Fellows are leaders in corporate innovation, who are passionate about driving innovation that is open, effective and inclusive.
Through the programme, the Fellows are enabled to develop their own open innovation strategies informed and validated by industry experts in a collaborative, transparent environment.
The network connects corporate innovators to equivalents across sectors and provides them with peer-to-peer support groups, allowing them to unlock their organisation's innovation potential, share best practice and discuss lessons learnt in open innovation practice.
The Innovation Fellowship is London’s leading cross-industry innovation community and provides peer-to-peer connections that could take decades to build without taking part in the programme.
Fellows
Find out more about some of the Fellows in our network:
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Gráinne Allen
Director of Food & Innovation, McDonald's UK
Gráinne Allen
Director of Food & InnovationMcDonald's UKGráinne has been Director of Food and Innovation at McDonald’s since January 2021. She has more than 30 years in the food industry and has a unique level of experience in all aspects of the food industry, particularly in the fields of innovation, strategy and change, having run many multimillion-pound product strategies in retail, manufacturing, food service and brand.
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Adam Weir
Senior Director of Innovation and Materials, New Balance
Adam Weir
Senior Director of Innovation and MaterialsNew BalanceAdam is a creative leader with more than 20 years in the fashion and consumer goods business. He has a global outlook, having worked in many countries around the world. Adam leads a team of project managers, engineers and designers focused on creating innovative products for New Balance Apparel.
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Sol Enenmoh
Director, Group Digitalisation, HSBC
Sol Enenmoh
Director, Group DigitalisationHSBCSol Enenmoh helps organisations become better by encouraging new ways of thinking. He joined HSBC in 2022 to promote innovative methods and encourage group-level digitalisation at scale globally. Previous roles include EY, Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, Vanquis Bank, Hastings Direct, Vhi and BP (retail and payments).
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Sonal Lakhani
Head of Programmes and Strategic Initiatives, Barclays UK
Sonal Lakhani
Head of Programmes and Strategic InitiativesBarclays UKSonal is a senior leader of the Barclays Innovation team, where she heads up programmes and strategic partnerships. Sonal focuses on creating meaningful initiatives and programmes for the team. The purpose of these is to help build the supply of fintechs to the ecosystem, supporting companies to grow and scale as the clients of tomorrow; identifying early signals from startups and VCs for new markets beginning to emerge or accelerate; identifying and validating early-stage investment opportunities and venture investments creating an informational flow between the open innovation ecosystem and Barclays. She leads the global flagship programme, Barclays Accelerator powered by Techstars, and Female Founder initiatives as part of her portfolio of work. Prior to working in Barclays Innovation, Sonal worked in capital markets with a focus on trading platform sales working with some of the largest asset managers, hedge funds and banks across Europe and the UK.
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Jonathan Lewis
Head, Commercial Innovation, Channel 4
Jonathan Lewis
Head, Commercial InnovationChannel 4Jonathan joined Channel 4 in the autumn of 2012 and has performed a number of roles within Channel 4’s commercial team over the last nine years, previously leading Digital Advertising sales and strategy. Recently, he has expanded his responsibility, driving growth and innovation across all areas of Channel 4's commercial business, building upon existing successful innovations in areas such as digital and social (4Studio) and linear addressable advertising. He is also developing new revenue streams to deliver Channel 4's Future4 strategy. Jonathan is a multi-faceted commercial leader with experience delivering transformational results for both digital and broadcaster businesses.
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Tracy Walker
Director of Technology and Innovation, Unilever
Tracy Walker
Director of Technology and InnovationUnileverTracy leads a global innovation team focused on engaging with innovation technologists, exploring technology trends and executing solutions that transform the business landscape. She is a believer of transformative, collaborative partnerships, and creating open and productive coalitions to solve the bigger issues. Passionate about planet and society and determined that technology has a pivotal role to play in tackling the climate emergency, Tracy and her team are also responsible for architecting Unilever’s overall sustainability technology strategy.
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Jennifer Sheldon
Head of Core Innovation, LEGO
Jennifer Sheldon
Head of Core InnovationLEGOAs Head of Core Innovation at the LEGO Group’s Creative Play Lab, Jennifer is working to create opportunities for children to reach their potential through play. Prior to her role at the LEGO Group in London, Jennifer spent nearly two decades in San Francisco’s Bay Area building innovative products designed to educate, entertain and inform. She also guest lectured on Product Management & Innovation at the Product School and Product Events, launched a mentorship program for Sony Interactive Entertainment, and lead the San Francisco Chapter of Women@ PlayStation.
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Chetan Kotur
Head of Technology and Innovation, Europe, Laing O’Rourke
Chetan Kotur
Head of Technology and Innovation, EuropeLaing O’RourkePrior to joining Laing O’Rourke in 2022, Chetan was instrumental in starting up and launching globally Polestar, the high-performance electric car brand headquartered in Sweden. Most recently, he was Head of Products for Asia Pacific, based in Shanghai. At Laing O’Rourke, Chetan leads the team developing transformative innovations focused on improving productivity, safety and sustainability for complex buildings and infrastructure projects. Chetan has a first-class degree in Automotive Engineering from Loughborough University and was named Young Engineer of the Year in 2018 by the Royal Academy of Engineering.
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Jonathan Munday
Executive Director, Strategy, Sustainability and Innovation, NatWest
Jonathan Munday
Executive Director, Strategy, Sustainability and InnovationNatWestJon is an Executive Director at Coutts and serves primarily as a Strategy, Sustainability and Innovation Lead for Coutts and the NatWest Group Wealth Businesses. He has been with the NatWest Group for eight years, the majority of which has been spent with Coutts. Jon holds a BA degree from the University of York, a master's from Hult International Business School and a Postgraduate Certificate from the University of Cambridge. He is a keen runner and has taken part in events all over the world including the Marathon des Sables.
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Mariama Boumanjal
Senior Startup Partner Manager, Google
Mariama Boumanjal
Senior Startup Partner ManagerGoogleThe Lead for Google for Startups UK, Mariama manages the programmes and portfolios of more than 200 startups from the UK and across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Since 2020, Mariama has also managed the Black Founders Fund, having provided $35m to more than 400 Black Founders across Europe, Africa, North America and Brazil, with founders securing more than $400m in follow-up funding.
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Nichola Bates
Head of Global Accelerators and Innovation Programs, Boeing
Nichola Bates
Head of Global Accelerators and Innovation ProgramsBoeingNichola joined Boeing in 2017, where in her role as Managing Partner for Aerospace Xelerated, she invests in and supports startups using AI and autonomous technologies to the benefit of the aerospace sector and related industries. Prior to Boeing, Nichola worked with early stage and scaling startups, where she championed the role of the SME to government, particularly in the security and resilience sector. Nichola has extensive experience of international business development and fundraising for growth, from strategy through to execution, and a wide network across governments and industry. Since working with one of the world’s largest corporations, Nichola has become even more passionate about the benefits of collaboration between startups and corporates.
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Gerard Kelly
Director, UK Innovation, National Grid
Gerard Kelly
Director, UK InnovationNational GridGerard leads the UK Innovation team at National Grid Partners. He’s passionate about sustainability and is motivated to be part of the drive to net zero by developing the innovative technologies and impactful business models to help his company get there. Gerard has more than 10 years’ experience in the energy sector leading multi-disciplinary teams in startup and corporate environments. Gerard is a Chartered Engineer, holding an MBA from INSEAD and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Limerick, Ireland.
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Andy Doyle
Innovation Director, Grosvenor Property UK, Grosvenor
Andy Doyle
Innovation Director, Grosvenor Property UKGrosvenorAndy Doyle is a senior professional with more than 20 years of industry and professional services experience in major public and private sector organisations. He has extensive track records of leading teams on complex business transformations, real estate projects and programmes, investment, and operational management. Working as the Innovation Director for Grosvenor's UK property business (£5bn property portfolio), Andy leads the Innovation programme and Alternative Investment Portfolio.
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Claire Hadden
Director, Brand and Innovation, Greene King
Claire Hadden
Director, Brand and InnovationGreene KingAs the Brand Director for Innovation and the Premium, Urban and Ventures division at Greene King, Claire is establishing an innovation function, with ownership of the creation of all new concepts within the portfolio. The remit is to identify and drive execution of transformational ideas, products and business models that will achieve sustainable growth and differentiation, future-proofing the Greene King business. Innovation at Greene King will include new pub and hotel propositions, ideas, methods, sales channels and ways of working. Previously, Claire spent 17 years at Diageo across North America and Europe in the Brand Marketing and Innovation functions.
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Dan Francis
Innovation and Digital Director, BDO UK
Dan Francis
Innovation and Digital DirectorBDO UKDan is the Director of Innovation and Digital for BDO UK. His previous experience extends across digital products and propositions, change, strategy and innovation in large and small companies, for brands such as American Express, BP, Sainsbury's, Barclays and Google.
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Rachel Kneen
Strategy & Innovation Lead, Just Eat
Rachel Kneen
Strategy & Innovation LeadJust EatRachel has been working in marketing for 14 years. For the last six years, she has worked at Just Eat, the UK's biggest online food delivery marketplace. Having spent most of her career in social media and strategy, she has been appointed as Just Eat's first Strategy and Innovation Lead, tasked with taking the UK business into the next stage of growth.
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Edward Manning
Commercial Innovation Director, Dentsu
Edward Manning
Commercial Innovation DirectorDentsuEdward Manning is a media professional with more than 12 years of experience, currently charged with developing new, diverse and innovative revenue streams to protect the future of Dentsu International. He has a keen interest in generating value between the margins, as well as using adjacency to become relevant in new sectors. He's passionate that Dentsu has much to learn from other industries, and that operational transformation will be required.
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Dan Hufton
Head of Technology Innovation, AstraZeneca
Dan Hufton
Head of Technology InnovationAstraZenecaDan leads a global innovation team focused on the identification, rapid assessment, implementation and adoption of emerging technologies and novel ideas to create business benefit, aiming to influence and transform the business and taking a strategic three to five year viewpoint. He is an ambassador for diversity and inclusivity and plays a leading role in driving change and ensuring AstraZeneca is a great place to work for everyone.
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Joana Santos
Head of Strategy UKI, Amazon Web Services
Joana Santos
Head of Strategy UKIAmazon Web ServicesJoana Santos leads Strategy for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Amazon Web Services (AWS). This organisation helps companies from startups to the largest enterprises accelerate their customer-centric digital business transformation and help them realise new forms of customer value, leveraging AWS Cloud. Before this role, Joana led Sales Strategy and Operations for LATAM at LinkedIn’s digital advertising business and worked in strategy consulting at EY-Parthenon across Europe, the US, South America and Africa. Her previous experience includes working in the African technology start-up M-KOPA, American investment bank Citigroup and the UK Parliament.
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Tom Winstanley
CTO, Head of New Ventures, NTT DATA
Tom Winstanley
CTO, Head of New VenturesNTT DATATom has worked on the interface between business, experience and technology for more than 20 years in a range of industries and customer-facing business and technology roles with clients across Europe, APAC and North America. He enjoys the variety (and similarity) of challenges their clients face and building innovative solutions with his teams across the NTT DATA Group and wider NTT Group R&D community. Twice Tom has been a founding member of a digital practice, heading consulting and supporting the scale out of the organisation to deliver differently. He considers himself an information junkie and an honorary lecturer in University College London's computer science department.
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Tara Waters
Partner, Head of Ashurst Advance Digital, Ashurst
Tara Waters
Partner, Head of Ashurst Advance DigitalAshurstTara is a technologist turned lawyer working at Ashurst LLP. After beginning her first career in technology at the height of the dot-com boom, Tara transitioned into law and relocated to London. Her legal practice focuses on advising startups and institutions on emerging technologies, business strategies and digital transformation. She also leads Ashurst's digital products and services team, responsible all aspects of the firm's technology-enabled services delivery. Tara is co-leading an initiative to articulate the firm's digital strategy.
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Oriana Medlicott
Technology and Innovation Strategy, Fujitsu
Oriana Medlicott
Technology and Innovation StrategyFujitsuOriana leads AI Ethics in the Technology Strategy Unit at Fujitsu. In her role, she focuses on AI Ethics strategy and, alongside startups, leading POC's across Fujitsu's technology areas. She is co-host of the Let’s Chat Ethics podcast, Strategic Partnerships Lead for Diverse AI and on the advisory board of The AI Ethics Journal at UCLA. Prior to Fujitsu, Oriana worked as an AI Ethics consultant with startups, think tanks and academia across North America and Europe. Oriana also guest lectures the Introduction to AI Ethics in Industry module at Nottingham Trent University.
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Jim Johnson
Director, UKIMEA Region Board Member and Digital Leader, ARUP
Jim Johnson
Director, UKIMEA Region Board Member and Digital LeaderARUPJim is the board director responsible for providing strategy and direction for the digital transformation of the business in UKIMEA. He leads and support work to develop improved and new service offerings using digital and data-driven innovation across multiple business sectors and locations. He joined Arup in 1986 as a civil engineer. Between 2007 and 2011, he led Arup Geotechnics, Arup's specialist ground engineering consultancy practice working worldwide across all their market sectors. He subsequently went on to lead large teams for a variety of clients delivering major infrastructure projects and was also the leader of its Leeds office.
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Aaron Smith
Head of Innovation Ecosystems, Fidelity
Aaron Smith
Head of Innovation EcosystemsFidelityA passionate disruptor, an obsessive innovator, an inquisitive researcher and a recovering technologist. With 20+ years experience across the technology and financial services industries, Aaron has an inherent desire to uncover "unknown unknowns" and to help those looking to change the future for the better.
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Vikram Seth
Blockchain and Web3 Innovation Manager, Shell
Vikram Seth
Blockchain and Web3 Innovation ManagerShellVikram is a passionate innovator with more than a decade of experience in the energy sector, working with industry-leading organizsations such as Shell. With expertise in sustainable development, systems thinking, and digital innovation, Vikram is focused on Web3 technology and its transformative potential to shape the future of the energy sector.
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Mayowa Odusote
Senior Design Lead – Radical Change, DLA Piper
Mayowa Odusote
Senior Design Lead – Radical ChangeDLA PiperMayowa is the Senior Design Lead and part of the Radical Change team at DLA Piper, helping to shift mindsets by delivering impactful client engagements and interactions using design thinking. Passionate about empowering people to create change, prior to joining DLA Piper, Mayowa worked at EY as Deputy Innovation Lead for the People Advisory Practice. She has more than eight years’ experience in management consultancy.
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Jess Bonner
Director, Capita
Jess Bonner
DirectorCapitaJess Bonner is a Director at Capita Scaling Partner (CSP), the strategic investment team for the Capita Group, and helps to bridge the gap between large enterprise/public sector and tech SMEs. With a commercial background, Jess started her career in finance and qualified as a corporate solicitor before moving into the world of tech. At CSP she is responsible for strategic partnership origination, investment exits and CSP operations, as well as working with colleagues across Capita on a company-wide partnership strategy.
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Iryna Chekanava
Senior Manager, Innovation and Partnerships, Lloyd's
Iryna Chekanava
Senior Manager, Innovation and PartnershipsLloyd'sIryna has more than 10 years of experience working in the technology sector with a focus on insurtech. Before working at Lloyd's, she ran her consulting agency that specialised in building and scaling innovation communities and startups. Iryna holds a bachelor's degree in Media and Communications (with distinction), and a naster's of Social Sciences in Political Science and Public Policy.
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Oliver Latham
VP Strategy and Growth – Workforce Skills, Pearson
Oliver Latham
VP Strategy and Growth – Workforce SkillsPearsonAn experienced consulting, sales, commercial and strategy professional, Oliver is building the Workforce Skills Division as VP Strategy and Growth at Pearson. Prior to this, Oliver led a team of 40 sales and commercial professionals across the UK and Ireland in the Higher Education market. Oliver has worked in major global organisations, and was a strategy and management consultant at EY for 11 years. He has led companies and governments in different countries and built his own startup business.
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Svetlana Jefimova
Senior Innovation Manager, De Beers
Svetlana Jefimova
Senior Innovation ManagerDe BeersWith more than a decade of diverse and cross-functional experience, Svetlana works as Senior Innovation Manager at De Beers Group, where she is responsible for designing, testing, launching, and scaling new business models, products and services in various markets (UK, USA, Asia and Southern Africa). Svetlana's previous experience includes strategic and consulting projects in oil and gas, financial services, utilities, government, retail, quantum computers, events and sustainability. Svetlana holds a BSc in Economics and Business from the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, an MSc in Economics and Business from the Norwegian School of Economics, and a CEMS Masters in International Management.
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William Pryke
Head of Open Innovation & Tech Scouting, Openreach
William Pryke
Head of Open Innovation & Tech ScoutingOpenreachWill works in technology scouting and innovation for Openreach to accelerate its Open Innovation programme. An experienced executive and Open Innovation specialist, William has more than 20 years of experience exploiting disruptive technologies and delivering new solutions. Most recently, he was responsible for the establishment of the University of Suffolk – DigiTech Centre, supporting academic collaboration with entrepreneurs, business and government. Formally, William was Head of the BT Infinity Lab, a group wide accelerator programme supporting consumers and business, which delivered a number of startup collaborations.
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Neel Patel
Group Manager, Public-Private Innovation, Venture Innovation, Citi Ventures
Neel Patel
Group Manager, Public-Private Innovation, Venture InnovationCiti VenturesNeel leads Citi Venture’s global public-private innovation initiatives. He is responsible for developing partnerships that leverage Citi’s expertise to help clients meet their policy goals in the areas of sustainable economic development, social equity, inclusion and fluency with emerging financial technology. Since 2005, Neel has held a variety of senior finance roles at Citi across London, Budapest, Dublin and New York. Prior to Citi, he worked in professional services and industry, with roles at Andersen, Deloitte and International Power. Neel is a chartered accountant and holds a BSc in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics.
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Ana Maria Norbury
Director, Global Service Design, Baker McKenzie
Ana Maria Norbury
Director, Global Service DesignBaker McKenzieAna Maria leads the global service design team and plays an instrumental role in leading Reinvent, Baker McKenzie's innovation programme. The service design team uses design thinking methodologies to design and implement innovative solutions that continuously improve the client experience and to grow a culture of innovation across the firm.
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Mike Daley
Group Director, Strategy and Innovation, PageGroup
Mike Daley
Group Director, Strategy and InnovationPageGroupMike is passionate about the value people and technology create when they work together. Having built successful teams in fields from the arts to civil aviation, he has led them to identify and deliver innovative solutions to drive growth and competitiveness. Now at PageGroup, a specialist global recruiter, Mike is responsible for bringing external insight and perspective to the organisation, ensuring Page remains an industry leader in the innovative application of technology and supporting clients in their talent missions.
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Greg Baker
Global Head of Practice Innovation, Linklaters
Greg Baker
Global Head of Practice InnovationLinklatersAs Global Head of Practice Innovation at Linklaters, Greg heads up a team of practice-embedded innovation lawyers and a multi-disciplinary innovation delivery team. Greg is a qualified lawyer with more than 10 years of practicing experience and is also a committed legal technologist.
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Manish Naik
Principal, Digital Innovation, BP
Manish Naik
Principal, Digital InnovationBPManish is an MBA professional with 12 years’ experience in operations, consulting, innovation and programme management across various industry sectors. He is a quick learner with keen business acumen and strong analytical abilities. Manish has a proven track record in leading cross-functional and multicultural teams, across the US, UK, Europe and India. His current role is focused on scanning and evangelising digital innovations in the oil and gas sector.
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Scott Heath
Head of Innovation, Thales
Scott Heath
Head of InnovationThalesScott has worked in the rail transportation sector for nearly 10 years, initially joining Network Rail after completing an MSc in Programme and Project Management with a specialism in Innovation. He moved to Thales in 2019 to help manage its European Commission co-funded R&D as well as delivering the innovation roadmap. From 2021, he has assumed the responsibilities of the former Head of Innovation, leading an R&D and Technology team based in London.
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Verena Tse
Innovation and Strategy Manager, KFC
Verena Tse
Innovation and Strategy ManagerKFCVerena is Innovation and Strategy Manager at KFC UK & Ireland. Currently, she is leading the automations and robotics pillar, hoping to change the way the in-restaurant teams work. As part of the Tech Innovation team, she also partakes in defining KFC UK & Ireland's innovation roadmap and breeding the innovation culture in other teams. Before KFC, Verena was with Uber and Gousto.
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Chris Kelsey
Vice President, Global Delivery Innovation, Salesforce
Chris Kelsey
Vice President, Global Delivery InnovationSalesforceChris is the Vice President of Global Delivery Innovation. Building on a career utilising technology to drive business outcomes, Chris leads Delivery Innovation across the Global Professional Services organisation at Salesforce, capturing and leveraging the innovation that occurs across the organisation for the benefit of all. He lives in south London with his wife and twin boys.
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Gursheel Mendhir
Head of Innovation and Emerging Products, Virgin Media O2
Gursheel Mendhir
Head of Innovation and Emerging ProductsVirgin Media O2Gursheel spearheads Virgin Media O2’s move beyond commoditised telecommunications products, to fulfil the ambition of being a complete digital experience provider. Her team imagines and creates the future of telecommunications via their cross-functional incubator focused on launching ambitious digital products in entirely new markets. They experiment with disruptive technologies and potential partnerships with startups and other companies to enable product launches.
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Nick Passey
Head of Commercial Digital & IT, International & Japan, AstraZeneca
Nick Passey
Head of Commercial Digital & IT, International & JapanAstraZenecaNick is responsible for digital and IT across AstraZeneca’s emerging markets (International) and Japan (Commercial) – covering Asia, Middle East, Africa, Russia, Eurasia and Latin America. Nick is a member of the International Region leadership team and Global IT leadership team at AstraZeneca. Nick focuses on enabling new patient experiences and outcomes through exploiting innovative digital solutions, which includes addressing challenges in the end-to-end patient journey.
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Ashleigh Monagle
Digital Advisory – Head of Digital & Data Advisory, Mott MacDonald
Ashleigh Monagle
Digital Advisory – Head of Digital & Data AdvisoryMott MacDonaldAs a Digital Consultant, Ashleigh leads organisations through transformation with disruptive innovation that delivers positive outcomes. Often acting as an anchor for cross-functional teams, she provides both stability and connectivity when change is inevitable. These attributes have enabled fast execution and early benefits realisation for commercial success in more than 20 projects, including a 120% decrease in internal overhead cost. Ashleigh's distinctive approach to working combines being direct, collaborative and empathetic to develop fresh and innovative insight. She believes the best solutions and teams are grown in this way, providing the perfect environment for competitive advantage to flourish.
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Nicholas McQuire
Director, Enterprise AI and Innovation, Microsoft
Nicholas McQuire
Director, Enterprise AI and InnovationMicrosoftNicholas is a globally recognised thought leader and former 20+ year technology analyst with a passion for artificial intelligence and enterprise innovation. He was named among the top technology analysts in the world in 2019 and 2020 by the Institute of Industry Analyst Relations. Moreover, Nicholas is a board member with entrepreneurial and corporate experience and a proven track record advising C-level executives and enterprise IT strategists. He is also a member of the CIO100 and Next CIO judging panels which recognise the most transformational CIOs and next generation of IT leaders in the UK each year.
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Sam Dover
Global D&A AI Assurance & Strategy lead, Unilever
Sam Dover
Global D&A AI Assurance & Strategy leadUnileverA tech professional with a demonstrated history of working in the consumer goods industry, Sam has experience in digital strategy, open innovation, artificial intelligence, enterprise architecture, metaverse, product management, digital marketing, eCommerce (DTC and B2B), collaboration technology, sustainable sourcing, global change management, data and AI ethics. Sam was a graduate of Unilever’s Future Leader Programme and holds a BSc (Hons) Biology from the University of Manchester.
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Katie Mills
Head of Zeigo Power, Schneider Electric
Katie Mills
Head of Zeigo PowerSchneider ElectricKatie is Head of Zeigo Power recently acquired by Schneider Electric. Prior to this Katie led innovation and investment for Schneider Electric UK and Ireland, helping to identify market gaps and potential investment opportunities for Schneider Electric, and to position Schneider Electric as a key part of the UK innovation ecosystem. Katie has spent the last 10 years working in the early stage tech community, working with startups in renewable energy tech through to cyber security innovations. She has invested in more than 30 startups as an angel investor and sits on multiple boards as a strategic advisor to startup teams
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Rupert Cryer
Head, Engagement (National Resilience), Cabinet Office
Rupert Cryer
Head, Engagement (National Resilience)Cabinet OfficeRupert recently applied innovation best practice as part of the COVID-19 Task Force. He has also worked at Wayra (Telefonica’s startup accelerator) and Policy Lab, won EY’s Dragons’ Den for the Civil Service, co-founded Policy School and took SKYroom's innovation spaces from idea to implementation. Rupert was a main stage speaker at Adaptive Path’s Service Experience Conference in San Francisco and is a Policy Fellow at University of Cambridge, specialising in innovation and entrepreneurship.
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Lucy Eaton
Head of Strategy and Business Development - Regional, The Crown Estate
Lucy Eaton
Head of Strategy and Business Development - RegionalThe Crown EstateLucy is a specialist in the commercial property sector with more than 10 years’ experience as a lawyer. In 2018, she joined the Regional Team at The Crown Estate to help devise a transformation strategy to support the creation of broader value for the benefit of all end-users of their buildings and places, now and into the future. Lucy’s dynamic and commercial style and commitment to excellence in service delivery and project management, provides the perfect platform for strategy work, including how to bring innovation to the centre of what they do and how they do it.
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Paul Taylor
Sustainability Innovation Manager, Hitachi
Paul Taylor
Sustainability Innovation ManagerHitachiPaul is an experienced sustainability and innovation professional currently working within Hitachi Europe Research and Development on new technologies. He creates IP and policy recommendations and forges collaborative partnerships, such as the Hitachi-Imperial Centre for Decarbonisation and Natural Climate Solutions at Imperial College London. His previous roles span multiple sectors, including electric vehicles, fast-moving consumer goods, mining and agriculture.
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Danielle Roberts
Innovation and Project Lead, Cancer Research
Danielle Roberts
Innovation and Project LeadCancer ResearchDanielle works in innovation and product development for Cancer Research UK. A product development expert, she has more than 15 years of experience building product and brand value and launching new propositions for global clients. She has experience working in the tech, financial services, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), pharma and healthcare sectors. She is skilled in designing and executing qualitative and quantitative user research, product management, agile project management, coaching and embedding insight and innovation skills within organisations.
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Laura Goldwyn
Head of New Ventures, Mandarin Oriental
Laura Goldwyn
Head of New VenturesMandarin Oriental -
Anna Browne
Head of Innovation and Legal Technology, Trowers & Hamlins
Anna Browne
Head of Innovation and Legal TechnologyTrowers & HamlinsAnna Browne leads the Trowers & Hamlins Innovation and Legal Technology team. She is responsible for the firm’s international innovation strategy, internal technology efficiencies, use of legal technology in the business and client solutions. Anna is a qualified lawyer with a background in real estate finance. Anna trained at a city law firm and prior to working in innovation, Anna was an Associate at Trowers & Hamlins.
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Julene Aguirre
Director, Research and Design Strategy, Capital One
Julene Aguirre
Director, Research and Design StrategyCapital OneJulene Aguirre is a designer, researcher and strategist. Her work focuses on applying design thinking methodologies to help businesses innovate and solve problems through empathy and creativity. She holds an MA from the Royal College of Art and an MSc from Imperial College London in Innovation Design Engineering, as well as a BA in Product Design from HfG Schwäbisch Gmünd. Having worked in agencies, academia, startups and independently on projects for a variety of industries, Julene currently leads a team of researchers and strategists developing new financial products, services and experiences at Capital One.
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Georgios Kolovos
Global Head of Strategic Partnerships and Ecosystem Development, PayPal
Georgios Kolovos
Global Head of Strategic Partnerships and Ecosystem DevelopmentPayPalA results-orientated and entrepreneurial-minded executive, Georgios has experience in building and strengthening businesses by creating strategic alliances and partnerships and developing new distribution channels for new markets and segments. A leader with an intercultural background, Georgios has worked with partners and customers globally and managed growth agendas at country, regional and global levels.
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Inara Khan
Head of Delivery Innovation, NHSX
Inara Khan
Head of Delivery InnovationNHSXInara is the Head of Innovation Delivery at NHSX, creating cutting edge digital pathway transformation and strategy through understanding what technology works and how her team builds the evidence base to scale this. Prior to this, at NHS England and NHS Improvement, Inara led the work on the faster diagnosis of cancer in the Cancer Team, and worked on the implementation of national innovation programmes in the genomics team and strategy team. She previously worked in local government and as a Broadcast Journalist for the BBC, having graduated with a Masters degree in International Peace and Security and a degree in War Studies.
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Sarah Balachandran
Head of CX and Innovation, Capgemini
Sarah Balachandran
Head of CX and InnovationCapgeminiSarah runs the UK’s largest public sector specialist UX agency within Capgemini. Her relentless focus on user needs through user centre design, and her interest in utilising diversity and seeking out innovation, led her to support startup social enterprises.
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Fiona Dolman
Director for Transformation, London Fire Brigade
Fiona Dolman
Director for TransformationLondon Fire BrigadeDirector for Transformation with the London Fire Brigade, Fiona’s diverse career and operational and transformational leadership experience has involved functional to enterprise level business change delivery. She has demonstrated drive and energy that has created a pattern of marked service improvements. A strong advocate of good governance, programme controls and assurance, with a focus on people centred business change, Fiona has excellent collaborative working skills, is able to simplify complexity, influence decision makers and build strong stakeholder relationships.
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Grant Dall
Head of Transformation – EMEA, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise
Grant Dall
Head of Transformation – EMEAAlcatel-Lucent EnterpriseHead of Transformation for Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, Grant has more than a decade of product management and business development experience in the ICT space – in both B2B and B2C. Grant has experience in mobile broadband, carrier-grade and consumer wifi, incubation, site acquisition, IoT, satellite networks and alliance management. A creative at heart, Grant believes in a healthy disregard for the same old, same old. Throughout his career, he has helped people and businesses think differently so they can make positive change – for the organisation and for themselves.
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Richard West
Partner and Global Head Client Innovation, Global Head Liability Defence, Kennedys
Richard West
Partner and Global Head Client Innovation, Global Head Liability DefenceKennedysRichard is a director of Kennedys IQ, a partner at Kennedys, Divisional Head of Liability, Global Strategy Board member and Head of the Kennedys’ Innovation Group. As leader of the Kennedys’ Liability Division, Richard has an interest in how technology can impact the legal and insurtech sector. He sponsors Kennedys’ global Ideas Lab, designed to give everybody at Kennedys the chance to develop innovative solutions to solve client challenges. Richard and his team have won several legal/tech and innovation awards, including the “FT Innovative Lawyers 2019: Innovation in the business of law – new products and services” award. He was named by the FT as one of the top 10 Innovative Individuals, who are “Leaders of revolutions in legal practice” in Europe.
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Dr David Leeney
Deputy Portfolio Director, His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS)
Dr David Leeney
Deputy Portfolio DirectorHis Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) -
Darren Smith
Managing Director. Europe, Hackman Capital Partners
Darren Smith
Managing Director. EuropeHackman Capital PartnersAs Managing Director of The MBS Group Europe, Darren is responsible for the management, development and growth of the company in one of the world’s most important production destinations. With a career spanning more than 20 years, Darren has a wealth of experience and in-depth industry knowledge in the provision of professional equipment and support services, and studio operations and real estate solutions, to the film, television and media production industry.
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Tom Williamson
Head of Innovation, Scottish Power
Tom Williamson
Head of InnovationScottish PowerAs Head of Innovation, Tom coordinates and leads on innovation policy and initiatives across the ScottishPower group. Tom has been at ScottishPower since 2009, previously working on Westminster political and parliamentary relations across the SP/Iberdrola group’s interests in the UK. Prior to joining the company, he spent five years working in Parliament, latterly as Director of the Parliamentary Resources Unit in the House of Commons.
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Rikesh Shah
Head of Open Innovation, TfL
Rikesh Shah
Head of Open InnovationTfLRikesh leads Transport for London’s (TfL) award-winning market innovation activity to create new value for London by working with startups, corporates, academia, accelerators and venture capitalists. He set up TfL’s first Innovation Hub to help solve existing city challenges through new technologies.
Rikesh was previously responsible for TfL’s world-leading open data programme which has 17,000 registered users and 700 apps powered by TfL data used by 42% of Londoners. An independent review valued the programme's worth to London at £130m per annum.
Rikesh also sits on the Smart London Board to deliver the Mayor of London’s vision to make London the smartest city in the world, as well as on the Advisory Boards for Doteveryone, focusing on Tech for Good, and Citytech Collaborative in Chicago.
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Tanveer Mohammed Aziz
Client Executive & Head of Innovation, UST Global
Tanveer Mohammed Aziz
Client Executive & Head of InnovationUST GlobalTanveer heads up the Innovation Practice at UST Global, where he works on emerging technology across fintech, retech and healthcare sectors throughout the UK. He splits his time talking to various stakeholders across a variety of clients and technology experts across UST – bringing them together to accelerate innovation.
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Amrit Mehrotra
General Manager & Cluster Head (Banking & Capital Markets), Wipro
Amrit Mehrotra
General Manager & Cluster Head (Banking & Capital Markets)WiproAmit is a senior business executive with more than 20 years’ experience in global IT Services for financial services clients. Amit heads the Banking Financial Services and Insurance Business Unit for Wipro in Continental Europe. Energetic, passionate and self-driven, Amit has a track record of sales leadership in building and growing IT services business. Amit has an extensive experience across large deals, digital transformation, outsourcing, execution and alliances and partnerships.
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Adrian McGrath
Client Partner and Digital Transformation Lead, UST
Adrian McGrath
Client Partner and Digital Transformation LeadUSTAdrian is a highly experienced Digital Strategist and Digital Transformation Leader with more than 28 years in the design and delivery of innovative, customer focused technology solutions across a diverse set of industries and for more than 50 clients. With a strong technology background, Adrian is passionate about innovation and helping companies to transform into a true digital business, which continually innovates and adapts in response to change. Adrian pioneered the development of a world first breakthrough prototype to visualise cloth movement and fit of 3D clothes on 3D avatars, running in real-time within the browser.
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Claire Holden
Chief Innovation Officer, Hill + Knowlton
Claire Holden
Chief Innovation OfficerHill + KnowltonClaire is focused on how Hill+Knowlton (H+K) and its clients adapt to an ever-changing world, creating new communication strategies and ideas that set the agenda as well as react to it. Claire looks at how brands connect to culture and communities, apply trends and technology, and evolve to be distinctive and future proofed. Claire is responsible for H+K’s Futures Council.
Alongside her agency-wide role, Claire leads the Adidas account at H+K, which includes global communication strategy and campaigns, as well as local execution for its London newsroom. Claire has worked with several other London-centric clients including Westfield and the London Eye.
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Cynthia Vega
Global Lead, iLab and Global Product Lead, Dx Analytics, Kantar
Cynthia Vega
Global Lead, iLab and Global Product Lead, Dx AnalyticsKantarCynthia leads the global product for Dx (Digital Analytics) and the global Innovation Lab at Kantar Analytics. Using the latest in human and artificial intelligence, her team helps clients accelerate the launch of new innovations and create strategies for better communications through the use of data, tech and analytics. An intrapreneur and social entrepreneur based in London, she connects entrepreneurs from across countries and mobilises members of diaspora communities.
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Ronnie Menassa
Group Head of Innovation, IQ-EQ
Ronnie Menassa
Group Head of InnovationIQ-EQRonnie has more than 20 years of experience helping a range of companies with technology solutions, implementing strategies and ideas, and enhancing productivity while driving innovation through technology. With a strong entrepreneurial and management background, and a passion for emerging technologies including blockchain, Ronnie is an approachable and pragmatic thinker, looking at ways to deliver innovative, dynamic, long-term solutions to solve problems and overcome challenges.
The Fellowship offers a much-needed human-to-human interaction and network of senior innovation leaders, which allows me to source solutions to the problems and create new innovations every day.Sonal Lakhani
Global Head of Programmes and Strategic Initiatives, Barclays UK
