meet the speakers
Peter Palmer (MBE, MA, MSc, DPhil, MBCS) was a founder of Spider Systems in 1983 and AXON Networks in 1992. Both were successfully sold in the mid-1990s.
In the late 1980s he was a founder of ScotlandIS (then the Scottish Software House Federation) and was its first Chairman.
Peter has lived in the USA for the last thirty years, initially working for AXON, and subsequently as a business angel in the Boston area.
‘Hopeful sceptic’ K D Adamson’s inspirational performances have been described as a TED talk on
steroids and a Tarantino movie where no one died, challenging our assumptions about geopolitics and
society, business, the environment, economics, technology, and ourselves.
Sharp, funny and straight-talking on stage, screen, and in print she is a regular commentator on global
events renowned for her simple yet powerful ideas, thought-provoking opinions, and ability to distill
complex, hot-button issues as a contributor to BBC World News, Bloomberg, CNN, The Sun, Financial
Times, Al Jazeera, Fast Company, Channel News Asia, and BBC R4 Today.
A visionary who reframes the future as a value problem that no technology can solve, K D’s candid
pragmatism and practical commercial acumen guides and influences sustainable value creation for
leaders and organisations around the world.
Expert in sustainable organisational transformation, digitalization, AI, innovation, agility, ESG, leadership,
and the blue, green and circular economies her stellar clients include major global brands, tech giants,
multi-nationals, governments, non-profits and NGOs.
Visionary yet pragmatic she reframes the future as a value problem that no technology can solve. Her
motto is ‘dubito ergo sum’ – ‘I doubt, therefore I am’.
A former Gartner analyst, Richard Marshall has over 30 years of experience in the field of software design and innovation, including 18 as an entrepreneur.
As an inventor of software technology, Richard has lectured, written papers, articles and reports for many years. He has held a variety of leadership roles including VP, CTO, CMO, and CEO.
Richard regularly acts as an expert witness, including deposition, court testimony, and voir-dire and Daubert challenges, with an unbroken record of success for clients, including winning record damages of over $2bn for willful and malicious misappropriation of trade secrets.
Cheryl Hung is Senior Director, Head of Infrastructure Ecosystem at Arm, and thought leader in open source and ecosystem strategy.
She was VP Ecosystem at the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, engaging organisations such as Apple, Airbnb, CERN, Intuit and Spotify in the End User Community. She was an early pioneer in the Kubernetes community, founding the Cloud Native London meetup in 2017 and growing it to over 9000 members. Previously she managed engineering teams at Apple and Google.
Cheryl holds a Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge.
Gary is the Founder and Chief Advisor at Owendale Advisory, where he helps leaders navigate AI’s impact on business strategy, operations, workforce and customers. He’s led large-scale business and technology transformations for some of the world’s best-known brands and loves working at the intersection of strategy, technology, and design.
Director of Technology at CreateFuture, Daniel Llewellyn is an experienced software engineer with a demonstrated history of working in the information security and services industry.
Skilled in Android development in Java and kotlin, Daniel is passionate about continuous improvement in the software development lifecycle, as well as learning and improving on his current skills.
Robin is Head of Cybersecurity Solution Architects at Resillion.
He is a Security and Network Engineer with a primary interest in System and Network security.
He is also somewhat of a (computer) hardware enthusiast and enjoys working with all kinds of electronic hardware.
Tracy was voted PCR’S Woman of the Year 2016 and one of the top 50 women in technology in 2014 and 2015. She was awarded CompTIA’s Member of the Year in March 2017, and voted in as Chairwoman of the Board of CompTIA in May 2021. In 2025 she was honoured as one of the 50 Leaders Advancing the Channel by Channel Futures, alongside being award a top 100 winner in the global Women in Leadership awards 2025. She is passionate about diversity and raising the bar in professionalism and skills with tech professionals.
Tracy has over 40 years’ experience working in tech and has successfully implemented business systems and training programmes across many different industries from service and professional sectors through to retail, education and manufacturing.
She has taken part in several Chamber of Commerce initiatives to deliver free IT advice to SME’s, has been a part of the Staffordshire Online Fraud Forum, and was one of the authors of a business standard for IT companies called Accredit UK that was run by Advantage West Midlands under ERDF funding.
An active member of the global tech trade association GTIA, Tracy is a member of the Education Faculty delivering training, webinars and talks for GTIA members around the world. In 2015 Tracy joined the GTIA Board of Directors, after previously being part of the UK Executive Council. GTIA is a global not for profit trade association with annual revenues in excess of $180 million. Her duties as a Board director have included chairing the Governance Committee and the Audit, Finance and Investment Committee before taking over as Chairwoman of the Board, and Immediate Past Chair. Tracy is also a member of the Executive Committee, overseeing the composition and structure of the Board.
She founded Maximity, an IT consulting and training business specializing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Microsoft 365, in 2000 and co-founded Prizm Solutions, an insurance brokerage, with her husband in 2006.Tracy also serves on the Advisory Board for Channel Futures, a US based media and events platform providing information, perspective and community for the global tech channel ecosystem.
Tracy is a member of the Chartered Management Institute, a Fellow of the Institute of Consulting, a member of the FSB and Chamber of Commerce.
John is a senior full-stack engineering consultant at Accenture Next Gen Engineering. He builds serverless applications on AWS using lambda and Go.
He is passionate about using automation to improve developer productivity and experience.
Ceri (they/them) has 25+ years of experience in the tech industry as a hands-on developer, manager and senior technical leader. They currently work as a Fractional CTO, helping start-ups and scale-ups with technical strategy and delivery execution. They love solving problems of all descriptions: people, processes and technology, and thoroughly enjoy assisting technical teams in fixing what’s getting in their way.
Ceri specialises in the practices and behaviours that drive high-performing teams, particularly around the delivery and visibility of value generated by technical teams, and how that value is communicated to the rest of the organisation.
Dr. Mark Jackson is a quantum physicist and the Senior Quantum Evangelist at Quantinuum, a world-leading quantum computing company that aims to making groundbreaking scientific advances that will enable us find to solutions to some of business and society’s most complex and urgent problems.
He received his B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from Duke University, and his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from Columbia University. He then spent 10 years researching superstring theory and cosmology, co-authoring almost 40 technical articles. He is Adjunct Faculty at Singularity University and an Entrepreneur In Residence at Yale Ventures.
Mark is a leading voice in quantum computing with over 300 keynote and panel talks discussing opportunities and risks across business and industry, healthcare, finance, technology, and other key economic sectors.
Chris has worked in Risk, Resilience and Security Advisory since retiring from a 21-year military career in 2012. Having worked initially as an independent consultant, then in Sungard Availability Services, Chris joined Databarracks in 2022 to lead the company’s expanding Business Resilience and Continuity services. In May 2024, Databarracks acquired the award-winning and long-established team from PlanB Consulting.
Initially engaged in high-hazard industries, notably the UK’s nuclear sector, Chris specialises in helping Board-level executives to improve their leadership in a crisis. Chris also helps clients develop their strategies and frameworks for organisational and operational resilience, Business Continuity and Information Security. He has worked with leadership teams in investment banks, life insurance, car manufacturers and motoring organisations, energy providers, critical national infrastructure firms, the legal sector, national banks and companies across the renewables sector.
Chris is a fluent French speaker and had a number of clients in Ireland, France, Belgium, Sweden, and Luxembourg, in addition to clients in the UK. His current team in Databarracks work globally, from the Far East to the Caribbean and North America.
Chris holds MBCI status with the BCI, and CISM with ISACA. He is a Fellow of both the Institute of Leadership (FIoL) and the Chartered Management Institute (FCMI). He is a certified Level 7 Executive Coach and Mentor. He’s a Committee Member in the Continuity and Resilience workstream of the British Standards Institute. Happily married for over 25 years with children at university, he lives in Wiltshire.
Peter Gordon is a Principal Consultant at Waracle, where he has been leading Enterprise Product Discovery, Client deliveries, AI adoption and Product Discovery in startups, SMEs and Enterprises.
Pete has worked as a Senior Developer, Team Manager, COO, CTO and Consultant for the last 30 years. He has global experience in digital transformation, AI product development, Design Thinking and is known for his results-driven mindset and leadership style that inspires high-performance teams.
Chris Owen is the Managing Director of dotnext Europe, bringing nearly 20 years of expertise in Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Privileged Access Management (PAM). In his current role, Chris is committed to driving strategic growth, delivering impactful, vendor agnostic identity advisory services, and fostering innovation within the identity space.
Throughout his career, Chris has held leadership and technical roles at Saviynt, Quest/One Identity, CyberArk, BeyondTrust, and Centrify. His extensive background in consulting, technical sales, and product management has equipped him to align product strategies with market trends and deliver unified, identity-centric solutions tailored to clients’ needs.
A passionate advocate for talent development, Chris has championed mentoring initiatives that empower professionals to excel in their careers. As a thought leader in the industry, he frequently shares his insights at major events, helping to shape the future of IAM.
At dotnext Europe, Chris continues to guide organisations through the complexities of identity management, enabling them to achieve security excellence and operational efficiency.
Marcin is an experienced AI Architect and Solution Strategist with over 15 years of expertise in AI/ML, cloud computing, and enterprise architecture. Successfully delivered 100+ projects for leading financial institutions, fintechs, and payment organizations.
Possesses deep domain knowledge in banking, financial markets, real estate, and startups, coupled with practical, hands-on experience in artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Proven track record in driving transformational initiatives, managing senior stakeholders, and leading complex vendor collaborations.
Expert in systems design, cloud-native architectures, and embedding AI-driven solutions into sophisticated financial ecosystems.
An active member of the AI Working Group coordinated by the Ministry of Digital Affairs, and an expert in the AI Working Group of the Council of Entrepreneurs.
At Andersen, Marcin advises clients on secure, efficient, and effective AI implementation strategies.
Rose Ulldemolins is a key member of the Chief Insurance Office, Insurance, Pensions and Investments Waterfront Platform Engineering team at Lloyds Banking Group. Since being reskilled, she has held various tech roles, including full-stack Engineer, Dundee Tech School Lead and Engineering Lead.
Rose is actively engaged in promoting gender diversity in the tech industry through her co-chair role in the LBG Women ConnecTech network, which aims to improve gender diversity in the industry. She has successfully run programs to upskill over 100 colleagues to code and is currently rerunning this initiative for over 250 people.
Her dedication to fostering a supportive and inclusive environment for women in technology is evident through her involvement in the Women in Tech Employer Awards.
Rose’s achievements have been recognised at the 2024 Bupa everywoman in Technology Awards, where she won the Digital Star Award.
Her leadership and passion for inclusion and diversity have made a significant impact on the tech community.
Derek Shanks is the Director and Technology Platform Lead for the Waterfront Platform within the Insurance, Pensions, and Investments division at Lloyds Banking Group. He is renowned for his leadership and dedication to fostering innovation within the technology platform.
Derek is a Technology Executive with over twenty-two years’ experience in the Telecoms, Broadcast Media and Financial Services sector. His Financial Services experience spans retail banking, wealth management, digital investing, pensions, and insurance, at Clydesdale Bank, Barclays, and now with Lloyds Banking Group. He currently leads a platform of over 400 engineers, building and enhancing the digital channel experience for Customers, Colleagues and Advisers across the Insurance, Pensions and Investments business.
Derek is passionate about agile ways of working and modern engineering practices that ensure the delivery of resilient, scalable and secure digital apps. He leverages the latest technologies and innovations to transform customer experience and help customers secure their financial future.
The Waterfront Platform promotes a diverse and inclusive environment, with a strong emphasis on gender diversity and supporting women in technology. Derek’s commitment to the tech community is evident through his involvement in various leadership and technical speaking engagements.
Jamie Graves is a technology leader who has spent the past 15 years of his career bringing cutting edge products to market.
Coming from a technical background, he has extensive leadership experience at all stages of a company life cycle, as well as extensive, proven, experience of building and leading agile, cross-functional teams to craft, sell, and deliver cutting-edge cyber products.
Jamie is a NxD at Lupovis, a start-up that helps their customers reduce the number of security alerts to only actionable, useful, insights.
He founded and grew his last company, ZoneFox, into an award-winning cyber security product that protects global businesses in multiple markets including healthcare, high tech, software, banking, and legal services.
Jamie’s mission as VP of Security Analytics at Fortinet was to continue to help organisations around the world monitor, detect, and respond to insider risks, as well as to educate and inform on how to apply AI to the cyber security market.
He is also the MD of L-Point where he provides mentoring and support for start-ups at all stages.
Sumit Ganju is Chief Engineering Officer at GoCodeGreen, bringing over 24 years of rich experience in designing and building vast enterprise applications across various domains. Sumit has played an integral role in the company since its inception. With extensive knowledge of architecture and engineering, Sumit is dedicated to advancing sustainability in technology through innovative practices and techniques. Sumit enjoys spending quality time with his young family, playing cricket, and reading a good book.
Dylan Beattie is a consultant, software developer and international keynote speaker. Dylan has been building data-driven web applications since the 1990s; he’s managed development teams, designed large-scale distributed systems, taught workshops on Microsoft .NET and HTTP API development, and presented keynote talks at software conferences on four continents.
Before founding Ursatile, Dylan was CTO at Skills Matter in London until they closed down in 2019. Prior to that he was webmaster, IT Manager, and eventually systems architect at Spotlight, where his first-hand experience of watching an organisation and its codebase evolve over more than a decade provided him with a unique insight into how everything from web standards and API design to Conway’s Law and recruitment ends up influencing a company’s code and culture.
Dylan grew up in southern Africa, moving to the UK with his family when he was nine. He’s a Microsoft MVP and holds a degree in Computer Science from the University of Southampton. He’s the creator of Rockstar, a programming language designed for creating computer programs that are also songs, and he’s performed his software-themed parodies of classic rock songs all over the world with The Linebreakers. He’s into skiing, scuba diving, Lego, cats, travel and photography. You’ll find him online at dylanbeattie.net and Bluesky as @dylanbeatt.ie, and offline at meetups and rock bars all over the world, wearing a big black hat.
Gerasimos Marketos is a seasoned product executive with a track record across startups and NASDAQ-listed companies. With 15 years of experience in the cybersecurity and cybercrime space, he brings strategic depth at the intersection of data, cybersecurity, and product development.
He is currently Chief Product Officer at Hack The Box, the leading cybersecurity upskilling platform for individuals, enterprises, and academic institutions. At HTB, he drives product strategy and roadmap execution, helping shape a global workforce ready to defend against modern cyber threats.
Edouardos is a Solutions Engineer at Hack The Box with a background in offensive/defensive cybersecurity. With over a decade of experience across engineering, security, and customer-facing roles, he bridges the gap between technical depth and business needs. He specialises in helping organisations secure and scale their infrastructure.
At Hack The Box, he works closely with clients to design tailored training and security solutions that build cyber-resilient teams.
Professor Mark Parsons is the Director of EPCC, the supercomputing centre at the University of Edinburgh and Dean of Research Computing. He started his career at EPCC in 1994 as a software developer following a PhD in experimental Particle Physics at CERN. He became EPCC Director in 2016 following many years as the centre’s Commercial Director.
From 2020 – 2024 he was on part-time secondment to the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council where he was the Director of Research Computing. He has led the development of the UK’s Exascale Supercomputer Project for the past decade.
Emmanuel Demey, a French Web Developer for 17 years, recently relocated to Edinburgh.
Co-organiser of DevLille, a two-day conference welcoming 1,500 attendees. Very often behind the microphone to present technical topics that interests him (Accessibility, Elasticsearch, NX, …).
Fraser Morrison is the founder and CEO of 1000Steps, a Singapore-based outbound marketing and positioning agency helping B2B companies scale faster by aligning outbound lead generation, LinkedIn strategies, and targeted campaigns. With decades of experience in sales, business development, and growth strategy, Fraser has built a reputation for turning complex sales challenges into predictable, repeatable systems that drive measurable revenue growth.
Deeply passionate about changing how businesses think about lead generation, Fraser positions 1000Steps not just as a lead-gen provider but as a strategic partner, helping clients refine their positioning, optimize outreach processes, and build sustainable pipelines.
Outside of work, Fraser is a dedicated endurance athlete and avid cyclist, often bikepacking across Asia or tackling challenging gravel and road routes. His Scottish roots keep him grounded, while his entrepreneurial journey and global perspective fuel his approach to business, leadership, and continuous learning.
Scott Henderson is a technical leader specializing in AI-driven data platforms and cloud-native architecture.
Currently at Craneware, and with prior leadership roles at Trustpilot, SolarWinds, and Wood Mackenzie, Scott has led the design and delivery of scalable solutions across Azure, AWS, and GCP. His work focuses on integrating AI into enterprise data ecosystems to unlock insights, automate workflows, and accelerate innovation.
A former financial services professional, Fraser Lusty is Investment Director and Gatekeeper to Edinburgh-based business angel syndicate, Equity Gap. With over 25 years of experience in the Scottish investment, enterprise and business growth sector, Fraser brings his strong relationship management and business development skills as well as his extensive network of professional and intermediary contacts to bear when providing pre-investment support to Equity Gap’s increasing portfolio of investee businesses.
He is a first class negotiator, business coach, mentor and an ambassador with Women’s Enterprise Scotland, leading businesses through change and inspiring others to deliver quality results.
Gillian is a Strategic Advisor, Non-Exec Director and Angel Investor for start-up and spin-out companies with a background in sales and marketing for the energy and engineering sector.
She has 25 years’ experience in the entrepreneurial ecosystem both advising and nurturing early-stage ideas across multiple sectors to successfully transition to company creation and as an experienced venture capitalist.
As honorary professor and entrepreneur in residence at the University of Stirling she provides strategic input to the International Business Advisory Board and supports women to consider entrepreneurship as a career.
On a mission to make angel investment more accessible to women both founders and potential investors, Gillian is Co – Founder, Director and MD of Mint Ventures (Syndicate) Ltd, a women-led angel group focused on investing in women led and diverse teams with an environmental, ethical or social purpose. Leading on the design of a the UK’s first CPD accredited angel investment educational program for Mint Ventures she also provides insightful experiential bespoke training on investment.
Gillian is an Entrepreneurial Scotland Saltire Fellow, educational speaker and judges for various accelerator programs and business competitions.
Alex Lusty is the gatekeeper at Gabriel, a Scottish angel investment syndicate which meets in Glasgow and online. Gabriel operates as a club, with members sharing knowledge and experience to make investment decisions collectively. Members typically first invest at pre-seed stage in Scottish companies raising funding of around £150k and valued at less than £1.5m, and provide mentoring, introductions and business support alongside capital.
Alex joined Gabriel in 2024, having developed her knowledge of angel investment through working with Equity Gap and Angel Capital Scotland.
Joshua Walter is Co-Founder and Partner at Osney Capital, investing in early-stage Cyber Security businesses in the UK.