I'm a Manager supporting PwC UK’s Head of Clients and Markets, Marco Amitrano, and his team with their portfolio of work. I also continue my involvement with the NW Tech Ecosystem work supporting PwC UK Head of Technology & Investments, Ben Higgin, to drive a consortium of 12 organisations in Greater Manchester. We're collectively coming together to address the tech talent gap, creating programmes, events, campaigns and networks to encourage young people, career switchers and returners into Technology careers in the North West. Before this, I spent 4.5 years in our Customer Led Transformation practice, leading programme teams across the UK, Poland & India to deliver Digital Transformations enabled by Salesforce, predominantly for the Public Sector. I'm proud to have won the Women in Tech Excellence Awards 2022 for Woman of the Year (Consultancies & Integrators) & Role Model of the Year, as well as being Highly Commended in the Hero of the Year category.

Sarah spearheads the PR team at Fieldworks, a specialist retail technology PR and content agency, and connects innovators and technology providers – from enterprise tech to disruptive start-ups – with retail businesses and organisations operating in the consumer industries. Highly networked, Sarah is a passionate advocate of technology’s role in transforming business capabilities and building-out competitive advantage. An avid supporter of women in technology, Sarah connects, promotes and drives influence for women in the tech and digital arenas.

Michelle Conway is a Lead Data Scientist at Lloyds Banking Group, working in a high-performance multidisciplinary MLOps team. Her work involves deploying models into production, expanding the portfolio into generative AI, and enabling the business to make data-driven decisions. Michelle is dedicated to building communities for women in the data and tech space, having successfully created a data science women's community for Python-based projects. Originally from Ireland, she is an avid fan of London city and enjoys its rich culture and amazing artworks.

Cass Cooper, MHR is laser focused on bringing equity and inclusion to the IT Channel and Tech by building inclusive cultures and removing bias from institutional processes. As the DEI Community Leader at The Channel Company, Cooper assists organizations as they create cultures that thrive in business because of their inclusivity. She’s an expert chaos whisperer, assisting leaders as they make sense of the cultural complexities of bias and exclusion. She builds on what teams do well, while filling in the gaps of what’s unknown to streamline processes to create healthy corporate cultures and increase a sense of belonging. Cooper knows that data-driven change management is the key to inclusion, because when organizations know better, they do better. Cooper received her Bachelor of Arts in Women’s and Gender Studies from DePaul University, Chicago, and a Master of Human Relations, Inclusive Leadership, from the University of Oklahoma. Her 20 years as an award-winning sales, events, and hospitality professional has fueled her passion for people, processes, and organizational culture. Her superpower is making sense of what may feel like chaos while developing business practices that put people at the center. The future of successful businesses hinges on their organizational ability to maintain a space where their members are seen, valued, respected, and protected. Cooper is an avid reader, podcast consumer, and mom to one tiny human and many plants.

Sarah leads the Go to Market Strategy for Industry Cloud for Healthcare at Microsoft UK. She enjoys building strong collaborative multi-disciplinary teams focused on enabling customers and partners to achieve more through technology. Previously Sarah was Regional Vice President at Salesforce for the NHS and has worked in the IT and Telco industry for the last 25 years including previous 14 years with Microsoft and leadership roles with ZyXEL and Siemens Communications both on a local and global level. Sarah is a strong advocate for mental health and has recently become a Mental Health First Aider. As a strong mentor and coach for early in careers and returners she is passionate about supporting women in IT. She has a passion for technology and innovation within digital accessibility and inclusion, based on experiences with autism and ADHD. Sarah is a Women in Tech Excellence Award Winner in 2021, TechWomen100 winner in 2020, Fellow of the Institute of Sales Professionals, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and Board Trustee for Parenting Special Children.

My name is Harley Cunningham, and I have extensive sales and marketing experience in some of the world's leading companies, including IBM, Experian, and Virgin Media O2, spanning over 15 years. Throughout my career, I have been deeply committed to enhancing businesses' profitability by focusing on customer experience and churn reduction. Recently, I have ventured into change management and strategy, spurred by my current company's merger with Virgin Media O2, as well as a desire to expand my career horizons. Additionally, I have been pursuing a personal mission to improve employee well-being in the face of bereavement since the loss of my two-year-old twin son. As a bereavement workplace consultant and industry speaker, I have been working tirelessly alongside my day job to develop a three-pronged approach. Firstly, I strive to improve bereavement policies and advocate for full-pay leave to support employees during their time of need. Secondly, I have created toolkits for both employees and managers, enabling them to engage in better bereavement conversations and training. Lastly, I am working towards creating a workplace culture that fosters openness and provides practical top-down support, such as my "Hug in a Box" initiative that offers food vouchers to employees experiencing one of the toughest times of their lives. In recognition of my efforts, I was honored to receive the Best Returner award at the WIT Awards last year. I am proud to have made a positive impact on the lives of others and look forward to continuing my work in improving employee well-being and promoting a more compassionate workplace culture.

Pallavi is a Technology leader with 2 decades of digital industry experience. She has held many Technology roles across different companies. Have experience working for different clients across USA, Singapore, India and UK. Currently working as Director-Portfolio Delivery at Pearson London, UK. She is the winner of "Digital Leader of the Year - Enterprise" at Women in Tech Excellence awards 2022. She has received many recognitions for her work in the Technology teams for successful delivery and exceeding client expectations. She is known for building high performing teams, bringing in transparency and collaboration at work. She is certified AWS Cloud Architect Associate, AWS Cloud Practitioner and Microsoft certified professional. Advocates Agile ways of working in the teams and builds the Communities of practice. Apart from her day job she actively contributes to Women in Technology (WIT) community at Pearson for various initiatives to help non-tech women to learn tech skills. Leads Social impact program in the UK to help under privileged students to get view of technology world and get insights to role models in tech.

With over 13 years of experience, Baka has worked with industry giants, specializing in application security, cyberstrategy, and compliance. A multi-award finalist and winner, she was named among the « Top 50 Women in Cybersecurity » and has been recognized for her leadership, innovation, and commitment to diversity in tech. Beyond her corporate achievements, Baka is a sought-after speaker, leadership & Tech coach, and deep-tech innovator. She is dedicated to fostering industry resilience and mentoring the next generation of cybersecurity professionals.

Zoe is a survivor of a high-profile domestic violence attack having been tortured and held for over 8 hours. Although she escaped with her life, she was then subjected to a justice system that she describes as broken. Using her 20+ years of professional experience working across Public Sector; Health, Law Enforcement & Local Authority advising on technology and services that support government policy, and having ran a child protection agency, she can see clearly where the system is failing, so is compelled to make a difference. A regular commentator in the media, Zoe is a campaigner for the rights of women, victims of domestic abuse and stalking. She has made fundamental changes in both the criminal and family justice system using her own experiences to highlight failings and has changed legislation to close loopholes. Zoe is on the Trust Board of Paladin National stalking advocacy service, the first trauma informed service for high-risk victims of stalking and sits on the Victim & Witness Engagement Group at Ministry of Justice (MoJ) inputting into court reform. Zoe has even incorporated her keen interest in property to help others and owns a property portfolio in her home city Coventry, where she works with local charities to house victims of abuse and homelessness

Tanya’s expertise sits at the intersection of digital transformation, advertising and telcos. Before co-founding Novatiq, she was Director of Mobile Data at Telefonica where she spearheaded the earliest developments of mobile network operator consent technology; later joining Vodafone to design a global customer data consent management platform which is still deployed across Vodafone’s footprint today. A global thought leader and speaker on data privacy, Tanya drives the GSMA and E5 initiatives on global mobile data and was elected to sit on the inaugural global board of the MMA. Tanya is the chief product visionary at Novatiq, responsible for defining our best-in-class identity solutions and product roadmap.

Alice is a Chapter Lead in the central Data Science team at Lloyds Banking Group. She leads 3 large programmes of work including: the group’s data science lifecycle, the group’s model inventory & risk management tool & the ethical ai library. Her background is in consulting & data mining/statistics (with an MSc in Marketing & Business Analysis from the University of Edinburgh) with over 10 years’ experience, including 5 at Lloyds. Outside her day to day role, she is involved in a number of activities close to her heart: she is the Steerco Lead for Women in Data at LBG, a contributor to the Women ConnecTech network, and a leading member of the Inclusion & Diversity pillar. This is Alice's 4th year of being a judge for these awards, having herself won an award in 2020

More ‘I’ than ‘T’, Tanya originally fell into a Data Protection role, which turned out to be a lucky break as it has led to a career in the evolving field of information governance/management, becoming ever more relevant as the art of the possible in technology becomes even greater. As a result she is a specialist in legislation such as Data Protection UK/GDPR, Freedom of Information and Regulation of Investigatory Powers, working in the public sector, for nearly twenty years. Tanya won the Returner of the Year award 2021 in recognition of a number of achievements made following a return to work from maternity leave within a relatively short space of time, whilst still a new mother. Tanya believes in working to inspire her child as they grow and make decisions about their own path in life, and in supporting women to both recognise their potential and to celebrate their achievements (such as by way of these awards). Tanya has since been developing her personal leadership skills, including coaching and mentoring, gaining a distinction for a CMI apprenticeship in Leadership.

Cat Mackay is an award-winning innovator and a driving force in hydrogen digital twins, earning multiple accolades, including Innovator of the Year 2022. A passionate advocate for technology-driven change, she has built and led pioneering teams that blend cutting-edge innovation with a people-first approach. With a relentless commitment to challenging the status quo, Cat fights for bold, transformative ideas that push industries forward. She is especially dedicated to empowering the next generation of women in tech, ensuring that innovation is fueled by diverse talent, fresh perspectives, and fearless ambition.

Louise Mccarthy. Currently INED for Leumi UK and Board Advisor for a number of companies. Louise is also working on charitable activities in Indonesia teaching female empowerment at a girls school. Louise also supports as a CXO advisor for a number of innovative tech companies. Louise has lead a number complex organisation creating their strategy for Global Digital IT transformation. Louise is an outstanding, award winning and dynamic inspirational CIO transformational and business change leader with over 35 years’ experience in some large private and public sector organisations including HMRC, Aviva, HSBC, and EBRD. She is highly respected in the technology, digital industry as a passionate, energized and transformational leader who achieves amazing results. She is valued at board level for design of complex technology and digital transformational visions, and strategy. The ability to take complex organisations with the need for transformation and align to business objectives . A background in finance and commercial giving the ability to see the wider picture and achieved commercial creativity. Louise is also a role model for females in technology.

After just one year at IBM, Jude was described as a ‘trail blazer’ within her company who has an evident passion for Technology and bridging the gender gap in Technology to ensure that women empower one another to become leaders in the industry. Jude is a Senior Technical Consultant at IBM. She has expertise in Automation and is recognised for transforming business requirements into technical solutions and thereby bridging the gap between business and technical teams. She has managed large automation programmes across numerous industries to ensure that her clients can realise the utmost value in the technology implemented. Before joining IBM, Jude graduated with a first-class honour’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Liverpool, where her passion for Machine Learning and using it to help others began. Outside of her work, Jude is conducting research and writing a paper alongside a professor at her previous university on the ‘Prediction of Blood Glucose Levels using Machine Learning’. This is Jude’s second year as a judge after winning ‘Graduate of the Year’ in 2021.

Sam’s role as Head of Business Systems Technology focuses on developing and running the core applications and services for Lowell. Her role sees her leading on projects to enhance and deliver stable and performant key business applications as well as providing a base for the customer digital offerings to leverage. Sam believes in the power of servant leadership and enjoys seeing her team grow in confidence and shine brightly. Sam was shortlisted for the ‘Leader of the Year’ at the Women in Tech Excellence Awards 2023, appeared on 2024 Computing 100 IT Leaders list which recognises the most influential figures in UK IT and first joined the judging panel for Women in Tech Excellence in 2024.

I am a Programme Director for GfK, overseeing the end-to-end delivery of transformation projects across Operations and Technology. My role involves managing backlogs, roadmaps, and budgets to ensure the successful implementation of our programme strategy. I joined GfK four years ago with an undergraduate degree in History. During my time with the company, I have continuously advanced from my initial role as a Team Administrator to taking on more challenging technical roles as a Business Analyst and Programme Manager. Now, I am excited by the opportunity to lead complex projects and contribute to GfK's continued success. My passion for diversity has been a driving force throughout my career at GfK. I previously co-led a UK DE&I network called 'Fast Forward,' now I set on the council as the Champion for Gender. I also helped set up and steer a new tech council in 2021 to address industry-specific DE&I challenges, such as the underrepresentation of women in tech roles and STEM fields. I'm honored to have been recognized as a finalist in the 2021 and 2022 Women in Tech Excellence Awards and to have received the Role Model of the Year award in November 2022. This external recognition reaffirms my sense of belonging in the industry and motivates me to continue striving for progress and positive change.

Rebecca is part of the IT Leadership team at The Meliore Foundation, who work with global philanthropic funding partners in supporting programmes to educate and encourage fact-based discourse at community, societal, commercial and policy-making levels. Rebecca joined the team in August 2021, under its previous parent organisation with an initial task of facilitating its independence, building and shaping the IT function to sustain it. The diversity of her team and workforce is what makes them successful. "Working for good" provides satisfaction and motivation she has not experienced elsewhere. She has a background in scale-ups, notably in the energy consulting sector and brings strengths including Quality Management and Strategy Delivery to her role.

James established WinningCIO in 2018 after a distinguished career as CIO for Northern Rail, Abellio, Northumbrian Water, Drax where he led diverse teams to industry leading success. Over a 15 year CIO career he was frequently nominated in the CIO100 list and was Computing & BCS No 2 in 2016. He has been a champion of women in tech as an ever present judge and panelist since 2015. Outside of WinningCIO, James is a visiting fellow at Loughbrough University, a non exec director for The Wisegroup and trustee of the solar energy charity Tunaamini. Current projects include: • IT Benchmarking • Digital Delivery Models • AI transformation strategy development • AI boardroom coaching • IT divestiture post M&A • Regulatory review preparation • Digital Decarbonisation • Predictive Analytics with Gen AI for industry performance improvement. WinningCIO is a fractional consulting and events business which supports CIO’s across Europe with coaching and fractional transformation consulting across our network of 250+ CIO’s. Our clients include UKPN, Southeastern Railway, Royalmail, Expleo Group, Currency fair, Pyramid Analytics and Reltio. Current projects include service benchmarking, In 2023 our events and fractional consulting received an NPS score of 80%.

Catarina is a people leader and award winning Machine Learning software engineer. As core values, Catarina is a true believer that excellence and high quality software is only possible with teamwork and great focus on people, divertisity, transparency and collaboration. As a track record and proof of the success of this strategy, she has been holding several leadership positions and leading several successful multimillion software platforms in companies such as, Llloyds Banking Group, Deloitte and Square Enix. Catarina is currently executive director in JP Morgan Chase & Co, leading the data space in Global Research Technology and is a Be the Business advisor board member, where she volunteers to help small businesses in the UK.

Sophia Steiger is Head of DAO for the United Kingdom, MENAT and Europe. Accountable for both HSBC UK and the non-ring fenced bank in the UK. Sophia has nearly 30 years of experience of utilising data to deliver enterprise value. Sophia has held roles at Board, Global Exco and Regional level, so understands the breadth of data available to the organisation and the challenges of extracting and delivering insight and value. Sophia has a 1st Class Honours degree in Technology and Business covering artificial intelligence and neural networks, combined with professional qualifications both in Finance and Data. Sophia has a track record of creating high performing teams and delivering results across the complex matrix ecosystem, both on regulatory, risk/controls and efficiency topics. Sophia’s attention to: mentoring; active diversity management and external networks such as being a judge for the Women in Technology awards – shows her multi-dimensional people focus, at all levels. This and her proven Role Model behaviours in her delivery style and adaptability, are key to her ability to combine organisations, attract the very best and be a 10X value deliverer. Outside of work Sophia loves adrenaline sports, focusing on skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking and paddleboarding.

Shalini Thirunilathil is an award-winning technology leader, transformation specialist, blogger, and TEDx speaker with extensive experience in coaching, mentoring, and enabling enterprise-level agility alongside developing organisational talent. Her career has spanned diverse roles, including Software Developer, Software Tester, Test Manager, Delivery Manager, Scrum Master, Agile Coach, and Brand and Outreach Lead. She has spoken at numerous meetup events and panel discussions, including the Agile20Reflect Mini Festival, an international meetup event, and the Enterprise Agility World Conference. As a TEDx speaker, she delivered a talk at TEDxHultLondon on Agile Leadership. In 2021, she won Team Leader of the Year (SME) at the Women in Tech Excellence Awards, and on International Women's Day 2021, the Synapse QA community recognised her as an Inspirational Leader. In 2022, she received an honorary recognition from the Rotary Club for her career achievements in the tech industry. She is currently working as an IT consultant. Beyond her professional career, Shalini enjoys music, travel, and cooking. She is also a trained Indian classical and Bollywood dancer and has performed across the UK

As UK&I End User Sales Director, Zoe is currently responsible for the End User business for HPI UK Inc and has overall responsibility for all customer vertical sectors- Financial Services & Insurance, Manufacturing, Retail, Public Sector, Defense & Ireland. Zoe has accountability for P&L, budgeting, cost control, strategic partnering and business development. Zoe is a strong believer in the power of people and is passionate about people and their development. Zoe has been with HP for 9 years and has held various roles across the end user space. Most recently as the NWE Sales Enablement Director, focused on driving go to market strategies and enhancing the pan HP customer experience. Prior to this, Zoe served as the Financial Service sector manager for the UK & Ireland market. Zoe started her career in technology at Brother UK Ltd where she held various internal & external based assignments across the UK & Ireland over a 10-year period. Zoe lives in Lichfield with her family and enjoys spending time with friends & family along with great wine and food.

My core focus is to help Computacenter customers and vendor stakeholders understand and mitigate real-world challenges presented by Cyber security to IT systems and business outcomes. I have been17 years at Computacenter. Prior to Computacenter, I held roles at Compaq, BT, Morse, and HP and numerous other leading IT organisations, as well as 30+ years in IT strategy & leadership positions as an innovative technology thinker and future focused strategist offering unique perspectives on the cyber security industry, business change, vendors and with a specialism in early stage / emerging cyber technologies. I have Two daughters with one a professional footballer. I am a member of the Computacenter Ethnic Diversity EIG and the TC4RE channel community. I hold an Executive MBA with distinction, a doctorate from the University of Worcester, I am an NLP practitioner, an Executive coach and trained as a Situational Leadership Coach.