New speakers announced for Think Digital Identity for Government conference

November 25th is a big date for the diary if you have an interest in public sector digital identity. With a fantastic agenda already in place, the TDP team are busy recruiting some of the sectors most knowledgeable identity professionals to speak on panel sessions throughout the day. Here is a quick list of some of the early confirmed speakers, to whet your appetite for the day. Register here now.

LORD (CHRIS) HOLMES OF RICHMOND MBE – Digital Advisor at the cabinet Office

Chris is a passionate advocate for the potential of technology and the benefits of diversity and inclusion. He is a member of the influential House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology and has previously co-authored House of Lords Select Committee Reports on: Democracy and Digital Technologies[2020], Intergenerational Fairness [2019], Artificial Intelligence [2018], Financial Exclusion [2017], Social Mobility [2016] and Digital Skills [2015]

He is co-chair of Parliamentary Groups on Fintech, AI, Blockchain, Assistive Technology and the 4^th Industrial Revolution and has published a report; “Distributed Ledger Technologies for Public Good: leadership, collaboration and innovation” calling on the Government to look at the challenges and opportunities of this technology for improving public services. A progress update was published in November 2018.

An ex-Paralympic swimmer, Chris won nine gold, five silvers and one bronze medal across four Games, including a record haul of six golds at Barcelona 1992.

CHERYL STEVENS MBE – Interim Digital Director, Shared Channels Experience at DWP Digital

Cheryl joined the civil service in 1999 and has held a variety of leadership posts since with a career focus on leading operational service design and transformational change. Cheryl led HMRC’s tax credits fraud & error programme for a number of years before joining the Department for Work and Pensions in 2015 where she continues her passions for welfare reform and preventing fraud and error. Cheryl holds the role ofInterim Digital Director, Shared Channels Experience, reporting to DWP Digitals CDIO.

TRACEY FOLLOWS – Founder and CEO at Futuremade

Tracey Follows is a futurist appearing in a list of the top 50 female futurists in the world in Forbes, regularly commenting on the future of technology, society, and identity. She runs Futuremade, working with global brands and businesses to help them spot trends, develop foresight, and fully prepare for what comes next. Her clients have included Telefonica, Google, Diageo, Sky, Farfetch, Conde Nast, Cosette, CogX, BT, and Virgin. She has spoken at UN HQ, gave her Tedx at UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office, and closed at events such as Think With Google. As a go-to futurist for media she has appeared on BBC Business Matters, Radio 4, Talk Radio, LBC, and TimesRadio, and appeared in FT, Guardian, and the Daily Mail. She has written for the Guardian, the Big Issue, Spiked and more, and has her own contributor column in Forbes. 

NICK MOTHERSHAW – Chief Identity Strategist at the Open Identity Exchange

Nick is Chief Identity Strategist at the Open Identity Exchange, a community for all those involved in the ID sector to connect and collaborate, developing the guidance needed for inter-operable, trusted identities. Through OIX’s definition of, and education on, Trust Frameworks we create the rules, tools and confidence to allow every individual a trusted, universally accepted, identity.

Nick has expert knowledge of Identity and Fraud solutions for a variety of different sectors using different verification techniques, spanning data validation to document selfie verification.

Nick was previously Director of ID and Fraud at Experian where he was responsible for the development of Experian’s fraud and identity solutions for both the public and private sectors. Nick led Experian’s development, launch and operation of a full “Identity as a Service solution” which was the first live example of a Digital ID that is seamlessly interoperable across public and private sector in the UK.

KAY CHOPARD – Executive Director at Kantara Initiative

Ms. Kay Chopard is the newly appointed Executive Director of the Kantara Initiative, a nonprofit corporation. The Kantara Initiative is a unique global ‘commons’ that operates conformity assessment, assurance and grant of Trust Marks against de-jure standards under its Trust Framework program while at the same time nurturing ‘beyond-the-state-of-the-art’ ideas and developing specifications to transform the state of digital identity and personal data agency domains.

Ms. Chopard is the former President and CEO of Chopard Consulting based in the Washington, DC metro area and is the founder of the Women’s Leadership Institute. She has more than 30 years’ experience in executive leadership in government, nonprofit, and business organizations in the DC area where she has a reputation as a transformative leader who has led organizations through launch, transition, and sustainability to deliver game-changing results.  She excels at building networks and collaborations that overcome systemic cultural norms and empowers diverse and inclusive teamwork. She has led several organizations including the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA), Identity Ecosystem Steering Group (IDESG), National Criminal Justice Association (NCJA), and served as Acting Division Chief and lead program manager at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), U.S. Department of Transportation.

Susan Morrow – Head of R&D at Avoco Secure and TDP Digital Identity Advisor

Susan has worked for over 20 years in the cybersecurity and digital identity space. She currently holds the position of Head of R&D at identity data specialists, Avoco Secure, based in the UK.

Susan’s focus is on strategic development and solution architecture. Core areas of her domain knowledge include the use of technology layer linking, usability, accessibility, and data privacy. Her mantra is to make sure that human beings control technology not the other way around.

JESSICA FIGUERAS – Vice Chair at UK Cyber Security Council

Jessica is a tech strategist specialising in government, policy and regulation, and civil society. She currently advises start-ups and scale-ups on growth strategy, as well as carrying out tech futures research for the UK government.

Previously Jessica ran multi-million pound research programmes for companies including Dods, GlobalData and Ovum. Over her 25 years in the tech and information industries Jessica has advised senior executives in large established tech businesses as well as many VC-backed scaleups. She is a sought-after commentator and speaker, and as an industry analyst has published extensive research and analysis on the application of emerging technologies across government, telecoms and other industries. Her current research interests centre on digital trust, governance and corporate transparency.

Jessica has an MA from the University of Cambridge and a Diploma in Computing from the Open University. She is Chair of the Board at NCT, the UK’s largest charity for parents.

LOUISE MAYNARD-ATEM – Head of Data Insights at GBG and Executive Team member at Women in Identity

Louise is Head of Data insights at GBG and a member of the executive team and research lead at Women in Identity. She has previously worked in highly analytical roles across both public and private sector.

She co-founded the Corporate Innovation Forum in 2017, and is passionate about utilising data and technology to drive fairer outcomes for consumers, as well as helping businesses make better and more informed decisions.

Louise is also an advocate for the promotion of STEM education and careers to young people, and volunteers with a number of charities focused on increasing participation of under-represented groups in STEM subjects and professions. Her background is in chemistry, and she completed her PhD in materials science at the University of Manchester in 2013.

More speakers to be confirmed next week but in the meantime, register today via the event website and put the date in your calendar! Register here.