Lee Rorison is Founder and CEO of Seriös Group, a UK data solutions business he launched in 2020 to challenge traditional consultancy models and deliver rapid value without compromise. With an impressive background in building data platforms and warehouses for large enterprises across ERP and digital transformation programmes, he has developed a product-led approach, driven by Seriös ONE. His focus is on helping organisations take control of their data, combining speed with quality and enabling scalable, AI-ready data foundations that deliver measurable business impact.
Paul Wealls is a Lenovo Sport and Entertainment - Principal Consultant with a specialism in AI, data, and edge computing, with a strong focus on applying technology to transform sport and fan engagement. Working closely with leading organisations across the world, Paul designs business models, partnerships (like Serios Group) and innovation programmes that harness real-time data, immersive experiences, and AI-driven insights to connect fans, teams, and venues in new ways. He is actively involved in projects spanning football, esports, and smart stadium environments—helping clubs and partners use data to enhance performance, personalise fan journeys, and unlock new commercial opportunities. Lenovo are leveraging their investments in Fifa World Cup, F1 and many other strategic sports partnerships Paul also plays a key role in regional AI initiatives, collaborating with industry, academia, and public sector bodies to accelerate data-led innovation across the North East.
Steffen Peddie is a Geordie stand-up comedian, actor, event host and radio presenter from Newcastle upon Tyne. Often referred to as "The Big Man of Northern Comedy," he is best known for his role as Big Keith in the BBC sitcom Hebburn and hosting The Late Show on BBC Radio
Chris joined Mercia Ventures in 2023 after more than 20 years working in national and regional accountancy firms, most recently as Corporate Finance Partner at Armstrong Watson LLP. At Mercia, Chris invests in high growth businesses across the North of England. Companies Chris has supported include: Kinewell Energy, Aelius Biotech, Salesfire, Radical Forge and LuminousXR
A seasoned leader with a proven track record in scaling businesses and delivering transformational growth. As former CEO of PE-backed Onyx Group, Neil grew the company from £1M to £30M before a successful exit in 2016. With over two decades of experience, he’s been directly involved in 50+ acquisitions totalling hundreds of millions of pounds, backed by Angels, VCs, PE Houses, and debt funds. Today, through Stephenson Capital, he actively invest in and support high-potential tech companies, helping them navigate growth and scale effectively. Passionate about strategic leadership, he serves as a Chair and Non-Executive Director, offering trusted advisory expertise to ambitious businesses looking to accelerate their success.
Ammar Mirza CBE is a multi-award-winning enterprise, innovation and investment leader whose work has supported the establishment and scale up of more than 17,000 businesses globally. Across three decades he has built a reputation not only as a respected architect of inclusive growth and entrepreneurial ecosystems, but also as a trusted business and community leader with deep expertise in innovation strategy, investment mobilisation, organisational leadership and long-term value creation.
Dr Emma Black is CEO and Co-Founder of Cascade Cash Management and Co-Founder of GB Bank. A recognised expert in savings, cash management and fintech, she has built and led award-winning financial services businesses, raising over £50 million of capital and helping take a bank from concept to full UK launch. Emma holds a PhD in Finance from Durham University, is the author of the parliamentary white paper Get Britain Saving, and is a regular speaker on banking, financial literacy, behavioural finance and entrepreneurship
Dr Andrew Jenkins provides strategic leadership to the award winning company, Kinewell. He has over 14 years’ engineering experience working within the renewables sector and has over 12 years’ experience pioneering the initial development of Kinewell’s flagship KLOC tool and drives innovation including our unique supercomputing methodology. He is a skilled operator in understanding complex value-chains and developing collaborative partnerships to deliver value to stakeholders and is passionate and experienced in ensuring new innovative capabilities are delivered in a scalable way to maximise impact. Andrew is a recognised thought leader regularly invited to speak at local, national, and international events, TV and radio. Dr Andrew Jenkins graduated with a Master of Engineering (New and Renewable Energy) with honours from Durham University, UK in 2010. He holds a PhD entitled “Energy Storage and Electric Vehicles as a means of Mitigating Uncertainty in Urban Microgrids” which he studied for at Newcastle University, UK, following three years working at the international advisory firm Mott MacDonald.
Hannah spent 10 years working in Higher Education, during which time she held various roles, but data wrangling was always a central theme. She joined Waterstons in 2019 where she learnt the "proper" way to build data platforms (spoiler alert, it doesn't involve a plethora of spreadsheets), eventually moving from technical implementation to growing a practice in Data Strategy. In 2025 she became Head of Data & AI where she is still passionate about ensuring that technology and strategy come together to deliver real value to Waterston's clients.
Beth Crosier is a former private equity CFO with over two decades of experience leading finance for some of the UK’s fastest-growing tech and professional services businesses. She now works with ambitious startups and scale-ups, offering fractional CFO support, financial forecasting and fundraising guidance through her company, CO4CH. Beth’s career began as a graduate at PwC, and quickly expanded into global roles, including a secondment to Silicon Valley. She went on to hold senior finance positions at Sage, Just Eat, and ARM before becoming Group CFO of Azets, where she led its £1.4 billion sale to private equity investors. In 2024, Beth chose to leave the corporate world to work directly with founders building businesses with purpose. At CO4CH, she leads a team delivering finance-as-a-service to early-stage companies and currently heads its flagship Fund Programme as part of the newly launched Finance 4 Founders community. She is an active angel investor, backing underrepresented founders with a significant portion of CO4CH’s profits reinvested into early-stage businesses. Beth also speaks regularly on financial strategy, startup fundraising, and scaling with confidence.
Kevin Telford is an award‑winning strategy leader and advisor on talent, data, AI and digital transformation. He helps boards move from experimentation to trusted, scalable adoption, with a focus on governance, ethics and the skills needed to use trusted AI. His portfolio includes NED and advisory roles across marketing, sectors, social impact, and he was part of early GDPR advisory cohorts. Kevin has been a long‑standing advocate for citizen data rights, responsible data sharing and data‑for‑good, supporting ecosystems such as FinTech North and regional AI and digital clusters.
Dr Matthew Forshaw is Senior Advisor for Skills to The Alan Turing Institute and a Reader in Data Science at Newcastle University. He leads the AI Skills for Business Competency Framework with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and Innovate UK, and professional standards with Alliance of Data Science Professionals.
Chair of the Royal Statistical Society’s Data Science and AI Section, Vice Chair of the Royal Statistical Society’s AI Task Force and member of FCA’s Synthetic Data Expert Group, Janet started coding in 1984 and discovered a passion for technology and complex problem solving. She holds multiple degrees and a PhD in Computational Neuroscience. Janet has helped both start-ups and established businesses implement and improve their AI offering prior to applying her expertise as Chief Data Scientist at Napier AI. Janet regularly speaks at conferences worldwide on topics in AI including explainability, testing, efficiency, and ethics.
Alex is a commercial legal specialist and head of our commercial team. Known for her expertise in data protection, intellectual property, technology and contract law, and recognised by Legal 500 UK as having 'broad expertise', Alex assists a wide range of clients from the largest international brand owners to SMEs. Her clients operate across a diverse number of industries including technology, sports, leisure, entertainment, education, sport and manufacturing. With the rise in use and processing of data regardless of sector, Alex’ data practice has grown and she is widely recognised for training advice and support on information law, in particular data protection and runs regular webinars and face to face training to support organisations navigate this area of law.
Dr Mac Misiura a senior machine learning engineer at Red Hat, where he contributes to the open-source TrustyAI project. His work focuses on ensuring the safe and reliable use of Generative AI, with a current emphasis on its safeguarding and evaluation.
Rishi is a Chartered Accountant and Microsoft MVP (technology influencer/speaker) with an Executive MBA (Hons) and a first class degree from the London School of Economics. He currently leads Data & AI strategic projects at Avanade (Accenture-Microsoft JV), focusing on Power BI and Fabric, along with community training on Self-service AI (www.ldidata.com) - an enablement program to allow business users to build and manage Agents to automate their business processes with a governed data foundation and semantic knowledgebase of your organisation's specific context. With 20+ years experience at Big 4 firms, Technology consulting and leading financial institutions (Deloitte, KPMG, HSBC, Barclays, Accenture), he combines deep financial expertise with cutting-edge data and AI capabilities to drive business transformation.
Stephen is Founder and Chairman of FinTech Scotland and the Senior Independent Director of the Centre for Finance Innovation and Technology (CFIT). He was awarded an OBE in the 2023 New Year Honours List for services to the UK fintech sector.
Helen is the Chief Data & Analytics Officer at Bank of Ireland, with over a decade of experience leading data strategy and transformation. She oversees the Bank’s enterprise data and analytics agenda, driving insight‑led decision‑making and modernising how the organisation uses data. She has held Head of Data roles at Sainsbury's Bank and Virgin Money, delivering strategic data programmes, including BCBS 239. She is known for combining strategic clarity with practical execution, championing collaboration, innovation, and operational excellence to enhance customer experiences.
Dr Natalya Radko is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Newcastle University Business School. As an academician Natalya works in close collaboration with businesses including start-up mentorship, consultancy as well as she is on board of a start-up company. She teaches entrepreneurship across different levels including undergraduates, postgraduate, apprenticeship and MBA. Her consultancy experience spans across UK and countries in the Central Asia region and is based on her research expertise.
Bradley Channer FCMA, CGMA is a strategic CFO, board adviser, and business leader with over a decade of experience helping high-growth technology companies scale, raise capital, and navigate transformational change. Currently Chief Financial Officer of UBIO, Bradley has played a key role in building the company into a leading automation and AI business serving global travel and recruitment clients. Throughout his career he has worked across SaaS, AI, Digital Health, EdTech, FinTech, InsurTech, Gaming, Manufacturing and Professional Services, helping organisations ranging from early-stage startups to businesses generating hundreds of millions in revenue. He has led fundraising efforts exceeding $50 million from venture capital, private equity, debt, grants and high-net-worth investors, and has been involved in four successful company exits, including two of his own ventures. Known for combining commercial acumen with creativity, Bradley specialises in strategy, finance transformation, operational scaling, M&A, investor relations and leadership development. His unique background as a former professional actor and musician enables him to communicate complex financial and technical concepts in a way that resonates with founders, investors, engineers and boards alike. Alongside his executive career, Bradley is a passionate advocate for the future of the accounting profession. He serves as Chair of the Lifelong Learning Committee and is an elected member of the Global Council of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, where he represents the NE of the UK, helps shape policy and professional development initiatives focused on AI, technology, communication skills and the future workforce. He is also a regular speaker, mentor and volunteer, championing the development of both technical and human skills required for modern business leadership.
With a background in operations management Louise changed careers in 2020 when she gained her Data Science MSc from Newcastle University. She now works on variety of data science projects including, natural language processing, generative AI, data analytics and data science project scoping.
Chengai is the CEO and Founder of Aston Zion Limited. She is a fellow member of ACCA and trained in audit at Deloitte and has 30 years experience in the accountancy profession. Chengai has served as the England representative on the ACCA International Assembly and sat on the ACCA Corporate Sector Panel and Member Advisory Committee. She has also won various CFO awards in the UK, USA and UAE. Chengai is well known as a global speaker, specialising in AI, Sustainability and Corporate Turnaround. She is an influential change maker who has chaired CFO conferences in various countries around the world. An accomplished thought leader, she has contributed to numerous global research reports on a variety of accountancy topics. Chengai has featured in accountancy and business magazines and is one of the ‘Top 50 Women in Accounting’ globally. She is also an international hockey player and holds a British Tennis Ranking.
Phil Thirlwell founded Datavyse to help organisations use data, analytics and AI to make better decisions and deliver measurable impact. He is currently interim Head of Business Intelligence at Global Payments, drawing on experience across BI leadership, data foundations, performance analytics and pragmatic AI adoption in complex financial services and technology environments.
Dr Christina J. Phillips is a Senior Lecturer in Business Analytics at the Liverpool Business School, Liverpool John Moores University. She has a diverse background, having tutored in physics and statistics, run her own art and design company, and consulted in business analytics. Christina’s expertise is in mathematical modelling, extended to participative modelling and design. Her work involves Human Centric Analytics (HCA) design and recently applied this to patient participation in the development of AI for healthcare, specifically addressing misinformation during the Covid-19 pandemic. She has also contributed to the fields of analytics design, participative analytics development, and forecasting action research and has recently extended her work into understanding how algorithms can best foster human centric approaches. She holds previous positions at the University of Leeds, Bangor University, and Siemens Healthineers, has been co-chair of the Problem Structuring Methods SIG at ORS for a number of years and is now Co-Chair of the Analytics Network. The diverse interests reflecting the nature of HCA design. Christina is now entering her second term on the Board of Directors of The OR Society as a charity trustee.
Stewart Robinson is Professor of Operational Research and Dean of Newcastle University Business School. From his early career in consultancy and 34 years as an academic, Stewart is known for his work on the practice of simulation modelling. He holds an honours degree in Management Science (Operational Research) (1985) and a PhD in Management Science (1998), both from Lancaster University. Stewart is a Fellow and former President of the Operational Research Society (2014-15) and Chair of the Chartered Association of Business Schools (2024- ). In 2025, Stewart was awarded the OR Society’s Beale Medal for his sustained contribution to the field.
CEO and Co-Founder of Jumping Rivers, a data science, software engineering and AI consultancy. Globally supporting reliable analytics, machine learning, and decision-support systems that are quality-assured & validated. This, along with strategy, culture & community. Additional roles as a Trustee at Ouseburn Farm and an Advisory board member of MSP, Newcastle University.
Eva Murray is a data & tech career coach, helping people create meaningful careers, reignite their passion for their work and take control of their professional development. She helps professionals find their unique personal brilliance, so they can have a bigger impact through their work. After 13+ years of working in data and technology roles at Deloitte, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Snowflake and others, Eva started her coaching business to help people excel in their own careers. She is also an internationally recognised speaker, delivering keynotes, technical presentations and hands-on workshops for organisations and events.
Roy Ruddle is a Professor of Computing and Director of Research Technology at the Leeds Institute for Data Analytics. He has worked in both industry and academia, developed the Leeds Virtual Microscope which is used around the world for cancer diagnosis, and co-founded the company Petriva which provides specialist visual data analysis and data mining software. Roy is an expert in data visualization and data quality. With input from experts working in 15 industry sectors, he developed a publicly available 6-step data quality method (https://doi.org/10.5518/1481) that is efficient, rigorous and offers time savings, cost reductions and improved result accuracy. He has also developed a software implementation of the method – the open source vizdataquality Python package
Geoff Trotter is a senior executive and impact-driven "Organizational Capability Builder”, with a Postgraduate Certificate in Sustainability Management (Presidio Graduate School, San Francisco, California) and combines a distinguished career in both for-profit and not-for-profit sectors - including Big4 Partner-level consulting (EY Hong Kong) and numerous CxO roles across Asia, Europe and the Americas. Geoff has a unique lens for navigating systems of power to drive transformational change. As an Executive Coach / Sustainability Advisor, he specialises in assisting leaders and their teams tackle complexity and contradiction through a multi-lens, stakeholder-centric approach, leveraging expertise in strategy, organisational development and consultative sales to deliver regenerative, multi-dimensional impact. Guided by a mission to positively influence a billion lives, Geoff excels at empowering leaders to exercise agency, build internal capability and achieve long-term ‘ImpactAlpha’ across economic, social and environmental dimensions.
Matthew Robinson is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Bath, teaching Analytics in Practice on the MSc Business Analytics programme. He has worked at IBM, Northumbrian Water, NatWest, British Steel and other organisations. With over 25 years of experience in analytics, he focuses on using visualisation to create dashboards and reports that deliver real organisational value through clarity and usability. His work bridges business and technical perspectives, helping organisations make better data-driven decisions. He is a member of the General Council of the Operational Research Society, leads its OR in Education outreach taskforce, and contributes to the Analytics Network.