Bev White

Position: CEO

Company: Nash Squared (formerly Harvey Nash)

Description:

Bev is CEO of Nash Squared the overall company for six market leading technology and talent businesses including Harvey Nash, NashTech and Alumni. Following a degree in Computer Science, Bev began her career in technology, where she held CIO and IT leadership positions at Schlumberger and NTL (which became Virgin Media).

Since 2002, Bev has combined a passion for technology with a career in recruitment and talent, where she has held various leadership roles, most recently as CEO in the UK and Ireland for GI Group, one of the world’s largest staffing companies operating in 57 countries.

Bev was recently identified as one of the most influential women in UK Tech and believes deeply in the power of people and creating a sustainable culture where people can thrive. As a qualified coach and Master NLP, Bev has spent most of her career helping people-centric businesses grow.

Christelle Heikilla

Position: Former IT Director

Company: Arsenal FC

Description:

Christelle is a digital and technology leader with a wealth of consultancy and industry experience who enjoys coaching and mentoring the next generation of IT leaders. She has a unique perspective having worked in large and smaller organisations and across different industries. Her specialism is helping businesses land IT transformation through strong leadership. She is a Non-Executive Board Director of TechSkills, owned by TechUK, whose mission is to develop digital talent that industry needs.

Most recently Christelle was the IT Director of Arsenal Football Club working in a complex but fun technology environment with diverse business operations.

Christelle started her technology career as an Accenture IT consultant working in the Retail and Entertainment industries. She then joined Sainsbury’s with her last role driving digital change. Christelle was a member of the IT Leadership team at Superdrug before swapping health and beauty for football!

Dave Roberts

Position: Global IT Director

Company: Stantec

Description:

An accomplished Global IT Leader, Non-Executive Director, BCS Fellow and Tech Mentor with over 20 years of IT experience leading large technology teams. Experience of managing all aspects of IT, including transformational change and driving innovation with disruptive technologies.

Responsible for Stantec’s technology functions in Latin America, EAME and Asia Pacific. Stantec has 25,000 employees working in over 400 locations across six continents and publicly trades on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges. Dave also operates as a Tech focused NED, providing independent and constructive challenge, while supporting fast-paced technology advances that deliver exceptional customer experiences.

David Wilde

Position: Former CIO, Essex Country Council

Company: Advisor, GovX

Description:

A Fellow of the Institute of Directors with over 30 years in central and local government leadership spanning policy, large scale operations, strategy and whole service transformation, I have a wealth of experience in the public sector specialising in technology, digital and information leadership and provides consultancy services in these fields. As a business we have a wide and deep range of knowledge and experience across public services, helping organisations envision and embed digital at a spatial, societal and economic level to support places in their drive to be fit for the future in terms of quality of life, work, prosperity, learning and leisure.

On technology in particular I am an avid believer in infrastructure free services through the adoption of platforms, ubiquitous network architectures and user centred design and delivery through market ready components. I have successfully deployed organisation wide IT and service transformation in 9 different organisations, 4 in the last 2 years, enabling organisations to maximise their investment in technology for successful delivery of services

Dom Howson

Position: CEO

Company: Viridor

Description:

Dominic Howson is the Chief Information at Viridor, who are a Waste Management business owned by KKR.

Prior to Viridor Dom worked for nearly 20 years in IT and Supply Chain roles within Consumer Products and is keen to help the next generation of CIOs achieve their ambitions.

Doug Drinkwater

Position: Editor

Company: CIO UK

Description:

Doug Drinkwater is an experienced technology and security journalist, whose work has appeared on CIO, CSO, InfoWorld, Internet Business Times, Macworld, Mashable, PCWorld, SC Magazine and The Week, among other publications. He is the CIO UK editor at IDG.

Jots Sehmbi

Position: Chief Digital and Technology Officer

Company: University of Essex

Description:

Jots is an accomplished Technology Leader, NED/Tech Board Advisor and Tech Mentor. She is the Chief Digital & Technology Officer for the University of Essex.

Over her career Jots has led and advised on strategic technology transformation across education, private sector, professional services and royal companies.

Jots is also a judge for the IT Professional Service Management Awards and leads the Asians in Tech (Tech London Advocates) network and is a mentor for women in tech programmes.

Nadine Thomson

Position: Global Chief Technology Officer

Company: MediaCom

Description:

Nadine Thomson is the Global Chief Technology Officer for MediaCom, an international media agency part of the WPP Group that uses data, technology and creativity to design communications strategies that build brands. Over her career Nadine has led international, technology transformation programmes across media, retail, travel, entertainment and professional services.

Nick McQuire

Position: Director, AI and Innovation

Company: Microsoft

Description:

A globally-recognized thought leader and 20+ year technology analyst with a passion for artificial intelligence and enterprise innovation. Named among the top technology analysts in the world in 2019 and 2020 by the Institute of Industry Analyst Relations. Board member with entrepreneurial and corporate experience and a proven track record advising C-level executives and enterprise IT strategists. Member of the CIO100 judging panel which recognises the most transformational CIOs in the U.K each year.

Nisha Manaktala

Position: Technology Director, Re/ILS

Company: Hiscox

Description:

Nisha Manaktala is Technology Director for Hiscox Re & ILS and has over 18 years of technology leadership experience. Previously Group Technology Officer for Chaucer, Nisha spent her early career in various technical roles across start-ups and global enterprises with expertise across data, engineering and operations.

Yodit Stanton

Position: CEO

Company: OpenSensors

Description:

Yodit has designed and built large scale data systems for various sectors and has played a key role in leading development teams to run critical trading and machine learning infrastructure for FTSE500 companies such as, Deutsche Bank, Man Investments, Nomura and Lehman Brothers.

With over two decades of experience as a Data and Machine Learning Engineer, Yodit specialises in predictive modelling for real time systems, social network analysis and middleware development.