Skip to the content

Speakers

Anna Studman, Senior Researcher, Ada Lovelace Institute
Anna's work focuses on the impacts of data-driven systems and AI on healthcare and public services. She is interested in how new technologies interact with existing societal inequalities and how they shape people's experiences of public services. Before joining the  Ada Lovelace Institute she was a Senior Researcher/Writer at consumer group Which?, where she led investigations into health products and services.

Craig Suckling, CDDO

CDDO logo

Craig Suckling, Government Chief Data Officer, Central Digital & Data Office
Craig is a Data and AI leader with 20+ years of experience building companies, leading transformation strategies, navigating complex change, and generating sustainable growth with Data and AI. Prior to becoming Government CDO, Craig was the Global Head of Data and AI strategy in AWS Worldwide Specialist Organisation. He is also experienced as a Chief Data Officer, startup founder, management consultant, and advisory board member. Craig has featured in the top 100 data leaders in the UK in 2020, 2021, and 2023. 

Major George McCrea, Military Liaison, Defence Digital Foundry, Ministry of Defence
George joined the Army in 2007 after working for Lloyds Bank for four years. After the year-long Commissioning Course at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, he commissioned into the Corps of Royal Engineers. The subsequent 15 years can be split into two clear phases. For my junior postings he worked in the Close Support and Armoured Engineering environment and was stationed in the UK and Germany. He also deployed on operations and exercises around the globe in junior leadership and advisory roles. There then came a seismic shift in career path as he studied for a Geospatial MSc. On completion of the course he has had specific roles relating to the military geospatial capability. These roles have been as a specialist advisor in a NATO Headquarters where he both commanded a team of geospatial data analysts and was responsible for advising the senior leaders on spatially related situations and solutions. Most recently he has been working in the National Centre for Geospatial Intelligence, firstly in a command and leadership role within 42 Engineer Regiment (Geographic) and now as the Chief of Staff for the Royal Engineers (Geographic) trade with a remit to ensure the capability keeps pace with needs of the end user and technological advances. He has recently move to Defence Digital Foundry where we look to drive business and battlespace outcomes enabled by product delivery and data exploitation.


Helena Zaum, Chief Commercial Officer, Sentinel Partners
Helena believes that data and digital more generally hold the key to transforming health and care services for both adults and for children. Multi-agency data holds the key to prevention and early intervention to support a holistic approach to wellbeing for individuals and families, and in combination with digital technologies which improve access, is critical to deliver services which are tailored to the needs of people who draw on care and support. Helena has worked in the field of digital transformation in the public sector for over 20 years, across multi-national technology providers and consultancy. She is also chair of the Tech UK Social Care Working group and an independent advisor to Stonewater Housing.

 

John Bowers, Supporting Families Data, Information and Insights Manager, Liverpool City Council
John is responsible for monitoring outcomes and analysing complex families using datasets from a number of different sources through the development of the ICT solution; Sentinel for the Liverpool Supporting Families Programme, SAFE Taskforce and Family Hubs. His interests include understanding the impact ACE’s play on childhood vulnerability, reducing risk of child exploitation through data analytics and the development of predictive modelling tools. He has previously completed a secondment in the National Supporting Families Team at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government where he was the Data Development Lead.

Dr Laura Gilbert CBE, Director, Government's Incubator for AI
Laura is the director of 10DS, the data science and analytics team in Downing Street and director of the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (i.AI), amongst other government roles. Her teams provide fast-paced modelling and analysis to support policy making and delivery, deliver expert data and AI solutions into public services, and run a radical transformation agenda promoting the better use of evidence, data and technology in government decision making.  She also created and spearheads a broader program of innovation, digitisation and radical upskilling in central government called Evidence House. She holds a doctorate in Particle Physics and Computing, is a Visiting Professor at LSE, and holds fellowships of the Institute of Physics and the Institute of Analytics. She previously worked in defence intelligence, quantitative finance, and for nearly a decade was CTO of a medical technologies company, Rescon, bringing it from start-up to SMT to acquisition before exiting and joining government in 2020. 

Lisa Allen, Director of Data Services, The Pensions Regulator
Lisa joined the The Pensions Regulator (TPR) in November 2023 putting data at the heart of TPR to operate efficiently, transparently and to leverage data for the benefit of savers. She is an experienced data professional who has led many teams in the public sector in the UK. Shaping and driving data initiatives to ensure the value of data is unlocked for better outcomes for society, the environment, and the economy.  Lisa spent many years in the environmental sector both in the public sector and the not-for-profit space. At the Open Data Institute, she assisted Ofwat with their H2Open Strategy. At the Environment Agency was part of the team that propelled the UK into the top rankings in the world for implementation and impact of open data. Lisa is chair of DAMA UK, the go to organisation for Data Professionals and works with people across the UK, and the world, to elevate industry standards in the data profession.

Louise Maynard Atem, Deputy Director, Data & Insights, Government Digital Service
Louise is an experienced innovator with a demonstrated history of working across multiple sectors including information services and cyber security. Skilled in Data Analysis, Evidence-Based Decision-Making and a passionate STEM advocate. As the Deputy Director for Data, Insights, and Fraud at the Government Digital Service, she is responsible for creating and delivering the department’s data strategy, for implementing our performance analysis and fraud detection capability on the GOV.UK One Login infrastructure, as well as leading multi-disciplinary teams of data and non-data professionals. The aim is to become a truly data-driven department, delivering public services that are underpinned by the wealth of data that the government holds on citizens.

Martine Wauben, GLA

GLA logo

Martine Wauben, Head of Data for London, Greater London Authority
As Head of Data for London, Martine Wauben is realising the Mayor of London's vision to make it simpler for people to share and use data held across London to improve the city and benefit Londoners. Previously, she was a government data scientist and statistician at Number 10 Downing Street, the Department for Health and Social Care, and the Ministry of Justice, and has done work internationally in Rwanda and Nepal.

 

Matt Wicks, Co-CEO for technology and innovation, The Virtual Forge
The story of any product development is the story of data, of understanding what you want to achieve, and what you need to know to achieve it. Building those pipelines, grappling with that data and answering those questions is why Matt loves what he does, and has done for over 30 years. Matt has worked with companies as diverse as the BBC, NHS, Jaguar Land Rover and Adobe, as well as small product teams, and they all have two things in common - the need for insight from data, and the need to build, often faster and faster.

Nick Chapallaz, Managing Director, GeoPlace
Nick is an expert in location-based systems and services, with extensive experience advising local authorities, central government agencies, and private sector businesses. He has a proven track record in using information and communication technologies to enhance organisational activities in both the public and private sectors. Over the past two decades, Nick has been a key advisor and contributor to the development of British Standards and early e-Government initiatives such as the e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF), Planning Portal, and Transport Direct. Latterly, as Managing Director of GeoPlace, Nick has been an advocate for bringing location data to life, working to ensure that address and street data are recognised as critical national assets. He has been instrumental in promoting the importance of accurate geospatial information in improving public services, supporting infrastructure projects, and driving innovation across sectors.

Dr Shruti Kohli, Head of Data Science, Innovation and AI, DWP Digital
Shruti is a lead Data Scientist in DWP. She has been working in DWP for the last three years and has more than a decade experience working in private and public sector. Currently, she is leading innovation lab. In her current role, her key responsibility is to do horizon scanning and look for data and tech innovation that could support the department in improving their services.

Sue Bateman, Defra
defra logo

Sue Bateman, Chief Data Officer, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Sue joined Defra in April as Chief Data Officer for the group to lead work in how data and information are used to support Defra’s own transformation journey. Sue is a longstanding civil servant with digital, data and strategy experience – most recently having been the interim CDO at CDDO where she led on the development and delivery of the National Data Strategy and Digital and Data Roadmap.


Tom Smith, Director of Spatial Data Unit and Chief Data Officer, Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government
Tom was the first CDO at the DLUHC (now MHCLG) – a role that fulfils a lifelong fascination with using data to better understand and tackle public issues. Other roles in government include launching and directing the UK’s Data Science Campus, and as founding director at the UK’s Joint Biosecurity Centre, he developed the initial proposals and built data & data science team of 200+ to deliver a step change in the UK’s pandemic response capability.

Register For Alerts

Keep informed - Get the latest news about the use of technology, digital & data for the public good in your inbox from UKAuthority.