Speakers

Robert Clifford

Rob is the Head of Digital and Data for BAE Systems Maritime and Land Sector; responsible for producing the organisations data strategy and leading the digitisation of the Maritime business. Rob took up his post in April 2021 following a 2 year consulting position as Head of Digital Policy and Strategy in the Royal Navy. Prior to joining BAE Systems, Rob spent 16 years in the civil service in a variety of senior digital transformation and data policy roles, advising Ministers on data sharing, analytics, and information rights.

Marla Nelson

Highly skilled, senior executive with significant experience in transformation & culture change, org design & leadership of high performing diverse, digital disrupter teams; complex portfolio and programme management, entrepreneurial business start-up & growth.

Leading on ‘data driven transformation & culture change’ within the “Digital” Enterprise Data Office. “Digital” is JLRs Digital Centre of Excellence; here to power the digital transformation of the business.

Representing the “voice of the business”; Enabling the business to maximise returns from the most critical data assets, by prioritising a backlog of data opportunities/initiatives to support (re)investment. Overseeing the development of data-driven culture, where data is used to inform decisions, test hypotheses and automate processes. Leading on development of ‘strategic data & digital’ leadership skills for the top 300 senior leadership population.

Hassan Khalid

Hassan is currently a Senior MLOps Engineer in the AI Engineering team at AstraZeneca. Before that, he has served in various ML and DS roles at GSK. Hassan is particularly skilled at using machine learning to detect, and resolve problems across the pharmaceutical pipeline;specifically, drug discovery and development. Hassan’s current work focuses on bringing innovative ways to drive efficiency in data quality and integrity, governance, and ML practices using reusable frameworks.

Jodine Russell

Dr Jodine Russell is currently a Principle Data Manager at AIRBUS Defence and Space, where she coordinates the Data & Document Management team for the design of Satellites. She has worked in both the Automotive and Defence sectors for the last 10 years. Dr Jodine believes in well organised lean processes, that capitalise on simplification and hold a PhD titled “Calorimetric studies of Supramolecular and Enzyme Complexes”.

Phil Ware

Phil is the Digitalisation Manger for Edwards Ltd Semiconductor Divisions, part of the Altlas Copco group, they provide vacuum, abatement, and other solutions to the Semiconductor Manufacturing industry.

His team’s role is to develop and/or utilise digital solutions and analytics that enable new business solutions, enable data driven decision making, ensure systems and architecture drive a common data platform, avoid data silos, and enable fast and agile enhancements.

Phil started his career as Marine Engineer and then moved into the Semiconductor Manufacturing sector. He has held multiple roles across field service, project management, customer service, operational and process improvement and ERP system implementations.

Sil Sehra

Sil is a seasoned IT professional with vast experience of leading, managing IT functions and delivering digital transformational change across different sectors. Passionate about data and the unlocking the value it brings to the business.

Karl Hart

Karl is an Analytics Leader with years of experience heading up Analytics functions at FTSE 100/250 manufacturing companies. Karl’s key strengths lie in generating value by establishing and modernising Analytics within businesses across multiple sectors.

Beth Smith

Beth Smith is a programme manager with over 20 years of engineering experience in the Defence industry. She has worked across all phases of the engineering lifecycle with a particular emphasis on software and systems engineering. Beth is keen to benefit from the insights provided by data and driving those benefits into her product portfolio as well as grow the digital skillset required to deliver.

Niall Buswel

Niall is a data professional with experience in both the public and private sectors. His main areas of interest are data governance, data quality and data management. Niall is all too familiar with complex data environments, where his focus is ensuring that data is accurate, reliable, and accessible to support data-driven decision making.

Hugo Chester

Hugo’s background is product development of automotive manufacturing equipment, he has spent several years doing software development, and in the previous year he has managed data infrastructure projects such as implementing a data gathering process from getting devices connected to the cloud, identifying what data to pass to the data lake, and then dashboarding this data in a useful way to generate insight into how to improve Atlas Copco products and identify what questions they can put to a data science team to start building their ML models. Additionally, Hugo is currently in the process of working with external partners to implement a digital twin of one of Atlas Copco projects using the data gathered by the data lake as the soft real-time connection.

Clare Bailey

Clare is data governance and master data management professional with over twenty years’ experience in supply chain operations management and business process reengineering. She has delivered a single source of truth by connecting a diverse range of systems through a common cloud platform, enabling digital twinning, advanced analytics and commercial applications. Clare is an ambassador for cultural change driving the message of the power of data as an asset, chairing the Tata Steel UK Data Governance and Master Data Management Committee

Mother of two, Clare is a violist and Secretary of the City of Newport Symphony Orchestra

George Price

George is a Head of Digital Operations, with a mindset for change and innovation, but a grounding in manufacturing and operational leadership. He started as an Apprentice at Rolls-Royce Plc in 2014 on the Manufacturing Leadership programme, studying for a part time Master’s Degree at Warwick University. With the scheme George moved around most of Rolls-Royce’s UK manufacturing facilities, learning all of the critical roles that it takes to keep a factory moving. After completing his apprenticeship, George then moved into a production leader role, leading approximately 30 individuals working on the shop floor. This experience has given George the ability to really concentrate on what Digital improvements will drive the most efficiency in Rolls-Royce Civil Aerospace division.

Katherine Dixon

Kat is an Analytics Business Partner at Babcock International, responsible for the day-to-day delivery of analytics and driving a data driven culture within the organisation. Having left university with a History degree, Kat started her career in Sales and Marketing before moving into Event Management and Business Transformation until she found her way into Data Analytics. Kat is passionate about bringing data to life to drive improvements not just in business but also society as a whole.

Mike Kiersey

In his role as EMEA CTO at Boomi, Mike’s core role is helping create a Boomi solutions that serves to connect businesses in the Digital Era. Mike has a wealth of experience and knowledge in most business roles. Before joining Boomi, Mike was the Global Snr Director at Dell EMC, supporting seventeen strategic global partners to develop industry solutions to address the complex needs of being a digital business. Established and led EMC’s Consulting business across EMEA focusing on app development and cloud.

He has led and delivered complex solutions while as an Enterprise Architect with EDS, and finally he has been a CIO for a UK based international law firm. His broad industry knowledge and experience expands into government, defence, legal and financial service.

Mike holds a MSc in Information Technology and Strategy, with a passion and curiosity for emerging technology.

Gerard Bartley

Gerard is a leading speaker on the subject of data management and governance, having spoken at and chaired numerous conferences over the last 10 years. A firm believer in the principle that good data management is all about people as well as IT systems, his proven approach focuses on delivering results through stakeholder buy-in, organisational change, process improvement and people development. He has delivered large-scale data governance organisations, built data management teams, implemented workflow systems, delivered effective data management processes and built data quality systems for multiple blue-chip organisations. Previous companies include KPMG, Tesco, Asda, Sodexho, FrieslandCampina, Jacobs Douwe Egberts coffee and BMI roofing. He is currently leading the data side of the OCI chemicals group global ERP harmonisation programme.

Christian Ott

Christian Ott is NetApp’s CTO Industry Solutions. Industry solutions lie at the heart of NetApp’s industry-focused cloud solutions strategy, that empower customers to envision new opportunities and reach their transformation goals, across global industries. These include automotive, financial services, energy, healthcare, life sciences, manufacturing and more. During his 10+ years at NetApp, Chris has held several positions in technical sales and management and was responsible for various customers in the semiconductor, manufacturing and automotive industries. In his free time Chris likes to swim, bike and run but it’s not enough for triathlon, yet.

Jennifer Belissent

Jennifer joined Snowflake in 2021 as Principal Data Strategist most recently having spent over a decade as an analyst at Forrester Research. She is passionate about encouraging data collaboration, ensuring proper data governance, developing data literacy, and building organisations that thrive in the data economy. Over her 30 year career, Jennifer has also held management positions in sales and marketing in the Silicon Valley; designed urban policy programs in Eastern Europe and Russia; and taught math as a Peace Corps volunteer in Central Africa. Jennifer earned a Ph.D. and an M.A. in organisational theory and comparative politics from Stanford University and a B.A. in econometrics from the University of Virginia.

Matt Mould

Matt is a technology leader with over 15 years’ experience helping customers adopt cloud native solutions on AWS. He heads up Storm Reply in the UK, focussing on modernising applications for customers and building cloud-based IOT solutions.

Tom Vaughan

Sean Robinson

Sean works with manufacturers across the UK and Ireland, helping to shape industrial IT programs that support critical strategies such as building innovation capacity, right-first-time programs, and sustainable manufacturing. Sean brings over 25 years’ experience in a variety of client management, technology consulting, and technology implementation roles. He is past chair of ISA’s Food and Pharmaceutical Industry Division, and has contributed to the work of organisations such as MESA, and Campden BRI. Sean believes in the fundamental interconnectedness of all things, and feels that enormous financial and operational opportunities can be captured by manufacturers who adopt that outlook!

Richard Jeffers

Richard Jeffers trained as a Mechanical Engineer at the Victoria University of Manchester and has been a Fellow of the IMechE since 2014. He has worked in a range of operational and engineering roles in Cookson Group plc, Lionheart plc and Heineken UK Ltd, where Richard led the Engineering function, ran a network review and was responsible for the execution of a £150m capital programme that saw the regeneration and expansion of 2 of the 3 main UK production sites. After a period in maintenance and operational consultancy, Richard joining RS Group in 2017 developing and supporting a range of solutions for industrial customers and leading the acquisition of Monition Ltd. Since May 2020, Richard has been focused fully on developing digital solutions for RS’s maintenance customers and is now Founder and Managing Director of the RS Industria business unit supporting industrial customers on their digitisation of engineering agenda.