Speakers

Dr Susheel Varma, Head of AI & Data Science, ICO
Susheel Varma is a technologist with 17+ years of experience in leadership and delivering strategic and technology solutions for complex trans-national clinical and life-science research. In his current role, he provides leadership and coordinates the confluent needs of scientific, data and technology to deliver and operate a cohesive national platform for health data research in the UK. He is also a thought leader in the development of Trusted Research Environments (TREs).

Tom Smith, Chief Data Officer, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
Tom Smith is the first CDO at the DLUHC – a role that fulfils a lifelong fascination with using data to better understand and tackle public issues. Other 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. 

Oliver Janson, Business Intelligence Product Manager, National Trust
The National Trust looks after over 780 miles of coastline, more than 250,000 hectares of land; over 500 historic houses, castles, parks, and gardens and nearly one million works of art. Carbon reduction is a key element in the Trust’s approach to Climate Change, with the aim to be net zero carbon as an organisation by 2030 and is using a Alteryx solution for its carbon reporting to pull disparate data sources into a single view.

Carl Dalby, Risk Specialist, Nuclear Decommissioning Authority
Carl Dalby is dedicated to working with organisations of all shapes and sizes, locations and cultures to help them “join the dots” to innovative solutions they simply would miss out on getting direct access to and he over 30 years in the technology / professional services sector.  At the NDA, he is currently  defining/designing and managing the use of AI solutions and how they can enhance the process of risk management.

Peter Jackson, Principal Research Analyst, Dorset Council
Peter Jackson's work covers a breadth of service areas from children’s and adult’s services through to emerging national policy issues such as covid, the Ukrainian crisis and the cost of living challenge. The nature of his work involves spatial analysis using GIS, predictive analytics and social and demographic insight

Dawn Monaghan, Interim Director of IG Policy, Ethics and Head of Profession, NHSE
Dawn Monaghan is passionate about health and social care and the importance of information sharing in improving patient experience and the effectiveness of the health and social care system. In her current she supports and assists the use of information by ensuring that public expectations are developed and met and that professionals understand how to use information in a sensible and secure manner. The simplification of process and the practical application of the law to ensure improved, enhanced and accelerated data sharing is her ultimate goal. 

Kate Hemstock, Principal Consultant: Data & Insight, Agilisys
Kate helps clients to make best use of their data to drive value and improve outcomes for communities. She is a qualified change management practitioner and has a particular interest in helping police forces to bridge the gap between people and data, enhancing and accelerating the data journey.

Jonathan Dowey, Head of Performance and Insight, Avon and Somerset Police 
Jonathan Dowey is a data leader with nearly 20 years’ experience working in policing across intelligence, analysis and performance. He currently leads teams in performance analysis, reporting, data science, data visualisation, business analysis and GIS services. He is also involved in supporting a range of partner organisations and national programmes. 

Tom Day, Local Government Client Director, Hitachi Solutions
Tom Day supports customer accounts from London unitaries to some of the UK’s largest counties, advising them on technology solutions to support their organisational needs and maximising their impact to get the most from the investment. He also supported organisations' response to covid and is now working with them to design solutions needed as the face of the pandemic continued to change.

Bradley Coupar, Smart Places Project Manager, Sutton Council
Bradley brings extensive knowledge and 27 years of local government experience across health, social care, housing and digital transformation. In the South London Partnerships InnOvaTe Team, he has been enabling London councils to deliver exciting and innovative projects to generate economic growth, help people live better, healthier, longer lives and more.  He also leads their Telecare data project exploring how data can better inform meaningful assessment and intervention.

Professor Andrew Wilson, chair in Forensic & Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford
Professor Andrew Wilson co-directs the Visualising Heritage Team at the university and has led landmark Digital Heritage projects. It brought to fruition ‘Virtual Bradford’ which provides accurate levels of detail of the built environment for various priorities uses for the council, including urban/ civic planning; improve traffic management; support the modelling of air quality, flood risk and noise pollution; contribute to disaster management planning; and to highlight the heritage of the city and its benefit to enhancing education, tourism and in fostering civic pride.

Adrian Walker, T-Projects Manager, City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council 
Adrian Walker has been employed within a local authority since 1985, gaining knowledge/experience of the opportunities/issues/problems associated with local authority projects. A chartered geographer, he has built the corporate GIS spatial platform, including a successful web-environment for the 4th largest Metropolitan District in England (pop: 522,452). 

Dr Sam Prodger, Head of Data Operations and Applications, RNLI
Dr Sam Prodger is responsible for bringing new and enriched data into the RNLI, for running the RNLI’s Enterprise Business Applications, automated its release and test strategy and driving a composable architecture across the organisation.

Brhmie Balaram, Head of AI Research & Ethics, NHS AI Lab
Brhmie Balaram leads the Lab’s AI Ethics Initiative, which supports research and practical interventions that strengthen the ethical adoption of AI in health and care. Her focus is on addressing the inequalities that can emerge from the ways that AI-driven technologies are developed and deployed.

Jay Saggar, Data Projects Manager, Loti
Jay Saggar is responsible for the delivery of LOTI’s data, smart city and cyber security projects, working with members to identify areas for innovation, helping to scale up projects and share insights across London. Prior to joining the team, he was a co-creator of the UK Housing Data Standard. As part of his work at Housing Associations’ Charitable Trust (HACT), he helped housing providers across the UK to improve data systems and data quality to enable the delivery of better and safer homes for residents.