Professor Jon Hall
Senior Academic
The Open University
Jon is an organisational problem solver whose research portfolio is in use at some of the world's largest organisations. He drives business support projects and national policy strategy groups in Digital Skills from the Open University, where he is a senior academic. He is a recognised leader in Digital, IT, Security and Education and writes a regular column on leadership for his Chartered Institute.
Emelia Quirst
Head of Policy Research
Federation of Small Businesses
Emelia is the Head of Policy Research at the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). FSB is a non-profit making, grassroots and non-party political business organisation. that represents members in every community across the UK. Emelia joined FSB in 2018 and oversees FSB's survey and research programme, including FSB's quarterly Small Business Index. Emelia has authored reports on a range of topics. Emelia's area of focus is on labour market, pensions and diversity policy.
Dr Suzanne Smith
Director S T Smith Safeguarding Consultants Ltd
Dr Suzanne Smith has specialised in safeguarding for 30 years. Most of her career has been with the NHS apart from 5 years at the University of Huddersfield where she completed her PhD focusing on child protection. In 2017 Suzanne joined the Disclosure and Barring Service where she worked as Executive Director of Barring and Safeguarding.
Keith Rosser
Director
Reed Screening
Keith is a Group Director of the world's largest family owned recruitment business, Reed, and is Director of Reed Screening, a large pre-employment vetting business within the group. Keith has been a Non-Executive Director for over 10 years and Chair of JobsAware since 2010. Keith was appointed Advisory Panel on UK Government's response to the Good Work Plan advised the Name Blind committee chaired by then Prime Minister, David Cameron, and received a Commendation Award from Home Office for services to the Labour Market in 2018. In 2023, Keith was awarded the Big Impact Award by the Recruiter for services to industry and was made an Honorary Fellow of Lancaster University.
Gary Franklin
HR Director
G7 Talent Solutions
Gary has been a professional HR interim manager and consultant on and off for over 25 years. With a focus on Recruitment and Talent Acquisition, he has helped organisations scale and build their global HR and Recruitment functions to meet the demands of business change. He established G7 Talent Solutions Ltd in 2013 to support and lead companies through periods of growth and change when processes, systems and approaches need to be built and/or reviewed.
Notable clients have included Aviva, First Group, G4S, Wave Power, Carnival UK, Nationwide Building Society, The Co-Operative Group, Kantar, Wargaming, Welcome Trust, Technip Energies, Open Society Foundations, and most recently Aptia Group.
He is also the Safeguarding and Welfare Officer for The Mayfly Project UK, a charity that uses fly fishing as a catalyst to help kids in foster care.
Philip M.J. Graham
Digital Programme Director Blackpool Teaching Hospitals
Philip is a Digital Programme Director at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (BTH) and has held senior posts in healthcare technology for over twenty years including Chief Information Officer, or equivalent. He has also managed an operational Division of the Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust as an Associate Director of Operations.
Philip is currently working with NHSX on various commissions to BTH: One on Digital Child Health and electronic patient records and the other involving Digital Identity and Digital Passports (Wallets).
Alison McDowell
Co-Founder and Director
Beruku Advisory
Alison McDowell is a Co-Founder and Director at Beruku Advisory, providing end-to-end strategic advice on digital trust, identity and personal data. Most recently, Alison has been working with the U.K. government on the development of a digital identity ecosystem. She advises DSIT on market development, regulation, policy and attribute sharing.
She has worked with firms around the globe, from impact investors and FinTechs in Southeast Asia and Africa to some of the largest global banks and pharmaceuticals in the US and Europe.
Billy Smith
Head of Resourcing
The Scottish Government
Before working as Head of Resourcing, Billy Smith worked at RBS/NatWest Group, as a Senior Resourcing Manager where he travelled to difference regions and gained great insight into the different challenges that organisations face.
Billy now works for The Scottish Government, leading resourcing delivery and successfully delivering national campaigns. Billy spent years building expertise in resourcing technology, in his various HR roles.
Ricky Forde
Talent Equity Diversity & Inclusion Advisor
Ricky is a well-trodden HR and people advisory professional. After a 10-year career in technology, he successfully transitioned to over 20 years of people consulting and then into in-house Talent, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion where he has thrived.
His passion is for making strategic employment advice practical along all aspects of attraction, hiring and onboarding practices for the improvement of organisational and individual performance. Holding global, regional and UK executive level HR and talent advisory positions.
