Cambridge Tech Week Launch Event 2025

Dr Kathryn Chapman

Executive Director, Innovate Cambridge

A molecular bioscientist, Kathryn has had a distinguished career in diverse leadership and strategic roles across the public and private sectors.

Following a successful research career at the University of Manchester, Harvard Medical School, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and GlaxoSmithKline, Kathryn has played a pivotal role in shaping inclusive innovation landscapes, building cross-disciplinary virtual and physical communities and creating novel models to remove barriers to success.

This includes a decade building and leading the innovation strategy for NC3Rs, a UKRI Research Council where Kathryn founded and directed a new challenge-led open innovation platform, CRACK IT which increases cross-discipline and cross-sector industry/academic partnerships in applied research. Kathryn also co-established the Milner Therapeutics Institute at the University of Cambridge, providing a physical hub for translational science and collaboration between industry and academia. The Institute is a centre of excellence for target validation through artificial intelligence, machine-learning, functional genomics and tool compound analyses. Most recently, prior to joining Innovate Cambridge, Kathryn directed the innovation strategy at the Babraham Research Campus, launching LiveLabs incubator space and leading the Campus accelerator, entrepreneurship and innovation activities.

Throughout these roles. Chapman’s focus has been on spearheading initiatives that propel startups, entrepreneurs and businesses towards success and driving meaningful change at a national and international level.

Kathryn has 50+ research publications and has been on a wide-range of national and international review panels (Innovate UK, Innovative Medicines Initiative and BBSRC). She holds an honorary professorship at the University of Coventry where she sits on the Vice Chancellor’s advisory group.

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Dr Tom Diethe

Head of the Centre for AI, DS&AI, Biopharma R&D, AstraZeneca

Dr Tom Diethe is Head of The Centre for Artificial Intelligence (Executive Director) at AstraZeneca, Cambridge UK. The mission of Tom’s team is to devise innovative products and solutions using machine learning algorithms that will make the drug discovery pipeline more efficient and aid in a better understanding of biology and medicinal chemistry. Tom is a Machine Learning leader with 20+ years of experience in a mix of industry in academic roles, including Amazon, Microsoft Research, the British Medical Journal Group, QinetiQ, UCL and the University of Bristol. He has specialized in healthcare applications of ML/AI, including genomics, proteomics, digital health, and physiological measurement. He is co-author of the online first book “Model-Based Machine Learning.” Tom is also an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, and a member of ELLIS - the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems.

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Michaela Eschbach

CEO, Cambridge Wireless and CTW24 Steering Committee

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Dr Nik Johnson

Mayor, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority

Dr Nik Johnson has been Mayor of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority since 2021, and lives near St Neots with his family. He remains a practicing NHS paediatrician at Hinchingbrooke Hospital and is the most recent Mayor to adopt a franchised Bus Model.

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Neil Lawrence

The DeepMind Professor of Machine Learning, University of Cambridge

Neil Lawrence is the inaugural DeepMind Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Cambridge. He has been working on machine learning models for over 20 years. He recently returned to academia after three years as Director of Machine Learning at Amazon. His main interest is the interaction of machine learning with the physical world. This interest was triggered by deploying machine learning in the African context, where ‘end-to-end’ solutions are normally required. This has inspired new research directions at the interface of machine learning and systems research, this work is funded by a Senior AI Fellowship from the Alan Turing Institute. Neil is also visiting Professor at the University of Sheffield and the co-host of Talking Machines.

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Paul Maltby

Director of Public Services , Faculty

Paul is the Director of Public Services at Faculty, the UK’s leading applied AI company.

He was previously Chief Digital Officer at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government where he established the digital function and led reform to the Department’s digital services such in the planning system and across local government.

Prior to that he was Director of Data in the Cabinet Office’s Government Digital Service, with responsibility for open data, data science in government, data infrastructure and data legislation.

He has a background in public service innovation and reform in government, setting up Policy Lab the design-led team in Cabinet Office, and negotiated the G8 Open Data Charter during the UK Presidency and UK chair of the Open Government Partnership. He has had spells in Leicestershire County Council, the Home Office and the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit.

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Jessica Montgomery

Director, ai@Cam

Jessica is currently Director of ai@cam, a new University of Cambridge strategic mission to develop AI technologies that serve science, citizens, and society. Alongside this role, she leads a variety of research and policy programmes tackling the real-world challenges associated with developing and deploying AI for societal benefit. These include: Accelerate Science, an initiative developing AI tools and collaborations in support of research and innovation; the Data Trusts Initiative, an incubator programme for pilot projects creating trustworthy data governance frameworks; and strategic research agenda development for the ELISE/ELLIS network of European AI research. Her interests in AI and its consequences for science and society stem from her policy career, in which she worked with parliamentarians, leading researchers and civil society organisations to bring scientific evidence to bear on major policy issues. At the Royal Society, Jessica established and led a wide-ranging programme of policy development, public dialogue and international engagement that explored the frontiers of AI technologies and their implications for society. She worked with senior researchers, policymakers, civil society and industry to identify emerging policy needs and develop policy frameworks to enable safe and rapid deployment of these technologies. In her prior role as a Senior Clerk at the House of Commons, Jessica advised MPs on parliamentary procedure and practice. While advising a number of select committees – including Transport; Business, Innovation, and Skills; Regulatory Reform; and Science and Technology – Jessica managed inquiries into a range of science and policy issues, bringing evidence into the heart of political decision-making

: https://ai.cam.ac.uk

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Robert Pollock

Chief Executive Officer, Cambridge City Council

No bio provided

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