CWIC 2025

Katrina Anderson

Principal Associate, Mills & Reeve LLP

Katrina helps her clients find a path to compliance when launching new products, advertising products, entering new markets, and finding new routes to market, such as DTC and subscriptions. 

She also helps businesses and products come into compliance with new regulation and deals with investigations by regulators. This includes the Advertising Standards Authority, Trading Standards, Competition and Market Authority consumer investigations, Medicines and Healthcare products, Regulatory Agency, and the EU's Consumer Protection Corporation network. 

Katrina’s practice typically includes helping clients launch new products, setting up DTC e-commerce platforms, advising on how to engage on proposals for new regulation, drafting consumer terms and conditions, promotions, copy clearance, labelling, and compliance with consumer, equality and antidiscrimination, and food & alcohol regulation. 

: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katrina-anderson/

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Dr Wei Bi

Postdoctoral Research Associate in Climate Resilience of Infrastructure Systems, University of Cambridge

Wei is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Climate Resilience of Infrastructure Systems in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. She has an educational background in civil engineering and management science. In collaboration with Transport for London, her PhD research focuses on network modelling for flood resilience assessment and recovery optimisation of urban rail transit systems.

Wei is currently working in the UK National Hub for Decarbonised, Adaptable, and Resilient Transport Infrastructure (DARe). She will develop a performance metric framework for different modes of transport for quantifying their climate impacts, design a cost-benefit assessment framework for evaluating transport adaptation strategies, and enhance the current agent-based transport modelling with a focus on public transport and recovery modelling.

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Richard Bowden

Division Head Assured and Resilient PNT, GMV

Richard leads GMV’s UK team responsible for assured position and timing technology, services, and solutions. He has over 15 years experience in leadership, technical delivery, and sales for assurance in PNT, cyber, working extensively across defence, space, and critical infrastructure domains. Through his work in PNT and space, Richard has contributed to national and internation initiatives to develop policy, regulation, and best practice as a means to manage risk.

: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-bowden-3410027

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John Bretherick

Director of Business Development, Fujitsu Network Communications

John Bretherick is Director of Business Development at Fujitsu Network Communications, where he focuses on the Fujitsu open networking portfolio, including optical and Open RAN solutions, for Europe. John has over 30 years of experience in telecom, holding roles in engineering, sales, marketing and business development for both global service providers and equipment vendors. He has a long history of developing customized solutions for global IT, system integrators and communication service providers, as well as vertical market experience in pharmaceuticals, utilities, government and health sectors. John is married with two children and lives in Ilkley West Yorkshire, where he enjoys many sports including golf and cycling.

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Simon Burley

Director - Technology, Ofcom

With a career spanning more than 25 years working for telecom infrastructure providers and a mobile operator, Simon’s expertise covers the architectural vision, design, and deployment of all leading radio access technologies. He currently leads the Networks, Media and Infrastructure team at Ofcom.

: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sjburley/

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Dr Steve Clark

CEO, Cambridge Sensoriis

Dr Steve Clark is the founder and CEO of Cambridge Sensoriis. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Physics at Loughborough University, and his PhD at the Australian Centre for Field Robotics at the University of Sydney. He has over 25 years’ experience as a founder and entrepreneur in radar technology for industrial automation. Steve co-founded Navtech Radar from 1999, where he designed and manufactured radar solutions for the security, industrial automation, and traffic safety markets. World first systems include radar navigation for autonomous straddle carriers at Australian container ports; radar for tunnel and motorway stopped vehicle detection in the UK and internationally; and radar on autonomous iron-ore bulk carrier trains for obstacle avoidance. Steve is now delivering all weather micro radar systems at Sensoriis, to support autonomy and Beyond-Line-of-Sight flight, for commercial drone services. 

: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-clark-b553053/

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Daniel Clarke

Head of Innovation and Technology , Greater Cambridge Partnership

Dan is Head of Innovation and Technology for the Greater Cambridge Partnership and works with new and emerging tech to help address the challenges facing Cambridge such as traffic flow, the public transport system, and air quality. Dan’s work has included the deployment of sensor networks, data platforms and travel planning apps and trialling the UK’s first purpose-built automated bus as part of the public transport system. He has also worked with the University of Cambridge on a digital twin of the city. 

Dan has supported Cambridge being used as testbed for new technologies. He works across local and central government, business and academia to ensure that the city is using new technologies to support its ambitions. Dan is currently on the UKTIN Transport working group, on the advisory board for DaRe (a university led project to support net zero transport) and he is a SIG champion for the Smart and Intelligent cities SIG. 

Previously Dan worked for Connecting Cambridgeshire on the deployment of connectivity across the county. He led projects including the adoption of a LoRa network, assisted MNO’s in establishing mobile connectivity (including deploying 5G small cells) and explored the use of neutral host and private networks across the county. 

 

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Chris Dent

Professor of Industrial Mathematics, University of Edinburgh

Chris Dent is a Professor of Industrial Mathematics at the University of Edinburgh. He has 18 years of experience in energy and wider infrastructure analysis, with particular emphasis on energy system reliability and resilience. Current projects in the area include THERMAL on heat resilience with National Grid Electricity Transmission, the Climate Resilience Decision Optimizer with UK Power Networks and Anglian Water, and a number of projects with the National Energy System Operator on topics relating to electricity security of supply. He is a Chartered Engineer, and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, the Institution of Engineers in Scotland, and the Operational Research Society. 

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James Douglas

US Advisory Partner, Frazier and Deeter

James Douglas, CPA, brings over two decades of experience and leads FD’s Office of the CFO service line. Focusing on assisting growing organizations across the CFO suite, he specializes in helping organizations prepare for transactions and fundraising, execute expansion strategies and business & financial process improvement.  

Prior to joining FD, he served large, highly acquisitive multinational public companies as an Audit Partner at a Big Four firm and as a CFO at a pre-IPO Softbank-backed Fintech in the United States. 

: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-douglas-0986a6a/

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Helen Duncan

Blueshift Memory

Helen Duncan is Chief Executive Officer of Blueshift Memory, a semiconductor IP startup. Following an early career as a microwave design engineer, she was marketing manager for two global semiconductor manufacturers, then editor of a leading technical magazine for 12 years. Before joining Blueshift Memory she worked as a marketing consultant and a freelance technology writer 

A Chartered Engineer, Helen is a member of the UKTIN Semiconductor Experts Working Group and advises on UK semiconductor and telecoms policy. She is a member of the IET and IEEE, and has served on the IEEE UKI Women in Engineering Committee.

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Michaela Eschbach

CEO, Cambridge Wireless and CTW24 Steering Committee

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Anthony Flavin

Chronos Technology Limited, Manager of Strategic Research

Tony started his career in electronic and semiconductor design for early digital transmission systems with BT Research. Later he helped develop the first optical fibre networks, before specialising in SDH and network synchronisation. He represented BT’s interests globally at ETSI and ITU for SDH, OTN and synchronisation. He now has over 45 years of experience in Telecommunications and synchronisation architecture over a variety of network topologies. Joining Chronos 9 years ago, he continues to further the development of various timing systems along with resolving the problems that each presents. Today’s challenges largely surround GNSS systems and resurrecting eLoran. He became a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation in 2024.

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Jo Gretton

CEO, Telent

Jo Gretton is Telent’s Chief Executive Officer responsible for leading the company to deliver excellent customer service, continued growth and ensuring that Telent is a great place to work. 

Jo was a member of Telent’s founding management team in 2006. Previously she was Telent’s Chief Operating Officer and before that Head of Legal and Commercial which also included responsibility for Telent’s QEHS and Company Secretarial functions. 

Jo is an Exeter University law graduate and practised as a barrister before joining Marconi in 2000. She held various commercial and legal roles at Marconi and was Head of Legal for AsiaPac and the Americas prior to Telent’s formation. 

: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joanne-gretton-663501

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Josie Houghton

Cyber Security Lead, Rolls-Royce SMR

Josie Houghton is the Cyber Security Lead for Rolls Royce SMR – with responsibility for the design and assurance of the cyber protection system for the RR SMR Nuclear Power Stations. She started her career as a Controls Engineer, working on projects such as Ain-Dubai – the world’s largest observation wheel, Dubai Metro 2020 extension and the Woolwich Free Ferry service refurbishment, and moved into OT Cyber Security in 2018. Since then, she has entered the Nuclear Industry, where she served as EDF’s Fleet IT/OT Cyber Security Manager for 2 years. She has previously been an active member of the ISA99 committee and is currently a member of the steering group for the NCSC ICS Community of Interest.    

: http://www.rolls-royce-smr.com
: josie-houghton-ceng-miet-1752523b

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Seán Keating

CTO, Boldyn Networks

Seán has worked on wireless networks for over 25 years. He has delivered projects across four continents. Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Australasia. This involved building infrastructure for mobile operators, governments, investors, real estate companies, offshore wind developers and large industrials.

As CTO for the UK and Ireland, Seán leads an innovative technology team creating industry-leading technology for our customers, underpinning Boldyn Networks’s growth ambitions.

Before Boldyn Networks's acquisition in 2021, Seán was CEO of Vilicom. In this role, Seán executed a strategy to expand the company into new verticals, supporting digital transformation and launching Europe’s first cloud platform to deploy mobile and private networks faster and more efficiently. 

Seán holds an electronics engineering degree from Dublin City University and an MBA from Smurfit Business School. He has completed a year-long leadership development programme with IMD Lausanne.

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Chris Kubecka

CEO, HypaSec

Chris Kubecka stands at the forefront of cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and emerging technologies, shaping the future of digital defense and innovation. With a dynamic career that bridges the gap between cutting-edge technology and critical infrastructure security, Chris has established herself as a global authority and trusted advisor in both the public and private sectors.

Her journey into the realm of artificial intelligence began during her tenure at Unisys, where she developed groundbreaking AI algorithms for predictive analysis and cyber-attack forecasting. This pioneering work set the stage for her illustrious career, marked by significant contributions to national military strategies, trading blocs, and critical sectors such as maritime, nuclear, oil & gas, space, and aviation.

Chris’s expertise extends beyond traditional cybersecurity. She has been instrumental in developing advanced technologies to combat misinformation, enhance encryption, and leverage quantum computing. Her advisory roles span high-profile projects, including the NASA Artemis Project, EU AI initiatives in cyber warfare and intelligence, and the UK’s first Space Hackathon.

A prolific researcher and author, Chris’s recent academic paper, "Secrets From the Future: Hacking in a Post-Quantum Cryptography World: Implications for Cyber Security and National Defense," ranks in the top 2% of papers published on ResearchGate in 2024. Her ongoing research, "Modernization of the OSS Sabotage Manual for the Digital Realm," further cements her position as a thought leader in cybersecurity innovation.

Chris is the founder and owner of HypaSec, a consultancy that provides direct research, ethical hacking, and incident management services. Her leadership has guided organizations through complex cybersecurity challenges, including the recovery from the Shamoon cyber warfare attack on Aramco.

Her dedication to cybersecurity also manifests in humanitarian efforts. Notably, she coordinated an OSINT operation to evacuate foreign students from Ukraine during the Russian invasion, showcasing her ability to integrate diverse skill sets for both defense and humanitarian causes.

Recognized for her contributions, Chris has received numerous awards, including the US Medal Order of Thor for cybersecurity, Woman Hacker of the Year, and Top Woman in Cyber Warfare. She has been a poet laureate at the House of Lords and continues to influence the field through her extensive publications and speaking engagements.

Chris's geopolitical experience spans the United States, European Union (EU), NATO, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), North Africa, East Africa, China, Russia, and Eastern Europe. Her strategic insights and innovative solutions continue to drive the evolution of cybersecurity practices globally. She is a tentative member of the US Defence Science Board for Generative AI and Cyberwarfare.

As a senior cyber security advisor and chief strategist, Chris Kubecka remains dedicated to advancing the field of cybersecurity, ensuring that technology not only evolves but also protects and empowers society.

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Friedemann Laue

Researcher, Resilient Communication Systems , FAU, Institute for Smart Electronics and Systems

Friedemann Laue received his M.Sc. degree with honours in Computer and Communication Systems Engineering from the Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany, in 2015. From 2015 to 2017, he started his professional career as a signal processing engineer at Capical GmbH in Braunschweig, Germany, where he developed algorithms for feature detection in ECG signals. In 2017, Friedemann returned to academia and joined the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIS) and the Institute for Digital Communications (IDC) at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU). His research interests include 5G/6G communication systems in the context of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces with a special focus on detection theory, optimisation, codebook design, and wireless power transfer. Since October 2024, Friedemann has been working at the Institute for Smart Electronics and Systems at FAU, coordinating research projects in the field of resilient communication systems. 

: https://www.linkedin.com/in/friedemann-laue-b85780

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Dr Leon Lobo

Head, National Timing Centre , National Physical Laboratory

Dr Leon Lobo is the Head of the National Timing Centre (NTC) programme at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). He leads the strategic direction for national resiliency in Time, Frequency and Synchronisation and focuses on developing and delivering a national timing strategy. The NTC will be developing capability toward a national resiliency in timing for our expanding digital infrastructure, stimulating the development of an assured supply chain and addressing the skills gap for time and frequency technologies and dissemination solutions. A chartered engineer, with a PhD in high power laser material processing, he led the team developing NPLTime®, NPL’s certified fibre-delivered time dissemination solution to the City of London for high frequency trading systems and regulatory compliance. He also led a cross-government team developing the UK's first Timing Strategy, conceptualised and proposed the now developing National Timing Centre, recently embedded in UK PNT resilience policy as the source of the UK’s critical national infrastructure.

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Professor John A McDermid OBE FREng

Lloyds Register Foundation Chair of Safety, Director Centre for Assuring Autonomy, University of York

John McDermid became Professor of Software Engineering at the University of York in 1987 and the Lloyd’s Register Foundation Chair of Safety in January 2024. His research covers a broad range of issues in systems, software, and safety engineering. He became Director of the Lloyd’s Register Foundation funded Assuring Autonomy International Programme (AAIP) in January 2018 and the successor Centre for Assuring Autonomy (CfAA) in January 2024. The AAIP and CfAA focus on the safety of robotics and autonomous systems and are developing assurance frameworks for autonomous systems and machine learning, either used as part of an autonomous system or stand-alone. These frameworks are being used across a range of sectors including healthcare and major transport modalities including aerospace, automotive, and maritime. He has advised government and industry on assurance and regulation of AI and autonomous systems, including contributing to the documents supporting the AI Summits in the UK, Korea and France and chairing the BSI advisory board on standards for connected and autonomous vehicles. He became a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2002 and was awarded an OBE in 2010.

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Gareth Mitchell

Presenter, Somewhere on Earth: The Global Tech Podcast

Gareth Mitchell presents Somewhere on Earth: The Global Tech Podcast. The podcast grew out of the long-running BBC World Service tech programme Digital Planet. For over two decades, Gareth has presented BBC science and technology radio programmes across World Service and Radio 4. He is also one of the presenters on BBC Business Daily where he reported on the issue of GPS jamming and spoofing late last year. Gareth lectures on the Science Communication MSc at Imperial College London. Alongside that, Gareth is a busy event host and moderator, having worked with the likes of the World Economic Forum, ECD, Wellcome Trust, Government of Estonia and the European Commission. He is a graduate in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Imperial College.  

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Dr Chris Murphy

Regional CTO, EMEA, Viavi

Chris has nearly 25 years of commercial experience in telecommunications covering network performance measurement, optimisation, automation, geolocation and SON, particularly in cellular RAN including 5G, LTE and UMTS.  His focus has been on the modelling, simulation and optimisation of next generation technologies to build a revenue stream early in the life cycle of each new generation of telecommunication systems.  He has contributed to various industry and standardisation bodies, including 3GPP, O-RAN, TIP, ATIS and NGMN. 

Chris joined VIAVI through their acquisition of Arieso. Prior to that he worked for Motorola and Nokia developing new capabilities for their services portfolio. 

Chris holds a degree in Mathematics and Computing and a Ph.D. in the calibration of oceanic remote sensing satellites for improved models of climate change. He has authored various journal articles, conference papers and book chapters, including "Understanding 5G: A Practical Guide to Deploying and Operating 5G Networks." Chris has filed over 20 patent applications. 

 

: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-murphy-6502a53/

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Dr Nick New

CEO, Optalysys

Dr Nick New is the CEO and co-founder of Optalysys, since 2013. With a PhD in Optical Pattern Recognition from Cambridge, Nick has a strong foundation in optical technology. At Optalysys, Nick is pioneering advancements in silicon photonics and FHE. Dr Nick New, CEO of Optalysys.

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Ms Nihal Newman

Network Security and Resilience Policy Director , OFCOM

Nihal leads Ofcom’s security and resilience policy work, setting strategic policy direction in relation to the telecommunication and internet infrastructure sectors. She is responsible for overseeing policy aspects of Ofcom’s regulatory supervisory regimes and has oversight of a cyber security outcome testing scheme. 

Nihal has a business management background, with extensive experience in leading strategic policy and technical programmes and is a member of Ofcom’s Operations Board, Senior Leadership Group and Technology Profession. 

With her wealth of experience and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, she leads technology-based initiatives in the telecoms sector. Nihal led Ofcom’s initiative in 2023, uniting some of the UK’s leading telecoms organisations to sign a Women in Tech pledge, committing to promote the role of women in technology-based roles in the telecoms sector.  

Prior to joining Ofcom, Nihal has worked in the transport and infrastructur

: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nihalnewman/

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Jasper Nota

Domain Manager IoT | Ethical Hacker , Secura | Bureau Veritas

Jasper Nota is an ethical hacker who has been leveraging his knowledge and expertise to enhance the cyber resilience of corporations, device manufacturers, and government bodies for nearly seven years. Alongside his hands-on technical duties, he leads the IoT evaluation laboratory and manages a team of technical experts known as the 'product whisperers'. 

: https://nl.linkedin.com/in/jasper-nota

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Bob Oates

Associate Director, Cambridge Consultants

Bob Oates is a specialist in the interaction between safety and security for operational technology, critical infrastructure, and IoT devices. He works within the Engineering Assurance Team at Cambridge Consultants, ensuring that intelligent, AI-enabled systems are safe and secure. In addition to his academic background, Bob has over a decade of industrial experience working in the critical national infrastructure, defence, aerospace, nuclear, and maritime domains, including acting as the head of security for the development of the world’s first commercial remotely operated ship. He holds an Honorary Professorship in Safety and Security at De Montfort University.

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Olu Orugboh

Chair, Cambridge Wireless

Olu is the CEO and Founder of Synergy Solutions, a specialist management consultancy practice, focussed on helping companies stay at the forefront of evolving technology and the ever-changing world of customer expectations, whilst remaining resilient and futureproofing their business.
As a senior leader and seasoned professional with over 20 years’ experience, leading businesses through change, transformation and migration into digital environments, Olu has assisted a range of companies from start-ups, through to high growth scale ups to FTSE listed companies both in the UK and Internationally to embrace digital technology, safely, whilst remaining resilient and responsive to the rapidly changing environment. Olu has deep international experience, assisting enterprises to turnaround their failing operations through to putting in place infrastructures to support growth initiatives and introduce digital innovation. She has extensive business experience having had the opportunity, through both her own business and other executive level positions to shape the strategy for a wide array of businesses and introduce digital technology, providing a range of companies with the opportunity to speed up response and enhance the quality of that response, which she believes to be vital in the delivery of an agile business.
Olu is highly committed to assisting organisations to become resilient and future proofed. In addition to running a business, Olu is a mother to two wonderful children and is passionate about growing the impact of digital technology in underserved communities.

: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olu-orugboh-7a9ba9/

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Professor Gerard Parr PhD, MBE

Chair in Telecommunications Engineering, University of East Anglia

Gerard is a Full Professor in  Telecommunications Engineering and has been  Head of School of Computing Sciences at the University of East Anglia (UEA) from 2016-2023 which involved a range of senior management roles and responsibilities covering Teaching, Research, Innovation and  Outreach.  He holds a PhD in Self-Stabilising Protocols from Ulster University, aspects of which were completed with Prof Jon Crowcroft at University College London (UCL) and one of the Founding Architects  of the Internet (Professor Jon Postel) as a Visiting Research Scientist at the DARPA/University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute in Marina Del Rey, Los Angeles.  His PhD External Examiner was Prof Peter Kirstein from UCL.  Within his academic career, areas of research include Self-stabilising Networks, Wireless Sensor Clouds, UAVs for Disaster Response Communications, ICT for the Rural Economy, Converged Network Management & Control Protocols  for Terrestrial and Non-Terrestrial Networks, delay-sensitive QoSLAs, energy-aware autonomic networking and IoT-edge computing.  Gerard has attracted several £millions of external research and commercial funding and has advised government agencies around the world on the allocation of funding to large-scale projects valued in total at approximately £4 billion. His industrial collaborations have included companies such as BT, Intel, ARM, Vodafone, IBM, Aviva, Ericsson, Siemens, InfoSys, Wipro, Tejas Networks, TCS and SAP.  From 1997-2007, Professor Parr was a Founding Executive Technical Director of Causeway Data Communications Ltd which eventually sold its main GIS product “Spatialist” to  Schneider Geospatial.  Gerard is  an invited member of the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Peer Review College. His academic research collaborations include institutions MIT, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Arizona, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, USC-ISI Los Angeles, University of Florida, University College London, Southampton, Surrey, QMUL, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, University of Oxford, St Andrews, Exeter, Lincoln, Lancaster and Cambridge, Beijing University of Posts & Telecommunications (BUPT), Tsinghua University, Peking University and Indian Institutes of Technology in Mumbai, Madras, Kanpur, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mandi and IISc Bangalore.  He was previously appointed as a Visiting Professor to the Science Foundation Ireland/CTVR at Trinity College Dublin and to the Emirates-BT Innovation Centre (EBTIC) at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi- UAE. He was International Scientific Advisor to the UK EPSRC National Centre for Doctoral Training in Communications Engineering at the University of Bristol. He was appointed as Senior Guest Editor for prestigious IEEE Journal on Selected Areas of Communications (JSAC) for a Special Issue on Communications Challenges and Dynamics in UAVs. He has extensive experience of working with developing economies, in particular, India, where he was the UK Academic co-ordinator for the major EPSRC-DST India-UK Advanced Technology Centre in Next Generation Networks Systems and Services which was the largest collaboration of its kind between UK and India in the ICT sector attracting total investment of over £20 million and also helped establish a Virtual Graduate Research School for 67 PhD students under the UK-India Education & Research Initiative (UKIERI Programme.  Under UKIERI he also led another project in Kalimpong to explore use of wireless sensors to predict landslides in West Bengal. Gerard was awarded an MBE in Queens New Year Honours for 2018 for contributions to Telecommunications Infrastructure in Northern Ireland.

He was previously the Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK and Irish Governments on the provision of a Tran-Atlantic Undersea Telecoms Interconnector to North America.  During January 2020 Prof Parr was elected to the Strategic Advisory Committee for the UK Government UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) – Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) ICT Programme to assist with strategic developments, funding panels and identification of funding priorities.  Most recently Gerard has been  successful in attracting Co-I funding for a 5-year EPSRC Next Stage Digital Economy Hub called DIGIT (Digital-Innovation-Growth-Impact-Transformation) valued over £12 million which will explore methodologies and business impact of  Digital Transformation in Large Organisations.

During 2021 Gerard was also successful as PI to attract £1.4 million funding for  the “UK-India Future Networks Initiative” with IISc Bangalore, IIT Delhi, UCL, Surrey, Southampton and BT. Most recently in December 2022 he was successful as a Co-PI on a bid to UKRI-ESRC concerning Digital Technology in Teacher Agency. The £5.3 million fund will support a total of nine projects. He is also an invited Member of the UKRI-EPSRC Digital Security & Resilience Advisory Group and is currently engaging with Innovate-UK and the Department of Telecoms Govt of India.

: https://www.linkedin.com/in/professor-gerard-parr-

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Dominick Peasley

CEO, Sprk Capital

Dominick is CEO of SPRK Capital. Prior to joining SPRK he was responsible for all lending capital at Funding Circle, the largest platform lender to small businesses in the UK. He joined pre-IPO to institutionalise their capital base and during his tenure there raised over £5bn of new capital to support SMEs in the UK. He was instrumental in the UK Government loan schemes, through CBILS, BBLS and most recently the RLS programme. 

Before that, Dominick co-founded Capital-B a FinTech advisory and capital placement agency focused on developing lending businesses. Prior to this Dominick worked for Goldman Sachs where he headed distribution for its asset management business in the UK and with global banks. Dominick qualified as a chartered accountant with PwC and is a Fellow of the ICAEW. He holds a Masters in Engineering from Durham University. 

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Deborah Petterson

Director of Resilience and Emergency Management, National Energy System Operator (NESO)

Debs is the Director of Resilience and Emergency Management at the National Energy System Operator (NESO). NESO is responsible for delivering secure, affordable, and sustainable power, whilst delivering the government's Net Zero ambitions; Debs is responsible for ensuring the security and resilience of the UK's energy system at this time of heightened global insecurity. 

Debs recently left Whitehall, with over two decades of experience with roles in national security, cybersecurity, defence, and critical national infrastructure resilience. Her career has spanned roles in energy, climate, and cyber security, where her focus has been making the UK a safer and more resilient nation. 

: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-petterson-313

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Dr Richard Price

CTO & Co-Founder, Pragmatic Semiconductor

Richard has over 25 years experience in the development and commercialisation of a wide-range of new technologies based on novel processes, materials and flexible electronics. Richard has a BSc and PhD in Chemistry from the University of Durham. He is inventor/co-inventor on over 25 patent families. Richard is a non-executive director at the Henry Royce Institute – the UK’s National Institute for advanced materials research.

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Professor Jennifer Schooling

Professor of Digital Innovation and Smart Places, Anglia Ruskin University

Jennifer is a Professor of Digital Innovation and Smart Places. She has had a varied career working in industry and academia. Her current research explores the sociotechnical aspects of digitalisation at the city scale, focussing on governance and ethical innovation to enable delivery of digital solutions for public value creation.

She is a co-director of the DARe Research Hub for Decarbonised, Adaptable, climate Resilient transport for a sustainable future. She also carries out research on decarbonisation of construction through data.

Jennifer was previously the Director of the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction. She was lead author of the Carbon Reduction Code for the Built Environment. She sits on the Secure Connected Places Advisory Board for the UK government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), the Infrastructure Client Group’s Digital Transformation Task Group, and the Institution of Civil Engineers Decarbonisation Community Advisory Board.

Jennifer is a chartered engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

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Riya Sharma

Space and Satellite RF Engineer , TTP

Riya recently graduated from the University of Warwick with an integrated master’s in Physics with Astrophysics. During her studies, she specialised in radio astronomy and developed a strong interest in RF and satellite communications through internships at In-Space Missions and the European Space Agency. Currently, she works as a consultant at TTP in the Satellite and Space team, where she is focused on expanding her expertise in quantum communications and 5G Non-Terrestrial Networks, while growing her professional network.

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Dr Mike Short CBE

Chief Architect, Satellite Applications Catapult

Dr Mike Short leads a portfolio career in research & innovation including Chief Architect at the Satellite Applications Catapult. He examines new coverage approaches with converged Mobile/Satellite services and supports the adoption of new technologies including AI and Quantum. He chairs advisory boards for both the UK Telecomms Labs (NPL) and the UK Telecomms Innovation Network, and is a Visiting Professor at the University of Surrey and UCL. Mike was appointed Chief Scientific Adviser for DIT (now DBT) in 2017, where he led technical aspects of the department and worked on UK engineering exports and inward investment. He represented DIT on HMG committees for Telecomms, Space, Health and Quantum, and led overseas delegations to international trade events such as MWC Barcelona and CES Las Vegas. He was an active member of GoScience as a CSA,  and Board member at Innovate UK (part of UKRI). His 30-year tenure at Cellnet/O2 UK/Telefonica Group included launching 2G (GSM) and 3G mobile technologies, winning mobile licenses overseas, and later led international research and standards (including 4G / 5G) for Telefonica. He also ran trials for Mobile TV, Smart metering, Driverless cars, Digital Health, and IoT, and managed the company EU office in Brussels. Mike is a former Chairman of the international GSM Association, the UK Mobile Data Association, EM3 LEP , and was President of the Institution of Engineering and Technology in 2011/ 2012. Board roles have also included ETSI, Innovate UK, UK 5G, Phonepayplus, and Trustee of the Archives of IT.

: https://sa.catapult.org.uk/

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Dawn Wood

Principle Engineer, BAE Systems Submarines

Dawn Wood is a Principal Engineer for the Future Capability team in BAE Systems. They have spent nearly 7 years working across the defence space in both Air and Maritime divisions. Dawn has a degree and a PhD in Physics from Warwick University and has used those skills to lead research and development tasks to inform the future direction of defence platform technology. Dawn's particular focus is the adoption of Quantum Technologies for defence. 

: linkedin.com/in/dcwood1

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Wenmiao Yu

Co-Founder & Director of Business Development, Quantum Dice

Wenmiao Yu is the co-founder and Director of Business Development at Quantum Dice where she focuses on translating scientific innovation into marketable products, and VC fundraising. After reading Chemistry at the University of Oxford and ideating Quantum Dice, Wenmiao went to the Quantum Technology Enterprise Centre as an Enterprise Fellow. She strongly believes in the power of communities, crucial to growing nascent industries such as quantum technologies. Wenmiao brought Quantum Dice into the Royal Academy of Engineering’s network of high-growth technology companies after being selected for the Shott Scale Up Accelerator in 2022. She is currently the founding Secretary for the Institute of Physics quantum-Business Innovation and Growth group. There, Wenmiao also leads the sub-group to deliver on qBIG’s “voice into government” objective.

: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wenmiao-yu-b37bba151

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