Microsoft for Startups. In her role she’s focused on building and managing some of the company’s newest global startup engagement programs and partnerships, including its focus on female founders and innovation partnerships. In previous roles, she led different areas of Microsoft’s startup cloud adoption strategy and execution world-wide. Noga is also an advisor and mentor to several Seed stage startups in Tel Aviv. Prior to her work at Microsoft, Noga held various business, product and marketing management roles in the consumer space and in the non-profit industry. Noga is a passionate advocate of women in tech and in her spare time mentors and coaches women on pursuing and developing careers in tech.

As Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the GSMA, Michael O’Hara leads the GSMA’s global marketing and communications programmes, working closely with the organisation’s membership to identify, prioritise and execute on strategic marketing issues for the mobile industry. Since joining the organisation in 2008, Michael has been instrumental in establishing the GSMA as the voice of the mobile industry.

In 2009, he created Mobile World Live to serve as the industry’s premier news portal, with Mobile World Live TV as a key element. He conceived the Mobile Economy report series, which provides global and regional views of the mobile industry, supported by data from GSMA Intelligence. In 2016, he launched the GSMA Industry Purpose initiative, focusing on how mobile is contributing to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and connecting everyone and everything to a better future. Michael is also responsible for many aspects of Mobile World Congress and other GSMA events, including conference programmes, the Ministerial Programme, the Innovation City exhibition, and all event branding, marketing and communications.

Before the GSMA, Michael was the General Manager for Marketing and Industry Management within the Communications Sector at Microsoft. In this role, he drove Microsoft’s initiatives to deliver world-class software solutions to the communications industry, including telecommunications companies, hosting service providers and media and entertainment organisations. Prior to Microsoft, Michael was Vice President, Marketing at Sonus Networks, a leading provider of carrier voice over IP (VoIP) solutions, where he led the company’s marketing strategy and oversaw all marketing functions. Previously, Michael served as Chief Marketing Officer at Nortel Networks in Europe, responsible for Nortel’s marketing and sales operations programs in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Also at Nortel, he was Vice President of Global Business Operations reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, and he held additional management positions in a number of areas including sales, operations, customer service, and manufacturing engineering with Nortel Networks in Europe. He holds an honours degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the Queens University of Belfast. Follow Michael on Twitter: @jmohara

Michele Corkey is Principal of St Ronan’s College Lurgan.  St Ronan’s College, newly formed in 2015 is the amalgamation of three Post Primary Schools in Lurgan.  

I have  dedicated my career to the development of Catholic, non-selective education and I believe that the establishment of St Ronan’s College creates a blueprint for the future of education in Northern Ireland. A teacher for 28 years, I have worked in a number of schools throughout my career, St Mary’s High School in Newry, St Louise’s Comprehensive College in Belfast and St Mark’s High School in Warrenpoint. With over 10 years’ experience at Principal level, I am committed to ensuring pupils have, through curriculum and pastoral provision, opportunities to explore many new experiences, making them more aware of their strengths, preparing them for the world of work by making informed judgements and equipping them with the skills to become lifelong, independent learners.

Diane is experienced educator with ten years of classroom experience, graduating with a First Class (Hons) Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) Post Primary Business & Enterprise Education from Stranmillis University College, Belfast. Since 2006, Diane has worked in a variety of educational settings  including co-educational, controlled schools, integrated and voluntary grammar sector delivering A Level, GCSE Business Studies and careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG).

During her time in the classroom, Diane played a key role in the growth of the Business Studies department at Banbridge Academy. She worked as an examiner for CCEA with the introduction of new A Levels and GCSE specification to bring greater understanding of the marking criteria to her students and colleagues. Diane’s interest for careers was channeled into organising whole school careers fairs at the Academy and bringing awareness of alternative careers pathways to school leavers.  Through industry connections and networks beyond the classroom, Diane brought the subject of Business Studies to life – organising key guest speakers and trips to Google, Starbucks and Lidl. Her passion for learning outside the classroom, included leading a trans-Atlantic trip to NYC where students experienced the Federal Reserve, business operations at Macy’s and a tour of PwC’s Madison Avenue.

It was her passion  for enterprise education and desire to increase more students’ awareness of their career options that led to her choice to leave the classroom and lead Catalyst Inc’s Generation Innovation programme. Through this role she continued to forge productive links with industry to deliver collaborative education programmes for 14 – 19 year olds, as well as delivering teacher training with CCEA and the Education Training Inspectorate in Northern Ireland around skills for 21st Century employability. Her key achievement was piloting a trip for Year 10 students to attend the world’s leading tech and mobile conference, MWC and YoMo in Barcelona. An eye opening experience to inspire and challenge the young people to consider the potentiality of tech and the complexity of the problems we will strive to solve in the network revolution.

Mike Barrett is the Co-Founder and CEO of Unosquare LLC, providing healthcare and financial services clients with IT consulting and software engineering services from offices in the USA, Mexico and Belfast, UK. Mike has over 30 years sales and marketing experience with 12 years in tech leadership roles working with offshore and nearshore companies.

Stephen is an experienced senior technology executive having worked with firms from large multinationals to niche specialists in the areas of digital transformation, Big Data and analytics.

At Allstate he is Director of Enterprise Big Data and Analytics Platforms and Allstate Technology and Strategic Ventures Data Science. Prior to Allstate he held a number of board level roles and has acted as a technical advisor to the UK Technology Strategy Board and the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Research and Development programs.

He is married to Silke and has two children. He enjoys the outdoors, especially hiking and sailing.

Naomi Timperley is an Honorary Industry Fellow at the University of Salford Business School, Co Founder of Tech North Advocates and Chair of investment platform Capital Pilot. She was named as one of the Maserati 100 in 2015 – a definite list of entrepreneurs who support the entrepreneurs of tomorrow from the Centre of Entrepreneurs. Naomi is also a mentor and was nominated in 2015 by the European Mentoring and Coaching Council for Mentor of the Year. She is a TEDx speaker and an experienced partnerships and engagement consultant with established relationships across the UK – specialising in the tech and digital sector. Naomiwas named as a Rising Star in the Computer Weekly Most Influential Women in UK IT 2017 and sits on the board of Future Everything.

Kieran is currently a VP of Marketing at HubSpot, responsible for leading the marketing efforts for sales products, free tools, and the growth team.

Aisling’s role as Product Manager is to help bridge the gap between the development team and stakeholders across other functions, both internal and external. With a background in Product Testing of multiple enterprise payments platforms, she has a keen interest to grasp new concepts and methodologies and develop innovative and creative solutions to problems.

Prior to PwC she worked at CyberSource/Visa, primarily in the Payment Acceptance sector, specialising in Integration Testing of traditional and alternative payment gateways and methods. At Bitnet Technologies, Aisling held a dual role of Product Owner and Product Test Engineer, responsible for leading an agile team focusing on back of house products for the Bitcoin processing platform.

Most recently, within PwC’s Digital Engineering team, she has led the product approach to a number of platform and product developments, across a wide variety of industries including Financial Services such as Insurance and Banking, Government, Construction and Energy industries. She also plays a key role in building out the Product and Design Thinking functions within PwC NI.

Throughout his 25 year professional career Sean has specialised in Mergers & Acquisitions, Private Equity, and the growth, scaling and succession of ownership within entrepreneur led and family owned businesses.  In October 2015 he was conferred a Visiting Professorship in Entrepreneurship by the Ulster University Business School.

Dan Kiely is co-founder of Voxpro, a premium provider of beautiful customer experience, technical support and sales operations solutions to the technology market.

As CEO and co-founder, Dan takes overall responsibility for the strategic vision and direction of Voxpro, including defining business strategy and goals, partner engagement, culture and brand sustainment, and key leadership talent acquisition.

Using his entrepreneurial passion and creativity, he dreams big and encourages innovation in all aspects of the company. His vision for Voxpro has always been to create something unique and unforgettable.

Voxpro’s 3,000+ strong team members across Ireland, North America, Europe and the Philippines supports the customer experience needs of top global brands in over 35 languages.

Voxpro’s growing partner list includes some of the most powerful and innovative technology companies. These client partners are a source of inspiration and continue to propel us forward on this exciting and successful journey.

Jerry is one of the leading technical visionaries in Northern Ireland and is responsible for emerging technology and the technical output and delivery for Origin Digital. Jerry has over 20 years of experience in software engineering and has designed and developed award winning large scale web and mobile applications for the likes of; Tourism Ireland, Diageo, Kingspan, Chain Reaction Cycles, BP, BBC, and Alfa Romeo.

Jonny co-founded Origin Digital in 2006 and has helped lead the growth of one of Northern Ireland’s most talented digital teams. His key focus is on Strategy, Creative Direction and the design of valuable Customer Experiences. Jonny has a 15-year track record of implementing digital strategies and experiences across the private and public sector for clients such as; Danske Bank, NI Water, Grand Opera House and Abbey Insurance.

A business leader with other thirty years’ leadership experience gained in dynamic financial service environments within UK, Ireland and Australia. Tim is responsible for understanding customers’ needs and then building, developing and promoting customer propositions.

Mark is the CEO of Kingsbridge private hospital, Belfast but has for the last year also been acting CEO of Smartcaredoc Int, an online doctor consultation platform. Mark has responsibility to ensure that the smartcaredoc business reaches its full potential in markets outside the USA. He manages an experienced team from his Belfast, base and has set a team focus on emerging as the market leader of online consultations in the UK within the next 24 months.

He has a vision of a day, in the not too distant future, where an entire Community GP practice of 2000+ patients will all stream vital sign data 24/7/365 from wearable devices to the doctors’ hub. In doing so they will see trends that cause concern and be able to proactively, provide early intervention and treatment; “Technologically Enabled Preventative Medicine”. The starting point for the that vision is on line consultations.

Mark has diverse and extensive experience in various aspects of healthcare including, management, training, regulation, insurance and also clinically in Radiology. Mark is also a part time lecturer at the Ulster University and sits on the board of the NOW Group, a social enterprise charity that supports young people with learning difficulties into employment and fulfilling their potential.

Jill, Digital Marketing Director at Origin Digital, is well known in the digital arena as an online marketing expert and internet strategist. With a vast array of experience in ecommerce, social media and internet marketing, Jill’s approach is both refreshingly energetic and commercially astute. Over the past 12 years Jill has worked with High Street retailers such as Levis Europe and Toys R Us as well as household names such as Johnson & Johnson and financial institutions such as Danske Bank, who have all experienced first-hand Jill’s ability to grow online sales through online marketing strategies.

Jill is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Ulster on their Post Grad Digital Marketing & Communications course, and has worked on Rutgers University Fortune 500 Management Program providing Ecommerce Workshops to the Directors and managers of Fortune 500 Companies.

A regular speaker on topics including eTourism, ecommerce and digital strategies for almost 10 years, Jill also provides training and consultancy on behalf of eConsultancy.

Follow Jill on Twitter @JillLRobb or on @OriginDigital

Terry is CEO, of Outsource Solutions, which he founded over 18 years ago. The leading IT and telecoms company employs staff across offices in Antrim, Belfast, Cookstown, Dublin and Edinburgh, providing design, implementation, 24/7/365 proactive monitoring, maintenance and repair to customers IT infrastructures.

Outsource customers include leading names from the hospitality, engineering, legal, professional services, manufacturing, energy, financial services and food sectors. It is also responsible for keeping one of Northern Ireland’s main airports running thanks to an on-site Outsource office.

Terry prides himself in putting the customer before profit and ‘redesigning’ the IT Service Provider Model in the best interests of his clients to help them deliver better business through better technology.

Andrew is MD of Dawson Andrews, a digital product firm based in Belfast. Since it’s launch four years ago they have secured F500 contracts and successfully launched offices in Sydney and Berlin in 2017. His focus remains on building a company bespoke to the needs of the next digital giants and shaking up the digital agency model while he does so.

From breaking Y-Combinator records to launching international whiskey brands, Cameron is a trusted ear to some of the most influential names, families and boards around the world. He founded Dawson Andrews, a digital product studio based in Belfast, where he heads up strategy. Cameron spends his time travelling the world and exploring the future. Living in Manly, Sydney with his wife Katy, Cameron is heading the growth of Dawson Andrews in key strategic geographies across APAC.

Joe Drumgoole is Director of Developer Advocacy EMEA at MongoDB. At MongoDB, he helps developers to understand and utilise MongoDB in order to unleash the power of software and data for innovators everywhere.

Serial startup founder, angel investor and mentor, Ash Ali sold his first internet business aged 19. As the first marketing director of Just Eat UK, he ‘growth-hacked’ it at breakneck speed, leading to a staggering £1.5 billion IPO in 2014. Next, he founded Fare Exchange, a bootstrapped startup that generated over £25 million in revenue in just a few short years. Currently, he mentors and advises several startup investments globally, and has spoken at TEDx, business schools and technology expos, where he shares his unique lean startup and marketing insights. His new book “The Unfair Advantage: Boost your Chances of Startup Success” is out soon.

Gillian Armstrong works in on Conversational AI design and development both in the Cognitive Technologies team in Liberty IT, and for Workgrid Software building the intelligent workplace of tomorrow. She has more than a decade’s worth of experience in the Software Industry and using technology in innovative new ways to improve people’s lives.

Gillian McCann works as Head of Cloud Engineering & AI at Workgrid Software. Workgrid Software is a Liberty Mutual startup company focused on delivering Intelligent Workplace products for the enterprise. Prior to WorkGrid Software worked most recently as a LIT Cloud Architect & Technical Product Owner of the Liberty Mutual Cognitive Technology team and as such responsible for the explorations into how Chatbots and Conversational AI could be leveraged to improve the employee experience for our global employees. Gillian is a passionate advocate of Serverless Architectures with a keen interest in how Conversational Interfaces, Machine Learning and AI can be applied in internal and external products.

Jeremy leads PwC’s VR/AR proposition, helping clients understand and quantify the benefits of virtual & augmented reality technology.

On a personal level, Jeremy is invested (both mentally and financially) in VR and AR. He believes these technologies will play a significant role in how we live and work in the future. He’ll also tell this to anybody who will listen and has spoken at conferences and festivals across the world from SXSW in Austin to the Battle of Ideas in London.

As part of his mission to educate, connect and inspire, he is the co-president of the London chapter of the VR/AR Association, a global industry trade group for virtual reality and augmented reality  with chapters, committees and 3,700+ organisations as members worldwide.

You can find Jeremy on Twitter under the handle @jeremycdalton

Jamie Bartlett is the Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at the think-tank Demos, where he has become one of the UK’s leading thinkers on politics and technology. Jamie’s most recent book The People VS Tech is released on the 19th April and discussion the precarious future of democratic society in the tech age. He is also author of Radicals (2017) about political outsiders and best-selling The Dark Net (2014) about internet subcultures, which has been translated into 13 languages. He writes regularly for several national media outlets, and recently presented a major BBC2 documentary series The Secrets of Silicon Valley.

Nigel is an experienced and innovative digital content producer with a passion for technology. After 20 years at the BBC, leading teams to produce unique digital projects across web, TV and Radio he set up StoryFX, a creative consultancy bringing stories to life with the latest digital platforms, including Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.

His latest role with Digital Catapult as Immersive Lab Lead means he is engaging with a range of SME’s, industry stakeholders and individuals to highlight the potential of Immersive Technology in driving innovative business opportunities in Northern Ireland, by showcasing the cutting edge technology available at the Digital Catapult Immersive Lab in Belfast.

Brendan McCourt is CEO of New Red (www.newred.tv) and a VR/AR content creator working in documentary, drama and interactive Unity and 3d Max for various platforms. He is a former BBC journalist and filmmaker based in Belfast. He is a twice RTS (Royal Television Society) winning producer and director, (2015) BAFTA Nominee (2009) and an AIB winner (2014). His background and interest is in factual and current affairs investigation, crime, politics, human interest, and drama.

Neon is using immersive technologies to improve peoples’ health and wellbeing. Neon’s first product BreatheVR is an app to manage chronic pain and improve mental health and has launched on the Oculus store. Their second product an AR game Whack A Mo is now being piloted in the Belfast Childrens’ Hospital. Neon is lead by award-winning design visionary Deepa Mann-Kler.

Deepa directed and produced her first virtual reality experience “RETNE” built for HTC Vive and demoed at SxSW17.

www.discoverneon.com deepa@discoverneon.com

Abbie is Head of Operations at On Music – a music metadata services provider based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She is responsible for the strategic leadership of high performance teams who process large volumes of complex data for television broadcasters, collective management organisations and music publishers. With a background in business and a passion for total quality management, Abbie also manages the development and onboarding of new clients. Abbie has over 10 years experience handling specialist data sets for the music industry and works with clients such as the BBC, PRSformusic, PPL and IMRO to establish best practice processes that exceed industry standards.

Grainia Long is Belfast’s Commissioner for Resilience and works within Belfast City Council and with its partners to identify and help resolve major strategic risks for the city. She was previously chief executive of the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC), and before that she spent nearly four years as chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing. She was a Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission from 2011 to 2017. She is Chair of Thames Valley Housing, a housing association providing homes in London and the South East of England.

Austin is the head of Life Science and Healthcare at Analytics Engines. He completed his PhD in biomedical science in the University of Ulster and has a career path that spans startups and multinationals from lab science to bioinformatics through to product management and commercialisation. Austin has a passion for new technology and its impacts on our society.

Tim has 20 years’ experience in commercial biomarker discovery, diagnostic and companion diagnostic medical device development. He was previously the VP of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics at Almac Diagnostics, and Associate Director of in silico Immunology at Johnson & Johnson.

Kelly joined Kainos in 2014 in her placement year as a Software Engineer. She has worked as part of the Applied Innovation team and has lead Kainos AppCamp and AICamp. Currently, she is working with machine learning technologies

Alastair is the Chief Technology Officer at Analytics Engines responsible for leading engineering delivery on customer projects, co-coordinating development on the XDP core platform and customer technical consultation. Alastair gained his PhD from QUB in 2009 focusing on high-performance computing and algorithms used in telecommunications. More recently at Analytics Engines he is interested in building new data-centric applications, machine learning implementations and data architecture. Familiar with building software using Python, PostgreSQL, Apache Hadoop ecosystem tools amongst others. Currently the host of the Big Data Belfast Meetup group.

With thirty years industry experience, Jason Bell is well known in the Northern Ireland technology scene as a software engineer and a specialist in data, BigData and Machine Learning. In 2014 he wrote the book ‘Machine Learning: Hands on for Developers and Technical Professionals’ for Wiley which also has just been translated into Chinese. Previously he was section editor for Java Developers Journal and wrote articles for IBM DeveloperWorks on automonic computing. His blog, “Data Is Sexy”, where he shares various how-tos, tutorials and opinions has readers in over seventy countries.

Starting out with a natural curiosity for customer loyalty data back in 2002, he is considered an expert practictioner in his field of high volume data processing in Kafka, Hadoop, Spark and various machine and deep learning technologies and has spoken at various internationally acclaimed events such as O’Reilly’s Strata Data Conference and ClojureX.

Niall Carlin has over 10 years experience in the film, television and video production industry. He has worked on Global prime time TV shows for National

Geographic, Discovery Channel and BBC Worldwide. As a driven creative, leader and entrepreneur he has extensive knowledge and experience in all areas of video production and management.

As Creative Director of Double Jump Studios Niall oversees the production of video content for many local and global brands, helping them achieve their business goals.

Sue has over 20 years sales and marketing leadership experience in outsourcing and in the last 5 years in Online Recruitment. As Regional CEO of the third largest online recruitment

and event management company in China she initially built a startup office to headcount of 120, going on to be responsible for multiple locations and a team of 600 – playing an instrumental part following the acquisition of China HR (Monster). Sue’s earliest success as part of a team of three directors was building an outsourced start-up to revenues of £28million in just 5 years and she was fundamental in the acquisition by Domestic & General for£13.5million. She has extensive experience across the UK, China, US and Europe in consultative and Director roles. Sue now brings her wealth of expertise and global routes to market to Abodoo and is a real advocate for remote working and the benefits to society and businesses alike.

John has extensive experience in the Corporate legal sector, particularly in the areas of private equity/venture capital investments, mergers and acquisitions, and general company law, shareholder and governance matters. John regularly acts for both investors (institutional and private) and investee companies having acted for all of the local VCs, several from outside of Northern Ireland and numerous companies taking in equity funding. John also advises inward investors into Northern Ireland on the legal issues around set up, engagement with stakeholders (including Invest Northern Ireland) and operators.

Andrew works with clients across a full range of commercial contract matters, with a particular focus on energy and technology law, and is qualified as a solicitor in three jurisdictions. He regularly advises clients on general commercial contracts such as supply or purchase, agency or distribution agreements, through to technology contracts such as website hosting or software licence agreements, and energy contracts such as power purchase or grid connection agreements. His other practice areas include data protection (in a post GDPR landscape) and betting and gaming legislation. Andrew joined Tughans in 2013, having worked offshore as a corporate finance lawyer for a time. He is currently seconded to the high voltage transmission system operator for Northern Ireland as in-house counsel.

Rachel is a software specialist, CTO and founder of MedTech company, AppAttic.  She was named as one of Innovate UK’s Women in Innovation 2016 and has led AppAttic to be named as one of the Disrupt 100 “businesses with the most potential to influence, change or create new global markets” in 2017.  Holding a PhD in Software Architecture and post-doc in connected health, Rachel is a former academic with a passion for innovation. She uses her specialist skillset to develop people-focused, novel products that form an integral part of solutions for complex medical conditions. Rachel’s natural curiosity and tendency to bend the rules has enabled her to produce software that works with today’s healthcare system whilst provoking change for the better!

Hal is an Investment Director at Techstart Ventures LLP.

Hal has significant venture capital fund management experience gained from over 20 years of active investment in the early stage technology market in the UK and Ireland. Hal has led multiple investment rounds across hardware and software early stage businesses and has been intimately involved in the creation of value in excess of £100m.

Dr John Miller is the Client Manager at Invest NI responsible for working with High Potential Start Up businesses.  His BSc was sponsored by Michelin Tyres where we worked for them in N.Ireland, England and France. He completed a PhD at QUB for US company OMC in computer simulation of an IC engine and completed his MBA in International Business at UU and Florida Institute of Technology whilst working for IDB a predecessor of Invest NI.

He was once the only client executive in IDB (now Invest NI) for the ICT sector.  He has seen the sector grow tenfold during his career, having worked with “Start Ups” such as Kainos, Andor, CEM Systems which are now major players in the sector.

10 years ago he returned to working with Start Up companies and was disappointed by the number of companies not delivering on their business plans.

He researched this area buying a small library of books including, Blank, Reis, Feld, Maurya and Osterwalder.

He has in the last 10 years worked intimately with around 100 start ups and is a keen advocate of founders using the lean start up methodologies to gather evidence to validate their proposed business idea and develop a repeatable scalable business model.

In his spare time he is a keen sailor, kayaker, skier and hill walker, and now three times Grandfather.  He likens startups to his windsurfing, exciting and dynamic with the potential for great rewards and dramatic wipeouts.

Paul works on a wide range of corporate law matters including sales and acquisitions of companies, corporate restructurings, investments and shareholders’ agreements and the provision of general corporate law advice to company shareholders and directors. Paul has a particular focus on private equity and venture capital investments and regularly acts for investors (both institutional and private) and investee companies.

CEO

Paul has over 20 years’ experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. He has over 15 years’ experience with Fusion Antibodies, initially in a variety of technical roles followed by eight years in business development, where he was responsible for developing Fusion Antibodies contract research services and seeking partners for the drug assets discovered and validated. Dr Kerr has a PhD from Queen’s University Belfast. Previous roles were developing monoclonal antibodies at The Queens University of Belfast and Veterinary Sciences Division, Stormont laboratory and ELISA development & testing services at Campden BRI, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, UK. Dr Kerr joined Fusion Antibodies as a Director and was appointed as Managing Director in 2011.

Des Speed is a software business entrepreneur with over 30 years senior-level experience.   He is currently Chairman of BrainWaveBank Ltd and Farmvet Systems, and a non-executive Board member of Catalyst Inc (Northern Ireland Science Park) and QUBIS, the venture funding unit of Queen’s University Belfast.

His previous executive role was as CEO of PathXL, a company that specialises in cancer detection using Digital Pathology with truly novel ground-breaking technology.   Clients include the Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, UCLA, Cancer Research UK, Oxford Biomedical Research Centre at the John Radcliffe, Royal Liverpool, Astra Zeneca, London Deanery, and the European Society of Pathology.   In 2016, PathXL was acquired by Royal Dutch Philips.

Prior to PathXL, Des was CEO of Lagan Technologies, where he led sustained 40+% per annum company growth over 11 years.   From its original very small base, Lagan achieved global recognition and success, becoming the world leader in its’ field of CRM software.        In 2010, Lagan was acquired by Accel-KKR of Palo Alto through Kana Software of Sunnyvale, CA.  

Des studied at Queen’s University Belfast; University of Warwick, England; and Stanford University,

Allen is a Chartered accountant and Corporate Finance professional with significant commercial experience in Corporate Finance Lead Advisory, M&A, Corporate Banking and Venture Capital. He is currently Partner with Kernel Capital.

Kernel Capital is the independent manager of The Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Growth Funds. To date Kernel has raised £165m of venture capital funds and are the only investment firm with venture capital funds dedicated to both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Allen has extensive established networks across the business community in Northern Ireland through interactions and execution of a large number of commercial transactions with technology driven start up, growth and later stage companies. Based in Belfast, Allen is focussed on equity investments in the £500k to £3m range in Northern Ireland technology companies.

I focus on the transactional side of the investment process; liaising with investees, co-investors, lawyers and all other deal partners. Ensuring deals are executed in a swift manner so founders can get to work on executing against their plans.

I’m based in Newcastle but spend a great deal of time on trains, planes and automobiles. Fuelled on coffee, bacon sandwiches and music. Previously I was as an Investment Manager at Northstar Ventures, investing in early stage tech startups.”

Martin co-founded Yedup in 2016 to develop next generation, ultra fast robo-investment technology.  Yedup’s AI system forecasts market movements from streaming ‘big data’ and trades client funds directly onto the markets in real time from its base in Belfast and NYC.  The company is equity-backed by a Dublin-based VC and the European Angels Fund – and is supported by EU R&D funding through InvestNI.

Yedup was named InvestNI Propel ‘Company of the Year’ and ‘Best Fintech Startup’ in Ireland in the Bank of Ireland Startup Awards in 2017.  Martin holds a PhD in Mathematics and is authorised by the FCA

Quinn Buchanan’s professional experience has never been dull. From bringing Baywatch to Asia to working on the original Grand Theft Auto, to revolutionizing the cultural training of the U.S. military, Quinn’s career has been dedicated to the creation, management, and distribution of the some of the most compelling content on the planet.

Founder of TMQ and pioneer in the use of gamification, Buchanan’s award winning engine powers over 80 simulations and serious games in use globally.

Buchanan’s development philosophy is based on the concept that we build experience by creating a “safe virtual sandbox” for the user to fully immerse himself in the environment.  Armed with an understanding of the fundamental nature of the shift from passive to active entertainment and training; that we are no longer following a story but that we are the story. People learn naturally by doing and Buchanan’s engine, driven by his Do-Learn Master mantra of the 3-C’s:Control, Confidence, Comfort, his engine allows formerly static content come alive and the user to participate in the experience by virtually immersing themselves in a digital immersive learning experience.

Digital Media Entrepreneur, Digital Media Producer & Strategist, Board Director, Non-Exec, Investor, Keynote Speaker and Mentor.

With over 18 years Senior Management/Board level experience in DIGITAL MEDIA, Matthew has a unique technical and creative balance in his skill sets that drive bottom line results for the Global Media Industry, connecting strategy, new digital content formats and distribution,  DIRECTLY to diverse media audiences.

A native of Bangor, County Down, he has worked in the Nordics, Central Europe, North America and China and has extensive experience with the biggest and best national and international Broadcasters, Network, Brands and Film Studios, changing linear production practices to multi-channel digital approaches.

He is an experienced international keynote speaker on the topic of DIGITAL STORYTELLING AND The Future of TV & Film, is an author and evangelist for Digital Media Formats, Digital Storytelling and Creative Tech including Web TV, VR, AR, Mobile Media Apps & Media tools.

His company NAVADA GROUP www.navadagroup.com drives new digital content formats to millions of people online every day for Brands, Broadcasters, Networks and Film Studios.

VP Marketing at Wakelet, with a strong commercial track record in international business. She is an accredited Member of CIM with over 10 years’ experience in creating B2B and B2C digital marketing strategies for international brands, aimed at acquiring and retaining customers; selecting the right KPIs to maximise the ROI of selected online channels; educating Top Management on how and where they should allocate their budget in order to achieve the Company’s Business Goals and Objectives. She has just completed her dissertation on how Machine Learning can be used to plan Digital Marketing Strategies more effectively in her MSc in Digital Marketing at the Manchester Metropolitan University. In her spare time, I study how blockchain technology will change our lives in the near future.

Scott Wallace is Director of Engineering at Cayan, having previously held the roles of Principal Software Engineer & SET Architect with the company as an early hire in our Belfast office.  Scott brings over 13 years’ experience as a software professional to the role, where he is responsible for leading development teams across Cayan’s product suite.

Mark O’Neill, SET Architect for Embedded systems at Cayan, is responsible for developing and extending the automated testing of the Genius software being developed for embedded devices.  Mark is currently working on bringing a DevOps approach for rapid build, deployment and testing to the embedded development teams and dealing with the unique challenges of that environment.

Mark has been working as a software professional for over 20 years and is the 2018 DigitalDNA Developer of the Year.

Keith joined Allstate as the International Director Business Information Security Officer (BISO) in 2017 and was promoted to Vice President and Deputy Chief Information Security Officer in 2018. Keith is responsible for establishing and driving individualized information security strategy and programs for each of the major Allstate business lines and supporting the execution of key security initiatives.

Keith has expertise in Financial Crime Prevention, Anti-terrorism, Sanctions, Money-laundering and Fraud prevention. Keith has served as a Board member on two National Banks in the United States as well as banks in Russia, India, Mexico and Canada.

Prior to Allstate, Keith was the Legal Chief Operating Officer for Barclays Bank in London, and Vice President of International Fraud prevention for American Express.

He studied at The Ohio State University and London School of Business. Keith has two daughters, and a keen interest in all things automotive.

David Crozier is Head of Strategic Partnerships & Engagement at QUB’s Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT). CSIT is the UK’s Innovation and Knowledge Centre for cyber security, was one of the first accredited GCHQ/NCSC Academic Centres of Excellence in Cyber Security Research and was awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in 2016.

He has significant global technology and cyber security domain expertise developed over a career spanning 20 years at CSIT, as co-founder of Liopa Ltd – a CSIT Spin-out company, Product Manager at Lagan Technologies, IT Manager at Jinny Software and as an e-Commerce Consultant with Intel Corporation. He was also previously a Systems Engineer at the Northern Ireland Office where he designed, developed and maintained security marked systems for government.

In his current role, David leads on developing global, national and regional strategic partnerships with public sector organisations, industry, academic institutions and innovation ecosystems with significant interests in cyber security.

He recently co-authored the new Northern Ireland Cyber Security Framework for Action published by the NI Department for Finance as well as a broad ranging UK Cyber Security Sectoral Analysis for the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS).

David curates and co-chairs the annual CSIT Cyber Security Summit, leads on the Centre’s marketing and communications activity and has advised the Northern Ireland Organised Crime Task Force on Cyber Crime since 2013. He was appointed President of the Global Ecosystem of Ecosystems Partnership in Innovation and Cybersecurity (Global EPIC), a partnership representing 21 members in 13 countries across North America, Europe, Asia and Oceania, in May of this year.

Jerry is one of the leading technical visionaries in Northern Ireland and is responsible for emerging technology and the technical output and delivery for Origin Digital. Jerry has over 20 years of experience in software engineering and has designed and developed award winning large scale web and mobile applications for the likes of; Tourism Ireland, Diageo, Kingspan, Chain Reaction Cycles, BP, BBC, and Alfa Romeo.

Nigel Collier is a BAFTA Award-winning leader in digital innovation.

A natural visionary, he specialises in architecting digital solutions and directing teams and studios that create digital projects, products and services.

Having originally studied and worked as a film producer and director, Nigel became a Producer for Sony creating Playstation games, before working on computer game franchises such as Battlestar Galactica and becoming Development Director on the highly successful PlayStation blockbuster Killzone. Nigel also worked directly with the International Olympic Committee as the producer of the official video game for the Olympic Games. The Sydney 2000 game was number 1 in countries around the world and won the BAFTA Award for Best Sports Game Of The Year. After nearly ten years in the games industry, Nigel returned to Manchester to found digital innovation agency Skylab.a

As CEO of Skylab, a Manchester-based digital agency, Nigel specialises in architecting digital strategies and the disruption, transformation and evolution of markets, businesses and brands, through the creation of commercially successful digital products and services.

Brian is a Managing Director in PwC’s managed services and staff augmentation business.  PwC Augment has been in operation for four years and was established as a direct response to international client demand for high-level, multi-skilled in-house support. It now  has a 900 strong pool of staff that can be seconded into PwC’s client businesses to deliver specific assignments, ranging from major transformation projects to acquisition and consolidation.

Brian has a background in banking and capital markets, service centre management and strategy.  He has a particular interest in the future of work and the growth of the contingent workforce.

Joe Drumgoole is Director of Developer Advocacy EMEA at MongoDB. At MongoDB, he helps developers to understand and utilise MongoDB in order to unleash the power of software and data for innovators everywhere.

Nigel Collier is a BAFTA Award-winning leader in digital innovation.

A natural visionary, he specialises in architecting digital solutions and directing teams and studios that create digital projects, products and services.

Having originally studied and worked as a film producer and director, Nigel became a Producer for Sony creating Playstation games, before working on computer game franchises such as Battlestar Galactica and becoming Development Director on the highly successful PlayStation blockbuster Killzone. Nigel also worked directly with the International Olympic Committee as the producer of the official video game for the Olympic Games. The Sydney 2000 game was number 1 in countries around the world and won the BAFTA Award for Best Sports Game Of The Year. After nearly ten years in the games industry, Nigel returned to Manchester to found digital innovation agency Skylab.a

As CEO of Skylab, a Manchester-based digital agency, Nigel specialises in architecting digital strategies and the disruption, transformation and evolution of markets, businesses and brands, through the creation of commercially successful digital products and services.

Arosha K. Bandara is a Professor of Software Engineering at the Open University whose research and teaching focuses on software engineering for adaptive systems.  He has a particular interest in techniques for building adaptive security and privacy mechanisms for ubiquitous, Internet of Things systems. He is currently the Head of the School of Computing & Communications and is also the lead educator for the OU’s successful “Introduction to Cyber Security” MOOC.

Marion Rybnikar was appointed as Head of Data at Danske Bank UK in early 2017. Marion is leading the design and implementation of the Bank’s data strategy in the UK, with a focus on Big Data, advanced analytics and data science.

Previously Marion was with the New York Stock Exchange’s technology division for ten years with responsibility for Market Data analytics for Tier One Banking organisations. Marion also has extensive experience in eCommerce as the Business Intelligence Manager for Chain Reaction Cycles.

With twenty years in the Technology sector, Marion is passionate about harnessing the power of data to transform organisations and deliver tangible results.

Henry Helgeson, President, Integrated Solutions for TSYS, is responsible for driving a true unified commerce strategy for all TSYS integrated offerings across all verticals. In addition to leading the overall product development strategy for the business, Henry also oversees all integrated channels, Propay, and National Accounts. 

Henry was CEO and Founder of Cayan™, a payment technology company in Boston, MA, until they were acquired by TSYS in January 2018.

Helgeson started his career working as an independent contractor selling credit card terminals to small businesses. Intrigued by the payments industry and determined to find a lower cost solution for small businesses, Henry launched Merchant Warehouse (now Cayan) in 1998, the first company to provide easily accessible and affordable credit card processing services and equipment.

Orla is Senior Business Development Executive at 4c Executive, Northern Ireland’s leading headhunting firm who work with a range of clients from NI’s Top 100 through to indigenous SMEs, from Blue Chip businesses to Startups, to identify and attract the best talent for critical roles.

Orla is passionate about Northern Ireland being seen as a hub of innovation and entrepreneurship, not just through already established businesses, but through start-ups and the millennial community harvesting their own skills to push boundaries. Last year she led on the Startup World Cup project, which saw a Silicon Valley-based VC firm visiting Belfast, with emerging tech businesses showcasing their innovation. This resulted in three NI startups travelling to San Francisco in May 2018 for the world final.

She volunteers as a Counsellor for National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), is a Global Belfast Shaper (an initiative of the World Economic Forum) and volunteer with Feeding Belfast, a local charity who help to feed, shelter and mentor our homeless community.

Joe completed his PhD in Electrical Engineering from QUB in 2.25 years. His area of expertise is the analysis of energy markets and the utilization of novel technology to maximize renewable energy. Immediately after his PhD study, Joe joined Viridian Group where he is currently responsible for forecasting electricity prices, assisting the business in their transition to the new all island energy market and rolling out a technology innovation strategy. Previous experience as the co-founder of an energy analytics company saw Joe win the Invent Competition Electronics category and join the Invest NI trade mission to California in January 2017.

Karishma Kusurkar is an award-winning Multidisciplinary Designer based in Belfast, United Kingdom. Her studio – Karishma’s World – invents products that look at everyday objects through a new lens. Her current products include Ob.Jet, Rainco, Heritage & Wrap (part of One Square). She is also currently working on an exciting new design project called Womenfolk – for Blick Studios & Creativity NI. Karishma has collaborated on several ventures including The Maker Sessions, The Design Salon, Belfast Design Week, 25 Pop Up, Co.Lab & A Tiny History. Karishma has lectured at Ulster University for Foundation Studies in Art & Design (Dip) and BA (Hons) Textile Art, Design and Fashion. She has also curated and run workshops for ArtsEkta & Maven Sessions. She has previously been invited to speak at events including “Share 6” at Blick Shared Studios, the Annual Symposium at Leitrim Design House and “Culture, Democracy and the Right to Make Art” at University of Manchester.

Mark is the data scientist founder and CTO of Elastic Energy, an analytics company committed to protecting the stability of the electricity grid. The firm uses hardware and predictive analytics to tackle issues around growing energy demand, waste and energy-market purchasing decisions. Previously In 2014 he founded Kaero, a technology firm that prototypes, builds and launches new startups. The company hires software engineers and gives them extra work in their spare time allowing a seamless entry point for experienced engineers to move into riskier startups.

In 2013 Mark co-founded a network called Bank Of Invention that connects and empowers creatives, builders and enablers to form startup ventures. The network enables people with new ideas to test them out in a safe and supportive environment. The network has grown to over 300 people and many startups have formed from the connections made inside it.

Mark is working towards making Northern Ireland one of the best places to live and work by 2030. Empowering people with ideas and giving them access to funding and connections is one of the key ways he’s making a difference. Outside startup life Mark runs a monthly open-mic musical theatre night called MiscastBelfast.

I am in the final stages of completing a PhD in history at Queen’s University Belfast. My research focuses on the urban history of nineteenth-century Belfast. Away from my studies, I am an active campaigner for integrated education. I am a founding member and trustee of Integrated AlumNI, a network for past pupils and supporters of integrated education. In 2015, I was selected to participate in the Washington Ireland Program for Service and Leadership; I returned to the United States in 2017 as part of the Management Team.

As a business leader with many years of experience in the IT industry, he is passionate about helping organisations grow and actively pursue new business opportunities. Throughout his career, Dejan has acquired a rare combination of technology skills and business acumen that bring a unique benefit to clients he works with.   Dejan has built an impressive track record of growing the business and delivering innovative solutions to our customers. He works closely with C-level executives to help them evaluate their business and technology needs, identify risks and challenges and recommend the best and most cost-effective IT solutions. His areas of expertise include helping clients with technology due diligence, scaling up/down of their delivery organisations, testing viability of products, integrating product/service offerings, and prototyping.

Brendan Monaghan, CEO of Neueda – Digital DNA’s Best Large Tech Company and Company of the Year 2018

Across his illustrious 30-year career, Brendan Monaghan held senior roles spearheading several successful business units in market-leading companies but always had a desire to build his own company. Brendan founded Neueda in 2006 with the aim to empower great people to build innovative, disruptive solutions and create customer success.

Headquartered in Belfast, Neueda has a growing talent pool of around 350 experienced staff and associates delivering large-scale, mission critical software projects for clients internationally. With Brendan at the helm, this privately-owned and socially conscious company has grown organically at 35% per year since 2012. Brendan and his team have ambitious plans to continue on this tremendous growth trajectory.

“Joanna Jarjue is a Final 5 Candidate on BBC’s The Apprentice, leaving the business process with the best statistical record of series 13 of 8 out of 10 task wins and the only candidate with two wins as project manager. A Digital Marketer by trade, Joanna graduated with a Politics degree then started her career working on behalf of Google supporting and consulting Digital Agencies on their business growth. Post The Apprentice Joanna is a fashion Entrepreneur at heart and is now building a modern women’s workwear brand which hopes to support females in poverty globally”

A.K is RDP Associates Director of Technical Services in the UK, he graduated with a BA in Business Administration from the University of Houston.

A.K has over 15 years of R&D Tax Relief experience working with an array of industries which has allowed him to successfully maximize thousands of R&D tax relief claims which has resulted in tens of millions of pounds of tax relief.

Deborah is a Data Scientist for Allstate NI.  She has 10+ years of research and lecturing experience in Physics and Applied Mathematics.  Deborah has worked on many data analytics and modelling projects in the fields of Astrophysics and Medical Physics at QUB.  More recently, Deborah has applied her academic knowledge and teaching skills to the fields of big data analytics and predictive modelling in Insurance.  She is currently delivering Allstate’s Community of Practice (CoP) in Data Analytics.

Tony leads PwC’s My Financepartner proposition and the firm’s global alliance with leading software provider Sage. He is responsible for driving how PwC uses cloud-enabled and digital solutions to support the UK’s SMEs and growing businesses. With a background in transforming how businesses of all sizes use technology to better run and grow their businesses, Tony brings deep insight into how the latest cloud accounting and reporting tools can unlock the information business leaders need to take decisions at pace and with confidence. He combines this with an established background of working closely with SMEs, understanding the key issues that are holding back growth and bringing best practice of the ways to improve performance.

Dr Liberty Vittert is an incredibly bright mathematician and statistician specialising in facial shape analysis. She has a PhD in mathematics and statistics and is keen to bring her enthusiasm for maths to a wider audience.

As an approachable, intelligent young woman in the male dominated STEM world, Liberty is often asked to share her knowledge within the media and has appeared on STV Scottish news, BBC Radio Scotland, Channel 4, Fox News Channel, and PBS. In 2017, Liberty was one of twenty women chosen from hundreds of applicants to become a BBC Woman Expert Contributor for BBC Television and Radio Programs. She is also an Ambassador for the Royal Statistical Society. 

Harry is an 18 year old social media entrepreneur who runs a company called OPEN. In late 2017 Harry was named as the ‘UK’s 2nd Best Student Entrepreneur’ by Ernst and Young.

Harry manages the social media accounts for a multitude of companies ranging from SME businesses to one of the world’s most expensive kitchen companies and Amazon best sellers.

Recognition for his work has led to London based marketing/advertising agencies reaching out to Harry’s company OPEN to work alongside them with some of the g